Contents
What is Lead Generation? A Complete Guide
Create leads!
There is a lot of talk about how we can use the opportunity with digital channels to create what has become so popular lately – leads. I would guess that there are few of us who work with marketing and sales who do not completely understand the word leads.
Like so many other trends I have written about here on the blog, leads is not something new, especially for those who work with sales.
Leads is something that has been spoken about for centuries, but as a business and marketer, it is crucial that you understand what it is and how it works.
So, has anything changed today about how we used our low-quality leads or the fact that there were a few leads that no seller cared about? No, it’s not that big a difference today.
The challenge is that we have the tools and conditions that allow us to create so many more leads than ever before. The challenge then, what do you think? Yes, because it is a challenge when we now have the opportunity to exponentially increase the number of unthinkable, unclear, without target-planned leads using systems. In this article, we will look closer at leads, what they are, and how you can use them for greater success in your business.
Different levels of leads
For those of you who have tried to start working with Inbound Marketing and for those of you who work with sales and do not understand all these abbreviations. Of course, there is a benefit in segmenting leads into different levels and you who speak the Inbound language know these I just mentioned. But in reality, it’s just about having unqualified or qualified leads.
We think a lead is qualified or it’s not. And that’s exactly what you should strive for every day – that everything should be as simple as possible. So what do you think about the following:
- A lead can be created by the marketing department or the sales department – it can be analog or digital
- A qualified lead is just that – qualified – and it doesn’t matter who created it
- A booked meeting is what was previously called both SQL and SAL (different definitions of the same thing but different companies)
If we assume that the above is correct, then we can conclude that the part of your sales process where you create business opportunities that lie on the sales deparment starts when a lead becomes qualified
In addition, it will be much easier to measure against this and at the same time link to compensation and commissions
Who is responsible for creating leads?
The marketing department creates MQLs that become SQLs and then SALs.
After that, a salesperson will book a meeting and then we will lose the deal. Typically, one could say that it all too often looks at the companies that have applied Inbound Marketing and gone all-in on this.
Creating leads is a shared responsibility between marketers and sellers. By this I do not mean that sellers and marketers should do the same thing – we have different skills and we should focus on what we do well. An example is that sellers should not write a mail or other content for the purpose of creating value for customers – help is needed from the people at the company whose job it is to communicate value to their customers.
On the other hand, following up on customers and prospects via telephone and mail, as well as other channels, lies on the seller.
Marketers have a big task even during the rest of the customer’s buying journey. Here are some examples of what salespeople and marketers should focus on:
Creating value-creating content (marketers)
- Email customers and post on social media (sellers with the material they receive from marketers)
- Search the Sales Navigator for “the ideal customer profile” and from there find the right contacts to initiate a dialogue with (salesperson)
- Develop the content to be used for this communication (marketer together with the seller)
- Be sure to drive the business forward in the sales process and not “lose” the customer (the seller)
- In combination with the seller’s dialogue with the customer, communicate and strengthen the brand (marketer)
