Not All Leads are Created Equal
(Part one of a series)
The importance of lead scoring and follow-up can make or break conversions
Every lead is not a bite. Every inquiry is not a prospect. And just because a business spends time and invests marketing dollars in “lead generation” there’s no promise of filling the sales pipeline. The good news is, you can target your lead generation efforts, focus on capturing quality leads and nurturing true prospects, and achieve the customer attraction, retention and sales goals you have in mind. Your life sciences business can do all of this—if you have a very focused strategy.
Having been in the lead-generation business since our company’s inception, Biocompare has been privy to lead generation best practices over the past 15 years. We would like to share with you a few essential tips to consider.
So, what exactly is involved in generating high-quality leads? Here’s some pointers on how to:
- Capture your target audience
- Score leads effectively (inquiries vs. prospects)
- Determine the right follow-up strategy
- Convert leads into sales
Capture Quality Leads
Quality trumps quantity in lead generation, meaning you can have thousands of leads but if they are not marketing qualified leads (MQLs) or better yet sales qualified leads (SQLs), then you’ve got a lot of lines cast in a pond with no fish. Sales efforts end in frustration—and no sales.
So how does one generate a MQL or SQL? Lead-generation is big business and comprises a significant part of any marketing budget. There have been numerous and various articles written on this subject some of the best we found are below.
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/lead-generation-strategy
https://www.marketo.com/marketing-topics/lead-generation-strategy
Rank Leads: Who’s A True Prospect?
Lead scoring is a method of ranking leads to determine their sales readiness. Lead scoring is based on whether a buyer is a fit for your product or service, how interested the lead is in what you have to offer, and the buyer’s stage in the sales process.
Some leads require much more nurturing than others. And some SQLs, like the ones you may have received from the Biocompare Marketplace, require no nurturing at all. By effectively scoring and ranking leads, you can invest time and resources in true prospects—the scientific audience that suits your company’s buyer profile.
Getting this right is essential before moving on to the lead nurturing and follow-up steps.
Countless articles have been written on this topic. Here is one that we feel is worthy of sharing.
http://www.mintigo.com/blog/dont-know-how-to-prioritize-your-leads-here-are-11-awesome-resources-on-lead-scoring/
Determine and develop the appropriate nurturing and follow-up strategies
Once your leads have been scored, this very critical step must occur. Just as not all leads are created equal, your lead nurturing and follow-up plans should be based on the scoring you’ve just completed.
Companies that excel at lead scoring and subsequent nurturing and follow-up generate 50% more viable leads at a 33% lower cost, according to Forrester Research. So there’s a clear ROI for implementing effective nurturing and subsequent lead follow-up best practices.
So where to start? The advice trend is to start simply. Using the data from your lead scoring exercise, the next step is to develop nurturing campaigns that keep your audience engaged. The key thing to remember is that this is a process, and based on actions taken throughout your nurturing campaigns will determine the next course of action or path.
Many lead nurturing campaigns utilize content as their cornerstone. Content marketing—educating your audience, serving as their resource, providing valuable articles, blogs and newsletters, when done effectively, can be very effective. But it is resource-laden and requires a serious commitment.
Biocompare recently conducted a research report entitled The Technology Imperative: How Scientists Learn About & Acquire Appropriate R&D Tools and Services. We wanted to identify what content is most valuable to scientists when they are on their buying journey, so that we can make the best recommendations with regards to which types are most useful to scientists during particular stages of that journey. The data is in and we’re in the process of compiling it now, so be on the look-out for some key data points to be shared in a future issue of Biocompare Insights.
We also wanted to point out the importance of treating the “Request A Quote” lead that you may have received from the Biocompare MarketPlace differently from leads that are generated from say a white paper or ebook download, webinar, or trade show. For the past 12 months we have been conducting lead follow-up studies; the goal being to determine whether or not a product was purchased from the lead that was generated. We also wanted to learn if the company that received the lead followed-up in timely manner. Two key data points from this study are worth sharing:
1) Biocompare’s usefulness to our end users is directly proportionate to whether or not a company followed-up with the lead!
2) Those companies that followed-up in a timely manner had a 75% increase in lead conversion to a sale (see Figure 1)
Thus, we can’t stress enough the importance of following-up with a Biocompare directory lead in a timely fashion (within 48 hours), as not doing so can result in lost revenue!
Figure 1
Comparing purchase rates of contacted vs. non-contacted Biocompare Marketplace-generated “Request A Quote” Leads
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Purchase Rate
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Potential Purchase Rate
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Contacted by Company
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20%
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30%
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Not Contacted by Company
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5%
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12%
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Purchase Rate = those who indicated in the survey that they purchased the product associated with the lead
Potential Purchase Rate = the sum of the purchase rate and those who indicated that were planning to purchase the product associated with the lead
As you can see from the data above, not following-up with a Biocompare lead can cost your company a sale. We encourage all of our listing partners to follow-up with a Biocompare lead in a timely fashion, as they are truly sales-ready!
Fulfill Your Promise: From Sales to Customer Service
It’s worth it to put a solid lead management plan in place that includes integrated marketing: touching customers in a range of ways. Your sales team will be more likely to follow up on leads generated by targeted marketing efforts, according to Forrester Research that showed 46% of marketers with mature lead management processes have sales teams that follow up on more than 75% of marketing-generated leads.
The sale isn’t the final step in your lead generation process, though. It’s the beginning of a client relationship where your life sciences firm continues to build trust by serving as a resource, and content marketing builds this platform. Sales and customer service involves a continued nurturing process that is aided by integrated marketing solutions with trusted media partners that utilize a multi-channel approach.
An integrated marketing strategy unlocks powerful lead generation, nurturing, and sales results. Whether it’s generating a high funnel lead coupled with a content-laden lead nurturing strategy or how to best follow-up with a Biocompare Marketplace lead, we are here to help. If you are interested in learning more about our custom content creation services, or would be interested in the research results we conducted, please contact your account representative or sales@biocompare.com.