subject: Lead Generation: Getting Quality Leads [print this page] Leads are the building blocks of businessLeads are the building blocks of business. To add to the subscriber tally, you will need quality leads in your kitty. Call centers can provide you the required amount of leads through their processes. However, the number of leads is not the end of the matter. Having leads is only half the battle won. Your sales team has to convert those leads into sales. Without adding to the sales revenue, the lead generation procedures will count to no effect. As a matter of fact, clients these days are not happy with having leads only. They want those leads to amount to something. Quality leads is the order of the day and that is where contact center units are falling short of expectations. Let's take a look at how you can get quality leads.
Rule number 1 in this regard would be to tap the right demographics. As a telemarketer, you have to define the section of the population you are catering to. For example, if you selling tech support services, you cannot target IT technicians! They will know how to do things themselves. Instead, if you are targeting housewives and other professionals who work on a computer but are not tech-savvy, you have better chances of getting proper leads. Sales lead generation will throw up leads that matter to the client. The sales team can easily convert these leads into sales. The trick is to cater to people who need you rather than to those you need to convince. Of course, that part of telemarketing services is always there, but getting willing people on board is your first priority.
Call centers often use online lead generation methods these days. In case of online methods, you might use emails and newsletters, or mail brochures and catalogues to your prospective clients. You can generate leads this way but you have to be careful about something. Email only those people who have subscribed willingly. Have an easy and convenient subscription procedure so that users and interested customers can quickly sign up. Avoid mass mailing to people who want to have nothing to do with your products/services. In such cases, you are only adding to the noise rather than making some quality inputs. The international conventions of emailing will soon catch up with you and your ESPs and ISPs will be blocked.
To get those quality leads, follow-up is important. You can spend some time touching base with the prospective customers who are already on your list of generated leads. You can never say when consumers change their mind. Your call center agents have to tap them regularly so that they are warm leads. Once the interest flags off, they will seldom turn into sales. Your sales team may take some time to get back to the leads. In the meanwhile, keep them in the loop through phone calls and emails. You can use telemarketing calls to inform them about product updates or new launches. At the end of the day, telemarketing services is all about communication.
