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Inbound Vs Outbound leads

Getting leads for a new product is very critical. It helps keep the momentum and helps us get initial feedback.

When we design a new product and have a functional prototype ready, we typically do one round of testing and demonstration within our organisation and collect feedback.

What matters more is the feedback from our prospects - potential users.

When we have a functional prototype ready, we have 2 paths to choose from:
  • Start a web-site , have some information and quickly get leads from the page
  • Go out on the field and interact with potential users and prospects, demonstrate the application
While we see a lot of product teams and startups doing the first one, It is the second path that matters till the product goes to beta.

Taking a product to beta is a big task.

Taking our example, we took 2 prototypes and 8 months to even start alpha and our beta is in 18 months with 2 customers.

While all teams are tempted to have inbound leads, the problems there are
  • In-bound leads are not engaged enough for us to provide useful feedback
  • The conversion rate is very low. Indirectly this could push down team morale.
  • Quality of leads is also very low. People might have registered as a lead for various reasons and might not completely understand the product.
That said, Outbound lead generation is very expensive and it is not easy for an engineering team to perform the function.

We tried it for 2 -3 months. Outbound lead generation is a sales intensive function and needs a separate skill in itself.

Outbound lead generation has got its own problems:
  • Focusing and getting the right set of leads to target is very expensive and time-consuming.
  • Having a right conversation is also very tough. It needs the right skill set.
  • Having a team on the ground interaction with leads is expensive and time-consuming.
  • Training the sales force or having the engineering team do the sales calls is also expensive.
That said, the costs far outweigh the benefits.

For a new product Outbound leads is the way to go.

Just one more caveat: Be careful about how you position your product. Outbound lead generation can get confusing at times.
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