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What is a Business Lead and Why are They Important?

Productivity | by Patricia Jones
What is a Business Lead and Why are They Important?

Leads are the nectar to any business. The potential leads in your sales funnel are most likely to convert and become top-performing revenue sources over the time. No doubt, lead management plays a key part in your business growth strategy and taking it to the next level. 

But, before you take it forward and delve deeper on this topic, let’s find out who your business leads are. What’s their role in your business and why are they relevant?

Basically business leads are the user groups who are interested to explore your products and services. But, what if they never become your customers? Yes, there are chances that your lead does not convert. After all, being interested does not mean that you will be always interested to make a purchase. 

So, ideally speaking when you get a lead or an interested user, it makes your first stage of the sales funnel successful. They are aware of your brand. But, keep in mind that all leads are not created equal; several things make some leads more valuable than others and the job of a marketer is only to push those leads so that they can convert.

Being interested means your first level of the sales funnel is successful

A lead is someone who has expressed interest in your business. This could be an individual, or it could be a group of people who have all expressed interest in the same thing. In the B2B SaaS space, when you are trying to get your target audience to get interested in product buying, maybe you did not find enough takers (and no one has responded). Interested users who have inquired about your product after you make a campaign are your leads and they have the potential to convert soon, though they have not made any purchase decision yet. 

Leads are also referred to as “prospects” or “potential customers.” They may not even know they are on your list until they have seen something about what type of services/products/etc., etc., something else related; so don’t assume anything about whether or not someone’s interested in working with you just because they said hello once at an event (or maybe even twice).

Business leads are a valuable resource for your business

Your business leads are a valuable resource for your company. They are an important part of your business and provide you with revenue, new customers, and even referrals, when nurtured over a period of time. 

Business lead generation is an important part of any B2B or B2C business. From generating leads to acquiring the qualified ones to managing them over a period of time- everything is a long drawn process walks an extra mile to align with your long-term business goals. This entire workflow forms an essential component to create more sales opportunities for your company. Read on to explore how to generate more business leads through diverse marketing strategies like blogging or social media marketing campaigns!

The primary job role of a sales rep is to convert leads

Lead generation and management is a skill that you should work on as a sales representative. When you work with a CRM software , it is easy to capture the leads that are coming your way. However, it’s important to develop an emotional connection with your leads when it comes to converting them. That builds your customers’ trust as well as the credibility of a company, which in the long run helps companies grow and make a strong foothold in the business

How Lead Management Works

Lead management is a business process that involves not just selling products but also converting those leads into customers by providing them with the right information and coming up with creative solutions to their problems or concerns. In other words, lead management means knowing how to deal with people at all stages of their purchase process—from initial contact through follow-up calls and emails after they’ve made their decision on who they’re going to buy from (or even why).

Lead management isn’t just about doing legwork; it includes everything from coming up with ideas for new products based on customer feedback during an interview session through developing relationships with vendors who sell similar products so that if there are any issues comes up during delivery time frame or within the due date.

Strategies to Get Business Leads

While the marketing department in every company is responsible for generating leads, the process involves several processes- lead magnet creation, content marketing, paid advertisements, and other content targeted for attracting leads. This is a comprehensive process- once done and it is sent to the sales team to take further action on it.

Here’s a quick look at the stages and strategies through which business leads emerge. 

Email Marketing

Email marketing is the top-notch lead nurturing channel for any business- be it in the B2B or B2C space. Creating the lead magnets is fine but unless you use this to build your email list or ideally to connect with people ( note: the interested group who has already crossed the awareness stage), it won’t bring results. When your marketing campaigns get you a business lead, it’s your turn to start with a conversation and need an easy way to continue the conversation. Remember, sending out email is not expensive but it can generate several dollars revenue.

Social media

For lead generation, social media platforms are no less than a gold mine. That’s why it is often the preferred choice of marketers when it comes to doing lead generation. From organic campaigns to paid advertising on various social media channels including instagram, a marketer can personalize the experience of the potential leads. In the process, you create an image of your brand. Popular social media channels like LinkedIn ads, Facebook ads and instagram ads are great for lead generation. 

Paid Ads

The efficiency of paid ads in generating leads is undeniable. According to a study, every company that uses Adwords generates 100% revenue on every dollar spent. No doubt, this is a great way to keep your sales funnel updated throughout. Marketers often set their own budget and keep a track of the converts in exchange for every penny you spend.

Content

Blogs, case studies, infographics, and webinars make an amazing lead content strategy. A highly effective content should be informative and educational enough to solve problems that the SMBs are most likely to solve.

Retargeting

Retargeting is one of the tried and tested lead generation campaigns. It is targeting those users who have earlier visited your website but did not make any purchase. You can keep them on your radar, nurture them through various modes , so that you stand a better chance to connect with them again and convert them.

Is the lead worth pursuing?

A lead is worth pursuing if it meets the following criteria:

  • You want to pursue the lead because of its potential fit with your business. If you’re selling a product or service, this will be obvious. For example, if a prospect has expressed interest in your product but isn’t ready or willing to make a purchase right now, then you might want to keep him as an active lead until he’s ready and willing to buy. Or perhaps they’ve expressed interest in purchasing multiple products from you—but not necessarily at once? In this case, it would make sense for them not only being considered as potential customers but also potential leads for future sales campaigns!
  • The prospect provides some value beyond simply wanting something from us (which might not always be true). This could mean providing feedback about something else related specifically back towards our company; such as giving feedback about another competitor’s pricing strategy so you can adjust yours accordingly.

Keep your eyes on the prize!

Lead generation is something that involves a lot of trial and error methods. You’re going to have opportunities that come up, but there are no guarantees that they will work out for you or even make sense in the long run. You have to be willing to take risks and put yourself out there because every time we do something new or different, it’s scary at first—and sometimes we need help getting over that fear of failure or rejection (or whatever negative feelings come up).

The Final Takeaway

When it comes to lead generation, a lot of things come into play. Since marketing does not follow any rule, it’s true that lead generation won’t follow any. In fact, the most experimental part of the marketing is lead generation. But, leads are a valuable resource for your business. You may not be able to convert them into customers right away, but if they are going to be useful to you they need to have their own buying process or at least some sort of plan in place on how they would like to buy from you (or what steps they will follow before making a purchase decision). To do this effectively, you simply need to know exactly how much time each lead takes up before even reaching out. 

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