Leads? We don't need no stinking leads!
Here we are rapidly approaching the futuristic sounding year 2010. Web 2.0 business developments are starting to become normal operating procedures. We have been doing this CRM thing for a solid 15 years and the use of killer apps to support major business functions have been around for two decades. Even longer, the science of direct marketing has been formally studied now for over half a century. Why is it then that I continue to encounter marketing functions that do not believe they have a reason for generating leads?
Helping to identify prospective customers who might be interested in becoming current customers is the reason for being if you are a marketeer. Why would you actually choose not to perform such a core function of the enterprise?
Actually, there are quite a few reasons that have been offered up as justification for this reluctance. I would like to debunk some of them, as I feel they are rationalizations and excuses and need to be exposed.
The Sales Force Does Not Need Help
There can be a misconception that the sales team has the bases covered. They have the relationships and they know the accounts. They are on top of what the customer needs and are handling communication in a face-to-face approach. There is no need for the marketing function to disrupt this stable situation. This all assumes that you have enough sales resources to always be present when the customer chooses to take an action. I have never found an organization where this was actually the case.
Long sales cycles demand a significant amount of touches and the sales rep cannot possibly be present for every single one. The ability for marketing to share in that burden is critical. Communication coming through supplemental channels ensures that your company stays front of mind. Eventually the customer needs to pull the trigger on the purchase – the last thing you want is for this to happen when the sales rep is in between visits.
Likewise, many accounts demand a long-trail of relationship maintenance. New purchases spring up in a hard to predict pattern. When a new need arises will your sales rep be the first to be there to remind the customer that you have the ability to satisfy? Don’t leave this to chance. Keep a steady stream of communication with the client supplementing the sales call. This comes from a steady flow of targeted marketing programs, not chance.
Marketing Has Other Priorities
What is more important than bringing in new business? Sure, we need to develop product literature and, yes, we need to drive brand equity. But we also need to drive prospective customers to hard working sales reps. Marketing is a support function. It should guide the sales force to push the correct products with the right accounts. But it also needs to help the sales force identify accounts that want those products. Where I come from these are called leads. Let’s do things to get those leads into the hands of the folks that know what to do with them. Toto, we are not in Kansas anymore!
Customers Are Finite And We Know Who They Are
This is probably the most common rationalization I hear. Many of the industries I work with have a fairly definitive customer list and they know them all. However, they don’t always know when they change their mind. They don’t always know when a new need arises. They don’t know every interest or every potential interested contact. But, if you have a sufficient reach to the customer using supplemental channels you can raise the probability that customers who know you will turn to you when a need arises. This is not just direct mail we are talking about. This includes a strong web presence and participation in the appropriate social media where your customers reside. This is the realm of lead generation as well. Even with customers with whom we are already intimate. Marketing can play a huge role here, if only we were not overcome with the myth that we already know the customer.
Our Customers Are Too Sophisticated For Promotions
I hear this from my B to B customers all the time. Lead generation is something for consumer marketing but it does not apply here. This is what I know. No matter what industry you are in, your customers read their e-mail every day, all day. Your customers are on the web right now. They are conducting a search about the kind of products and services you provide. They are even looking at your products and sharing their opinions about your products to others (whether they have used them or not). And you truly believe that they would ignore a call to action if you were to offer them something while they are out there looking?
Your customers and prospective customers want to be reached when they are ready to be reached. Do you know when that is exactly? The marketing function has the ability to keep tabs on that kind of thing, if we would let them. Your industry is not exempt. When there is a prospective buyer out there exploring, let’s give them an offer – even if it is only to come over and check us out. You don’t need to give coupons or 2-fers. You need to reach out to them when they are interested in being reached and when those two things come together magic happens, they buy.
I am not asking for an overnight change. Let’s start small. If you don’t currently generate leads for your sales force, identify a small and modest program that could uncover prospects. Build a means for capturing that interest and transporting the interested party to the right place for the next step in the pipeline. A small success will breed more interest. Soon more regions will clamor for the new leads and eventually you will be sitting on a bona fide lead generation engine. But let’s not get carried away. Start with a pilot that you can control to be a success.
Maybe we do need leads after all.