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.
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.
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:
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:
So how can you automate your lead generation process?
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.
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.
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Do you want to develop leads online? The Internet can be a great place to develop and grow your business. In particular it offers a perfect opportunity to attract customers, build your prospect list and ultimately help you close new business. The good news is that internet lead generation is not all that different from traditional offline lead generation.
Yes, the Internet changes the way that people look for information. Yes, the Internet allows you to automate lead generation. But, ultimately the steps involved in good lead generation are the same:
Let’s take a look at each step:
Imagine your website as if it were a store. Your first job is to attract people to your store using effective marketing techniques. You can’t sell anybody anything until they’re in your store. Some of the marketing techniques to consider include:
It’s also worth remembering that you can still use effective offline strategies like direct mail to drive traffic to your website as well.
Once you have started to generate traffic to your website then the next step is to turn some of that traffic into a list of prospective new customers to follow up with. Usually this will involve you creating an incentive for them to provide their contact details, the first part of any good permission based marketing campaign. That incentive could be a special offer, or, more likely, further useful information.
What form this information takes is up to you. You could consider a blog that people can subscribe to, a free newsletter, or a webinar that people can take part in, for example.
Once you start building a list the next question becomes, ‘what do I do with this list?’. The goal has to be to move people from being interested to being willing to buy your product or service. Of course not every prospective customer on your list will end up becoming a customer.
That’s fine.
However, it is important for you to find ways of separating those with a genuine interest from the ‘tire kickers’. Tools like newsletters and autoresponders can help you automate much of this process.
Of course the final step is to close the sale. You can create online marketing tools that will encourage customers to buy from you. But unless you are actually selling a product via your website, you will almost always have to close the sale through direct contact with your prospective customer or client.
However, if you set your lead generation program up effectively; the advertising you use, how you build your list and what you do with that list can all help ensure that the people you actually spend time selling to are the most qualified prospects you could hope for.
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MLM lead generation…
Building a successful MLM business depends on finding the right distributors, which is why most network marketers ask the same question:
When you first start your MLM business, you’ll likely be advised to invite friends, co-workers, family, strangers and anyone else you can grab to a hotel room for a business opportunity presentation. This can be an effective way to find distributors but there are only so many times you can do this – and only so many friends and family you can drag along.
What’s needed is a lead generation strategy that can help you connect with the right people – people who are interested in an opportunity, won’t waste your time, and are ready and able to take action.
Right now, there are people in your town or city looking for a business opportunity. Some are looking to start their own business. Others want a franchise. Many are looking for something inexpensive and simple to start, run, and grow.
It’s this last group that are perfect candidates for MLM, network marketing, or direct sales style businesses. Your job is to use sound marketing and lead generation tactics to attract them to you and your business. Use marketing and advertising strategies to become a magnet for business opportunity seekers and you’ll soon find yourself achieving your goals and developing lead generation systems that you can pass on to your distributors to help them grow their businesses (and yours).
If you design your marketing to attract professionals who are interested in a business opportunity, you’ll spend less time persuading. Your website will do the pre-selling for you. The online business presentation and autoresponder messages will answer your prospects common questions and weed out ‘tire kickers’– saving you considerable time. What you are left with are motivated people, interested in your business and ready for training.
And the best part? With a strong, automated system in place, it becomes even easier for you to train your team to copy your success – growing your business even faster.
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Low Cost Lead Generation
Would you like to generate more leads for your business but don’t have the budget to make it work? Think again. There are plenty of low cost strategies available once you know what you’re looking for.
Effective lead generation is a three-stage process:
Each of these three steps can cost money but if you’re putting together a low cost marketing strategy you can make simple decisions to keep the budget in check.
The first step in any lead generation strategy is to attract people to your business – and more particularly your website – with good marketing. For many businesses marketing means advertising, but advertising can be an expensive way to promote your business.
Marketing is bigger than just advertising and here are three simple marketing methods you can use:
SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of making your website and content easy for the search engines to find and more likely to turn up in the search engine results of your target customers. Do your SEO homework well and you can attract people who are searching for solutions – solutions that you provide – at no cost to you.
