Marketing-for-Leads Guide: Step 6 – How many inquiries needed?

Step 6: Determine how many new inquiries or responses are needed to generate enough qualified sales leads to meet your goals.

The Sales Lead Calculator will help you determine how many new inquiries you need to generate enough qualified sales leads to meet your sales revenue goals. (See Step 5.)

Research conducted on B2B sales lead conversion across industries shows that, of those who buy:

• One in four buys within six months.
• Another one in four buys within the next six months.
• Another one in four buys within the third six months.
• The final one in four buys after eighteen months.

Simply said, three out of four sales opportunities are from the longer-term leads. So even though it may be tempting to create an occasional, dramatic marketing program that drums up a large number of new leads—so you can skim the ones that are ready to buy now—you are actually better off investing in an ongoing series of marketing-for-leads programs.

To get those additional three out of four sales opportunities, use direct marketing to nurture your longer-term sales opportunities until they are sales-ready. Consider creating a series of marketing messages that rotate through, say, the three biggest benefits of your products or services and related offers or calls-to-action. Send them to prospects monthly—one, two, three, repeat—effectively staying in-sight and top-of-mind as prospects move from awareness to inquiry, then from inquiry to consideration and purchase.