By
Lanee’ Blunt
Brokers
and life insurance companies advertise that they will send you a free
information kit without any obligation to interested persons concerning their
special market letter or insurance information. The purpose of such offers is
that certain types of services and products are not easy to sell and may need a
sales person to complete the order. Lead generation is used to get names of
people that may be interested in your product or service to be used for list building,
and e-newsletters list.
Prepare for the
salesperson
The
goal of your business may be to sell your product or service, but the actual
sale may come in the sales meeting. If you are an independent contractor or
your business has a sales team, mail-based generation offers a way to create a
demand for the product or service or pave the way for the sales meeting and it
offers many advantages. You can create a demand for the product or the
advertisement may pave the way for the salesperson to make a sales
presentation.
Targeted
The
buyer has requested information from your business that they were interested
in. You have the opportunity to send information to a qualified buyer that is
interested in what you are selling or your service. This is an advantage because you do not have
to cold call on prospects that are not interested in what you are selling these
prospects have given you permission to send them information. The conversion
rates are higher when leads that you receive through lead generation.
Cost Effective
A
mailing program to generate leads is cost effective and profitable. An
advantage of using lead generation is that you are not going to have to knock
on doors or cold call because you will use a qualified mailing list of likely
buyers and have a free offer. You can offer them a free information kit, eBook,
brochure, demo, fact sheet or software. They respond by mailing in a reply card,
by phone, or through your website. After you get a response from them you call
or have your staff call to set up a sales meeting or information meeting.
Disadvantages
A
disadvantage is that some prospects may not become customers.
Unqualified
list building may be a disadvantage. It can be very pricey to send mail to a
list of prospects that are not interested in what you are selling. You may have
the finest copy, layout, and artwork but if the list is not right your efforts
and money will be wasted. The mailing list can determine the success or failure
of direct mail advertising done by a company. Another disadvantage is not
keeping the mailing list updated.
See also
- Advertising with Direct Mail
- How to Advertise a Small Business
- Pros and Cons of Online Marketing
- Benefits of Direct Mail
Reference:
[Image
of lead generation services]. (n.d.). Retrieved
from http://proserviceconnect.com/leadgeneration/