Adopting New Tactics

If you wish to adopt new lead-generation tactics, you need to have a management plan in place for introducing those new tactics into your organization. You cannot simply switch to the new tactics and expect to achieve instant success. You first need to learn how to use the new tactics effectively. (I’ll talk about this in Chapter 4, and in each chapter on a specific tactic.) Then, you need to test your results to find out how well the new tactics work for your business, and how well they work against your current lead-generation tactics.

It may be that your current tactics work very well, but the new tactics you adopt can supplement them in lead generation. Or maybe the new tactics will eventually be more efficient at providing quality leads and/or more cost-effective than your current ones. But be aware: It will take you a few tries with the new tactics to learn how to make them work to your best, most cost-effective advantage.

Adopting new lead-generation tactics can be expensive, so you need to do it carefully and systematically. You need to maintain your current lead-generation efforts while you test new sources or tactics. Obviously, you don’t want to suddenly switch to new, untested tactics or divert essential marketing budget resources from existing successful tactics. This could cause a sudden drop-off in your incoming leads, which would make you very unpopular with your sales team. (There’s an old saying: “Leads are to sales what catnip is to the cat.”)

When you adopt a new lead-generation tactic, you need to make a plan for what your organization wants to achieve from it. You should determine a test budget—the budget you need to effectively employ and test the tactic. You should also estimate your target CPL—the amount you want to spend to acquire each lead—and use your test budget to try to achieve that target CPL. (Again, I’ll discuss this concept in detail in Chapter 5.)

Also, you need to have a plan in place for how you will qualify and use the leads you acquire. Don’t take this step for granted, especially with new tactics. Even if you have a well-established lead-qualifying system in place, make sure your organization knows how to capitalize on the additional leads, so that you get maximum benefit from them. You don’t want to spend a lot of money acquiring leads with a new tactic and then have those leads slip through the cracks because your marketers or sales teams aren’t sure what to do with them.

In presenting your plan for new lead-generation tactics to your chief financial officer (CFO) or executive board, make sure they understand several things. First, they need to understand that the new lead-generation tactics will require (if possible) a test budget that is separate from your current lead-generation budget. If your CFO can’t (or isn’t willing to) provide more money for testing new lead-generation tactics, consider diverting money from some of the current less-effective lead-generation efforts.

For example, if your marketing department is doing 10 trade shows per year, and not all of those shows are providing a high number of actionable leads, you might consider dropping the worst-performing trade shows. Then divert your budget for those shows into testing new lead-generation tactics. Or suppose you’re purchasing seven e-mail address lists per month for your marketing campaigns. You might cancel one or two underperforming lists—those that aren’t getting a good response rate for your offers—and use the extra money to finance the testing of a new tactic.

Your CFO and executives also need to understand that adopting new lead-generation tactics is a trial-and-error process. Your marketing team will probably need several tries with a new lead-generation tactic before you learn how to use it to your company’s best advantage. Above all, your executives should understand that the overall goal of your new lead-generation tactics is to increase the number of inbound leads and thus increase sales and revenue for the company over the long run.