How to Get the Most Out of Lead Generation

Hey guys, thanks for stopping by! I set a goal to learn everything that I could about succeeding in sales in one month. I read books, listened to podcasts, did a ton of research, and put what I learned into practice. And I documented my process. This is one piece of my project; check out the entire project here!

In my research, I found that lead generation tends to be one of the most daunting tasks for Business Development Representatives (BDRs). I also found that finding leads isn’t the problem for BDRs. There are so many different tools that can be used to build an extensive list of leads. The problem BDRs have is finding high-quality leads worth pursuing. Finding quality leads is essential, so BDRs aren’t wasting time chasing the wrong people.

I am interested in pursuing a BDR role, so I dove deep into how this process works, and then I came up with a strategy that I would use to get the most out of lead generation.

What is a lead?

Before I start, I first want to define what a lead is. A lead is a contact a company can potentially sell its solution to. But, not all leads are created equal. The more likely they are to buy, the better lead they are.

One of the factors that makes someone a quality lead is something that sales reps can control. It’s the ability to personalize the message. The more personalized the message to the prospect is, the more likely the prospect is to respond.

Let’s dive into how BDRs can control their lead generation and find more high-quality leads faster.

Start with the end in mind.

Analyzing the people already buying from you is critical and the first step to understanding where to start when hunting for leads. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel; you just have to know how to track down companies and personas that are similar to your current customer.

Before jumping on Google or LinkedIn to search for leads, sales reps need to define their target company and persona. Here are a few great questions to ask yourself before starting to search for leads:

• What specific type of company are you going to target in this round of lead generation?
• How are you going to personalize the message to the entire targeted list?
• What kind of message are your targeted leads going to respond to?

Lead generation is the first step to the sales process, but reps need to think far ahead to get the most out of finding and reaching out to leads. It’s essential that sales reps think about how they will personalize their message before hunting for leads.

It might not be hard to create a list of general leads, but the goal is to have a well-defined list. Having a list that isn’t specific to a certain industry or persona is almost useless. When a list isn’t targeted, the BDR has to spend hours researching companies to personalize messages to each of those leads. But on the flip side, messages that aren’t personalized have a very slim chance of getting a response.

So, BDRs need to think about how they can scale their personalization. They need to find a list of similar leads to get the most out of their lead generation and outreach attempts.

Here is my example of how I would do this:

1. Find a current customer to start.

2. Go to LinkedIn and look at your current customers’ “About Page” to see what industry they are in, where they are located, their company size, etc.

3. Go to LinkedIn Sales Navigator and filter it using the same criteria you found from your current customer. Filter the results by choosing the same industry, company headcount, industry, seniority level, and function. An almost identical company to a current customer would be a good lead for obvious reasons, but this approach also makes it easier to personalize the outbound message.

4. After this step, all you have to do is take a quick look at each of the results that come up on LinkedIn Sales Navigator to see if it would be a good fit and then save them as a lead.

5. Because you used this strategy, you now have five different ways to personalize each message without knowing details about each specific company. Here are some examples of how I would phrase an outreach attempt:

Hey Adam, we have helped Smartling increase their meetings booked by 75%. Does Smartling ring a bell? They are also in the New York City area and in the Information Technology & Services industry. I see many similarities between you two, and I think we can help you get similar results. Let me know if that sounds moderately interesting.

Hey Adam, The Head of Marketing at Smartling said that he loves Drift because “Drift answers questions faster than a person and books a meeting more often and faster than a form.” Since you are both in The Information Technology & Services industry, I thought our services might be able to help you book more meetings too. If any of this sounds interesting and it makes sense to talk more about it, let me know!

Let’s Wrap It Up

You can’t do lead generation without thinking about the entire sales process first. To be the most efficient with your time, you need first to develop the personalized message and then find leads that will fit that message.

Thanks for making it to the end! Check out my entire project here!