Priming the Pump: Building a Lead Generation System
December 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Dear Reader,
Do you know how many leads you generated for your business last month?
Do you know how many you’ll generate THIS month?
How many will turn into sales?
And how much it will cost you to make that sale?
If you’re serious about growing your business in an economy like this, answering those questions is a must.
If you think about it, nothing happens in a business until you generate a lead.
No sales, no results.
Sadly, most business owners leave their lead generation up to either pure chance or just dumb luck.
Often times, businesses have one really good source of new leads that keeps the flow of revenue going… until it dries up and disappears.
At that point, the hunt begins for a new source of leads… with future revenue and profits hanging in the balance.
It’s hardly a secure foundation for success.
Lead Flow: the Source From
Which Most Problems Come
Not having a properly functioning lead generation system can wreak havoc on a business. And not just in the form of low lead volume.
In fact, a LONG list of business problems are often caused by a breakdown in a lead generation system. Things like poor cashflow, poor sales, a high return rate, unhappy customers and more.
Here’s a quick snapshot of the main issues I usually run into when working with a client to build or improve their lead generation system:
-A consistent shortage of qualified leads (qualified means they can benefit from your product/service, can afford it, and might be interested in getting it from YOU).
-A shortage of qualifying/filtering steps that can be managed/tweaked to constantly improve the quality of the leads.
-Inadequate metrics to spot log jams in the process and remove or fix them.
-Lead generation systems that don’t properly CREATE the need for a given product or service. (There’s more to selling than just sifting and sorting… actual SELLING is also often required 
-Depending on too few sources for leads and the feast or famine hunt for new lead sources.
In the end, most businesses suffer from a lead shortage. Either they’re not talking to the RIGHT people, or they’re not saying the right things… for a long enough period of time.
No matter how you slice it, there just aren’t enough QUALIFIED leads coming out of the machine.
And trying to create big business results when the lead flow isn’t there makes people do desperate things… like discounting products and services or worse.
Now to be frank, developing a lead generation system from scratch can often times be a daunting task. It takes some work. It takes some skill (so you don’t waste your time just going around in circles.) And it takes KNOWING your customer.
But most business owners prefer to just limp along. After all, if you’re doing OK and the leads are coming in, why mess with something that isn’t broken?
Well that’s the point. If you can’t CONTROL it, then it IS broken. Or perhaps it just has never been built in the first place.
So here are some quick tips to get your brain cranking when it comes to getting YOUR lead generation system in place:
7 Quick Tips for More
Effective Lead Generation
-If it’s not repeatable month after month it’s not a lead generation SYSTEM… it’s just luck. Eventually, everyone’s luck runs out.
-Leads are people too. They have hopes, dreams, fears etc. The better you know what those are (all of them), the better off you’ll be. (Hint: These can change over time.)
-Generating leads isn’t about YOU, it’s about them–your potential customer or client. So when you’re creating a system to generate leads, always keep your ideal customer in your mind. The goal isn’t for YOU to generate a sale. You might think that’s the goal. But if you ask your lead, I doubt they’ll say that. The GOAL is for the customer to receive value far in excess of whatever money they exchange to receive that value.
-How many fish can you catch with ONE hook? The more hooks and “front end” lead generators you can create, the better. You don’t want the success of your business riding on only ONE way to generate leads (and future sales). Get more “hooks” in the water.
-Simplify your investment decisions. If you know what your customer is worth and how many leads it takes to generate a customer… then figuring out how much you can spend to generate a lead is pretty simple. Know your numbers.
-A lead generation system that is not measurable (to the penny) cannot be methodically improved. And that means it is pretty much uncontrollable. That’s not what you want.
-Lead generation systems do TWO things. They deliver value and they create need (more accurately, they channel the demand your lead already has and focus it on YOUR product or service). Anyone can build a system that just gives things away. Knowing how to do that AND create the prospect’s need to buy your product or service is how you get big results.
-When you’re creating the pieces of your lead generation system, start with the END in mind: a happy customer who has just received value from you that FAR exceeds any money paid. Picture that end result and work backwards.
It’s Probably Not
Going to Get Easier
If you don’t have a lead generation SYSTEM in place NOW, then get on it… because the clock’s ticking.
And with the current state of the economy, things probably aren’t going to get any easier for a while.
All we know is that people in your market ARE going to go looking for solutions to the problems they are having.
They’re going to become a lead in SOMEONE’S business. And the quicker you act to get a real lead generation system in place for YOUR business, the better the chance that they’ll end up talking to YOU.