Generating and Handling Leads
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It's obvious that you can purchase leads anywhere, but beware, not all leads are created equal. Be it a telemarketing list, live transfers, direct mail; we truly stand behind the cost vs. quality of our direct mail leads. Regardless, just like how we pointed out in our previous post, Make Your Leads Count, it's important to think about all aspects about how you handle your leads. Agents Sales Journal points out in a great article three major points on not just generating, but the handling of those leads:
Share your expertise and stand out from the crowd
- Maintain a database of all prospects and leads
- Understand your marketing cost per new customer
We'll talk about these one at a time.
Point #1: Share your expertise and stand out from the crowd. The article says:
Most agents would agree that being active in their local community is good for business. It’s always good to meet new people and grow your personal network. But also consider focusing some of your efforts on building name recognition.
Most agents do not tap into their local market enough through secondary resources. Through branding yourself, you can build that name recognition, and not to mention credibility through contributed articles, newsletters, etc. We've had quite a bit of success with branded mailers for our clients who would like to tap into that market more.
Point #2: Maintain a database of all prospects and leads. I'm sure probably more than ever before, you'd like to get the most out of every lead you can. Just because somebody isn't interested in what you have today, doesn't mean they might not be 6 months from now. Situations change and it doesn't hurt to follow up with older leads. Tracking your leads systematically will help you greatly in knowing how you are actually getting your clients, and where to focus your marketing efforts (see point #3).
The most common response to this suggestion [tracking prospects] is, “I don’t need to track response; I already know what works and what doesn’t.” It’s true, most agents do have a good idea of what works and what doesn’t. But great marketers will tell you that if you create a database and track activity, you will learn something new, and that something new will help drive increased new business.
Point #3: Understand your marketing cost per new customer. We always will provide you with how your campaign's response, or as we like to call it, your percentage pull. This is important to know to calculate the cost of each lead you receive. However, that is really only half the story, and a lot of agents don't look past this. We feel that it is more important to look at cost per converted lead. A telemarketing list will give you the lowest cost per lead, but how effective is that for you?
That is why we feel direct mail is such a viable resource for lead generation. You're talking to prospects who have already shown interest in the topics that you'd like to discuss with them. Don't get hung up on a huge percentage pull. It's all about quality vs. quantity. We have mailers that pull 1-2% that are of great quality for conversion. We also have mailers with a higher % return, it's all about how you'd like to work your leads, and what makes sense to your style.