3 Overlooked Principles Of Small Business Lead Generation

October 7th, 2009 → 12:53 pm @ Richard

How to Generate More Leads for Your Small Business

Most sales people and entrepreneurs will tell you that they’re good in front of customers.  They’re ‘people persons’.  “Put me in front of a prospect and I’ll close the sale” is a common statement among salespeople and business owners.  In the US, the Small Business Administration (SBA) estimates over 80% of new businesses never reach their fifth year anniversary.

If sales people and business owners say they are great in front of prospects and that they possess the traits of stellar sales people, how can the studies indicate so much failure?

Are the sales people lying?

… No they’re not.

The 1st Overlooked Principle of Sales Lead Generation: No Stress

Generating a lead and closing a sale are not the same.  When you close a sale you are asking the prospect to make a decision.  Making a decision is a commitment.  It means risk, responsibility and stress.  No matter how smooth and professional you are, closing a sale is stressful for your prospect.

Sales lead generation must be stress-free – the exact opposite of closing a sale.  You need to sift through the market and allow all those interested in your offer to stand up and be counted.

The 2nd Overlooked Principle of Sales Lead Generation: Getting to Know You

Sales lead generation must adopt a soft-sell approach.  Your prospect might need something you have for sale.  Ideally you want her, someone who doesn’t know or trust you, to step up and introduce herself.  No one appreciates being sold – not even salespeople.  And without any knowledge of you or your business, every approach will be viewed with skepticism.  If you push too hard at this point she’ll run away.

You want your prospect to feel comfortable, relaxed and in control – that means gaining her permission to begin a professional sales relationship.  That means offering your prospect a chance to learn more about you without making a commitment.  For example, to generate sales leads using a soft-sell approach you could:

• Promote a free workshop or seminar about a topic of interest to your prospects.  You can hold workshops in your office or at a public venue like a hotel or restaurant.  You can also hold them online through the Internet or over the phone via a teleconference.   There should be no strings attached for attending.  You’ll want to give good, solid information about how to solve your prospect’s problem.  The purpose is to be seen as an expert in your field, not a salesperson.
• Provide informative content. Through your advertising and marketing efforts you can promote free, useful and engaging information.  This can be offered in exchange for your prospect getting in touch or providing their contact details.  Develop content with no obligation such as a brochure, report, CD, or DVD that delivers a real solution to their problems, ideally including your product or service in the solution.  Great content allows the prospect to research your business in her own time and can provide the permission you need to follow up.
• Offer a free trial or demo. Offer a free trial or demonstration with absolutely no obligation. Make it easy and non-threatening for prospects to come out from hiding, accept your offer, and make their needs known to you.

The 3rd Overlooked Principle of Sales Lead Generation: Automation

Sales lead generation takes time and effort to be effective.  Most small business owners don’t have lots of spare time so it should be automated.  Your money is made closing sales – not generating leads. You need to automate the lead generating process so you can:

• Devote more time closing sales
• Have an abundance of leads to feed future sales

So how can you automate your lead generation process?

• Automate by leveraging people: Have an assistant make all the arrangements for your workshops, answer the phone and fulfill requests for your reports or brochures.  Your assistant can also mail and email your ads, sales letters, or coupons for your free samples and demonstrations.
• Automate by standardization:  Start a library of written templates for your most common needs.  Don’t reinvent the wheel each time: Have a platform you can start out with and alter it slightly to fit your current situation and the specific needs of the prospect.  What belongs in this library?  Sales lead generation letters, thank you letters, follow up letters, answers to common questions, brochures, reports, your media kit, and prospective client kits.  It also includes your ads, and invitations to workshops.
• Automate by leveraging technology: You can use specialized sales lead software. Or, keep it simple and use a spreadsheet program like Excel.  You can even use the electronic address book on your computer.  Input every lead into a computerized database.  You want your lead’s contact information so you can follow-up with them.  That’ll require a simple system for keeping track of communications with each prospect.

If you market online you should consider using an autoresponder.  Autoresponders are software programs that allow you to input your contacts, add your sales messages, then program it to automatically email the messages to your list on a schedule you choose.

Set and forget.

Since you decide when to send your messages, you could be on vacation for a week and still have your sales lead generation tactics automatically working for you.

Summary: Simple Sales Lead Generation

Too many small businesses fail because they don’t manage their lead generation process effectively.  Understand the difference between sales and lead generation, make getting in touch with you easy, rewarding and risk free and finally, automate as much as you can.

Follow these three steps and you’ll be able to focus on doing what you do best – dealing directly with new customers and closing the sale.

What Next?

We do it for you: If you need help developing a sales lead generation strategy for your business, Click here for more info about the lead generation services we provide

Do it yourself: For more lead generation ideas Download our free report

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Tags: Autoresponders, Business Seminars, Lead Generation, Small Business Lead Generation