How easy is it to let the simple things in our businesses slip through the cracks?
I bring this up because of an email I received a few weeks ago. The sender was looking for advice on lead buying and I caught myself starting the email saying, “Buying leads is very simple…”. And in fact it is very simple, however the problem with that statement is not the fact that I said it was simple, it was the fact that I had become complacent.
Everyday we buy leads, they come into our email box or lead management system and for the first part of the month we call them as soon as they arrive and as the month/s go by the process becomes less and less important. We start focusing on other parts of the business, because we believe the basic fundamentals of lead buying and lead management are in place and have been perfected. We think everything is automated, reports are being spit out every morning and people are performing adequately. The fact is that conversions begin to slip and we begin to question our lead sources. Whether or not a lead source is the problem, because there is no denying that lead sources can make turns for the worse, you can inevitably put your business into a death spiral with this type of default thinking. Your continual flipping from lead source to lead source allows you to overlook the the real problem. The real problem is that you have become complacent and have forgotten the basics and the fundamentals of what made you a successful lead buyer.
It may not be lead management, it may even be weekly training that is now evolved into monthly training or even worse has become none existent. With that said, I am going to get back to the basics of Lead Management here on LeadCritic. I am going to go back to the beginning and with that I want your input too. I will share with you what I have seen work and I want to know what you have seen work. The spirit of this blog was to share ideals and experiences that would eventually help the whole group. I want to get back to those ideals. I am not going to allow myself to become complacent about lead management and lead buying, so for 2009 it will be back to the basics.
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You are spot on. Like a good sports team that gets rattled with a surprise loss or looses their edge–the coach sends them back into the gym to hit the fundamentals, rebuilding the base.
This market and later the economy has dealt almost every business that surprise loss. Add to that a quickly evolving marketing environment (offline to online, advertising to social) and you have even more disorientation.
Whether in mortgage, debt, insurance, or non-profit fund raising we are watching businesses return to fundamentals. The problem? Many have forgotten what those fundamentals are…
-Marketing plan focused on market and customer
-Organized lead receipt
-Logical and accountable distribution
-Fanatical FOLLOW-UP
-Information/education-based sale
-Sense of urgency
These are only a few of the things I am sure you are going to address. In my mind, the biggest basic to return to in times like this is the sense of urgency in your sales.
Happy New Year Lead Critic!
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Happy New Year to you!
I am going to try my best to cover the basics again and your input is always appreciated.
Thanks!
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I am happy to participate as well.
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