Good SEO comes down to five simple ideas;
You can find more detail about SEO in our free report.
PR (public relations) is traditionally about encouraging the media to write about you and your business – usually by issuing press releases and building relationships with journalists. More recently, online press release services have made it possible for businesses to create ‘direct to consumer’ releases (news releases as opposed to press releases).
These releases are designed to be SEO friendly and get picked up in the search results. If you’re writing for news releases try including a call to action that encourages people to visit your website. Either way, PR can be an effective way to attract leads without spending a fortune.
PPC (pay per click) is advertising. But it’s also one of the most focused and cost effective forms of advertising. A good example of PPC ads is Google Adwords. Adwords ads are the ones you see to the right of your normal search results. You can create an ad, decide what search terms the ad will appear next to, bid on how much you are willing to pay and then set a monthly budget. You only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad – meaning you can create very specific advertising campaigns on very limited budgets.
Once you have attracted people to your lead generation system the next step is to develop those leads and identify the ones who are ready to buy. This can often be a time consuming process if you try to do it manually – and the more time consuming it is the more expensive it is too.
Perhaps the best way to ensure that a low cost lead generation strategy is to automate as much of the process as possible, using:
The majority of your lead generation program is much more cost effective in the long run than relying entirely on paid staff (or your own time) to accomplish it. In short, if you need a low cost lead generation strategy, focus on using low cost marketing strategies and automate as much of the process as you can.
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Any good tradesman will tell you that choosing the right tool for the job is half the battle.
So how do you choose the right tool?
Some small business owners I know often complain about low returns from their advertising campaign or not getting enough new inquiries to keep their business going. When I ask the question, “What kind of tool or lead generation method are you using?” I quickly find one of two answers:
Without some research, neither is an effective way to choose your tool.
Different people respond to different lead generation media in different ways. Some people respond better to video ads than written articles, while others will prefer audio communications. Some will even require a combination of all three before the message sinks in. Your choice of tool should be based on a detailed knowledge of your prospective customer base.
Start with some simple research into their habits and how they buy. In many cases the best advice is to simply cover your bases and include as many tools as may be practicable. For example, many of the following may often be overlooked but can be extremely effective at generating leads …
Of course, you may well have your own tool that has worked well for your business. If so, please feel free to let us know and we’ll share it here.
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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.
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Why do you need a lead generating system at all?
Simple, a good lead gen system can:
In this brief overview we’ll consider both the advantages of an effective system and how you can create one for your business.
Lead generation starts with your external marketing, captures initial interest and passes the most qualified and interested prospects through to you.
Done online, it can be not only be hugely effective at attracting qualified prospects but also a huge time saver too.
1. Marketing and Advertising: The First Step in Lead Generation
The first thing to consider when constructing a system that generates leads is where and how to advertise. Offline marketing can include just about anything, from print ads to direct mail. Effective offline marketing needs to attract attention and lead the prospect into the first stage of the system – your website. Again, the point is to attract attention and then lead people to the first stage of your system.
Where and how to market your business – online or off – should be based on your ideal customer. Where do they hang out? What websites do they visit? What terms do they use to search for businesses like yours? Start with a detailed knowledge of your prospective customer and it’s hard to go too far wrong.
Online marketing can also include any number of tactics, including; search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click advertising (PPC), display advertising and social networking activities. Read my FREE eBook for details on how to do this.
2. Your System Should Be Automated
Once you’ve got your system set up, the system should be left to do its own thing. The less effort it takes to manually run the system, the more efficient it will be. That means automation. More specifically, your automated system should be able to:
3. Your System Should Develop Trust
Your lead gen system should also promote a trusting relationship between you and your customer. They should be made to feel appreciated and looked after. The better job your system does, the more responsive they will be.Your system should also provide you with a chance to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise, which is why so many lead generation programs start with an offer of information. By keeping these simple guidelines in mind, your system will be on a par with the best online. Moreover, you’ll be generating leads with enough regularity, accuracy, and effectiveness to ensure a healthy profit from whatever endeavor you undertake.
