Many business owners, entrepreneurs, and salespeople believe that more leads will solve all their problems. In my last job as a marketing manager for a software company, I had a boss like this. He thought that if we could get more leads, we could get more meetings, and more meetings meant more sales.
It was shake and burn sales and marketing.
“Hey! Are you interested?”
“Nope!”
“Hey! Are you interested?”
“Nope!”
The 100 meter cold calling challenge…
No one was allowed to focus on the deals that worked. No one was allowed to stop and think about how to best monetize our existing customers. It was like when the inmates run the madhouse.
When we talk to business owners and entrepreneurs about increasing lead flow, I always warn them about this block in the top mindset.
In the end, they don’t want more leads, they want more sales, and they want more sales for the revenue, and they want that revenue for many different reasons. Sometimes increased lead flow is part or all of the answer, and when it is here, they are the most common barriers to getting more leads.
Barrier to lead flow 1: poor conversion. People with poor lead flow tend to have the lowest conversion rates. With a high enough conversion, any source of leads is profitable. In my own business I have more leads than I need. In fact, I’ve been able to significantly remove parts of my market to focus on the best sub-niches because our conversion is so good with what’s left.
Barrier to lead flow 2: The market is too small. In smaller markets like Australia, this is more common than in larger markets. I have a client based in the US whose universe within driving distance of their business is larger than a corresponding market in Australia. Small markets can be overcome by adapting marketing to several parallel sub-niches. A little extra work, but it means your overall market is big enough.
Barrier to Lead Flow 3: Cash Flow In business, cash is king. If you can’t get a quick enough cash return on your marketing, then cash flow is an issue. When I started a side business, the sales cycle was almost 9 months. Those cash flow problems nearly bankrupted us in the first 6 months. You have been warned.
