Lead generation…lead generation…lead generation. In terms of what’s on marketer’s minds, it’s numero uno. If it’s not, it should be, says Jason Stegent, the founder and president of Elastic Solutions (elasticroi.com), a provider of strategic marketing solutions. In a recent blog post, he offered three reasons why lead-gen programs fail:
Bad data and no direction: B2B marketers are losing ROI due to incomplete and/or inaccurate data. If you’re dealing with bad data on the front end, you’re going to consume bad results on the backend. Too many lead-gen campaigns start out unfocused. There’s not a clear vision of what industry you’re going to target, the types of companies within that industry, and the decision makers and influencers within those companies. How can your messaging and content possibly get a positive response, when it’s not going to the right people in the first place?
“Change before you have to”: This is a quote from Jack Welch and it hits the nail on the head. Too many marketers are doing the same thing, year in/year out, and expecting a different result. In order for a lead generation program to work, you need to step out of your comfort zone and truly invest in technologies and services you haven’t leveraged before. Or maybe you’ve invested in them, but didn’t give them enough time to succeed. What you plant now, you’ll harvest later.
The lead generator: Having great people that are onboard with your goals and can execute is the most important component of a successful lead-gen initiative. Perhaps the inside sales reps on your team just aren’t that good. Or your marketing team may be putting out content that’s not engaging and doesn’t truly speak to where your prospects are in their buying journey. As Zig Ziglar said, “Outstanding people have one thing in common: An absolute sense of mission.” Find these people!
