The basic lead generation process is pretty much the same from company to company. Inquiries come intheyre qualifiedand then sent to the sales team. Some turn into customers. Some dont.

Which means that, over time, every organization ends up with a pile of prospects that either disengaged during the sales cycle (for whatever reason)or decided to go with a competitor.

So heres the big question: is anyone in your company following up with these potential future opportunities?

I can tell you that very few companies Ive worked with have systems in place to nurture these longer-term prospects. Yet, the potential for increased sales is significant, and can be very cost-effective.

Heres one reason these prospects dont get much attention: good salespeople tend to spend most of their time on higher-probability opportunities with the best chance of closing the quickest. And who can blame them? Reps are under constant pressure to close business and meet quotas. That means theres little time for lower-probability prospects.

But that doesnt mean you should throw these leads away. There can be tremendous long-term value in these opportunitiesif you can set up a system that allows you to follow up on them consistentlyand without breaking the bank.

I call this strategy lead recycling because, in essence, thats exactly what youre doingyoure recycling these longer-term prospects back through a targeted lead generation process.

The payoff? Ive seen this strategy boost sales by 5% (even 10% or more) over the course of a yearall from qualified prospects that would have normally been ignored!

In fact, one of my software clients recently tested a new lead recycling program as part of an effort to grow sales to record levels. As a result of this new initiative, they were able to increase sales of one of their solutions by 13% over the course of a year!

This company was generating an average of 600 inquiries per year for one of their products. From that point:

* Some 450 of those 600 inquiries turned into appointments

* Nearly 90 of those 450 appointments eventually turned into sales (over the course of a year)

This was good enough to meet budgets. But it also meant that over 500 inquirers were NOT buying from them every year!

They knew it wasnt practical to expect sales to follow up on every one of these lost opportunities. So they implemented a system that funneled these longer-term prospects back to marketing, using a combination of email and direct mail.

The results were outstanding. Over the course of a year they were able to close an additional 12 new opportunities just from this lista lift in sales of over 13%!

So heres why this strategy works so well: When it comes to prospects youve engaged with in the past, youve probably done most of the heavy lifting already. Youve done the hard work of getting them to respond to a campaign. You may even have established a certain degree or rapport and trust with many of them. And youve educated them on your offerings and how they can solve their business problems.

Therefore, when a prospect disengages because of bad timing or budget constraints or other reasons, if you dont stay in touch with this growing list, you risk losing them to a competitorsomeone who will greatly benefit from the time and effort you spent educating these folks.

Thinking about implementing a lead-recycling program? Here are some key items to keep in mind:

1. Get buy-in from sales. That may not be easy at first, but explain that youre trying to make their jobs easier. By setting up this program, youre taking away the burden of following up with lower-ranked leads. This gives them more time to focus on higher-probability opportunities. And best of all, youll be able to deliver them a handful of well-nurtured leads every year.

2. Consider qualifying more thoroughly up front. This places a bigger burden on marketing. But in the long run, everyone wins. Leads that are simply inquiring at this point and are months away from seriously evaluating options should all go straight into this nurturing program. Theyre just not ready to be turned over.

3. Set up systems that allow sales to easily forward prospects that need to be recycled. They should include lost opportunities, delayed decisions, and warm leads that have turned cold.

4. Lastly, seed this prospect list with a steady stream of value-added communications. Consider launching an e-newsletter in order to gather more opt-in email addresses. Also, try direct mail targeted at specific groups within this list. And as long as each of these communications has an appealing call to action (demo/presentation CD, white paper, an invitation to a Webinar, and so on), you continually increase your chances of creating top-of-mind awareness with these prospects.

Bottom line: These days, it takes tremendous effort to generate qualified leads. Dont let any of them fall through the cracks. By setting up a lead recycling program you optimize your efforts and help generate sales that would have never closed otherwise.

Copyright 2004, Ed Gandia. All Rights Reserved.