Bringing qualified leads into your business will save you and your sales team time and result in higher revenues.

Qualified leads are the potential customers who are the most likely to buy your product or service. They’re not just in your store taking a look at the latest features in face masks, they’re in the market to purchase a face mask. They’re not wandering in to see what a $500 handbag looks like, they are the kind of people who can actually spend $500 on a handbag– and are looking to buy one.

Some of the people who call or visit your business (online or offline) will never buy from you no matter how good your sales scripts are or how much time you spend showing them how you can help achieve their goals. There are a variety of reasons for this– and you’ll never eliminate all of these people– but you will need to focus on bringing in more of the people who are ready to buy.

The good news is that you have spent so much time and energy cultivating a comprehensive knowledge of your target market, you’re in a great position to increase the number of qualified leads you bring into your business.

How Do You Get Qualified Leads?

The crux of qualified lead generation is making decisions based on the market research you conducted on your target market. Essentially, you need to know where to reach your market and how to speak to them.

When you are designing, executing and making choices about your lead generation strategies, always consider these questions.

Who is your target market?

Write down a description of your target market to keep yourself focused on the specifics of this group of people.

 

How does your target market like to receive information?

Do they read the newspaper? Pick up the family mail? Spend hours on Facebook? Subscribe to Reader’s Digest? Listen to the radio, podcasts, Pandora or Audible on long commutes to work?

 

What motivates your target market to take action, and how can you tap into that motivation?

How will you tap into your target market’s emotional responses? What problems will mean something to them and drive them to your store or webpage to solve them?

 

Where can you place your marketing message so your target market will see it?

Distribution is everything. Look at what you found in your market research about your target market’s hobbies, activities and interests. How can you place your message, your product or your service in their path?

 

What can you offer your target market to entice them to purchase from you?

Can you offer your target market something special, rare, or time-specific that will appeal only to them?

We are going to show you how some little changes will generate big results for your company in short order. You should always think of compound effects like this when crafting your marketing strategies.

Once you’re set up with a testing and measuring system (your lead tracking and management systems) to evaluate the success of your lead generation strategies, you need to start by looking for opportunities to optimize the strategies you’re currently working with. Use some of the following tips to guide yourself.

 

Use your new marketing message.

Make sure that you have put your new marketing message on all of your marketing materials, where new and existing customers can see it. Revise your standard advertisements to feature the strengthened copy.

 

Strengthen your offer.

Create an offer that’s too good to refuse– not for your entire target market, but for your ideal customer. How can you cater to their unique needs and wants? What will be irresistible for them?

 

Refocus your direct mail or email campaign.

If you’re sending your direct mail to entire postal code areas, stop and refocus. Do the same for emails if you have set up an email campaign. If your distribution area is that broad, it’s likely that the copy on your postcard or letter is too broad as well. Brainstorm ways to narrow your distribution and only hit your target audience. Purchase consumer lists based on demographics, not just location, or limit distribution to specific housing types. And of course, make sure you rework the piece of direct mail to feature your marketing message.

 

Let your target market’s behaviors dictate your distribution plans.

As we discussed above, the more you can tailor your strategy to the needs and habits of your target market, the stronger your results will be. Look for opportunities in your existing direct mail, email, advertising, flyer placement and other strategies to get more specific. Narrow the demographics of your list, or place an ad in a niche publication. Brainstorm new ways to target your market’s emotional responses. Again, you should always keep the needs and habits of your specific target market in mind. A senior care business will always have a different channel of distribution compared to a laundromat because they serve different people, needs and emotional responses. Distribution strategies that worked for another business will not necessarily work for you.

 

Tap into low-cost advertising.

Advertising in places like the YellowPages, classifieds sections, email newsletters and Google Adwords can be a great place to test your marketing message for minimal investment. A Google My Business page is free for any brick mortar local business.

Stop using strategies that don’t work.

Now that you have a comprehensive lead tracking system in place, you’ll be able to track the leads that each strategy is responsible for generating.

When you complete your first few campaigns with the lead tracking system and analyze the numbers, compare the results to the initial predictions you made. Were you correct in your assumptions, or were you surprised by how things turned out?

The purpose of testing and measuring using a lead tracking system is to figure out which strategies work and which don’t, as well as which strategies work best and which generate mediocre results. This will not only save you money but also provide incredibly useful information when developing marketing budgets and, of course, trying to drive sales.

READ THIS: A quick cautionary note on conversions.

While the focus of previous blogs has been about lead generation, remember this formula: 

#leads x %conversion rate = #customers 

We will be using this formula a lot, as we use it with our clients to build sustainable and scalable businesses.

You’ll be working on conversion rates in just a few blogs from now, but don’t lose sight of the relationship between leads and conversions in the overall formula.

Remember that when more leads start flowing through your business, you’ll need to have the resources and systems in place to give a high level of customer service and to convert them into loyal customers. You’ve put effort into generating these qualified leads, but if you don’t have the resources in place to give them the attention required, you’ll lose them.

Once established, your lead tracking and lead management system should require minimal time investment…if you keep it up to date.

One last reminder before the next blog: keep your systems up to date. The biggest pain (and drain on time) is having to go back and enter heaps of data into your database or management system because someone has let it pile up.

It’s also an enormous missed opportunity. If you fall behind on your lead tracking system, you won’t be able to effectively evaluate your campaign or strategy. Or you may miss great leads because you didn’t follow-up soon enough.

Be diligent and set a strong example for your staff members.

In our next blog, we will walk you through the fundamentals of creating a powerful offer for your business that is irresistible to your target market’s emotional switches.

Devoted to your business growth,

When you don’t know where you are going, look where you came from.