The four harsh realities of lead generation

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s not as easy as hitting some launch button.

Lead generation is tricky business – unless you’re Coca Cola or ChatGPT. Most companies are in a flux for what to do, with budgets tight and leadership either too confident, or too skeptical.

Digital media in particular makes lead gen seem like a breeze – simply throw some money on an existing social media post to ‘boost’ it, and you’ll have a long queue of prospects lined up, shouting “shut up and take my money!”.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. The manner in which digital media platforms glamourise advertising and lead gen can give many marketing teams a rude awakening, especially if they’re new to it.

So here, I shed light on four such harsh realities of lead generation, and what you can do to make this complicated mess well, less complicated – and get you closer to prospects who bear the potential to eventually convert.

1. Don’t get too excited when you see a lead come through

Picture this: your meticulously crafted campaign finally draws the attention of a lead, which shows up on your CRM. You’re elated! But should you be?

Sorry to put a damper, but you’ll need to wait a while before you can celebrate. This is because the ‘appearance’ of a lead doesn’t equal a qualified lead. As ultimately, it’s the qualified leads that will move the needle in your business.

In fact, ‘qualified’ means something very specific, in the lead generation arena. It means that:

1. A lead has been spoken to by one of your HUMAN agents,
2. This lead has expressed that they are interested to either get more details, or straight up buy.

Also, an initial lead inquiry may be far from being anything of the sort you expect, and need. It could end up being:

• A bot,
• Just a form with bad contact details,
• Someone that doesn’t respond (by phone or email).

Here’s what it all boils down to: If you cannot speak to the person behind the form, that’s all it ends up being – just a form. A qualified lead is someone who, without any reason for doubt, has clearly expressed interest towards your product. Plain and simple. This could be by phone, SMS, email or carrier pigeon. But they need to have spoken to you, for you to ever label them ‘a qualified lead’.

2. Third-party contact databases aren’t a panacea

ZoomInfo, Apollo.io and Seamless.AI all have one thing in common – they supply contacts that your sales teams can outreach to, with the aim of sparking a connection.

Sounds simple and straightforward. Only it isn’t.

Contact details are notorious for getting outdated. And fast. Someone changes their address or phone number. Someone gets promoted, or switches jobs. Or both. The possibilities are manifold.

Scouring through tens of thousands of contacts is what’s needed, to find the proverbial needle in the haystack; a lead that is actually interested in what you have to sell (in other words, a qualifiable lead). But not before you filter out those who hang up on you, or yell at you to never call them again.

As for the staleness of contact databases, services exist to ‘clean’ these, by updating with newer, fresher details. I’d advise a word of caution against these, as sharing your contact database for this effort can expose it to exfiltration.

The solution? Build and maintain your contact databases as you go. Train your teams to do the same. It’s a painstakingly manual process, but incredibly rewarding once you notice the cleanliness and ethical integrity of your contact data.

If you do opt for using third-party contact lists, promptly record the details of those who’ve engaged positively into your first-party database – and respectfully remove those who’ve requested to never be called or emailed again!

Also read: The obsession with marketing – before doing any product development

3. Your website (or other online channels of your choice) may not be as effective as you think

You’ve toiled hard to get your website, mobile app and/or social media channels up and running. The endeavour has costed significant effort, time and money, and you are now excited to launch and let the world see what you’ve got to offer.

Days pass. Weeks go by. Your online channels are now approaching their one-year launch anniversary.

But leads? Hardly a few.

Here’s the kicker: online channels aren’t as potent as the marketing bros would like you to think.

To start off, there is so much NOISE online. No space is a haven safe from ads and sponsorships. People are aware of this more than most businesses would like to admit, which is costing them (the businesses) money.

This isn’t to say that users don’t buy what they see via online ads and sponsorships, but let’s face it: it’s just too much, and too in-your-face. And as a result, most people now have a deep disdain for ads and sponsorships, and immediately check out the moment they see one.

“If it’s being advertised online, then I’m definitely not going to buy it”. This is the literal thought pattern of many users online.

And even if you stay impartial and don’t advertise? Same result.

Now mix in the fact that your brand may be new. If that’s the case, you’re up for a greater challenge. Vast amounts of brand awareness AND referrals are needed before you can expect any kind of attention from prospects online.

Of course, building your brand online is something that can most certainly be done – to glorious result. But before that, it’s imperative to be realistic about your expectations by simply launching a site – leads aren’t going to appear just because you’ve got a site up. Much more work needs to be done, before you can expect any kind of lift.

Also read: Even if brands know what to do – not all of them follow through

4. Your lead funnel is more dependent on your customer journey than you think

So you’ve placed a form at a strategic spot or two. You may even have a dedicated landing page for certain customer segments. But once someone fills and submits the form, what happens next?

Obviously, a company that cares about what it does on the most fundamental of levels would have this figured out, right?

You’d be shocked to know how many well, don’t.

Form fields are inaccurate, and don’t capture all data that’s relevant. Leads sit stagnant in a database for whatever reason. But the worst? Not knowing what to do with every lead – including the ones that aren’t ready to buy, or those that may not be all that relevant.

Every step, every interaction and every choice that a prospect is given, should have a purpose behind it. It should be easy for the prospect to know what they need to do, and why.

Even the simplest of customer journeys are bound to have complex, meandering flows. But it’s imperative to have this nailed to a tee, because literally 100% of all lead gen campaigns that have been successful have had robust customer journeys behind them.

Promise.

If you would like to share your opinions regarding the content on our blog, please email us on media@sunshinestrategic.com.

Explore More Articles