Lead Generation – The Three Ghosts Of Christmas Accounting

Lead generation is all about getting information and doing background checks. And when it comes to background checks, you could take a surprising lesson from the three Ghosts who visited Mr. Scrooge in Dickens’ Christmas Carol. Like them, your lead generation process should evaluate businesses in terms of past, present, and future.

Use Lead Generation To Help Prospects Reflect

Essentially, the reason why these three spirits visited Scrooge was to help him reflect. Likewise, your lead generation campaign should be the same. In the same order, your campaign must have a Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet To Come capable of bringing out their respective memories, events and predictions about every prospect’s accounting behavior.

• The Ghost of Christmas Past – This is the Ghost that brings to mind how your prospect did their accounting before. Initially, this is how you start qualifying your accounting leads. Your lead generation campaign must always look to past behavior in order shine a light on the prospect’s current situation. For example, perhaps some businesses usually do not report on a particular cost because they never thought much about it.

• The Ghost of Christmas Present – When Scrooge travels with this jolly Ghost, he is taken to the places of people he currently knows. And as such, your lead generation process should not just be satisfied with the decision maker. They should consider those who will be affected by their present accounting activities. Another example, a manager might think they have all reductions covered but disgruntled employees think otherwise.

Related Content: How Appointment Setting, Should Consider All Marketing Results

• The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come – This particularly scary Ghost shows Scrooge what is to happen if he did not change his ways. Similarly, your lead generation campaign should be just as honest when it comes to telling what awaits your prospect should they remain as they are. One should not underestimate the effects of even the slightest inconsistency in either accounting or lead generation.

At this point, you should also remember the main point of all this reflection. Much like Scrooge, the prospects screened by your accounting lead generation process have something that might need changing. You could have prospects engaged in flawed practices. Your lead generation services might also encounter businesses who are doing something completely illegal!

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This same lead generation campaign is not just for your sake but for the sake of such businesses. The consequences of persisting with such errors and malpractices range from loss of money to scandal, even business termination! Remember Marley? Remember the chains he wore, bound with ledgers and cash boxes? These things serve as a grim, symbolic reminder even to good, respectable accountants. Your lead generation services could be the one thing stopping more money-managers from meeting the same fate.

Luckily, it is not always too late which is why your marketing campaign can use its lead generation tools screen these accounting sales leads and help them change!

Lead Generation Tips – Evaluate Your Own Advice

Giving advice will always be a solid tactic in lead generation because it accomplishes two things: First, you are being informative and helpful. Second, it shows how much of your financial expertise can already attract from your target market.

Falling Behind In Lead Generation? The Simplest Concepts Can Speed You Up!

If you think your lead generation campaign is falling behind because you are missing out on some fancy, new marketing trend, you need to define what you mean by ‘new’.

You see while it is true that new technology opens up the possibilities of new marketing channels, the basic concepts of what you do on those channels remains to be the same. More than that, they remain to be simple.

Scrutinize Your Sales Leads As Much As Prospects Scrutinize You

Getting sales leads for financial planning can be tough with all the scrutiny. However, this is natural in when you are in an industry that handles other people’s money. On the brighter side, you have a right to be critical yourself.

Should Business Leads Be Criticized?

The word criticize can be loaded and is not exactly something you would want prospects to accuse you of. On the other hand, what other word can you use to describe the very process in which you qualify them for appointment setting? Have you forgotten that this process also gives you a criteria?

• Prospect’s Business Must Be Size X – If you do not know the size, how else can you be sure you have what it takes to serve them? Prospects that are too big can tax your resources and end in disappointment. Prospects who are too small may not understand the benefits (nor reap them for that matter).

• Prospect’s Business Must Work In the Z Industry – Different industries have different businesses that manage their finances differently. It only follows that you should only qualify a prospect that is appropriate for your industry expertise. And even if you boast a vast variety of experience, specifying an industry can help your salespeople and marketers set your image.

Related Content: Identify The Appropriate Accounting Prospect

• Prospect’s Business Must Have A Clean Record – What? You think only your prospects have a right to credibility, integrity, and a public image? Do not forget that financial management is no stranger to scandals and losses. But more than that, you should be no stranger to the fact that you are not always responsible for them. You never know when your people’s skills and resources might catch the eye of someone who might want them for less than ethical objectives.

When it comes to finances, there will be many parties who become critical: from shareholders and board executives to consumer advocates and the media. For example, just recently the Daily Beast published an article that seemed to draw connections between JP Morgan and government food stamp programs. Regardless of your political views, do you want articles like that potentially affecting the chances of your financial sales leads? Ideally, you would want to be of service to anyone regardless of their political views so long as they do not cause you to compromise your own integrity.

Related Content: Be Wary When Setting Insurance Appointments In Light Of Recent Supreme Court Decision

Take note, this does not give you license to just simply be in a prospect’s face. You should still be as amiable as possible when you are engaging with them because they too can have a raised guard. On the other hand, that is neither a reason to have no guard of your own. A bad customer is just as much a harbinger of doom as bad business practices. In fact, if you are so uncertain about criticizing your leads directly, then outsource a lead generator if you really want someone else to complain to. Either way, your lead generation services must scrutinize as much as prospects scrutinize you!

Generate Sales Leads With The Right People For the Job!

You don’t just specify your ideal sales leads to anybody. You specify them to someone who actually understands why you want such leads, how they correspond to your needs (among several other factors), and even why you want them at a particular amount or rate.

In short, you need to specify them to the right people for the actual job. These people are the ones who will be representing you directly before a prospect. For example, in accounting, it’s only natural for you to demand representatives who have experience and knowledge about marketing accounting services.

You might not want to make the same mistake that the NFL seemed to have made in hiring a Bank of America VP as a replacement official (as reported by American Banker). Around the end, the linked article describes what could have possibly led to that hiring decision (including a simple three-day term at a football official’s academy). Below is just a concluding excerpt:

“The academy said it did not provide any training in NFL rules, and was not aware that Easley planned to become a replacement official.

‘Although Mr. Easley received three days of college football training at the 2012 SASA, the Academy does not claim responsibility for Mr. Easley’s successes or perceived failures as an official,’ the statement said.”

The same fiasco could happen when selecting your B2B marketers. Even if you were outsourcing the entire lead generation process, you don’t want to select a company that has zero expertise regarding your industry whatsoever.

But to be fair, perhaps it’s not a good idea to hire marketers who know too much. After all, the advantage of marketing comes from its capacity to take all your knowledge, expertise, and experience and then condense into an appealing image, message, or brand.

Condensing that information is obviously important because you don’t want to give your prospects a headache during the first time they encounter your business (be it via a long-winded landing page or a lengthy marketing call).

The thing is too much expertise doesn’t make such marketers the right ones for the job either. The obvious answer is a company that stands in between:

• Slightly above average expertise – By slightly, it means they should know more about what accounting services can offer but not always to the point that they can run an accounting business themselves.

• Focuses on connecting and presenting value – They present what your customers and prospects find most valuable about your business and use it to drive a deeper connection between your business and theirs.

• Works well with your salespeople – Working well doesn’t automatically mean they kowtow to every whim of your sales team. It means they can advise actions and give insightful suggestions to your salespeople. That’s the advantage of knowing what the market wants: it can help salespeople align with what their expertise declare as a higher need.

The difference between this and hiring a banker to officiate an NFL football match is that, in the latter you can easily see a stark contrast, despite any perceived credentials. Hiring or outsourcing marketers for accounting sales leads will still require a hefty amount of experience and industry expertise. It’s that unique level between long-winded expert and inexperienced student that makes a marketer right for the job.