Direct Mail Business-To-Business Sales Lead Generation: 5 Ways To Attract Hotter
Prospects.
by Alan Sharpe
In B2B direct mail lead
generation, as your volume of leads goes up, your quality goes down, and vice
versa.
The people in marketing prefer volume. They want the most leads for their
dollar.
The people in sales--the folks who must follow up on the leads that marketing
supplies--want quality. They have no time to waste this quarter chasing down
tire kickers and brochure collectors.
One way to keep sales and marketing happy is to write lead generation packages
that improve the quality of leads generated. Packages that attract the hottest
prospects. Here are some ways to do that with your next campaign.
1. Discuss price. The best prospects are the ones who don't faint when you talk
price. They have the budget to buy what you're selling. So attract them, and
scare away the time-wasters, by mentioning your price.
2. Say "A salesman will call." This should chop your response rate in half by my
reckoning. But the prospects you'll attract will be the hottest prospects, the
ones who don't mind talking to a salesperson, and actually want to (these people
do actually exist!).
3. Ask their age. Just kidding. Maybe. Asking qualifying questions on your reply
device or website landing page helps you weed out the people who are not ready
to do business with you right now. This can involve asking them their age (if
you're selling life insurance, for example), but it normally involves soliciting
the kind of information that tells you how serious a prospect you have.
Think BANT: Budget, Authority, Need and Timeframe. Asking qualifying questions
in your lead generation piece helps you attract prospects who can afford your
offering, have the authority to buy, need what you are selling and are ready to
act within your timeframe.
4. Charge for information. Putting a price, even a token amount, on an
information booklet, white paper or demo will soon separate the cream from the
milk.
5. Ask for a stamp. Don't use a postage-paid business reply card or envelope.
Make the prospect buy and affix the stamp. The replies you get will be qualified
inquiries.
Putting these tactics to use should keep your sales force happy because the
quality of the leads you give them will be the highest possible. And your
friends in marketing should be happy, too, since sales people close more sales
when calling on hot prospects than they do pursuing every business person who
fogs a mirror.
© 2006 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this article online and in print
provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the
"About the Author" message).
About the Author:
Alan Sharpe is a
business-to-business direct mail copywriter and lead generation specialist who
helps business owners and marketing managers attract new clients using direct
mail marketing. Sign up for free weekly tips like this at
http://www.sharpecopy.com/newsletter.
Source
of article:
www.goarticles.com
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