Smart leads are those potential customers who meet exactly all the requirements that the company has defined as the ideal customer profile (ICP). It is the lead that has total fit with the business. That the solution offered will make him overcome his pains and challenges. Generating this type of lead is fundamental for any business.
In an ideal world, your company’s customer acquisition strategies would only attract customers who are really interested and able to buy, right?
All efforts, resources and people would go to only one type of buyer.
The reality is not always like this, but it is necessary to try, improve and correct the course in order to generate the much-desired smart leads.
But, how to generate good leads, within the company’s ideal customer profile?
What actions, tools, routine and activities are needed for this?
These and other questions we will start to answer from now on.
Let’s check it out?
Good reading!
What are smart leads?
Smart leads are leads generated within what the company understands is the ideal customer profile.
It is the potential customer that the product or service offered meets all expectations to overcome the needs and challenges that may exist.
It is, therefore, someone who will most likely be interested in buying. Whether it will or not is another story.
The important thing is to do the right step by step to attract him, nurture him, qualify him and negotiate with him.
Every step of the customer’s journey buys. And you need to deliver value to it, even if it apparently fits in with the business.
Capturing these leads, however, is not such a simple task. It takes sales intelligence and respects the steps of the customer’s path.
Methodologies and tools are fundamental at this time. And, above all, the technology to pinpoint where your company’s smart leads are and what they want.
Another important step after managing to attract him is in their qualification. To understand the pain in detail and know how to direct the purchase.
But, calm down, let’s not hurry…
Smart leads depend on a clear design of the ideal customer profile
Here, some questions need to be answered. And you can use our ICP spreadsheet to organize your customer profile.
If the company already has a base of leads, it is important to conduct an analysis to identify opportunities that are already waiting for action by your team.
It is essential to start from the inside out, even to find out which strategies were executed on these contacts. And know their effectiveness.
This will help in efforts to generate smart leads. Whether replicating actions taken or doing things that are totally different from what has already happened.
It’s important to answer a few questions at this point:
- Who are your best customers today?
- Which scenarios make the most sense for the product or service being sold?
- What are the characteristics and demands of the best customers today?
- What is the company’s history and status today?
- What makes the product or service different from its competitors?
- What are the most common sales objections that leads have and how are they circumvented?
- How many and which customers have segment, size, budget, location and revenue considered ideal?
These are some questions – which can be joined with others – to try to close in a clearer profile.
This will help both in the form and channels to approach, as well as the type of speech needed to attract these smart leads.
How to Generate Smart Leads in 4 Steps
There is no magic formula and structured to generate smart leads in companies. However, there are some requirements and structuring that need to be met.
In order to be able to analyze the current customer base, approach them, attract new potential buyers and relate to them, some things are necessary.
The steps to generate smart leads will go through tools, structuring steps, team, analysis and persuasion techniques.
Let’s check out the 5 topics we’ve separated.
1 – Have the necessary tools
Two tools, at least, are fundamental to both understanding the ideal customer profile and generating and relating to smart leads:
- Sales CRM ;
- Marketing Automation Platform.
The first is essential for several reasons. It’s where you can analyze the current characteristics of your best customers.
Remember the ICP definition topic above? So, it is through CRM that it is possible to analyze the best deals made and find patterns among the customers sold.
CRM will also be responsible for managing the necessary steps to contact each of the leads.
This is achieved by creating various types of funnels to manage the steps within the purchase journey.
So, think that you will need a team working in a prospecting funnel, pre-sales, sales, technical pre-sales (if working with projects), etc.
At the same time, marketing automation will be responsible for capturing leads.
Be after producing good content and materials targeted to that customer profile.
Whether to send a stream of personalized emails that really dialogue with the potential buyer’s needs.
And, of course, both tools must be integrated and exchanging information.
Thus, the email can be triggered within a specific step in some funnel and the lead can progress between different steps and different pipelines until actually buying.
2 – Structuring a Y funnel
The generation of smart leads should not rely on either inbound marketing or outbound marketing. Both are needed.
They actually process that complement and unify within a Y-shaped sales funnel.
Basically, this funnel serves to provide inbound nutrition for leads generated via outbound.
That is, at a certain stage, all leads will be nurtured and qualified in the same way. What changes is the way they join.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop content and value approaches for both types of leads.
This helps to speed up the lead maturity and subsequent qualification process (which will not, of course, prevent the SDR team from approaching you).
But by doing this, having two methods for acquiring leads, it is possible to speed up the decision-making process.
And the company won’t rely solely on the so-called “hand-raising” that inbound leads make when they want to buy.
No. Although the nutrition is the same, the outbound lead is someone who has had a clearer contact about what the company is and what it can possibly offer.
Active prospecting attracts buyers’ attention more clearly at first, yes.
But it uses inbound nutrition for the company to prove its value and make the lead better understand its pains, challenges and possibilities.
3 – Have a good cadence flow
Good nutrition (and qualification) of smart leads goes through a well-structured cadence flow.
Knowing exactly what your ideal customer needs and in the form they need makes it easier to know what to deliver at each step of the journey, right?
This will help your team to make a targeted qualification and focused on the real sales opportunities.
But of course, when talking about a cadence flow, it is necessary to structure the steps until the end, after the sale is made.
It goes through a structured pre-sales funnel, which will have a consultative SDR and which guides the lead as needed.
Then through phases of the sales funnel that will show the value of the product or service, initiate a negotiation and ensure everything is understood.
And the after-sales funnel will have stages that will ensure the consumer’s success with the brand.
Another important point: this knowledge must be made available to everyone.
Of course, when opening the CRM it is possible to see the steps. But, it is essential to detail each one of them and explain why.
A sales playbook, with funnels, stages and explained actions are essential to accelerate and disseminate knowledge about the company’s sales process for everyone.
4 – Find the decision maker in the company
One of the biggest difficulties teams have when negotiating, at any stage, is reaching decision makers in companies.
In an ideal world, the entire journey and negotiation would take place with the person responsible for the purchase. But we know that’s not the reality.
It is necessary to identify the people involved in the purchasing process as soon as possible in order to at least understand who the influencers are.
The so – called C-levels need to be constantly searched for because they make the sales cycle shorter.
In a company that’s not that big, it’s critical to go after the CEO, CMO, CSO, or similar roles.
In larger companies, where there are more posts, managers, directors or heads in the area are desired.
So, the key is to prospect this type of customer now. This has to be the generated lead.
If your team attracts a different profile, then it won’t be a smart lead.
So, how can we help you?
Take the opportunity and read two articles that will be useful in generating smart leads for your team.
The first talks about marketing strategies for companies to apply on a daily basis.
The second covers customer service tips at all stages within companies.
Good sales!
