Insufficient Lead Volume
Key MA functions such as lead scoring, analysis, and performance measurement are most effective when a sufficient volume of lead information is fed into the tool.
If you attempt to utilize MA with a low number of leads, the small sample size makes it difficult to achieve results. Furthermore, having fewer targets to approach leads to a proportional decrease in the number of closed deals.
Therefore, the first step is to implement initiatives to increase lead volume. Additionally, continuous efforts are required to prevent lead depletion.
Causes of Insufficient Lead Volume
Insufficient Marketing Activities
If necessary marketing activities such as advertising, content marketing, SEO, and social media utilization are lacking, lead volume will be insufficient. It is important to recognize that relying on a single approach, such as a website alone, makes it difficult to collect leads, and adopting a multi-faceted approach is essential.
Insufficient Exposure to the Target Audience
Even if you are engaged in various activities like advertising and social media, you cannot generate leads if you are not properly reaching the target audience for your products or services.
Countermeasures
Strengthening Marketing Activities
Various methods can be considered, such as enhancing content marketing, placing paid advertisements, promoting via social media, exhibiting at trade shows, and participating in events.
Expanding Exposure to the Target Market
Analyze your customers, your company, and your competitors to clarify your target market. Then, conduct marketing activities directed at the appropriate target.
Utilizing Partnerships
Leveraging partnerships with other companies is also an effective strategy. Through joint promotions or events with partner companies, you can reach customer segments that would be difficult to access on your own.
Using Corporate Databases
Another method is to use external corporate database services to uncover target markets that have not been approached previously.
Inadequate Data Cleansing
Lead information collected through various marketing activities is never in a perfect state; it often contains duplicates, missing information, or incorrect data. Lead data cleansing is the process of cleaning this information to improve the quality of your lead data.
If lead data cleansing is not performed, even if you use MA, you may end up with incorrect analysis or scoring, or execute wasteful approaches, leading to decreased productivity and a lack of results.
Causes of Inadequate Lead Data Cleansing
Lack of Resources
Data cleansing requires specialized skills and effort. If you are managing a large volume of lead data and lack the resources (personnel, time, technology) to perform data cleansing, it may not be carried out properly.
In particular, for client data, entries are prone to variations in notation depending on the person entering the data—such as the presence or absence of corporate status, abbreviations, confusion between headquarters and branches, and variations in address notation—which easily leads to duplicate data.
Lack of Understanding Regarding the Importance of Data Cleansing
If the importance of data cleansing is not sufficiently understood within the company, MA will continue to be used without proper data maintenance.
Countermeasures
Securing Resources
It is necessary to secure the resources required for data cleansing, including personnel, time, and technology. For example, assign staff skilled in data management or set aside dedicated time for data cleansing.
Promoting Internal Education
Promote education and training to ensure that the importance of data cleansing is understood and implemented.
Utilizing Automation Tools
Consider introducing tools or software that streamline data cleansing tasks. By automating the data cleansing process with tools, it becomes possible to perform cleansing without diverting human resources.
Maintaining a Corporate Master Database
Maintain your corporate master database using publicly available information from government ministries and data from database companies. This benefits not only MA but also other systems such as SFA, CRM, and core systems. By maintaining the internal corporate master database under the same standards, data integration becomes possible.
![[Case Studies Included] Why Can't You Utilize MA? Causes and Countermeasures Explained](https://usonar.co.jp/blog/img/bnr_datacleansing.jpg)
Incorrect Lead Scoring
Lead scoring is the process of quantifying interest in your company's services based on behavioral history to identify the most valuable leads among your prospects. However, if scoring settings are inappropriate, you may overlook important leads or waste resources on low-quality leads.
Causes of Incorrect Lead Scoring
Errors in Scoring Criteria Settings
If scoring criteria are set inappropriately, lead evaluation will not be accurate. For example, excessive scores might be assigned to unimportant actions, or conversely, low scores might be set for important actions.
Lack of Response to Market Environment Changes
If scoring is not updated to reflect changes in the market environment or customer behavior, the accuracy of lead evaluation will decline.
Countermeasures
Reviewing Scoring Criteria
Examine which actions should result in a high score and how much those actions contribute to successful negotiations or deals, then reset the scores for each action.
Continuous Review of Scoring
Scoring is not a one-time setup. Periodically review and update scoring criteria as needed in response to changes in the market environment and customer behavior. This ensures that scoring always reflects the latest situation.
Data Analysis and Utilization
Analyze past data and utilize it for setting scoring criteria. For example, analyze whether high-scoring leads actually led to negotiations or deals, and adjust scoring based on those results.
