How do I generate leads?

Grant Leboff: One of the big deliverables, I think, in a business to business scenario - that people always want from marketing - is leads. Give us leads. We want good leads from the marketing department. So for you, what are the key aspects of a marketing department being able to deliver effective lead generation?

Simon Hall: Effective lead generation is having an effective lead generation process. To be able to say, okay, what's the step from the first engagement with a potential prospect, all the way through to, at what point will I hand this over to sales to further nurture, or further qualify? So putting that process in place is key, according to your defined segments or types of prospects you want to go after.

Grant Leboff:  And what are the typical stages in that process, from your point of view? Because OK, it can vary by industry and everything else, but in the broad brush strokes, what are they, for you, the key stages of getting them from say, initial engagement through to; Oh, I can hand this over to sales now, this is, this is a ready lead for sales?

Simon Hall: One of the things you want to do is to have some really good, compelling content, that actually allows the potential prospects or potential lead then, to actually then be engaging on, and then define a certain point to actually then make it a 'marketing ready lead'. So you now actually have some form of information, whether it's just a contact or email name at that point is then; what you're going to do to qualify it? How are you going to further nurture to get to point where you can hand it over to sales. And I think that you can do this in, different ways. You can hand it over to a nurturing agency,  you can ask an internal sales group of people to actually nurture that lead further before they hand it over to the actual account manager or potential account manager.

Grant Leboff: And for you, if that internally is happening before it's going to sales, what are the typical things a business can do to nurture effectively?

Simon Hall: I think to nurture effectively... So imagine that at a certain point when you're calling on a marketing lead this customer said 'I'm okay now being in contact or engage with by the vendor' whatever form that is. From that point is actually understanding having a really good script, which the nurturing team would actually talk to that customer about... a few questions. So they've already said at this point they're okay being contacted. That's an important point. So that when the nurturing team talks to them, they are just qualifying the need a bit more

Grant Leboff: Is this very much that  at some point it has to go from being an electronic communication into some sort of... whether it's a Skype call or a phone call,  where there's actually a human interaction that's - when I say face to face, I don't mean literally in their office -  but there is that telephone or there is that Skype for whatever else?

Simon Hall: Yeah, I mean it can be done different ways. Some customers are okay having a chat or messaging someone to actually come to a webinar. Some would like to actually come to an event and discuss other needs in a face to face environment. So I think offering them the different options is the best thing to do.

Grant Leboff: But it has to be, for you, some sort of personal interaction?

Simon Hall: I think for B2B for the larger, what I call 'solutions' you would need that in place. Yeah.

Grant Leboff: And how do you entice someone? Say, you've got your content programme and people are engaging with some great articles or podcasts or video, or whatever it is. Where do you make that step change? Because that's quite a step change isn't it. Someone reading a couple of blog entries and watching a video, into agreeing to chatting on a telephone or Skyping or taking part in a messenger conversation. Are there any techniques that can be used to try and make that step change?

Simon Hall: What I found in the IT industry was that customers would engage with three to four pieces of different content. And at the fourth piece, you'd offer them the option to be contacted in some way, invited to something, so you'd offer different options to take to the next stage. And the nice thing with that stage is, they've already engaged with three or four pieces of content, so they're okay being offered something like that. However, the thing you don't want to do is, right in the very early stage where they have only engaged with one piece of content, is then to offer that. It will look more forced than natural.