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Lead generation software?
Generating leads, managing leads and communicating with those leads can be a messy business for small businesses. So how do you keep it all organized? The good news is that new software alternatives mean that small businesses can use PC-based and web-based lead generation software to generate more sales leads and convert more of those leads into paying customers.
Businesses spend small fortunes on attracting prospects to their businesses through advertising and other marketing methods. Unfortunately, not every customer is ready and willing to buy when you reach out to them. In fact, most consumers will need to be contacted several times before they’re willing to take action. This is even more obvious with bigger ticket items or complicated sales.
Keeping your business in front of your prospects can be complicated and time consuming. So, smart businesses use software to automate the process and help them keep an eye on where their business stands. As an example, here are a few lead generation and lead management software solutions you could consider:
2. Email marketing software helps you to send relevant information to those who opt-in. Newsletters, up-to-date news of your products/service, or discount offers can all be effective at motivating future sales.
3. Lead tracking or analytic tools give you a better insight into website visitors’ behavior that will help in planning and tweaking your advertising and website if necessary.
4. With the use of an automated prospecting system, you can easily identify those who are ready to buy now and put the rest on your follow up list.
5. Sales productivity software helps businesses increase profits without necessarily increasing the amount they spend on sales.
6. Using a good sales and marketing software gives you an overview of sales generated compared to the cost of marketing – helping you improve and focus on the best-performing marketing activities.
Outsourcing your lead generation services – is it a good idea or bad?
Every small business owner is busy. That means you have to dedicate your efforts to the things you do well and where you can add value. If marketing and lead generation is something you’re good at, then great.
If not, outsourcing your marketing efforts could be a smart move.
A good friend of mine asked me this question, “As a self-employed business owner, what aspect of the sales process should I spend the most time on?”
It might seem like a complicated question but in reality it’s quite simple: You don’t make money producing leads; you do it by closing sales. That’s why many small business owners decide to outsource some or all of their lead generation activities – so that they can focus on closing new business.
Lead generation can be very time consuming for a sole trader or small business owner – but the things that take up so much time can be outsourced.
And they include:
A good lead generation company will understand your business and your target market. Their advice and experience can save you both time and money by avoiding the things that don’t work.
Of course, to get the best results you need to find:
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Are you a business owner looking for ways to boost sales? Lead generation programs are a great way to get the most from your current advertising and marketing efforts- something any business can benefit from.
A structured lead generation program is made up of separate stages (that each contributes to your business goals). If you do it right it cannot only improve your bottom line, but it can also create opportunities for future growth.
Long-term or short, lead generation systems have to earn their money. The very best lead programs should deliver high-quality leads at the lowest cost possible. Success isn’t, however, a simple matter of the upfront cost per lead. Several factors need to be considered, such as:
The answers to these questions will help determine the structure and detail of your lead generation program.
First, any lead generation system should be able to reach a very specific type of potential customer or client. Reaching an audience of one million people may seem like a great opportunity for getting new leads but if that campaign only achieves a 1% response rate, you may be better off targeting an audience of just one hundred thousand where the rate of return could be 20% or higher.
By knowing how many prospects turn into customers, you can begin to estimate your likely return on investment from any lead generation initiative.
Of course, a quality lead program will also include the chance for you to follow-up. Once you reach out to your market and capture lead information, proper follow up can make or break your program. The program you choose for lead generation should begin with the end in mind. Your ultimate goal, which is to convert leads to sales, might require several steps.
How will your program address this?
The key to a successful program is a great system. Systems can be replicated, can grow and are efficient. They also offer predictable results that can help you plan for the future and make improvements to your marketing. Your success will be determined by how well your chosen program creates a reliable step-by-step process for:
1. Targeting the right market
2. Capturing the right information
3. And following up at the right time and frequency
With more competition than ever before, you simply cannot afford to waste another dollar on the wrong system for getting new leads. High quality, converting leads are the lifeblood of any business operation – whether you are well established or a start-up.
To get those you need a system.
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