Best Ways to Recruit Potential Clients: What's Best for Your Business?
Does your company have any official way to recruit potential clients? If you are investing in any type of marketing strategy, you should.
According to the Integrated Marketing Corporation, the cost per customer that your business generates is on average $132 if you run a business services business. Tourism companies spend about $106, while financial services and healthcare companies spend about $160 per customer. While there are ways to improve your spending and get more ROI, as I personally use them as a business and digital marketing advisor, leads are an investment, and none of them should be compromised.
The problem is that 23% of businesses don't respond to their customers at all, according to a Harvard Business Review (HBR) study, and nearly a quarter of these take longer than 24 hours. Additionally, a lead is four times less likely to qualify if a company waits 10 minutes to contact them than if they call them within 5 minutes, according to a popular survey on lead response management. Rehabilitation rates are also 21 times lower in 30 minutes.
The potential response time, or in this case the speed of reaching the potential customer, is of the essence. Also known as lead orientation, lead assignment is the process of deciding which sales reps will take the lead in the customer assignment process to work with, and is a critical component of the entire process. This can be the difference between a lead converted into an actual customer and a lead that went to a competitor before your team reached it.
Where does lead generation fit into lead management?
Before we dive into the lead generation process, let's quickly go through the steps of lead management, so we can know when to apply the referral model we will choose.
Step One: Attracting Potential Clients
The first step is to attract potential customers. This is the starting point where your marketing campaigns and lead generation tools should work for you and provide contact information for potential customers to your sales team. The main source of information can be a digital channel such as blog posts, export pages or social media. It can also be an offline source, such as a verbal recommendation from an existing customer. While some early stage companies may use spreadsheets to track leads, CRM is vital for creating effective workflows throughout the sales funnel and gathering metrics as the number of leads your team works with increases.
The second step: Enriching the potential customer
You may not know much about a potential customer based on the interaction that led to their conversion, so it's worth doing some research. This can be done in a simple way, for example by reading the website and marketing materials of your potential customer's business. It can also be done in a more accurate manner, particularly through the automatic evaluation of the potential customer. In this model, each behavior a potential customer can adopt automatically adds or subtracts points from its score, making it easier to identify quality leads in the future. If this process is done manually, this is where the sales development team usually steps in.
Step Three: Qualify Potl Clients
Even though they have filled out a form or expressed entiainterest in your products or services, the individual may not be a sales ready potential customer, which means that they may not be someone your company can help right now. Moreover, if you send these leads to your sales team, they are less likely to convert them into actual customers, which means they will waste your sales team's time without getting any results. With this in mind, your team should also go through an onboarding process in order to ensure that reps work with potentially converted leads.
Step Four: Distributing Potential Clients
When potential customers are qualified, they are ready for distribution. Below we will learn about the different lead recruitment rules.
Step Five: Nurturing Potential Clients (where applicable)
Sometimes potential customers aren't ready to convert into actual customers, but they might otherwise qualify. For example, the sales development specialist may find that the prospect needs to address some internal concerns before they can move forward, or the salesperson may find that the prospect delays engaging the decision makers in the discussion. These potential customers may convert one day, but they aren't ready yet. Therefore, they can be put into a workflow to nurture them in order to build the relationship until they are ready.
What lead distribution methods are available?
Previously, lead generation was a manual process in which sales managers passed individual leads to specific reps as they came in. But now that we have marketing automation and lead management software, the process can be streamlined through a platform like Salesforce or HubSpot.
Most modern lead distribution models fall into two categories: push or pull. But, even within these broad categories, there are also multiple approaches. I will explain them in detail below and also explore hybrid models together.
How do you choose the best lead distribution method for your sales team?
Distribution of potential customers through payment
As the name implies, the payment-based lead distribution system automatically sends new leads to salespeople. The criteria used are what distinguishes the different types of payment-based systems.
best producer
Do you have salespeople who do more lead conversions or generate more revenue for your business? In this case, the "best producer" method might be a good choice. In short, you will put the "best producers" in one or more categories that are separate from the regular producers or struggling salespeople. While assigning leads, salespeople in higher yielding categories will have more leads or better leads than their peers.
Pros of the “best product” method
By sending well-qualified leads to your top producers, you make the most of their time and improve the convertibility of those leads. Additionally, since most salespeople receive a commission, you also reward your best employees with more profitable opportunities.
Cons of the “best product” method
Top reps sometimes get tired of the sheer numbers of leads they receive as part of a top performer model. If a salesperson has too many leads, they may not be able to give each of them the attention they deserve. Inherently this also means that others on the sales team are not receiving the same quality or volume of leads, which can lead to increased inequality and resentment.
selected area
Companies with a local presence or products that differ by region often use a region-specific lead generation model. For example, if the United States is your target market, you might have one delegate covering the Pacific states, one delegate covering the Southwest, and another working in the mountain states. Multinational corporations often divide their activity by country or continent. So when you follow this model, segmentation is up to you based on what is most appropriate for your business.
