Most Marketers fail to understand this, but they treat the Lead Generation Process as a casual one night stand. It might sound controversial, but the fact remains.
Some of the major signs of this are things like honking horn instead of going to the door and greeting the prospects. Not bothering to create conversation, building relationships, offering flowers or candy, but right out of the door, reaching to close the deal with their pitch talk.
Marketing requires a bit more romance!
There are a lot of giveaway to spot such Marketers, in this blog we have listed 5 of them. For More comprehensive take feel free to check out the video above by Sampath Mallidi.
1 Focusing on Leads instead of Account
There are a few cases when you are have a good supply of leads, but the conversion rate is noticeably low. This mean the way those leads were generated were not quite effective.
This could also mean the leads were not interested in your offering, but they were just a target of your targeted marketing. Since the lead didn't convert, the targeted marketing didn't work.
2 Conversions vs Conversation
On the first meeting if your focus is to convert the prospect into a lead as soon as possible, then you might as well accomplish that. But will this Lead actually convert to a paying Customer? Unless you strike to start a conversation, you will never learn if the prospect actually needs the product or service you are offering.
Do not strive to get their contact information so that you could move on and the sales team take it from here. Instead try to find out if this prospect is the customer your brand wants to serve.
3 Obsession #1 : Number of Registration
There's a famous saying that high quality doesn't mean high quantity. By sending 1,000 odd mass emails, you might be able to get 3 leads, but the efforts are wasted on gathering 997 email which were never your ideal lead. This is an inefficient way to operate a marketing department.
The number of registration is not the right metric to be obsessing over. Instead the number of relevant registrants is something your must set as your KPI of Interest.
High registration, would never give you the right amount of revenue. That's the wrong metric to follow. Instead look for registrant conversion ratio!
4 Obsession #2 : Everyone Should Convert
It's vital for marketers to remember that the product or service you sell, is not for everyone. If your brand has 5 USP, your ideal customer is the one who has demand of all of those 5 USP. You will encounter leads which have an inclination towards 4 out of 5 USP who will end up deciding not to use your product or service.
Not everyone will buy your product, not everyone will use your service not everyone will download your free ebook. And it's ok.
By obsession over these leads marketers tend to invest their time in emailing, calling, and following up endlessly without getting any response
5. Email Spamming
Gone are those days when mass email campaigns worked. Not any more will you be able to get leads by spamming 100,000 emails addresses. It has not worked for almost a decade now. That's the reason EU introduced the ePrivacy directive in 2002 which made it illegal for people to send cold emails, and in 2018 they introduced hefty penalties with GDPR.
To actually get proper leads, you need to be an integral part of an account, and see through that the account is actually being won.
Conclusion
When it comes to B2B segment, every marketer should be aware that the job is done only when the account pays the money. Dealing with businesses, is expensive but it all pays up when the agreement is signed up. Collecting a list of emails is not a victory. To sum it up in B2B, Marketing is all about sales.
Feel free to like this video with more extensive discussion on the topic by Sampath Mallidi.
