Best Ways to Generate Leads for Sales: Whether you’re trying to generate leads for the first time or looking for new ways to increase lead generation, there are a few ways to increase your success rate with marketing automation.
One challenge that business owners face is how to generate leads for sales. A sales lead can be defined as any means of tempting a prospect to buy your product or service. Although, getting traffic to websites is not a problem for businesses anymore there are still challenges in getting targeted and quality leads for sales
Getting leads for your business is not as difficult as you may think. Millions of businesses around the world are failing because they do not have their own list of leads. This is where a good strategy will actually make a difference, and bring you the results that you want.
Any company that is looking to generate more sales must first attract customers. The way they do this is by generating leads and following up on those leads until they realize a sale. It takes a concerted effort to generate leads and then follow up on them in the most effective way possible. This can involve a lot of planning and thought. Here are some different ways companies can generate and follow up leads.
The importance of sales leads
A sales lead is a person or business that could purchase your company’s goods or services. A lead becomes a prospect once you’ve identified their level of interest and fit as a customer for your business. You can use different methods to identify sales leads, including advertising and marketing, cold calling, social media, referrals, outreach and networking, consultations, and product/service trials.
Inbound marketing methods can help your business create a steady stream of inbound sales leads. Use the following lead generation strategies to generate sales leads for your business.
1. Ask current customers for referrals.
Your current customers can be your best source of sales because they’ve already purchased from you, so they know your products and services work. Therefore, they should be an integral part of your strategy to attract new sales leads.
Warm referrals are more powerful than cold emails or outreach to prospects who know nothing about your business.
However, many businesses don’t take the time to reach out to current customers after the sale, beyond providing support or customer service when asked. They don’t thank customers for their business nor do they ask for referrals or help with generating more business.
Following some of these strategies can help turn current customers into a great source of sales leads:
- Ask your account manager to ensure that customers are satisfied with your products or services and customer support. Have them reach out to find ways to make the situation better.
- Set up a time to have a quick conversation with your customer, and thank them for their business. Ensure that they understand how much you appreciate their relationship and discuss how you can add value to that relationship.
- Ask for the names and contact information of business contacts or other companies that might need your product or service, as well as the reasons why they would make a good fit.
- Ask your customer to contact the prospect on your behalf, first through a short email or phone call. You can provide them with what to say in an email so that the sales lead understands the value you provide.
- Thank your customer with a thoughtful gift for the referral. Make it something personal rather than related to the company’s products and services.
2. Work with your network to identify sales leads.
Everyone has a personal network of family, personal, and work friends, past and current business associates, neighbors, service professionals (e.g., plumbers, doctors, lawyers, landscapers), and so on. You might overlook these people for a variety of reasons as a source of sales leads, and yet they should be one of your first options for doing so. You already have their trust, which makes them valuable sources of generating leads.
While the members of your network have you in common, many of them exist in separate areas of your life and don’t interact with each other. They don’t share the same contacts, so each person has the potential to provide incredibly valuable sales leads. If you’ve talked with them about life and business, then you can ask them to connect you to prospects.
How do you begin the process? Just let them know that you’re looking. Be specific about the type of person or business you’re looking to connect with. Describe their industry, business size, sales and revenue ranges, geographic location and so on. If they have a connection, ask them to reach out on your behalf to make the introduction. Better still, provide them with the email that they can forward to their contact.
Remember that you’re dealing with a friend or acquaintance that you plan to keep as part of your network. Mixing your professional and personal lives means you should be respectful of their time and the relationship.
3. Engage with sales leads at networking events.
Make attending in-person and online networking events part of your routine of finding sales leads. Networking is an effective way to reach new people and build relationships with people you’ve met in the past. It also allows you to engage your leads face-to-face.
Networking requires time, so choose your events wisely. Attend networking events where your sales leads are likely to lead to the best use of this time. Follow these strategies to make the most of your networking:
- Networking involves building relationships with real people. Don’t approach people from a sales perspective; instead, go in with the mindset of trying to help other people first. Find out about their business and about them as people, and identify what they need to succeed or solve a problem.
- For in-person networking events, exchange business cards with new people you meet. Add the person’s contact information to your customer relationship management system. Follow up within the week with an email to thank them for meeting at the event.
- For in-person and online networking events, ask if they would like to connect on LinkedIn. It’s a great way to stay in touch, even when they move to another organization.
- Be yourself and have fun.
4. Revisit closed and lost opportunities.
Sometimes, “no” means “not right now.”
You’ve probably reached out to a number of businesses that did not buy from you at that time. Make sure to reach out again. They already know what your business does. You might have demonstrated your product or service, and even engaged in a discovery call. They didn’t buy then, but that could change.
Revisit closed or lost opportunities. Reconnect with the prospect every four to six months. Ask them if anything has changed in their business, such as their priorities, challenges, goals and needs.
