Demand Generation Machine

Marketers and salespeople are not always the easiest people in the world to sell to. You know that when you are pitching a product or a service to someone in your own space its more likely they know what you are thinking and they know what you are doing. You would think that they would always be extra cautious, not get sweet talked and end up buying only what they need and yet…thats not always true. How many times have you spent some part of your demand generation budget on something that you don’t really need or something that wasn’t nearly as useful as you thought it would be?

Last week we evaluated a number of products which were lead sources for a company and each of the 3 products they had narrowed down on was outstanding in their own right. Technically they were all strong, they promised great value, great support and in the end it came down to the volumes of leads and contact data they could provide. One had a thousands, the next had over a million and the last had several million companies and several million contacts. A clear winner. Just one small problem. The company evaluating this lead source has a niche product. Very few of those million companies may be good potential targets when it comes to selling. The product is so specific that the decision makers and contacts who would be able to discuss such a product are people deep inside the organizations so the high level contacts provided by the lead sources may not be very helpful. If it were up to us, we would save that part of the budget and direct it towards actually locating leads within the more focussed set of companies where we know there is potential to sell. The point is when you allocate budget towards lead generation read through all the impressive features and numbers and ask yourself ‘what can I get from this?’ Does it fit in with my plan and requirements? Will it help me generate the kind of leads I’m looking for? If you can find good answers to these, you’re spending your budget wisely. Live up to the “Marketer” and “Salesperson” title! If we end up being sold something we didn’t need… then heaven help those other poor souls in other departments!