Lead Generation Will Change to Fewer is Better

For a long time, we've been conditioned to believe that more is more. It's time to change that perception—fewer and better leads should be what we aim for.

By Nick Powills1851 Franchise Publisher

SPONSOREDUpdated 3:15PM • 05/12/16

We, as humans, have been conditioned to believe that more is more; not less is more. But in business, fewer, better leads should be what we strive to accomplish. Yet, despite the mathematical correctness of that statement (along with the potential of great ROI), we continue to fish where everyone else is fishing. We refuse to standout because it’s uncomfortable and because we are trained that quantity is the most important.

We, as humans, are also afraid of change. We know what we know, and that’s our comfort zone.

However, in a new digital world, the idea that more is more is changing—in a big way. And if you are not ready for these changes, you will be stuck hunting for lots of tire kickers versus the one buyer.

Sales people desire to be great at sales. Naturally, they feel that because of their ability to sell ice to Eskimos, if you present them with a ton of people, surely one will buy. In some sense, this is correct—but only if it’s a room full of Eskimos, not a room full of people from all walks of life.

In franchising, it’s hard to find these rooms full of the right people—partly because there are too many rooms (brands) and partly because of the Internet.

Today’s buyer is more of a ghost than ever before. They come to your website (you can see them in your traffic reporters), but they don’t give you their name. Why? They want to remain anonymous while searching for the right “what’s next” moment without you selling them ice.

Thus, total lead counts have declined and franchise sales leaders have panicked.

“Our leads are lower than they were last year,” they say.

“Sure, but how’s the quality of your leads?” I ask.

“Oh, much better,” they say.

“OK, well how are deals?” I ask.

“Oh, those are tending up,” they say.

“So, what’s the problem?” I ask.

“We need more leads,” they proclaim.

If sales teams would step back and read that exchange, they would be able to see that the conditioning has changed and their initial perceptions are no longer correct. If quality is higher and deals are stronger you are winning. Period.

I was recently asked about the size of 1851’s readership. I answered that we had about 250,000 readers. They asked if all 250,000 would read their articles if placed on the site. I said of course not, but our job is to find you the right five who would actually be interested.

In yesteryear, we would buy a newspaper ad in a newspaper with a circulation of one million. Surely, if we can get our ad in front of a million people we will win. However, if each of those million readers had a video camera attached to them, it would show that they still only read what they cared about—not every inch of that newspaper. And chances are, they probably skipped right over your ad—because it didn’t matter to them.

In today’s digital world, you have the ability to get the right message in front of the right person, and hell yeah if they are qualified and ready to buy.

But, despite the shifts in buyers and the shift in digital, I am 100 percent confident that I will hear a sob story about leads being down, quality leads being higher, and deals trending up at the next conference I go to.

And that’s sad.