Lead Generation for Business Development

Generating Leads for Sales Growth & Improved Service

This white paper serves as a resource to discuss the purpose, methodology, research, segmentation, qualification, process, implementation, and change

management inclusion of lead generation for Business Development.

By Brent Pritchard, Business Development Manager, Swagelok Alabama | West Tennessee

Lead Generation for Business Development

Lead Generation for Business DevelopmentGenerating Leads for Sales Growth & Improved Service

PurposeLead generation is a key facet of the future development of sales revenue and new opportunities. Leads will serve as the chief source of new customer development and improved service to current customers. Without an influx of and action on new leads, sales will stagnate and provide fewer new channels to grow a customer base, expand product lines and services, and better align resources in efficient, targeted efforts.

By sourcing, researching, segmenting, and qualifying potential leads then following established processes and life-cycles, sales teams will have significantly improved leads to act upon to create new sales opportunities and expand opportunities with current customers.

Methodology The basic methodology of lead generation is:

1) Understand and record common themes among your markets or industries served. This can be done by using key words in the business name, how the business describes its services, or how it markets itself to its customers. Search engine optimization and Optical Mapping are key tools to this step. Additionally, understanding customer markets served and the customers they service help align sales objectives.

2) Once common themes, customer understanding, and sales objectives are identified, lead sources

1

Lead Generation as a Key to Team Based Sales

Lead Generation creates Qualified Opportunities for External Sales Teams.

Established customer visits diminish once qualified opportunities fill the sales pipeline. The 80/20 rule can be positively altered with new, qualified leads routed to an external sales staff that is aggressive and ready for new opportunities.

Internal and External Sales Teams begin account sharing and joint-ownership once sales objectives and activities are shared.

Lead Generation can transition inefficient sales activities to focused, successful actions through researched and qualified leads.

Lead Generation for Business Development

are employed to develop prospect lists. If needed, prospects can be further segmented at this point.

3) Prospect lists are evaluated and initially qualified.

4) Qualified prospects are then advanced through the lead generation cycle to be developed into a potential opportunity.

5) Implementation of change management processes should always remain a core facet of the Lead Generation process.

Lead SourcesSources of leads can derive from both obvious and unconventional avenues. Traditional sources can be found in online databases such as Hoover’s, Data.com, and Manta. These pay-for-data sources can provide company information, contact information, key contacts within the organization, financials, and many more data points to use for analysis and lead qualification. By identifying NAIC categories, you can refine searches to fit the industries required.

Unconventional sources can be obtained through marketing efforts, customer referrals, current customer analysis, and sales force generated prospect lists can provide fresh prospect ideas to incorporate into your stream of lead sources.

Lead ResearchAdditional research may be relevant for each lead. It may be imperative to try to quickly verify current employment of a key contact within a lead, ensure a business is still in operation, or better understand a company’s operations or customer base. This type of research can be carried out by internet searches, but more specific information, particularly for key contact verification, may require the use of a premium LinkedIn account.

Lead SegmentationLeads can be segmented into countless sub-categories. Slicing and dicing the data is necessary to correctly target leads, execute germane prospecting efforts, qualify their viability, and progress them through the lead generation life cycle.

2

Lead Generation for Business Development

By Industry

NAIC codes can help segment leads into a generalized industry. Once a list is compiled, the use of key words can further refine the list to a sub-category of the industry. Paired with specific products, sales strategies can be focused to specific industries.

By Need

By understanding the nature of how a lead markets itself and its products, your products and services can be matched to customer needs. Specific product market baskets and services can target the needs of these prospects. Understanding the core nature of a sub-market and targeting sales campaigns provides more efficient sales efforts.

By Job Title

Marketing and selling products to the correct contact within a lead is crucial. With viable data, leads can be segmented to contact the audience receptive to your products and services. By reaching the relevant decision maker early on in the qualification process, leads are much more likely to transition to viable opportunities through targeted sales campaigns directed to meet customer needs.

