Lead generation is a key element of the sales process, which has changed in recent years, along with the roles of the sales and marketing teams.
Published 2023-02-28, by ,
Table of contents:
Generated leads are no longer an indiscriminate list of names that the marketing team passes on to the sales team. Today, lead generation aims to attract potential customers using a variety of methods, offering them useful information, developing and consolidating relationships, and assessing which leads are ready to proceed on their path to purchase. For more detailed information, see the post '5 ways to generate more qualified leads'.
Focus on the best potential leads
The success of a lead gen programme is no longer measured by the amount of leads the company acquires. Leads can now be identified, tracked and classified using much more detailed lead generation and lead classification metrics.
Examples of commonly used lead generation metrics include:
- Click-through rate (CTR) is a percentage consisting of the total number of clicks divided by the number of page views. It determines the success of a call to action.
- Time to Conversion is the time it takes to turn a lead into an actual customer.
- Return on Investment (ROI) is the profit compared to the overall cost of the campaign.
- Number of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL) is the number of leads that the marketing team has deemed ready to pass on to the sales team.
- Cost per MQL is the investment required to turn a lead into an actual customer, with the goal of reducing costs and maximising profits.
Evaluating Leads
Lead evaluation is a method of scoring, ranking, and prioritising leads based on their value, so that sales and marketing teams can focus on the leads with the greatest potential, rather than dealing with everyone equally. A company can conduct a detailed evaluation of a potential customer using a combination of explicit and implicit lead evaluation.
The explicit lead assessment considers how a lead's profile matches the parameters defined for the ideal buyer. It consists of information and demographic data of a customer, such as profession, industry or geographical location. It shows how relevant a potential lead is to your company.
The implicit lead evaluation takes into account how often and in what way a potential lead interacts with your business. This is measured by a number of indicators, such as visits to the company's website, actions the lead has taken there or responses to email marketing. The implicit lead evaluation shows how much interest a potential lead has in your business.
Whether a business lead (B2B) or an end consumer, a successful lead evaluation depends on a number of factors, such as high-quality content, well-defined buyer profiles, relevant interactions and sales team involvement. Lead gen software can be a useful tool, as it often includes automated lead evaluation. Learn more about how to generate leads on the blog.