Are your lead generation techniques working for you?
Have you tried different lead generation techniques, only to fall short of your goals for inquiries and new business?
If so, here are our top ten techniques to increase sales and new business inquiries.
1. Market and Advertise Offline and Online
A lead generation strategy is useless without a way of getting prospects to the first rung of the ladder. This means successful advertising and marketing of your business. A good marketing strategy can motivate cold prospects to become warm leads and take the first step in doing business with you. Read my FREE eBook for more information on this.
2. Build a List
Your list is your most important asset. Most prospects aren’t ready to buy the first time you come in contact with them, but they may be ready at some stage in the future. A well developed list, packed full of prospective customers allows you to see better returns, cut marketing costs and maximize the returns from the money you do spend.
Of course good list building is not just an excel sheet with everybody’s email address. A good list is detailed, segmented into different types of buyers and is regularly updated with new information. It’s the backbone of every good lead generation system.
3. Schedule Appointments
For those businesses with a more complicated sales process that requires a personal approach, the next step after a prospect shows interest is to arrange for a meeting. Depending on your business and resources, you might consider using a professional appointment setter to do the legwork.
4. Close the Sale
If your prospect expressed an interest or met you for an appointment, they’re interested in what you have to sell. How interested? Ask them to buy it. They can either say “yes”, “no” or “not now”.
Whatever the result, by closing the sale you’ve moved the process along. You may have a new sale. You may move a prospect along your sales system towards a future sale. You may have eliminated a prospect that could have cost you time in the future. Of course you don’t want to come across as pushy, but don’t make the common mistake of shying away from asking for the sale.
5. Build a Follow Up List – Clients and Prospects
As your list grows you’ll want to split it into two (or more) kinds of follow-up lists. One is for current and past clients. You’ll ask them for future business, sell new products and services and ask for referrals. For existing customers you’ll also need to use effective customer retention programs because these are the people you need to pay the most attention to. After all, it’s always cheaper to keep existing customers than to acquire new ones.
The second is for prospects who aren’t clients – yet. From that list you’ll want to implement Step 6.
6. Identify the Most-Qualified Prospects
As your list grows even more you’ll want to segregate it to make more money by spending more energy and time on your “A” prospects. Spend less time and energy to your “B” and “C” prospects. The first step is to create profiles of who the A, B and C prospects are.
The next trick is to starting using your automated systems to make C prospects into B’s and B prospects into A’s (and A prospects into paying customers.)
7. More Closing
If your prospect didn’t buy from you the first time, you should have put him on your mailing list. Find ways to follow up with him so you’re there when he is ready.
[Alec Baldwin - Best Performance On Closing]
8. Keep in Touch with Prospects
Keep delivering useful content to your prospects, keep making offers, closing, and asking for the sale with all your prospects who haven’t bought yet. You never know when they’re ready to buy. But when they are, you want to be there.
9. Keep in Touch with Customers and Clients
Once you convert a prospect into a customer, don’t ignore them! It’s more profitable to do business and keep in touch with clients who know and trust you. Advertising and prospecting for new business, in the cold marketplace, is the most expensive kind of business development.
10. “Rinse and Repeat!”
Turn your long-term lead generation techniques into a repeatable cycle. Turn lead generation techniques into a system. Don’t reinvent the wheel.
Do it yourself: For more lead generation ideas, Download My FREE eBook
Articles & Autoresponders & Closing Sales & Current Customers & Customer Retention Program & How to Buy Leads & Lead Generation & Lead Generation Techniques & List Building Strategies & Qualified Lead Generation & Setting Appointments
Do you worry about closing sales?
Are you concerned about coming across as pushy?
A good lead generation system should deliver a consistent stream of potential new clients and customers, but at this stage they’re only potential customers. You need to close the sale.
Closing sales makes a lot of business owners a little bit uncomfortable. It’s often seen as pushy or aggressive – something that most business owners aren’t. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
A good warm lead (i.e. the kind your lead generation system should deliver) has already demonstrated an interest in your product or service. Closing the sale is simply the next stage of commitment and should be treated in the same way as the rest of the lead generation process – as a soft-sell.
Use simple terminology to explain your services. Be clear with the facts and before you close, go over the important points again to ensure your prospect is clear as well.
People buy for emotional reasons. Make sure you connect your product or service to your customer’s emotional benefit. The best way to engage their emotions is to paint a picture of the future benefits they will enjoy.
Turn all features into benefits for the prospect. Instead of merely stating that your teapot holds 1.5 quarts, word it like this, “A generous 1.5-quart capacity means you can sit back and enjoy yourself without having to get up and refill your kettle all the time.”
But try to avoid giving away too much without needing to. Look for additional services you can provide at a small extra cost. “If you buy it today we can deliver it to your office by tomorrow afternoon.”
Reputable companies always offer some form of satisfaction guarantee. You should too. “If you’re not happy for any reason just return it within 30 days and we’ll give you your money back.” Guarantees make it easier to say yes.
If your prospect has come this far, then they have shown a clear interest in what you have to sell them. The question is not will you do business but how you will do business with your prospect. When do they need the project delivered? What color do they want their widgets? Speak in the future tense and you’ll find the sale progresses much more easily. If you feel a little uncomfortable with that, try using a simple line like, ‘Assuming we go ahead with this …’ to soften your approach.
Part of ‘Assuming the Sale’ is often to provide your prospect with options. It changes the decision from ‘should we do business’ to ‘how should we do business’. “Would you like the $50 upgrade or is the standard version OK for you?”
The most important part of closing the sale is to actually do it – customers do not like making decisions. By prompting action, you increase the likelihood of achieving the sale.
But even if you don’t get the sales you’ll either:
(a) Save time chasing a client who isn’t all that serious or
(b) Find out the reasons they’re not ready to buy now – so that you can overcome those objectives.
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