While most salespeople cannot find their own leads effectively, even if a sales team does its own prospecting successfully and consistently, they’ll still suffer from what’s known as the “breakage” problem. The breakage problem is, generally speaking, the loss of concentration, focus or aptitude…
Genuine lead generation takes time and costs money simply because a qualified lead often requires that the prospect express a desire to take action (e.g. talk to you). Going from a list of names (which may have cost something to acquire in the first…
Because there is so much confusion in the market about this, we need to talk about the definition of a sales lead. We will go into this in greater depth later, but it is important to define a lead in the context of the…
In its simplest form, lead generation in the B2B market is the process of identifying suspects, getting their attention and initial interest, qualifying them as potential buyers, and then getting them to want to engage in a serious conversation about doing business together. This…
In the face of these increasing demands on salespeople, most companies are simply giving up. Many companies don’t even bother trying to train their salespeople to know or do anything more than the minimum, usually product training, that they need a salesperson to know…
As we discussed in another article “Companies Expect a Lot from Their Sales People”, the fact is that most people, and therefore most salespeople, simply can’t do all those things discussed therein. This is one reason why we instinctively think of different qualitative “levels”…
Most companies expect their salespeople to act as the primary interface with the customer, particularly when the customer is still a prospect. Salespeople are expected to find the prospect and initiate the relationship, introducing themselves, their company and its products. They’re supposed to establish…
If you’ve been in sales for any length of time, you’ve no doubt heard the saying that “nothing happens until somebody sells something.” Attributed to Jim Barksdale, it’s a source of pride for salespeople who understand the true value of what they do. It…
At LeadGen.com, we are willing to concede that the definition of a “sales lead” has been irretrievably ruined. And so, for our purposes, we use the term “qualified sales lead,” which we define as: A decision maker (or strong decision influencer) who has a…
The fact is that a sales and marketing program can work if you use the right strategies and tactics, strategy and tactics that are valid for your unique situation. To be sure, what most people think of as marketing, lead generation, and even sales…