Every week I receive calls and/or emails from lead-generation companies promising me a full pipeline of qualified leads if I sign-up for their service. If the sales-development representative took the time to look at my LinkedIn profile, they would realize that I am not a particularly good prospect because I am, in a sense, a competitor. Helping companies improve their lead-generation processes is what I do. I can also hook you up with the best lead-generation company I know if you are looking for help. But I digress.

The vendors call with a compelling offer. Pay-for-performance pricing, quality guarantees and attractive costs per lead. The problem is that you will spend more time arguing about whether a lead meets the agreed-upon criteria than talking to qualified prospects. Typically, as with most new marketing programs, sales will follow-up on the first couple of leads and then ignore the rest (because they are conditioned to expect poor quality leads from marketing).

If generating quality leads was as simple as an automated LinkedIn campaign, as an example, that would be great. But it is not that simple. And, to clarify, I do not hold marketing responsible for poor lead quality. I blame that on senior management. They, in ignorance, insist on more leads each cycle with less investment. In essence senior management acknowledges that sales reps do not follow-up on most of the leads anyway so why pay a premium to generate them? Read here for a good, real-life, example: “One Hundred Thousand Dollars Wasted – Lead-Generation Tale.”   

Perhaps you receive similar calls – and maybe you have tried one of the too good to be true services that promise low-cost high-quality leads. How did that work out? Invariably, when I ask prospects that question, they say “it didn’t work out, but it was probably our fault.” No. It was the vendor’s fault because they over-promised and under-delivered; and they give quality organizations like mine a bad name. However, they are happy to let you and your team take the blame. Or they will simply walk away if you make things too hard for them by demanding that they do what they said they would. They will not. That leaves you with a hole in your demand creation. You learn the hard way that there is never enough time and money to do it right but there is always enough time and money to do it over.

One of the reasons snake-oil solutions succeed is that no one really knows what a lead should cost. If you want to learn more about this read “How Much Should a Lead Cost?” I always tell CEOs and SVPs that quality leads cost more than you think but probably a lot less than you are paying.

If you want quality leads at a fair price, here are some of the things you should expect from a lead generation company and what you should not expect:

Get Sales and Marketing Teams to Agree

No, it is possible (although it often seems that way). One of the key factors that influence the outcome of a lead-generation campaign is the definition of what qualifies as a lead. If sales reps believe a qualified lead is a C-­level executive, while marketing believes it to be an IT manager, then disappointment and disagreement results. (NOTE: I have oversimplified this for brevity, but it is not just the title and role that defines a lead. At a minimum a lead also must have the right pain, priority, decision-making process and an environment conducive to your solution.)    

The most successful lead-generation companies work with both Sales and Marketing teams to understand and clearly define exactly what they are looking for in a qualified lead. Once a definition is agreed upon and every team member is on board, the real work of qualifying leads begins.

Read this blog for more about lead qualification and my recommendation for establishing a judicial branch to monitor leads that are ignored by sales, returned by sales or worked by sales to no conclusion.

 Leave No Stone Unturned — Expansive Market Coverage

Since qualifying leads is a process, many people take the easy route, lightly touching the market and moving quickly through the list looking for low-hanging fruit. A good lead-generation company, however, takes the time and effort to qualify each of the contacts in your total addressable market, despite an unavoidable number of missed calls, voicemails, unopened emails, or other missed communication methods. When prospects in your target market are left untouched, they will eventually go to one of your competitors. A good lead-generation firm ensures that they will find every prospect that meets your established definition. They will also insist on proactive nurturing of the market to mine every potential piece of business available.

 More On Lead Nurturing

In most B2B industries, people need to understand that not every contact is ready to purchase right away. This is why lead-generation companies take the time to build and nurture relationships with all leads. A trained Business Development Associate will be able to pinpoint where they are in the buying process. When that lead is ready to purchase, they will have your solution in mind because you helped educate them.

 Lead nurturing is one of the best benefits of working with a lead-generation company for two sales-related reasons:

• Sales begins to trust leads from marketing

• Sales can focus on closing deals instead of focusing on the lead quality

 Real Market Intelligence from Real Conversations

We approach every prospect not to merely rattle off a few questions, but to engage them in a real conversation. High quality lead-generation companies and their teams are trained to uncover market intelligence such as industry challenges, goals, priorities, industry trends, the competitive landscape, and more. Your sales team will be armed with insightful knowledge when they reach out to qualified leads.

What a Lead-Generation Company is NOT

In this article, the term “lead-generation company” is used loosely, and it should be noted that there are many lesser-quality lead-generation companies out there that taint the entire industry. Here are a couple of things a (good) lead-generation company is NOT:

1.Quantity Over Quality. The belief that more leads equal more closed opportunities is outdated. Your sales team needs fewer, highly qualified leads, not more tire kickers. We only hand over leads that are 100% qualified, based on the definition of a qualified lead established by working with your sales and marketing teams. This means all prospects turned over to your sales teams have gone through our processes, lead qualification and lead nurturing. Not all lead generation firms follow this standard and will not be as effective as those that do.

2. Inexperienced Call Team. If the team charged with contacting, qualifying and nurturing leads has close to zero sales experience and is inexperienced regarding people skills, then you can bet your lead-generation campaign results will be dismal. At a high-quality lead-generation company, all call team members have an education in sales and marketing and have experienced various sales methodologies.

Do not be fooled by the lead-generation companies that promise results and then under-deliver. A good lead-generation company does not just provide a set number of leads for their clients in exchange for a fee. Rather, they generate short, medium and long-term business opportunities that sales can close. Make sure you understand the difference.

Would you like to know how one client closed a billion-dollar deal in five months? Call (770-262-9021) or email me (dan.mcdade@prospect-experience.com) and I’ll tell you how that happened.