Companies that did not buy from you before are already qualified sales leads. Invest time and resources into marketing to these prospects. Stay in touch through blog posts, personalized communications and approved marketing emails.
You might not make the sale the next three times you reach out to them. But you might get a sale or interest after the fourth, fifth or sixth time they hear from you. And your prospect’s situation will definitely change. Their budget could increase to make financial sense to purchase your solution. Or your contact could move to a new company or department, where there is a need or impetus to implement your solution.
Staying top of mind with sales leads will make you the first business they call when it’s time for them to choose their sales solution.
Lead Generation Challenges
Despite the variety of channels and methods, companies still struggle to get sales leads. The reasons can be different, from constantly increasing competition and customer demands to an abundance of information that is hard to track.
Here are some common challenges you can face:
- Lead quality – you can get a huge number of random leads but still have low sales rates if they are not interested in making a purchase. You should focus on the target audience and ensure that the people are ready to buy your products.
- Limited resources – you will always be restricted by time, money, and/or resources you can spend on lead generation. You will never be able to try every single method, so focus on tactics that suit your needs and fit your budget.
- Tracking ROI from leads – another common challenge is to understand how effective your lead generation strategy is. Try to compare the costs of getting a lead vs how much profit it generates to see whether it is worth your investments or if you should look for a cheaper strategy.
- Converting leads to customers – you may be surprised, but 96% of visitors on your website are not ready to make a purchase. Turning potential customers into actual buyers might be a challenging task even for experienced teams, but it is a top priority for 69% of marketers.
Ways to Generate Sales Leads
Many companies run expensive marketing campaigns and hire professionals to get a steady flow of leads. However, it isn’t the only option. Let’s look in detail at 15 creative ways to generate sales leads that don’t require marketing support.
Use Social Media
About 42% of the current world population uses some kind of social media, so take advantage of such wide coverage. B2B companies can focus on Linkedin as it provides an amazing network for businesses, but expanding to Facebook and Twitter can grant you more benefits.
Try to make as many connections as you can to get more prospects. Use social media to get recommendations from your clients, post special offers, and tell more about your company. Remember that any social media is a fantastic channel to reach your audience and generate sales leads online.
Post Articles on Linkedin
Among all social media, Linkedin has a reputation for the most effective platform for delivering content and engaging with the audience. While most salespeople have an account there, they may not know how to use it effectively.
Use your profile as a blog to promote your brand. Don’t write long and sophisticated essays, simple “Beginner’s guide to…” or “What you should know about…” can be great topics to start. You can also post offers for consultations, invite people to events, etc. Just make your articles useful and informative to engage the audience.
Get Referrals from Current Customers
The best way to prove your company’s professionalism is to let your happy clients speak of it. Try to contact your customers to thank for doing business with you and ask them to share their experience. If they are happy, you can use these referrals to demonstrate the high quality of your work; if not, ask for reasons to see what you can improve.
What is more, you can use this conversation with a customer to ask for other contacts who might be interested in your services.
Work with Your Personal Network
When it comes to business, many people overlook the power of their own personal network. Your neighbors, friends, coworkers can be another valuable lead generation source as they might know somebody interested in your services. You have built-in trust with those people so they can easily spread the word about your company.
Just inform potentially useful acquaintances of your needs and ask them to send you a message in case if they find a match.
Networking Events
Face-to-face interactions still work great in our digital era, so you can take advantage of them for sales leads generation. Attend networking events, bring business cards, offer to connect via social media, and just have fun with live communication.
According to Marketing Charts, events help to generate the majority of qualified leads for B2B companies. So, make networking events a part of your daily routine to not miss any opportunity to grow your reach.
Un-qualified lead vs qualified lead generation
Before we continue, we need to settle the difference between a common contact and a qualified lead.
While interacting with your website and published content, a lead can fill different forms and landing pages. In this process, they’ll provide valuable information that helps a company to find out if that’s a good business opportunity. Usually, this analysis is made by both marketing and sales teams:
- Marketing evaluates the lead’s browsing information, such as visited pages, content downloaded and read, opened emails and Lead Scoring. If the prospect fits the team’s criteria, it means they’re marketing qualified (MQL) and must be handed off to sales;
- Sales receive leads and analyze their business information in order to define if they have fit with the provided service or product. If the lead gets accepted (SAL), the sales team will consider it an opportunity and make the approach. Being a sales qualified lead (SQL), the team’s objective is to close the deal.
Conclusion
As a small business owner trying to get a start, it can be frustrating trying to generate sales leads without spending money. No one wants to fork over cash they don’t have, but businesses need to eat too. In the B2B (business to business) space, it’s tough because buyers usually won’t give you the time of day until you’re established.
Although it may seem that lead generation has become a saturated market, there are still millions of companies out there who are looking for quality leads. The truth is you can put together a very effective lead generation campaign without breaking the bank. You just need to know what works (and what doesn’t).