Direct Marketing Mastery: 3 Barriers to Increasing Lead Flow (How Many Are Blocking You?)
Many business owners, entrepreneurs, and salespeople believe that more leads will solve all their problems. At my last job as a marketing manager for a software company, I had such a boss. He thought that if we could get more leads, we could get more meetings, and more meetings meant more sales.
It was shake and burn sales and marketing.
“Hey! Are you interested?”
“No!”
“Hey! Are you interested?”
“No!”
The 100 meter cold calling challenge…
No one was allowed to focus on the deals that worked. No one was allowed to stop and think about how to best monetize our existing customers. It was like when the inmates run the asylum.
When we talk to business owners and entrepreneurs about increasing the flow of leads, I always warn them about this block in higher mindset.
In the end, they don’t want more leads, they want more sales, and they want more sales because of the revenue, and they want that revenue for many different reasons. Sometimes increasing lead flow is part or all of the answer, and when it’s here, it’s the most common barriers to getting more leads.
Barrier to the flow of prospects 1: poor conversion. People with poor lead flow typically have the lowest conversion rates. With a high enough conversion, any source of leads is profitable. In my own business I have more leads than I need. In fact, I’ve been able to significantly eliminate parts of my market to focus on the best sub-niches because our conversion is so good with what’s left.
Lead Flow Barrier 2: The market is too small. In smaller markets like Australia this is more common than in larger markets. I have a client based in the US whose universe within driving distance of their business is larger than a corresponding market in Australia. Small markets can be overcome by tailoring marketing to several parallel sub-niches. A bit of extra work, but it means your general market is big enough.
Barrier to the flow of prospects 3: Cash flow In business cash is king. If you can’t get a quick enough cash return on your marketing, then cash flow is a problem. When I started a side business, the sales cycle was almost 9 months. Those cash flow problems almost ruined us in the first 6 months. You have been warned.
