The most important question: quality or quantity?
While the first impulse is to say ‘quality,’ few people apply the same response to marketing efforts! The traditional barometer of success in marketing is quantity, either the number of leads or conversions. But, for your marketing effort to succeed in the long run, it is far more important to measure success based on quality.
Most marketers tend to look favorably on collecting a large number of leads to pass on to the sales team, since more leads ideally equates to more opportunities and sales. But, it doesn’t always work this way. Say you do bring on more customers from those leads who aren’t truly ideal fits; this may result in the business over-extending its resources in supporting and engaging prospects and customers who require more time than they’re worth, which translates to increased overheads. Depending on the nature of the business, the profit margins and the extent of customer engagement and support required, a smaller customer base, but with relatively higher per-capita revenue, is better.
Quality depends on finding ideal prospects, as well as an ideal amount of clients for the business to be prosperous. A marketing campaign that over-extends itself and fetches more sales volumes or clients than the business can support strains the organization’s client support resources. The best marketing efforts are in sync with the capabilities of the business, providing the team with the right volumes and numbers at the right time.
Finally, very few businesses sustain themselves without repeat customers. This in itself goes to show that the sustainability of the marketing lead is more important than volume. For example, a business may be better off finding a customer who brings in only a limited volume of sales upfront but would continue to provide the same volume on a regular basis as compared to a customer who may make a bulk purchase and then disappear, necessitating a repeat marketing campaign.
So what is the best approach? Define your ideal prospect and volumes, and then create your strategy. Build your business on quality leads!
Searching for a tool that will help you identify more qualified leads? Focus on quality over quantity by learning how lifecycle marketing works!
