Friday, February 18, 2005
Lead Mapping
Interesting 'mind map' for lead generation, from Brian Caroll's Lead Generation Blog. Most b2b media companies can offer lead-generating solutions for many of the areas Brian identifies--and not simply branding or events.I've long disliked using 'leads' to measure the value of b2b media. Bingo cards drove me crazy, and their general disappearance in the Internet age was welcome. To me, rating a publication or show based on the number of leads generated has a number of flaws, since we don't control the product, the pricing, the frequency or the creative of our customers. Yet we're held accountable for the leads generated from our audience. If a client has a lousy-looking ad for an overpriced product no one wants, we generally get blamed.
I've also wondered what companies do with the leads they get. I've had enough experience with high quality lead-generating events--which produce face-to-face meetings with senior decisionmakers--to conclude that the majority of companies didn't walk through the door that we helped open. We had to train companies, and nag them after the event, to ensure that the great contacts we helped them make were contacted again. That sure made me focus not only on generating leads, but on tracking the path of lead inside our customers' companies.
Brian Carroll's mindmap offers an interesting vision of the lead generation process. It's worth the time to match your media solutions against this map. Any gaps? Can you fill them in?
And can we use this more complete approach to the creation of a lead to meet the measurability and accountability standards our customers are creating?
