Converting Leads into Profitable Sales 5 Reasons Why Lead Verification Works. An IDology, Inc. Whitepaper

Transcription

1 Converting Leads into Profitable Sales 5 Reasons Why Lead Verification Works An IDology, Inc. Whitepaper

2 While most marketers take long strides to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns, three little words still have the power to strike fear in any lead generation organization Return on Investment (ROI). As James Lenskold, author of Marketing ROI: the path to campaign, customer, and corporate profitability, says marketing s ultimate purpose is to generate profitable sales. 1 To achieve this, things such as differentiating bad leads from qualified leads, having effective response and conversion rates, generating new revenue, and distinguishing between profitable and unprofitable customers, play important roles. Fortunately, for companies concerned with generating consumer leads, technologies exist to distinguish more qualified, sales-ready leads and ultimately drive profitability. By relying on automated lead verification services to qualify consumers and determine if the information provided is valid and belongs to each person, marketers and business development professionals are making a significant positive impact to their company s bottom line. Incorporating lead verification into your online lead generation process provides great ROI whether you are buying or selling leads. Here are 5 reasons why, as well as some things you need to consider when selecting a vendor: 1. James Lenskold, Marketing ROI: the path to campaign, customer, and corporate profitability (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003) 3 page 1

3 1 Improves Lead Quality Separating the wheat from the chaff can be difficult, especially when you have just a split second to make a decision on whether to purchase a lead. And if you are selling leads, giving clients files with invalid information translates into lost profits from lead returns and even perhaps, lost clients. Which is why knowing that a name, address, and phone number belong to a valid, real identity is the crucial first step to qualifying your leads. Remember it s not enough for a vendor to check that all the data fields are complete; you want a solution that gives you insight into what data is inaccurate so you can make better decisions on how to handle that lead. You should find a lead verification provider that specializes in identity verification because their core business is focused on ID-ing consumers-not-present. Be careful if your lead generation company is also verifying the lead as this could be a conflict of interest for you. It s also important to evaluate the data sources a vendor uses. Look for a company with access to a wide range of trusted sources versus providers that rely on free, internet based searches or just specialize in one area such as phone numbers. 2 Provides Predictive Analysis Analyzing your current customer base is a good way to pinpoint the right demographics that succeed in your business but a lot more factors go into getting qualified leads than meeting certain demographics. Lead verification helps evaluate the attributes of an identity which is a strong indicator of success. Matched with your own internal evaluations, you have a very powerful analysis to predict profitability. Let s face it, a lot of leads fall in the gray area of lead scoring. While scoring is good, vendors that provide more insight than just a number give you a lot more flexibility to meet your ideal customer demographics. Find a vendor that allows you to create your own score based on different decision metrics. You ll also need access to a comprehensive reporting tool so you can monitor performance and make changes when necessary. page 2

4 3 Delivers Instant Results Time is of the essence in the B2C lead-gen business. The longer you wait to engage with an interested lead, the harder it is to convert them into a sale. You need to qualify leads quickly and take immediate action to be successful. Since lead verification is a real-time validation process that provides instant results, you are able to sort the hot and warm leads for immediate follow up and let the cold leads go. The qualification parameters you use today may not be the same tomorrow because of different market conditions. Having a flexible lead verification system is important, especially in this on-demand world where we are able to customize and control so many things. Do your due diligence on how quickly it takes to tweak your verification system based on different results because being able to adapt to change without slowing down the evaluation process is crucial to success. 4 Eliminates Duplicate Leads Multiple leads that turn out to be the same person are a waste of money. Robust identitybased lead verification services stop leads from getting through the system more than once by employing the same standards used to identify fraud. With lead verification you ll stop identical duplicate leads and also detect when someone is trying to game the system using slightly altered information. The real power in verification is in the backend analytics of the system. Look for features that address velocity and provide different ways to monitor incoming leads including time of day, location or IP address, number of attempts, and various risk conditions that might come up. Be sure your provider can stop a lead cold even better if they offer an automated escalation path to further verify a lead when certain borderline situations come up. page 3

5 5 Lowers Conversion Costs You know the saying, less is more. It s particularly applicable here because having better qualified leads translates into your team having to spend less time and money on converting a lead to a sale. Since a lot of the cost for converting leads begins after the lead is captured, it s prudent to rely on lead verification so that you can minimize these costs and ultimately have more profits. Real profits are made when you are able to close more deals. Whether this is a new process or you re replacing a current vendor, you should concentrate on measuring the uplift in revenue opportunities a vendor provides while also lowering your lead acquisition costs. Look for a company that takes customer service seriously and considers themselves more of a trusted partner than just a provider. About IDology, Inc. IDology helps companies drive revenue, decrease costs and prevent fraud by providing real-time technology solutions to proof an individual s identity and age online, in a call center or through a mobile device, without interrupting the transaction. What is unique is we do this in a way that builds more confidence with your customers by protecting sensitive data and promoting consumer privacy. Using our ExpectID solutions, businesses have the ability to easily and quickly escalate proofing requirements based on the initial findings of a search by delivering interactive, multiple choice questions derived from independent sources that prove someone is who they claim to be. IDology is the only provider to offer an on-demand change management tool that allows client business unit managers to manage and control the entire proofing process without having to rely on internal IT resources or contact IDology s customer service. For more information, visit or call page 4