Prospect Sources and How They Differ

There are a variety of ways that vendors can acquire new sales prospects, each occupying it’s own niche in the customer acquisition universe. Yet costs, measurability, resources required to manage, and the ability to deliver in-market prospects vary among sources. Here’s a look at the main methods sales and marketing people are using to acquire new prospects today, and how they differ.

Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing (television, radio, and print) still plays an important role in the marketing mix for many vendors, especially for broad audience brand awareness. Yet, the trend continues to move in the direction of less spending on traditional advertising and more on digital. According to a study by BIA/Kelsey, spending on traditional media is expected to decline from $115 billion in 2009 to $108.2 billion in 2014 (CAGR of -1.2%). Yet, during this same period, spending on online or interactive media is projected to grow from $15.2 billion to $36.7 billion (CAGR of 19.3%).¹ One of the biggest problems with traditional marketing compared to digital is that the performance of campaigns (and ROI) cannot be tracked and measured easily or effectively.

List Purchase Services and Database Access

List services and database access can provide a high quantity of contacts, with raw data such as names, titles, phone numbers, and other contact information. They are also often competitively priced, as there are multitudes of B2C and B2B list providers on the market. However, lists lack important qualifying information, such as purchase intentions, whether the contact is actively in-market, or if they’re interested in specific products and features. These services provide no knowledge of where the contact is in the purchasing funnel, or whether they’re “in the funnel” at all. In general, sales people use these list for cold calling, in hopes they contain some opportunities.

Telemarketing Services

Telemarketing companies may offer a variety of services, from gathering missing contact information to pre-qualifying prospects for your sales team. They generally rely on the vendor (their clients) to provide them with the initial prospecting list. In most cases, telemarketing services are outsourced to pre-qualify and raw list for a sales team. Telemarketing services often require ongoing management to ensure consistent results, which can be resource intensive for companies using their services. The expertise of telemarketing services is not in sourcing and qualifying new, in-market prospects online, but rather working with an existing list to pre-qualify it and distill it down to a higher quality list of prospects for the sales team.

Internet Lead Providers

Lead providers provide prospective customer contact information and often they go a step further by providing information on the prospect’s product preferences and even purchasing time frame. Lead quality, depending on the provider, can vary greatly. Differences in lead quality will depend on how the prospect was asked to submit a lead (provide their contact information), such as whether they were incented to do so or not, and how well the provider can “scrub” the lead’s information and verify their buying intentions. Pricing will vary among providers and from industry to industry, however, performance and lead quality can easily be tracked and measured in terms of lead closing rate and cost per sale.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM) also provides a measurable way for vendors to find new prospects on the Web, and with 92% of Internet users using search engines to find what they’re looking for online, almost every business should employ this channel to connect with prospective customers. SEM, which includes search engine optimization (SEO) of the vendor website, can be a cost-effective and efficient way to connect with potential buyers, or, it could become cost prohibitive and resource intensive if not done properly.

Appointment Setting Services

Appointment setters most often require a call list from the vendor and are incented to set a certain number of appointments, regardless of how serious the buyer is, or where they are in their purchase time frame. Critics of this method usually site non-opportunity appointments, which cost the company money and can drain sales resources.

Tradeshows and Conferences

Tradeshows, like traditional marketing, can play an important role in the overall marketing mix, and the face time that vendors get with prospective and existing customers cannot be duplicated anywhere else. However, these events tend to be expensive for vendors (from travel time to employee’s time away from the office to the cost of a booth, sponsorships, etc.). In addition, as with traditional marketing, cost per lead, cost per sale, and overall ROI can be difficult to measure.

Referrals

Referrals will never go out of style as they’re one of the most tried and true ways to get a great customer. Just as people find jobs through their personal networks, your existing customers and partners can be an ideal source for new customers. The important thing to do is ask. Many sales people fail to get referrals because they don’t ask for referrals. Depending on your industry, referrals can be a great source of quality prospects, but they may not be the best source for a high quantity of prospects. So, be sure to seek out referrals, but make sure your pipeline is filled with in-market prospects from other high quality sources too.

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