Saturday, April 16, 2011

Lead Management Part 1: Best Practices & Online Deficiencies

The first post below will address best practices from marketing theory and how the online world does exactly the opposite despite the seemingly large infusion of great tools.

Best Practices From marketing theory:
'Lead' Definition: A person who is likely to be a customer, who is likely to be interested in the company's products
4 stages of customer development:
customer is AWARE of the product -> Customer is INTERESTed in the product -> Customer DESIREs the product -> Customer ACTIONs on the product to buy it. The normal AIDA framework.

Two broad conclusions can be drawn from marketing theory
  1. 'Target' Principle: Lead is 'MORE' LIKELY to CONVERT/PURCHASE if he is the latter end of the AIDA cycle
  2. 'Nurture' Principle: Lead has to be NURTURED through the buying cycle - We cannot and should not push an 'aware' customer into buying before developing an interest in him
  3. 'Wide Mouth' Principle: Have a 'LARGE' number of leads


This is how it 'should be':


Broad imperatives being:
  1. Need for 'design' and 'development' of separate 'experiences' for the warm & hot leads
  2. Need for 'compelling' experiences to move the prospect towards being a customer
  3. Need for a 'targeting' and 'identification' mechanism to identify 'hot leads'
  4. Ability to get a large number of 'quality' leads
How it is mostly done in the online world?

The online world is singularly focused on conversion/purchasers losing out on the big picture. Current operating style includes:
  1. Treating all visitors & leads equally: Focus on converting everybody,Losing out on Principle 1 - which is to "nurture" leads
  2. There is no mechanism on sites to give a different experience to the 'interested' vs. 'desiring' vs. 'purchasing' customer
  3. All customers are treated in campaigns as 'Actioning/Buying' Customers - There is no difference between the campaign for an 'aware' vs. 'buying' customer. No matter what stage of the purchasing cycle the customer is in, he gets an email or campaign with a list of deals
  4. Marketing is divorced from Ecommerce OR they never get along. Rarely are marketing mechanisms and mining techniques used to score the customers.

2 comments:

  1. That was some pretty interesting information. Leads have to be NURTURED through the buying cycle.
    Do have a look at our website on lead nurturing for more information.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for this great piece of suggestion about lead management system.For all business industries who involve in lead generation process must have an effective lead management system to convert sales into leads.

    ReplyDelete