Question

Topic: Strategy

How Can I Get More Qualified Leads?

Posted by Anonymous on 6/23/2004 at 11:37 AM ET 250 Points
We are a professional services firm specializing in using industrial engineering techniques to eliminate waste from operations and set work standards. Strong presence in manufacturing. Growing in retail (grocery, apparel) where labor costs are high and standards are needed in store operations. We have a small marcom budget ($300K) spread among small amount of advertising, tradeshows (5-6), direct mail, print and small budget for PR. Need to get more qualified leads for sales force in retail market. Joined two professional retail associations last year for more exposure. Sales going fairly well, but have desire to increase awareness and leads from retail. Did direct mailing (dimensional) last year to list of purchased retail execs in store ops. Low response. Starting to communicate to that list when we have news (3rd party articles, case studies, etc.).....any breakthrough ideas? Target audience is store operations execs.....do we need to concentrate more on PR? Article placements? Will direct mail work? We could probably use a better unique selling proposition. Should I start there?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 6/23/2004 at 2:05 PM Member
    I agree with the advice above – do your research. I would focus on the target, the best list of prospective customers.

    - Develop a short list, fifty or so, of the best prospects
    - Write down questions in bullet point format
    - Start making phone calls, these are not sales calls, they are information gathering calls. The goal here is to get the target talking, find out what’s on his/her mind. Ask open ended questions and see where the target goes with a response, then do active listening with questions that keep the conversation going. Never be pushy, the tone is colleague–to-colleague with mutual gain being the goal. Basically listen for what really makes a difference to the target and confirm it.
    - This systematic approach, implemented over time, will help guide you to what the targeted prospects will buy and how to communicate your message

    best of luck
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 6/23/2004 at 5:14 PM Member
    just a note: in my experience you probably need a list if fifty to actually get through to 12 by phone. Tamara is correct, you only need 12 good conversations.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 6/23/2004 at 8:58 PM Member
    Good advice above... if you need someone with experience to make the calls, let me know...
  • Posted on 6/24/2004 at 8:43 AM Author
    Great advice from all. Let me pose one more question as a follow up to Tamara. I am a fairly experienced marcom vet (with direct in my background as well). I believe we are doing things correctly here. I also think we need to work on our value prop a little. We have only mailed twice to our target, retail audience. So as far as my expectations go, I know it will take time. My question is how to preach patience and persistence to a sales force not used to following up campaigns, etc. A sales force where all previous business came from referrals, tradeshows, etc? It sometimes is the classic case of marketing sending out a mailing and sales waiting for the phone to ring.
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