Creating a healthy pipeline of new clients is one of the key agenda points of every business. “We need more leads”. “We need more qualified leads”. “We need warmer leads”. Lead, leads, leads. Sounds familiar?
But what approach to New Client Acquisition to take considering there are so many options? Well, lets take it step by step. Out of the four possible approaches (see image below) we will investigate more closely the first Find & Push approach: Finding the right prospects and pushing your product and service to them.
But where do you find the leads? What activities can you engage in to achieve successful Lead Sourcing for your business? What are the pros & cons of such methods?
#1 COLD-CAMPAIGNING PLATFORMS
Automated outbound sales platforms with integrated databases and cadence features became popular lately. Among the popular ones you can find: grow.com, growbots.com, growlabs.com or pipedrive.com.
PROS
- Purchase & go: Once you purchase your license the platform is ready to serve you in lead generation immediately.
- Target & Reach: Thanks to various filters, option of cadences and direct database access you can easily program variety of customized campaigns to be launched expanding your reach.
- User-friendly: Most platforms offer a highly intuitive and easy to use campaign set-up and launch eliminating the need for any training or external support.
CONS
- Higher investment: There is a price tag to the license, being quite high.
- Cold & unqualified: The database of contacts comprises of cold and unqualified leads, making the conversion rate and probability of sales quite low.
- Spam touch: You can alienate some potential clients by contacting them without them opting-into your database and possibly even make it on their blocked-senders list.
#2 MARKET & LINKEDIN RESEARCH
Common for B2B became doing a simple market or Linkedin research for potential clients matching your target group and buyer persona. For example, if you offer a fintech product to large financial institutions, you can simply search for the big players, researching who is in the role of a decision maker, or sponsor and contacting them directly.
PROS
- Cost-friendly: Cost of such research is minimal if done in-house or even outsourced.
- Personalized hook: Knowing the individual contacts allows for personalized hook to be included and to leverage the power of personal 1-2-1 connection.
- Easy to outsource: Such research is an activity you can easily outsource to freelancers out there skilled in such tasks.
CONS
- Time consuming: Such research is very time-consuming and might not offer the best ROTI (return on time invested).
- Low conversion: Even if you are approaching your target audience, such leads are not qualified for having the need or budget for your product or service, making the conversion low.
- Gate keepers: Often it is tricky to get to speak to the actual decision maker or sponsor, as very skilled gate keepers, such as Pas, are blocking your way.
#3 THIRD PARTY DATA PURCHASE
Simply purchasing the list with pre-selected filters (geographic, company / income size, gender etc.) became popular and there are plenty of database resellers.
PROS
- Speed to info: Such lists offer you immediate access to thousands of contacts with just a few clicks and … one payment.
- Customization: Nowadays you have the option of narrowing down your list to your niche target selecting detailed filters to assure you purchase the most tailored list to your business.
- Data quality: Over the years, the choice of various database and the quality of data improved.
CONS
- Mailing ban: Platforms as Mailchimp doesn’t allow purchased database data to be upload and used in mailing via their platform. They allow only use of lists were recipients voluntarily opted-in giving you consent to mail them.
- Alienation of recipients: By mailing cold list of contact, you can easily alienate the recipients as they have never met you nor heard of you and receive emails from you.
- Reputation risk: You can be perceived as spam, get blocked, reported, or damage your brand and overall reputation.
#4 PRESS & NEWS SEARCH
Mainly for B2B being alert to press and news information is key. Is somebody publicly in need of your product or service? Did somebody mention your company name but they are not yet a client? Tools such as Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts) offer you a great way to stay up to date regarding all key press and news happenings.
PROS
- Ease of set-up: Nowadays it is easy to set new-alerts for specific news being bounced to your mailbox as soon as they are published.
- Tailored offer: Such information can be used to qualify a cold lead and approach it with a tailored offer addressing their current challenge or need.
- Low investment: Google Alerts is a free online tool for tracking keywords and phrases. Premium alternatives at reasonable prices are obtainable.
CONS
- Only B2B: This works for B2B and big corporate clients more effectively, as the “small fish” or even individuals don’t get into the news so often.
- Minimal conversion: Chance of converting the lead into a client takes loads of time and the probability is very low.
- Stakeholder reach: Getting to the right stakeholders – having the decision making power or control over budget is very tricky and again minimizing the probability of lead conversion.
Understanding the methods and their advantages and disadvantages would hopefully make your decision making easier and allow for smarter choices. Now it is your turn to ask yourself: Did / do you use any of the four methods? What method makes most sense for you and your business?
