Tactics To Squeeze The Value From Every Lead

In this article we set out some simple and actionable tactics you can use to make incremental improvements to your ROI at every stage of the lead buying process. Nothing here requires drastic change to strategy. These are all small tweaks to your process you can easily implement to boost performance across the board.  

Make sure no leads get lost in the verification process

The process of verifying leads to prevent wastage on fraudulent or unsuitable data is absolutely essential and must remain a core part of any successful lead buying strategy. 

However, adopting an inflexible binary approach to verification might result in certain leads getting lost in the process. In short, you must ensure that the verification you have in place is not rejecting any leads that could be a sale. 

Use Case Example:

A company were contacting their leads by telephone and were using live HLR look-up to reject bad leads from entering their system. This prevented them wasting huge amounts on invalid of fraudulent data and is something they absolutely needed in place. However, they had set up additional email verification to reject leads that had an incorrect email address submitted on the form. In this scenario it was discovered that many good leads were being rejected that could have been contacted by telephone. By bypassing the email verification - providing the telephone number had been verified - the company were able to massively improve their sales by accessing the good leads that would have previously been rejected. 

This is just one example but it serves to illustrate the key idea: that verification must be constantly monitored and optimised to ensure that no good leads are getting lost in the process. 

WATCH VIDEO: VERIFICATION ISN’T A LUXURY, IT’ S A NECESSITY

Maximise the value of non-customers

Another great tactic to squeeze the value out of every single lead is simply to explore the hidden value of leads that you know cannot become customers.

Wait, what? 

The standard school of thought is to set up rules and conditions that will reject leads that don’t meet certain requirements - or in other words you cannot sell to. This is all well and good, but what if there was something else you could try.

Think of it like this. That lead has submitted for a reason, and even if they cannot become customers, maybe a friend or family member can? Imagine a scenario where you are selling life insurance to men over the age of thirty and a woman submits herself as a lead so you reject it. What if she was submitting on behalf of her husband? Or let’s say a man submitted who was twenty-nine so your rules reject him as he isn’t thirty? Guess what, tomorrow he is thirty, and he’s just preparing! 

The point here is simply that if a lead came in there must be something in your messaging that has resonated with them, right? Why not explore what that was? Why not build a relationship? Why not try and see if there is further value that can be found? 

It’s an opportunity that is absolutely worth exploring with just a little work.  

See how Databowl can help you employ these tactics

Refine your de-duplication process

If you want to squeeze the value from the leads you are receiving and not simply reject them in a binary fashion you must check the intent levels of your leads before you reject them for a de-dupe. 

Has the intent level changed? Did they submit a month ago when they were less sure, but are submitting again because they are now ready to buy? In which case, why would you reject them?

What is the sales cycle that the lead is coming into? A lot of companies do a sales cycle for one month, rest it, then put into a new sales cycle. What if they come in as a hot lead during the point you are resting them? Are you really going to not contact them? Is rejecting them as a de-dupe the best thing to do here? 

Again, this tactic requires refining your existing set-up and looking for hidden opportunities that will enable you to squeeze more value from your leads. The great thing is, the value may already be there and just subtle tweaks will enable you to release it. 

Re-think your Suppression

Question: would you rather accept a bad lead or lose a customer?

When you put it like that it seems pretty simple, right? But actually, many companies are choosing the second option when they automatically suppress someone’s details because they are a current customer. 

But let’s imagine the following scenario:

You are one of the big energy companies and you buy leads and suppress the details of any current customers because you don’t want to waste money on those leads. But ask yourself the following: why is that lead being generated in the first place? Clearly, in this example, your current customer is looking for a new energy supplier and has submitted their details to a third party. So, rather than simply reject the lead, why not accept it and work out how you can keep them as a customer? 

There is a huge opportunity to squeeze value from your leads by exploring this opportunity and all of the tactics listed above. By adopting some of these tactics you can make marginal gains across the board and transform your overall performance. 

Book a demo to learn how Databowl can help you employ all of these tactics