What I wish I knew before changing my career from engineering to sales!
This article is based on a session held by Digital Marketing Specialist Gary Zvikaramba at TGIF Zone on Tuesday, May 25, 2021. Answered a total of 11 questions about lead generation and other related topics, including how he switched career from engineering to sales. The journey and the challenges !
Question 1: Should I include the added value of my product on the landing page, or should I provide more information about my service or product when the customer clicks on the CTA?
Suppose when you search 🔍 on Google, you find the problem people are looking for. You try to use these words to describe the way you describe your lead magnets so that they get caught and basically get there in your own words, which is what you want to do. You want them to feel that they are exactly what they want. In addition, you want your customers to feel exactly the same about what they have been looking for. This is why the entire keyword research process is so important, because you know that everything else will go along with the writing process, but the keyword process is very critical to creating your lead magnet.
Question 2: From your experience what is the exact type of lead magnet do you find the best attractive?
Depending on the problem, you will find that when you look at discounts and free shipping, these cost problems. When you look at video training maybe you’re looking at more practical problems that someone would need to see something being done. When you look at other issues, you can use a guide or report to give someone value to get what they’re doing done. So at the end of the day, it really depends on the best medium for you to communicate the value, but the best lead magnet is video training for videos because people don’t want to read.
Question 3: When it comes to quizzes or surveys, do you think that people will take time to fill them?
It depends on how much of their problems you have brought together. It depends on how you have enticed them. In these quizzes for example, if you are making a quiz, and you want to release a project a product, you would want your quiz to leave them intrigued by the kind of questions that you’re asking, to feel that they need to see your product because of the kind of questions you are asking them.
Question 4: Why did your career change from engineering to sales? What are the main triggers?
When I was at Hertfordshire, in my first year I had a mentor who was helping me to make money through selling real estate in the states. This wasn’t real estate in the UK it was real estate in the states, and it really opened up my eyes into sales. On the other hand, reason why I wanted to become an aerospace engineer. It was mainly to discover new frontiers.
Being introduced to a world where I could be connected without actually being there. It’s kind of filled up that gap of feeling alone in the universe and having to go out there to see what’s there and having more appreciation for what we have down here. So it’s not a matter of me diverting from engineering it’s a matter of me having found a youth name, but at the same time, I’m still an engineer because I develop applications and websites so no I have not left engineering.
Question 5: Was the transition smooth between engineering and sales and what was your biggest challenge?
As an engineer, you don’t work with trial and error. You don’t try and then fail and then try again and fail. You are supposed to get it right otherwise people are going to die. So the transition was rough because you’re coming from your high horse where you’ve been part of the engineers. For example, at Hertfordshire, we used to have our little groups of engineers, doctors and whatnot, but you’re always on your high horse because the assumption is that if you are doing engineering you are smart 🧠. When you get to sales and marketing the truth is in the numbers 🔢. It’s not about how clever you are or how you can calculate these numbers. It’s about how much you can put into action, how much you can correct, and how much you can move forward. So no it was not an easy transition, but now when I look at it from a bird’s eye view I can understand things much better because I’m not just looking at things from a technical perspective, but I am looking at the whole customer journey; they are inside my app or until they’re on my website, and they’re doing whatever is being done there. Finally, don’t take anything too hard it’s going to be a bit tense, but you’ll be fine.
Question 6: Have you used the AIDA framework before or any other frameworks to help you convert your potential leads into customers?
The thing is, for example, a click funnels can provide you with all the analysis you need and all the other content you might need to convert. The method of conversion depends on how hard you try, test, and correct. As long as you do not test and correct errors, you will not find the best tool for a successful conversion. If you can implement and test, the better tools you use, the better the results.
Question 7: If I have 100 emails how can I figure out the potential client from them?
The answer here is “Your source”! Whether your lead is hot or cold is mainly dependent on your source and how you on board with them. I mean if you have a hundred emails, and you have been collecting them with a web scraper your results would vary, but if you were prospecting your needs, pitching with what they are looking for already at hand. It’s the same campaign same leads, but you will get different results. So sometimes it’s not really about whether these people can buy, but it’s about getting them to that stage where they can buy. That is why you need to fine-tune your sales funnel so that when you’re looking for your needs it becomes easier to zero down on people who can buy.
Question 8: What is the biggest challenge when generating leads?
Get too many useless leads! For example, Mailchimp allows you to have a free account, right? Therefore, I will get a free Mailchimp account and start my campaign, but depending on the campaign, you will find that you can have 400 potential customers in the first month. However, because the way you are prospecting, and your methodology are the reason why these people that should buy is poor or non-existent. It becomes hard to close them. In the end, you will have a list of about 2000 people and 10 buyers. You think the generation of potential customers is useless. Why? Because, you have so many people on your list, but no one’s buying in the end. The key 🔑 is to understand whether these people are learning how to find the right people, and where to find customers, so you don’t throw your nets everywhere, and you won’t catch all these useless fish. Therefore, I think yes, this is the biggest challenge in finding suitable fishing locations.
Question 9: What is your biggest mistake?
I once carried a lead magnet too far! For a while my magnet was a free website, and while it was a terrible mistake, it made me make the following mistake. I was offering free websites to people who were supposed to be customers at the time, because I was starting to learn how to create a website and I wanted to create a portfolio, but what I saw was that when you offer something for free, it completely reduces its value 📉.
Question 10: What did you learn from your mistake?
What I learned from my mistake is that free is good but free needs moderation. The lead generation needs to be moderated. Don’t give them too much that they will question the value of what you have or what you are offering to. Give them enough to get the value but keep enough for them to still have questions!
Question 11: How do I assess if the influencer’s followers are potential buyers?
Depending on the artist you are working with. For example, if he is a musician, and you would like them to market your things you would need to make sure that their interests are aligned with you, in some way that allows the end buyer to connect with you on that level. For example, on Instagram, it’s easier to sell a music product when it’s being published by someone who is famous for music because when people are on their page, they know they’re there for music.
