It’s a very good question….and it seems to be coming up almost daily, these days.

The bottom line is that pure cold calling (on the phone, first time introductions with no ‘warming’ of the lead) is not nearly as effective as it once was. What’s more, its effectiveness continues to drop like a stone. There are many reasons for this – over load of inbound calls to decision makers….call screening….more and more meetings take decision makers away from their desks so they don’t often pick up the phone, so they return phone messages….poor telephone prospecting skills on the part of the callers….

More lead gen (especially in our hi-tech world) is coming from web-based programs – search engine optimization and pay per click for example. I have had quite of bit of experience with lead-gen programs that garner syndicated leads (i.e. potential buyers going to a site like TEC to do research on a topic and then having TEC send you the names and contact info as leads); those can be effective, but they require the sales people to call them IMMEDIATELY. Regardless of what the research company will tell you, those leads go out to at least 5 other vendors. If you don’t call the lead within a matter of hours, they will already have gotten at least 3 other calls. By the time you call them, they stopped taking in new information and won’t likely listen to what you have to say.

This does not mean that the phone is not important. Nor does it mean that sales people have no responsibility for generating leads.

An in-bound lead is worthless unless somebody (a sales person or a business development rep or somebody else responsible for turning that lead into a real “prospect”) calls them. An in-bound “lead” is just a warm contact. It isn’t a prospect until we talk with them and conduct some ‘Profiling’, or ‘Discovery’ or ‘Due Diligence’ (whatever language is appropriate in your given sales culture).

Real leads are tough to come by and they can be costly. So every single one of them needs to be treated like gold. Depending on what company you work for, a new lead can cost anywhere from hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollar (for a lead, not a sale).

So we do need to be proactive and generate those web-based leads…..and, we need to jump on them quickly and effectively, by phone. Also, lead gen programs don’t generate sales….selling is done – or at the very least it’s initiated – on the phone.

I hope this answers your question Imran. Thanks again for reaching out. Have a great day and upcoming weekend.

Regards,

Enzo