Comments on: Marketing, Lead Generation, and Research: A 3-in-1 Solution http://smashingred.com/blog/marketing/marketing-lead-generation-and-research-a-3-in-1-solution/ Jay Gilmore on Websites and Marketing for Small Business. Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:06:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Jay Gilmore http://smashingred.com/blog/marketing/marketing-lead-generation-and-research-a-3-in-1-solution/#comment-223 Jay Gilmore Fri, 04 Aug 2006 12:34:21 +0000 http://smashingred.com/blog/2005/08/15/marketing-lead-generation-and-research-a-3-in-1-solution/#comment-223 For my business, I don't track cost per lead as for me the only thing that matters is cost per sale. I will say though that my article is really about how to get started in market research as most small busniness owners never do any. It was as a result of my own market research that I discovered a prospecting strategy as many of the people were opened up by talking about themselves and their business. When they realized the theme of the questions many wanted more information about my services. Even if I never got the sale though the information from the responses enabled me to integrate that into my marketing and other aspects of my business. Jay For my business, I don’t track cost per lead as for me the only thing that matters is cost per sale.

I will say though that my article is really about how to get started in market research as most small busniness owners never do any. It was as a result of my own market research that I discovered a prospecting strategy as many of the people were opened up by talking about themselves and their business. When they realized the theme of the questions many wanted more information about my services. Even if I never got the sale though the information from the responses enabled me to integrate that into my marketing and other aspects of my business.

Jay

]]> By: David Elkington http://smashingred.com/blog/marketing/marketing-lead-generation-and-research-a-3-in-1-solution/#comment-222 David Elkington Fri, 04 Aug 2006 07:22:35 +0000 http://smashingred.com/blog/2005/08/15/marketing-lead-generation-and-research-a-3-in-1-solution/#comment-222 I work with a Hosted CRM application provider the focuses on the inside sales space (InsideSales.com). Our entire application is build and designed to help sales reps (not necessarily telemarketers) effectively sell over the phone. This includes cold calling. I agree with the masses, cold calling is not fun. If done effectively, it can generate effective and somewhat cost effective leads. However, I have found that leads generated by cold calling are on average between 2x to 4x more expensive that a company or sales rep can generate via the web (if also done effectively). This is not the whole story though. An example: We have a customer that uses our system to power dial a list to generate leads. They were able to generate around 1 lead every 1.5 hours. Considering the cost of employees, systems and overhead, they were paying around $100/lead. From the web (using PPC, SEO, and lead providers) they were paying around $20/lead. This seems pretty straight forward, go with the web leads. What’s more, the cold call leads seemed to be less qualified than the web leads. The web leads generated actual buyers. The leads generated from cold calling identified companies that were at the beginning of the interest cycle. Thus, in the short term the web leads closed better and seemed more effective. However, they saw an unexpected reversal of value in lead sources. Even though the web leads were smaller opportunities and they closed faster and more often. The leads generated from cold calling we very targeted to the industry and size that that worked for this customer. This customer began to close deals greater than the sum of the smaller deals that came from the web from the same time frame. So in the end, cold calling generated more revenue and held its own compared to web leads. I work with a Hosted CRM application provider the focuses on the inside sales space (InsideSales.com). Our entire application is build and designed to help sales reps (not necessarily telemarketers) effectively sell over the phone. This includes cold calling. I agree with the masses, cold calling is not fun. If done effectively, it can generate effective and somewhat cost effective leads. However, I have found that leads generated by cold calling are on average between 2x to 4x more expensive that a company or sales rep can generate via the web (if also done effectively). This is not the whole story though.

An example:

We have a customer that uses our system to power dial a list to generate leads. They were able to generate around 1 lead every 1.5 hours. Considering the cost of employees, systems and overhead, they were paying around $100/lead. From the web (using PPC, SEO, and lead providers) they were paying around $20/lead.

This seems pretty straight forward, go with the web leads. What’s more, the cold call leads seemed to be less qualified than the web leads. The web leads generated actual buyers. The leads generated from cold calling identified companies that were at the beginning of the interest cycle. Thus, in the short term the web leads closed better and seemed more effective.

However, they saw an unexpected reversal of value in lead sources. Even though the web leads were smaller opportunities and they closed faster and more often. The leads generated from cold calling we very targeted to the industry and size that that worked for this customer. This customer began to close deals greater than the sum of the smaller deals that came from the web from the same time frame. So in the end, cold calling generated more revenue and held its own compared to web leads.

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