Sales VP's and Directors at software and technology companies consistently bemoan the fact that the leads provided by their outsource lead generation companies are either weak or unsuitable. However, a new approach to IT lead generation has recently been launched by software marketing company "Ridge Consulting" which may eliminate this complaint once and for all.



The new service allows technology vendors to view commercial IT projects that Ridge Consulting, have identified and only pay for leads that perfectly meet their requirements.

The Leads are posted on www.newitprojects.com and are updated on a weekly basis, allowing software and technology vendors to browse new projects that have been identified and choose the most suitable ones to buy.

Key projects areas that are covered include ERP leads, CRM leads and Supply Chain Software Leads. Secondary areas include Document Management Software, Asset Management Software, Finance Software and Business Intelligence Software.

Further sales opportunities for the technology vendors include data storage, hardware, communications and software development or software integration opportunities that are driven by the larger software project. Technology providers in these areas can view the type of requirement being driven by the overall software project and decide if the project is suitable for their particular technology solutions prior to buying contact data for the lead.

In the past, IT sales leads have typically been generated on a campaign based structure, whereby a specific number of leads or companies are pre-agreed for targeting and then pursued through tactics such as telemarketing, direct mail, email marketing and so on. Usually a set percentage of every company called will have a project of some description and the leads will be scored as hot, warm or cold.

The problem lies in the handover of the leads from marketing (or the marketing outsource partner) to sales. While marketing may have identified the lead as being qualified and meeting all of the required lead criteria, sales may wholly disagree or may not even be able to make contact with the company.

With the “View, Then Pay” approach to IT lead generation provided by Ridge Consulting, sales can read about the actual project that has been identified, make sure that the opportunity is in their “sweet spot” in terms of industry sector, technical and business requirements, etc, and only then buy the lead. As a result the lead is likely to be very close to their ideal sales opportunity and should progress further and faster in their sales pipleine.

Ridge Consulting has already tested the service with their existing software lead generation clients and the results have been dramatic. Sales opportunities have progressed faster and deeper through the sales process than any previous campaigns, and a number of six and seven figure software deals have already been won as a result of leads from www.newitprojects.com

Perhaps this approach to IT lead generation will finally help bring sales and marketing (and their outsource partners) closer together in the pursuit of the most effective sales lead generation process. Either way, it is clearly a step in the right direction for IT lead generation.