Mining Existing Leads from Your CRM

By William Russell

Lead generation efforts are the heart and soul of a company’s sales and marketing team.  Initiatives and programs of all kinds are implemented to consistently produce revenue-generating opportunities.  These kind of development programs focus on new leads that are processed through your team’s qualification system.  A lot of time and effort is also spent on these activities.  But, what about existing contacts that have already been qualified and filed with a status result code in your customer relationship management (CRM) system?  Why not take a look at those and mine them to uncover any opportunities that may need to be discovered?

Golden opportunities

These contacts are usually dismissed as having little value, but they may actually hold potential worth pursuing.  If you’ve been disciplined about cultivating this group of contacts, then you’ve probably seen a few opportunities emerge.  Often, however, companies neglect these contacts and ignore them in favor of the “hottest” lead that emerges from the pipeline.  You could be missing out on a potential pot of gold – or at least a few gems!

Like most businesses, your CRM is going to be loaded with contacts acquired from any number of lead generation sources – trade shows, webinars, advertising campaigns, partner programs, email marketing, etc.  After the qualifying process, these leads will reflect a status code that categorizes them according to the qualification result.  Your status codes can be as simple as an “A”, “B”, or “C” value or descriptions such as “hot project”, “information only”, “no budget”, etc.  Obviously the “hotter” or highly qualified opportunities are going to be in a different stage within your pipeline.

Cultivate and nurture

What you’ll want to do is focus on those leads that were pushed aside for attention at a later time based on the qualification result.  You can probably weed out the dead-end statuses and pursue those that are marginal or better.  Because of company circumstances, market conditions and other influences, some of the statuses may have changed over time.  Your objective is to find out what changes may have occurred by developing a cultivation process which allows you to re-engage with these leads.  This normally includes what is referred to as a “drip” marketing approach where you periodically send an informative, non-promotional email or mailer just to keep in touch.  The idea is to maintain visibility with these contacts without hitting them between the eyes with a promotion. You can accomplish this through a strategically developed and implemented email campaign that centers on informing your contacts about a product or service you offer without the sales hype.  Similarly, you may want to create a small mailing campaign based on this type of messaging.

Digging with purpose

Campaigns of this nature should be carefully structured and strategically designed.  The objective is to keep in front of these contacts to determine if an action needs to be taken for next steps.  Without question, you will receive some opt-outs right away and that’s fine.  Simply capture their status update in your CRM and move on.  Over time, you will hear from others.  Some will respond with a true need and others will let you know of future plans.  Tactful orchestration and implementation of this approach will yield opportunities for your business.

Referrals and testimonials from loyal clients

What about existing customers?  For those who have already bought your products or services, consider a campaign designed to seek referrals, repeat or add-on business from them.  Going to those who have already been convinced and are enjoying the value of your products or services is another gold mine of opportunity.

Campaigns that are designed to ask for referrals or those that offer complementing products and services should be considered.  These should be tactfully structured to avoid jeopardizing any of your client relationships.  The point is to identify satisfied customers who have had a great experience with your company and are willing to offer referrals.  Often, they’ll want to brag about their positive experience which is great for testimonials. These are also the type customers likely to buy add-on products and services to enhance what they have already purchased from you.  Remember to reward the customers that provide you with referrals.  You may even want to create the reward as an easy incentive.

Digging beyond your “hot opportunities” could pay off for your business.  Mining your lead database strategically and tactfully with a purpose can prove to be a smart and rewarding move.

William Russell is managing partner of The Marketing Beacon – a marketing services firm serving small and mid-size businesses throughout the Upstate and across the Carolinas.  Application of marketing expertise and know-how is emphasized to help your company gain greater market visibility and awareness, neutralize buyer risk and develop customer trust for repeat business.  Contact William personally at [email protected], visit www.TheMarketingBeacon.com and http://www.linkedin.com/pub/william-russell/2/535/bb0.