The concept of what is a lead is not only restricted to sales, but extends to fields like internet and writing as well. From a business viewpoint, it is important to ensure that a common language is followed throughout the organization, so that everyone is aware of what is a lead and in what context it is used. Marketing and sales departments often come to a divergence regarding exactly what is a lead.
The Business Perspective?
Sales leads represent the initial stage of the selling process and are generic in nature, i.e. as opposed to being sold to brands or companies, these purchases are made by individuals. This definition explains the purpose of the lead but what is a lead itself?
Explanation Of What Is A Lead
A lead is a potential sales contract obtained either through direct advertising, or through the referral of an existing customer. For instance, it could be an inquiry about products at exhibitions or trade shows.
The follow up and closing of these leads is the responsibility of the sales department whereas; the generation of such leads is handled by the marketing department. Three concepts come into play when we talk about acquiring leads to ensure success in the market place.
Lead generation: what is a lead related to and what marketing activity can be conducted to promote it? Sales lead generation is done on the basis of demographic data whereas; marketing lead generation is brand specific and limited to a specific advertiser.
Lead nurturing: what are the practices to be followed to deal with potential leads?
Lead sourcing: what software ranks the importance of leads to the company?
Generating Leads
Lead management ensures the smooth working of all these three phases of a potential contract in order to identify what is a lead, what is its value, how it can be moved forward, and how its management can be assessed.
In the modern era, where internet has become the face of B2B and B2C marketing, lead generation via the internet is on the rise with methods involving search engine optimization, viral videos and images, article marketing and most importantly social networking.
These actions facilitate online lead generation that aim to attract consumer interest regarding a product or service via the internet. Given the abundance of opportunities, products or services available on the internet, generating interest of a new customer is quite a hefty task.
Organizations make use of online leads for their reward programs, to construct loyalty programs and to draft member acquisition strategies to attract new customers and to retain existing ones. Organizations pay heavy amounts to telemarketers and advertising agencies to generate leads.
Hence the benefit those leads have in the company’s standing in the market place needs to be calculated. This can be done through assessing the quality of the leads generated measured by the inclination that develops in an inquirer to take the next step towards the purchase.
Conclusively, organizations can put themselves in a better place to obtain more sales if they understand what is a lead, and propel that message across the entire organization to ensure everyone is on a common ground.