Lead QualificationPrimarily, lead sources will already have a certain level of lead qualification if sourced and segmented properly. Once outbound communications are initiated, sales activities, or customer conversations, progress through a “Yes/No” Process Map. Leads are further qualified with their varying levels of interest in sales campaign information or by information leads provide regarding current or future opportunities.

Lead Entry into CRMOnce leads are generated, researched, and further qualified, they can be entered into CRM as a Lead. From this point, leads can be assigned to specific sales associates and they progress through the Lead Management Process.

3

Lead Generation for Business Development

Lead Generation ProcessThe lead generation process is the maturation and life cycle of a lead through specific stages to either become an opportunity or to be disqualified. Each phase requires a specific set of actions to occur correctly. While the process is simple, maintaining the necessary discipline to execute the specific steps is crucial to qualifying actionable leads and creating better sales opportunities.

Included is a simple process to transition a lead to an opportunity and track it in CRM.

4

Lead Generated

from Sources

Lead Segmented & Qualified

Sales Team Acts Upon

Lead

Additional Lead

Qualification

Lead Converted

to Opportunity

or Disqualified

Opportunity Tracked in CRM and

Conversion Rate

Measured

Lead Generation for Business Development

Lead Contact Process To convert leads to opportunities, specific channels should exist for each step in the overall process. Each channel is based upon a certain customer outcome and should be based upon a predetermined sales activity objective.

While each process can be similar, specific objectives require unique processes. For example, the objective of the process provided below is to set a customer appointment to further demonstrate service capabilities. Note, there are specific steps to transition the lead into a meeting or receive other positive interactions before the lead is disqualified.

5

Lead Generation for Business Development

Timing of Lead ContactThe cadence of lead contact is crucial to increasing the conversion rate of a cold lead to an opportunity. The example provided in the previous page includes 5 customer “touches” over a 14 day period. The timing of each period needs to reflect your sales objective.

Lead Generation ImplementationOnce a commitment is made to execute Lead Management as a mechanism to create and manage sales leads, these steps and processes outlined above can be implemented as a basic start to a Business Development (Inside Sales) strategy.

Frequent renewal and review of each stage in the process is key to ensuring that the process perpetually operates. Control and overview of the process will need to be the responsibility of a key manager.

Change Management Implementation of the Lead Generation and Lead Management process needs to occur within a Change Management Process, such as Kotter’s Eight Steps of Change. It is crucial to create the climate for continual improvement, engage all involved in continuous improvement and buy-in, and then enact and perpetuate the change as it occurs. Change management has to be included as an element of the overall Lead Generation strategy for positive change to occur and to continually improve the process.

The theories and processes discussed above will require continual refinement as time progresses, both as the process, team, and sales objectives mature. An organization with values aligned with communication, continual improvement, and a dedication for success lend itself well to executing ongoing improvements through a Change Management Process.

ConclusionAny organization currently using or planning to implement Opportunity Management as the chief conduit to track significant sales opportunities, Lead Generation and Management are the next steps to the maturation of CRM Optimization.

Sales objectives need to be further refined to correctly guide Lead Generation efforts, but the initial concept can be implemented with relative ease once a Business Development Team (Inside Sales) is hired and trained. After a lead generation service is selected and paired with sales objectives, leads can then be further researched, qualified, and the

6

Lead Generation for Business Development

Lead Management Process can commence. It is crucial that this process occurs within CRM.

Initial success also needs to be tempered with sales objectives. If sales objectives are tied to large scale projects or goals, review of the process and the efficiency of the Lead Generation Cycle and the Lead Management Process must be evaluated as the initial success factors of the campaign. Lower value, but higher yield sales objectives such as, out of territory customer sales, website customers, etc., can net more immediate sales success from the Lead Generation Process. A combination of sales objectives, with low yield and high value and high yield and lower value, may serve as a successful strategy as a pilot for implementing outbound sales activities using Lead Generation and Lead Management within the Opportunity Management mechanism.

7