Why do we need sales lead generation ? We want to increase the number of sales leads, in other words, the potential sales opportunities that will increase new business and revenue for our company.
Thing is that many companies rely solely on marketing departments or outsourced marketing for their sales leads. As much as this is a great way in our digital age to get leads, it can be expensive and take time. Also, without the right guidance, the marketing activities might not always generate the right type of leads for your business.
Bad Practice
If we do not have many leads to work with, our sales pipeline value will be quite small. And these are what we can end up doing to compensate:-
- We don’t qualify the leads we are getting properly. We end up with a bunch of poor leads in our sales pipeline with the pressure to get them “over the line”.
- We do desperate things like giving away our product cheaply, which not only erodes our pricing, but also our value as well as our profit.
- Lastly, not having the right number of good leads coming through, we’re going to consistently miss our sales targets.
When you are in a place where you don’t have many good leads coming through, the best thing to do is be proactive and get them in yourself. Don’t be tempted to spend time and effort on poorly qualified leads.
Best Practice – Sales Lead Generation
Here are 3 best practices to improve your lead generation yourself by doing your own proactive sales activities.
✅ For good sales lead generation, use the marketing channels where your target market is and start conversations! I don’t mean sell to them. Nobody likes to get those sales invites – but they may like to chat to you, and then they may see the value in working with you over time.
If your target market is in LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or perhaps all three, then that’s where you should be focusing your time and effort. Don’t be afraid to join groups where your target market hangs out and start getting involved, commenting, and even inviting to connect when it makes sense. And… if your target market doesn’t even go on any of these channels, then you can use the phone and email as a way of starting conversations. I suggest you spend a bit of time on these daily to make it even more conversational and to build strong relationships and trust.
The most important thing is targeting the right prospects, so make sure you understand your target market and their buying cycles so that you’re completely in sync with them.
✅ Go to your existing client base and if you aren’t already, start finding out more about how they are doing and whether you can help them in other areas of their business.
These guys are low hanging fruit, meaning they know and understand your value. Even though they are existing clients, they are also potential leads and opportunities. It’s important to nurture them and keep in their minds. And don’t forget to ask them for referrals… people they know (just like them) who could see the value in your offering.
✅ Be productive when you network. Effective networking is basically spending time meeting new potential clients. So whatever you do, make sure that you will be able to find your target market there.
Networking is not just for coffees, being “busy” and having a good time… although that makes it a lot more enjoyable! Whilst you are networking, make sure you get the opportunity to arrange discovery calls with potential clients or referral partners.
Don’t wait for marketing to bring all the leads in, within your sales role it is your duty to find opportunities in whatever you’re doing.
And.. MOST of all.. make sure you are having fun whilst you do sales lead generation!
Get in touch if you want to find out more.