Pros of the “marked area” method
Region-specific may make the most sense if your products are subject to local laws or guidelines, as reps will become more familiar with the requirements of the regions they serve. The method also allows for coverage of different languages and time zones, plus it makes it easier for reps to develop relationships with potential clients.
Disadvantages of the “marked area” method
The distribution of leads is rarely equal, and it is not always possible to redistribute territories so that some reps have more opportunities than others. Furthermore, let's say that an area is experiencing a temporary spike and the delegates are unable to keep up. In this case, delegates who cover other areas may not have the knowledge or skills required to help manage surplus.
Robin cycle
Within the Round-Robin distribution model, leads are automatically redirected to reps in the order in which they receive them. So, each agent will receive a lead so that all reps have a lead for each one. After that, the cycle will start over until each agent gets a second lead. Thus potential customers are distributed using the same process and cycle over and over again indefinitely.
Pros of the "Robin cycle" method
In theory, the Robin cycle model gives all delegates an equal opportunity and distributes the workload evenly. This means that all potential clients will be dealt with as quickly as possible, and that reps have the same earning potential.
Disadvantages of the “Robin cycle” method
The Robin cycle model does not necessarily improve conversions because it does not take into account the experience, skills, or personal expertise of the buyer. Additionally, the opportunity to convert leads is likely to be missed if the rep is slow or busy working on another deal.
Distribution of potential customers through the clouds
Unlike payment-based options, which automatically connect leads to reps, pull-based methods rely on reps to claim leads. The rules that your lead selection team establishes define the different types of lead distribution based on the draw method.
Cherry-Pick
With the cherry-pick method, reps choose which leads they want to work on from a general lead pool. However, they're only permitted to select a lead from the queue when they have immediate availability to work the lead.
The method of “cherry picking”
Using the "cherry-pick" method, reps select the potential clients they want to work with from a general pool of potential clients. However, they are only allowed to select a potential customer from the queue if they are immediately available to work with that potential customer.
Pros of the “cherry picking” method
Reps are motivated to act quickly with the “cherry-pick” method because it means that they will get the first choice from the pool of leads and can get more opportunities to convert those leads. In addition, more qualified leads guarantee you the fastest response, which also boosts conversion rates. You may also find that reps intuitively select the best leads for them based on their skills, experience, or personality, increasing the likelihood of closing those deals.
The "shark aquarium" method
The Shark Tank method works the same as the Cherry Pick, but all reps are notified when a new lead comes in, and anyone can claim it right away.
Pros of the “shark tank” method
The "shark tank" method shares many advantages with the "cherry-pick" method. Reps tend to pick the right leads for them, which increases the percentage of closes. The most qualified potential clients will also get prompt attention.
Disadvantages of the “shark tank” method
Since anyone can claim to take the initiative under the "shark-pool" method, some of the more ambitious reps may focus on notifications of new leads rather than working on leads they already have. Lead piling can also become a problem, i.e. an agent collects more leads than they can reasonably handle. Additionally, the fastest reps will get the best leads, which leads to inequality and resentment among team members.
The "blind swipe" method
The “blind swipe” method works the same as the “cherry pick,” whereby reps can snatch potential customers from the pool at will. However, all information about the potential customer is withheld from the representative until it is claimed.
Pros of the “blind swipe” method
By using the "blind swipe" method, leads are less likely to be ignored after they are acquired, so they are often dealt with in a timely manner. There is also less risk of piling on leads.
Disadvantages of the “blind swipe” method
Your sales team can't pick the right leads for them, so they have to spend more time researching or getting to know potential customers. This can lengthen your sales cycle and can also lead to lower conversion rates so that reps gain more general knowledge about these potential customers.
The "Venice" method
If your company targets different categories or has very unique products, the "shotgun" method may be appropriate. In this model, leads are divided into groups and made available to different teams. For example, if you run a business process outsourcing company that provides customer call center service, data entry and accounting services. If a data entry lead is received, it will be made available to the data entry sales team only.
Pros of the "Venice" method
Since experience is matched as part of the "gun" method, conversion rates are likely to increase, and your sales cycle will likely become shorter. Additionally, the efficiency remains high because there is still competition between delegates within the same team as well.
Disadvantages of the “Venice” method
Since there may be transfer of leads between groups and competition within groups as well, there are some risks of such leads and uneven distribution.
Hybrid Distribution
A hybrid distribution model is to use both "push" and "pull" methods together depending on the circumstances. For example, let's say you have a sales team of only five people. The five reps have similar knowledge and can handle both internal and external leads depending on what happens in the sales line on any given day. Your CRM system is loaded with external leads that the team can contact. So she uses the 'cherry pick' method throughout the day, and reps demand leads one by one when they're free. However, when leads fill out lead generation forms, those leads are also uploaded to your CRM system and assigned to reps using the "robin cycle" method.
It's easy to see how this hybrid method might work in a company of a smaller size. When used correctly, all potential clients will be dealt with immediately, and the work will be evenly distributed among the delegates.
However, the same method may not work for a larger company. Reps may also become confused about which potential client to work with or when to use the checkout or checkout form. Moreover, each method used is subject to the specific drawbacks of this type of lead distribution.