10 Reasons Lead Generation Failure May Not Be Your Fault

When doing lead generation work, all you have to do is call people and set up appointments with them for members of outside sales teams. Sounds easy doesn’t? Trust me, it isn’t.

Most lead generation folks have to cold call high ranking executives, qualify them by asking many questions to see if they are a good fit for their own company (or the company they are representing), and eventually get them to commit to a face-to-face meeting or a conference call with an outside salesperson.

There are at least ten valid reasons lead generation specialists can fail that has nothing to do with their skill. If sales managers, marketing managers, and business owners realize failure in their lead generation efforts, they should consider addressing these ten critical issues:

1. Bad List: I don’t care how good you are on the phone, if half the prospects on your list are dead or no longer with the company, your good results will decrease dramatically. The opportunity to simply ask to speak with a prospect without necessarily sounding like a sales person is crucial. Once you start asking for your prospect’s replacement or the person in charge of (fill in the blank), you will be put into the annoying sales person box. This could result in many conversations with voicemail or only speaking with gatekeepers who won’t put your call through. An accurate, up-to-date, and vetted list is crucial for cold calling success.

2. The Economy: A bad economy can be a lead generation rep’s greatest nightmare. It is rare to find a company that is buying when they’ve laid off 50% of their staff. It is impossible to sell to a company whose phone number has been disconnected and whose doors have been closed permanently because of the economy. If a lead generation rep is going to be successful with appointment setting during a recession, he or she must present a product or service that saves the prospect money or makes a convincing case for a return on investment.

3. Market Saturation: Imagine how successful you would be if you went door to door selling 20 inch televisions. Most people would laugh in your face because everyone has a TV set these days. Along those same lines, if you are selling what most prospects already have or what 20 other companies are calling to sell, your results will not be as good as they can be.

4. Sexism: Are the male lead generation reps having more success than the female reps when selling to manufacturers? Are the women more successful than the men when calling on hospital practice managers? Chances are, sexism may play a key role in the results. I have seen male and female appointment setters call the same prospect at different times, read the same exact script, and have different results. Truth is, some men only want to do business with men. Some women only want to do business with men. Even some gatekeepers will decide to put a call through if the caller’s gender is right.

5. Bad Training or None At All: I have been in situations where I had about 30 minutes to read about a client’s offerings, study a call script, and start making calls immediately. Those conditions made it nearly impossible to be successful at creating quality appointments for the client. On the other end of the spectrum, I was tasked to train a group on new lead generation reps. The results were great because we took the time make sure the reps understood the offering and the call outline. They also listened in on successful lead generation reps before finally getting on phone themselves, where their own calls were critiqued and corrected for maximum success. Sales managers, marketing managers, and business owners must take the time to adequately train their lead generation staff if they want appointment setters to discover quality leads and create worthwhile appointments that result in closed business.

These are just a few reasons lead generation reps can be unsuccessful when it comes to appointment setting. Tune in next week when I will discuss the other five reasons lead generation failure may not be the lead generation rep’s fault.

Warm regards,

E. R. Carpenter