A Summary of What Successful Companies Do:

Based on our experience conducting lead generation for B2B technology companies burdened with a long sales cycle, there are a number of actions successful companies take to develop a prospect database that will produce leads, regardless of ongoing moves, adds and changes.

A rich database that will yield targeted leads

usually represents a mosaic of lead sources

and marketing programs, enacted over time.

However, there are ways to make up the difference.

Prepare for an investment:  Developing a database is a multi-year initiative, using a variety of sources. The better databases contain contacts from years of tradeshow participation, whitepaper downloads, software downloads, product demos (both online and live), various types of email campaigns, personal contacts, webinars, seminars, website visitors, inbound inquiries, the occasional list purchase, marketing interns, sales personnel, and the efforts of account managers. Please let me know if I’ve left anything out.

Double check new lists:  If you do need a list overnight, consider the source carefully, and be prepared to verify contact information. In recent months, companies have wanted to verify that the contact information provided by third parties is accurate. Not only is contact information verified, but email addresses are either verified or gathered, and the list is checked to make sure it contains the titles, industries, and revenue sizes that were requested as parameters. It’s a lot of work, but if you invest in ongoing content marketing, that content needs to reach the right recipients.

Perform ongoing status checks: Some companies do this in the form of phone surveys to all clients and prospects. It’s important to make sure that all prospects and clients/former clients are scored accurately and prioritized for next steps. This is a useful initiative, despite the size of your database (although it does seem that companies with larger databases are more inclined to do this).

Even the best of organizations lose touch with client satisfaction levels, or who is using which competitor and why. Telephonic surveys are a phenomenal way to take your client or prospect’s temperature, and launch Win-back Programs – in addition to keeping your contact information accurate.

Have impeccable timing:  Increase the frequency of the outreach cycle, so the list never gets stale. A large factor that goes into outsourcing lead generation is that it is almost impossible to keep in touch, in a meaningful, one on one format, with prospects. Daily fire drills get in the way of live prospect nurturing, which is the reason it is often best to task a third-party with the responsibility. How often are you contacting all of your prospects live? At least annually, every six months, or quarterly? In many industries, less than quarterly is insufficient to remain aware of your prospects' changing needs. We want the first thing your prospect says to be, “Your timing is impeccable!”

Take “forward to a friend” seriously: Encourage prospects to involve the right influencers. Many companies believe in leaving voicemail and dropping email as a part of any outreach campaign. It makes it easier for the prospect to forward the message (or invitation) to the responsible party, or simply another key influencer. Next thing you know, your subscribership goes up a few notches, you get more leads, or you have more attendees at your next event.

Help those bounces land safely: Email to the list and act on the bounces. It should not be viewed as a source of frustration if emails bounce (unless of course you have just purchased the list). If your normal house list gets more than a 20-30% bounce rate, think of the positive yield that can come from taking the time to update those records.

Test before you invest: Buy a smaller list than you ultimately need and see how it goes. Don’t spend real money on new sources until you prove they will work. Make a few phone calls to ensure your list contains the “right” contacts, based on the parameters you ordered.

CCSI clients have experience leveraging a variety of lead sources. We’d like to talk to you about those which are meeting our clients' requirements for accuracy and lead yield.

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Best of luck achieving your Q1 lead generation goals. We are here to ensure that you do.