We have just started a B2B lead generation campaign for a new client. I don’t want to tell you who they are but they are well known within the software space. As well as providing telemarketing, email, data and some integrated digital marketing we are running a specific campaign to speak to all the prospects they have had over the last few years.
I know everybody will be saying “we don’t have lapsed prospects” but that is exactly what our client thought as well. So we started off by looking at all of the meetings and prospect telephone calls that all the sales staff had booked or attended. We then looked at where the prospect was now.
Because of staff changes, system changes, systems not being updated, systems being updated incorrectly and prospects not being classified in the CRM system we found 32 prospects that hadn’t been followed up effectively. These are the ones we would call first.
The primary objective was to understand what happened to the project, did they buy, why didn’t they buy from our client as well as to try and understand what they thought of our client during the sales process.
The findings were quite startling:
3 companies had restarted the project after a long delay and had bought a competitive system.
2 projects were underway at the moment and we managed to set up meetings for our client.
6 projects would be starting over the next 12 months.
21 Projects had been canned, upgraded their existing software or been delayed for more than 12 months.
Not surprisingly our client was very annoyed about having missed the 3 projects which were worth up to £1 million. For all 3 of these, the reason that they weren’t included in the 2nd stage of the project was because they simply hadn’t kept in touch. 2 of them had new project leads who weren’t involved in the original pitch and didn’t know who our client was. The 3rd had built up a very good relationship with one supplier and only invited 2 other companies to pitch who they also had relationships with.
On a more positive note, they are involved in 2 of the deals. We spoke to the prospect, and they have good information on the other 6 projects and will hopefully get on the shortlist.
For me B2B lead generation is hard enough without, for whatever reason, losing touch with prospects, not following them up effectively or thinking that just because a project is delayed it is cancelled.
The moral of the story is simple, never lose touch with a prospect once you have spoken to them. And if you do have lapsed prospects give us a call and we will try and get you back in, or at least understand where they are now. See some of our success stories, here!
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