To survive, thrive and grow, a business needs a constant, incoming flow of loyal customers. But generating warm leads comes with its varied problems. What are a few of these problems, and how do you solve them so that you can generate leads effectively?
Audience
Knowing your audience is half the battle. Being ignorant of your audience is sure to cripple your business. Try asking your current clients about why they did business with you. After asking many, you should begin to see a pattern in their explanations. Note them, and create a profile of your average client. You can only do this if you already have at least a few clients.
If you do not already have a few, then start with knowing what your product provides. Assess your product or service's value (what it does). Delineate its benefits, and try to extrapolate from them to a picture of your average lead.
After doing so, find the right audience. This consists mainly of performing studies to find out whether your average lead would like your product or service. From these studies you gain feedback and can make improvements on your product; or if you do not have enough money to improve the product, you can work on your lead generation strategy.
Budget
You can solve budgeting problems only by measuring and recording every resource you pour into the project, including time and money. Note the type of clients you draw, the number of qualified leads you generate, and your proposal win rate. You also need to measure your number of closed deals, revenue and progress at each point of the sales line. Once you have measured, you will know the most effective place to spend your money.
Skills and team members
Determine the skills you will need. This is pretty basic: I your lead generation strategy needs to have videos and infographics, you will need someone who knows how to make videos and infographics.
Employ the people with the right skills. Although checking a person's work history may seem obvious, it often goes unthought of. If after checking their work history and checking with their employers you still are not sure they are right, you should set them on a trial working period of one to three days. From this trial, you can judge their skill level and compatibility with your company.
Utilize team members well. It is natural for conflict to break out both within teams and among teams. To ensure all teams work well and the company runs smoothly, implement a plan which places certain teams (and their members) on certain tasks; ensure that everyone involved understands your plan so they can focus on their own part of the work.
Never force one team to do too varied a set of tasks. For example, telling the writing and editing part of your team to do the videos and infographics will not play to their strengths, reduce the company's productivity, and ultimately detrimentally affect your bottom line.
This short list likely does not include all of the lead generation problems you have encountered. But taking the advice offered here will put you well on your way towards bringing in new customers year after year.