How Does a Fractional VP Sales Make an Impact?
14 September, 2022
How Do I Engage Sales in Lead Generation?
28 September, 2022
How Do I Generate More Qualified Leads?
Custom, creative messaging is what captures
the attention of new qualified buyers in today’s
information-rich environment.
If you’re feeling uncertain about how to navigate this new complexity, or are pressed for time to focus on it, I’m happy to help. Guiding small and mid-sized businesses on how to generate more volume for their sales pipeline is at the heart of my Fractional VP Sales specialization.
Understanding the Buyer’s Journey
When looking to improve your lead generation approach, you should first consider the journey each new lead embarks on before becoming your customer. When laid out stage by stage, this journey is commonly illustrated as a Marketing Funnel.
Your salespeople are the key to future business success. They’ll help you win new customers and retain existing ones by ensuring they’re confident in their purchase decision right from start to finish, every time. The people who work for companies like yours play an integral role not just in making leads turn into buyers but also in helping them become long-term loyal clients with repeated purchases.
- Awareness – As soon as you get in touch with a new lead, they have already become topically aware of your company and product. That’s why we call this point the Marketing Funnel stage!
- Interest – light lead interaction begins as a result of your outreach; interest is cultivating and status quo loosening.
- Evaluation – the lead acts upon a CTA (call to action) within your messaging such as taking a survey, downloading a whitepaper, attending a webinar, etc. The lead has transitioned into a MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead).
- Engagement – buyer/seller dialog begins. The seller’s first objective is to determine if the MQL is also a SQL (Sales Qualified Lead), qualified to enter the sales process.
- Purchase –The decision to buy is made when the prospect feels confident that their needs will be met by buying this product. The customer has decided it’s worth investing in, so they’re ready and willing with authority – all signs point towards them being an eager buyer!
- Loyalty – the customer realizes anticipated ROI on their purchase and becomes a brand advocate who shows interest in expanding the use of your product or service.
Defining Your Target Audience
In order to get the strongest ROI when investing in lead generation, you’ll want to be intentional by capturing the attention of key contacts within businesses that align with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
The first step is defining your ICP. A good starting point is to analyze your current customer base by defining what stands out in your “best” customers. These may not be your highest revenue producers.
- The most profitable.
- Have X in total sales and/or X number of employees
- Utilize a wide scope of products/services
- Come from select industries or vertical markets
- Engage with suppliers as partners
- Have strong company values alignment
- Etc.
Designing Sales Messaging that Resonates
I facilitate a Value Proposition Workshop that has proven itself a productive exercise to strengthen and uniquely package a company’s key points of differentiation. I’ve found that most businesses greatly benefit from getting outside perspectives to help them improve and expand their value proposition in order to uniquely separate themselves from their competition. It’s the old adage that one cannot see the forest for the trees when they are so close to it.
Developing Lead Generation Methods
ON-HAND, OWNED DATABASE
- Underutilized, Current/Active Customers
- Inactive Customers
- Closed Lost Opportunities
REFERENCES / REFERRALS
- Client References
- Strategic Partnerships
- Referral Relationships with shared ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)
OUTBOUND CAMPAIGNS
- Targeted Sales Outreach / Cold Calling
- Account Based Marketing
- Events / Associations / Trade Shows
- Email Drip Campaigns
INBOUND CAMPAIGNS
- Website Traffic Generation (Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, etc.)
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
Key Takeaways
- Consistent, daily focus on lead generation is essential, even during the good times.
- Attract “the right” new business by defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
- Sellers will be more effective by understanding how to engage in the buyer’s journey.
- Design high-impact sales messaging by being clear, concise, and differentiated.
- Utilize a mix of lead generation methods to create a healthy, diversified lead flow.
If you’d like to discuss what’s going on in your business, I would be happy to shed light on options to fix the breakdown areas. contact me at (404) 271-6767, via email at dmahony@salesxceleration.com, or reserve a time to speak through my Scheduling Tool.
I also invite you to follow me on LinkedIn to gain exposure to future article posts that will offer more valuable selling insights.
Dan Mahony
President
I am part of a national group of Senior Sales Leaders who collaborate to share insights like the examples shown in this article. We formed because of our shared passion to help business leaders exponentially grow their revenue.
