Do you need to grow the number of prospects or leads at the top of your funnel?
Most businesses do. And there are many ways of yielding potential buyers.
It’s like my need for fresh vegetables…I want them fresh and have more than one way to get them.
I’m a regular Saturday morning farmer’s market kind of girl. Wisconsin in the summer and Florida in the winter.
I can easily visit the stands and immediately get my hands on fresh produce once a week.
I also have a large vegetable garden. We prep the soil in May, plant the seeds, nurture the seedlings, and fertilize and water until we are rewarded with fresh vegetables August-October.
Both efforts yield fresh vegetables – one is immediate and takes a drive, more money, and being available during the hours they are open.
The other is a slower growth that yields the produce outside my door at a moment’s notice.
Identifying the Right “Touch” to Grow Your Customer Base
When we’re growing our business or customer base, we should consider the different efforts for growing our leads – what efforts will work best and what should we focus on? What approach will yield us “fruit” (or vegetables) when we need it.
Let’s consider the lead generation activities as “touches” we make with people to gain their attention and earn the right for a conversation.
There are 3 types of activities or touches:
- High touch
- Mid touch
- Low touch
High Touches Are Most Direct
High touch activities are actual conversations with someone who may be a prospect themselves or who can directly connect/refer you to prospects.
Activities such as the 1000 cups of coffee, meaningful one-on-one connections/relationships with centers of influence, or direct calls to potential prospects are high touch. While many people don’t like these “cold calls” they do work.
This direct prospecting is a necessary part of building a business and securing new clients especially early in your business lifecycle.
Mid Touches Put You in Front of Many People at Once
Mid touch marketing activities include efforts that get you in front of many people at once in a “live” way – not online.
Activities or events which may be solely your own or joint seminars, networking events, trade shows, association meetings and such.
And…
Low Touches Yield Slower Growth
Low touches are just that – you share information and build your brand but not in a literal conversation – low touch. This is where your website, blog, podcast, published articles, contributions to publications, advertising, inclusion in association listings, etc. fit.
It’s necessary, but slower than your high and mid touch efforts.
How Much Time Do You Have?
The pattern I notice with small businesses is they are more comfortable in the low touch; as that is less risky and there is less potential for direct rejection. Which is fine if you have months and years to build a client base.
What we need to think about is what gets us in front of prospects quick and which will take time to “grow.”
Need leads faster? Put more effort into your high touch.
Need leads for the long-run – put effort into all three touches consistently.
As you identify your plan for building the pipeline and yield you need, categorize your efforts into the 3 touches. This will help you put the efforts and resources into the right touch for your stage of business.
A healthy lead generation plan that can “feed” you today and in the long-run includes efforts in all three of these lead generation touches.
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