Every company needs an effective lead generation strategy. Across all company types, unless you're bringing money in, you're spending money you don't have and your short- and long-term viability is at risk. 

But affordable lead generation services won't necessarily give you leads that are worth much, and it's also true that anyone with a computer and an internet connection can offer online lead generation services, making it difficult to know what leads are worth paying for and what leads aren't.

It all starts with what a lead is. Generally, a lead is anyone that has indicated interest in your product or service. But just because you spent hundreds or thousands on a list of people doesn't mean that you're dealing with actual leads. So-called "leads" can be scraped from various places online, and what you actually want are qualified leads that won't waste your time.

Lead Generation Challenges

Whether you're generating leads in house or you're hiring a qualified lead generation company to fill your pipeline, lead generation can be rife with challenges. At the bottom end, you may be getting a great deal, but thousands of worthless leads are ultimately all worthless themselves. At the top end of the market, you may be paying too much per lead, not giving your organization enough flexibility in closing and contract value.

But it's important to find a lead generation strategy that works. Things that are easy such as buying a programmatically scraped list means that the barrier to entry is low, and so is the value. More difficult strategies such as building out an internal sales team are proven to work, but that comes with very real costs that you may not be able to absorb.

After all, identifying the right people is ultimately the challenge of any lead generation strategy. Capturing people's attention isn't good enough -- not anymore. After capturing someone's attention, you need to vet them and see if they're interested in your offering, as well as whether they're at the point where they're ready to put some money down. If they can't or won't ever use your product or service, that's not a lead you'd ever want to waste your time on.

However, even if you do manage to identify a good lead, what is it that you plan to do with it? With some lead generation providers, a lead could be little more than a name and contact information. Do you call them, schedule a demo or put them on your email list? If you don't know where a potential customer sits in your funnel, it's hard to know where to start. 

Beyond that, what will you do with all the leads that you're getting? Lead generation strategies can really pump up the pipeline, but unless you're ready to take the next step with the leads you're buying, you could end up squandering or doubling back on the opportunities that are being made available to you.

Generally, you'll need some kind of plan or system in place to help manage the leads that are being brought in. It can help to have a point person that deals directly with your lead generation strategies, doubling down where you're having success and cutting out lead generation programs that aren't working. 

Ironically, a lot of this depends on the quality of leads you're getting in the first place. If your lead generation strategy is primarily focused on cost, you'll have to spend much more in resources on the back end. Likewise, if you put your money up front into good lead generation strategies, you'll be rewarded with higher close rates and a more fruitful conversion process.

When Lead Generation Goes Well

Effective lead generation isn't just about buying leads or building an internal process. Lead generation strategies can also generate awareness for your brand and give you an idea of your reach inside your target markets. Sure, it has a lot to do with what lead generation strategies you're working with, but as long as you're not chasing quantity over quality, you'll be able to learn a lot and refine your processes.

Lead generation strategies can also be much more beneficial than traditional marketing approaches as lead generation targets desired customers, not merely a segment of the population that may or may not be interested in what you have to offer. In this way, lead generation benefits both the buyer and seller. As a qualified lead, the buyer is able to truly evaluate your product. On your end, you're able to effectively pitch your offering to someone that's actively listening.

Unlike typical marketing efforts, good lead generation strategies reduce the time and cost of your entire funnel process. The numbers of people you'll reach will be less, to be sure, but each contact is highly valuable and represents a real opportunity to close, rather than someone that may need a handful of touches and massaging before they're ready to pull the trigger.

Better Lead Generation With SalesHive

If you've been looking for a way to supercharge your company's lead generation strategies, SalesHive is here to help. We're a B2B lead generation services company that emphasizes qualified leads over leads that won't ever help your bottom line. By leveraging cold calling, email, LinkedIn and direct mail, our goal is to help you book more meetings with qualified buyers at top prospects -- all so you can close and start seeing more money come in the door.

We're so confident that you'll see the benefit of the SalesHive approach that we offer flexible month-to-month billing. Cancel anytime or ask us to reassign your strategists if it's not working for you. Or, if you'd rather pause for a month or two, we'll hit the suspend button for you and allow you to come back whenever you're ready. After all, our success is your success, and happy clients are something that we strive for with each and every one of our relationships.

If you want to move fast, we can spin up a team for you in as little as two weeks -- just try doing that with traditional in-house sales. We'll dedicate either half-time or full-time calling with email and LinkedIn depending on the budget that works best for you, and you can expect anywhere from 25 to 90+ meetings a quarter. Don't worry about the hundreds of calls and work we're doing behind the scenes every day -- simply apply your ability to close and we'll take care of the rest.

Learn more about our platform, check out our pricing or contact us to get started.