Generating Leads in a Soft Economy
An area of concern – and a hot topic with many of our clients - is the economy. While the economy is not dominating all of our conversations, it’s certainly an issue that is getting some significant time and attention. While a few people are predicting a significant downturn, most people we talk to do agree that IT spending does seem to be slowing down. Some markets and industries are slowing down more than others as the current slowdown certainly appears to be uneven.
In fact, in a recent Forrester Research document published an June 16, 2008 titled - US IT Market Outlook: Q2 2008, Not So Bad So Far — But There Is Worse To Come In The Rest Of The Year , the author Andrew Bartels summarized, “With Q1 2008 data now in for both the US economy and the US tech market, the year has started out much as we expected. The data so far supports our projection that the US market for technology goods and services will see a slowdown in growth in 2008, to 3% from 6% in 2007. This slow growth rate is mainly due to an assumed mild, two-quarter recession in the US economy.”
But even though the outlook might not be bright, - it doesn’t mean that generating new leads and closing new business needs to feel like it’s impossible.
In fact, now may be the perfect time to make specific changes and improvements to the way your company goes about generating new leads. Making these changes now will enable you to be more efficient and effective with your lead generation not only today, but also well into the future…regardless of how the economic future turns out.
Here are a few things to consider as you plan your lead generation activities in uncertain economic times:
Focus on Your Value
The fact is that companies don’t stop purchasing software when the economy slows or goes into a downturn. Instead they go a little slower, are a little more cautious and look harder for value.
Now is not the time to be everything to everybody. Trying to provide too many solutions to too many different types of companies is usually a recipe for failure. This not only creates confusion for your prospects but also limits your ability to clearly demonstrate true value to any one market segment. So instead of looking for new business in broad segments, concentrate your efforts in specific areas where you have had the most success in solving business problems and where you can most easily demonstrate your value. Being able to quickly and concisely demonstrate your value proposition is particularly important as companies looker harder for value and their return on their investment.
Your first step should be to make sure everyone in your organization understands your unique value proposition. This might be a tougher challenge than you think. Don’t assume everyone in your company has a clear understanding of your positioning and value to a new prospect. Take the time to actually talk to all of your sales and marketing people – you might be surprised with what you learn. Then, make sure you have the components in place so your prospects are fully aware and clearly understand your unique value proposition.
One of the biggest mistakes many software companies make with prospects (especially new prospects as they visit your site for the first time) is claiming a position or value proposition and then doing absolutely nothing to prove that claim to the prospect.
Use testimonials, case studies or educational white papers to illustrate the value you have provided for customers just like them. Don’t make this information hard to find – feature these items on your web site and promote / provide them at every opportunity.
In today’s economy, this is a sure-fire way to quickly separate your product and services from the competition. By clearly stating your unique value proposition and backing up your claims with collateral material your prospects can quickly and easily find, you’ll give new prospects the confidence they need to engage with you…and confidence you can provide the value they’re looking for.
Integrated Marketing
Even though it’s always been a key ingredient of successful marketing programs, according to many marketing experts, integrated marketing may be the two most important words for companies looking to increase their lead generation results during tough economic times.
Long gone are the days when a simple webinar or telemarketing activity would generate enough leads to qualify as a successful campaign. Traditional “one-time” lead generation activities that worked just few short years ago, seldom work in today’s economy. Even worse…are software companies that are still relying on their sales team to generate highly qualified leads.
Fueled by an increasing need for marketing activities to be both measurable and accountable, marketing teams must re-focus their efforts to support their sales staff with qualified leads, cut costs and more directly contribute to generating revenue. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to do that without a high level of integration.
And we’re not just talking about integrating direct marketing activities. While properly integrating tactical lead generation activities is challenging enough, many software companies really need to focus on integrating their internal processes to maximize their results. Too often we see significant “disconnects” between strategic marketing initiatives, database/CRM processes, lead generation activities, lead nurturing programs and interaction with the sales team. Without the proper integration of these processes – many of your lead generation programs may be doomed for failure before you even start.
Delivering results and providing a high ROI are key drivers that are forcing marketing teams to re-think they way they approach and apply their internal marketing strategies and lead generation tactics. For most software companies, integrated marketing – with both tactical activities and with internal processes - will be the standard for lead generation success.
Don’t Eliminate Your Marketing, but Focus on Results
When times get tough, marketing expenditures are usually the first to go. Many executives try to justify cutting marketing and lead generation activities as “too expensive”. But in reality – marketing is only expensive when it doesn’t work.
When you reduce your marketing activities you’re making it easier for the competition and ultimately harder on yourself. Again, contrary to what many people think, companies still buy products and services during uncertain economic times. They may take a little longer to make their final decision but they do eventually make a decision.
Instead of reducing your marketing efforts look to re-distribute how and where you spend your marketing dollars in order to get results your sales team needs. We use a simple “litmus” test for our results-oriented marketing activities:
Do we have clear goals and objectives outlined for this activity and have we shared those goals with the management team and with sales?
Will this activity generate a measurable response?
Have we determined the criteria for a qualified lead and can that be measured?
Will all leads go into our database?
Can we segment those leads into different “categories” based on their profile?
Can we track cost per raw lead, cost per qualified lead and cost per close?
Do we have a long-term nurturing plan for each and every lead that is not immediately “qualified”?
If the answer is “no” to any of these questions, then don’t move forward with that activity until you have the right processes and procedures in place.
Plan Your Process Now – While You Still Have Time
When we’re busy and business is good, we often make the mistake of taking our success for granted. We may, in fact, not even be totally sure why we’re successful in closing new business and in generating qualified leads. We tend to get too comfortable, maybe even a little careless - especially when it comes to keeping our business processes current and competitive. Then, when business slows or the economy takes a downturn – we’re often left wondering what went wrong and what we can do to “fix it”.
One key business process that can eliminate confusion and uncertainty when it comes to lead generation is a closed loop lead generation process. A closed loop lead generation system is process by which every marketing activity is tightly integrated to produce consistent messages to prospects, targeted results and ultimately more qualified leads. And in addition to the combination of all marketing functions, this process essentially “closes” the loop by integrating the sales process as well. Not only does this eliminate any gaps between sales and marketing it also ensures consistent communication with prospects at all points throughout the lead generation and sales process.
It was not that long ago, many people thought only large companies could implement such a process and benefit from the synergy created by closed loop systems. However today, companies of all sizes are not only realizing the benefits of such a system – they’re quickly realizing a closed loop system is a required process to stay competitive in today’s market.
