Kevin Vincent
Managing director of Vincent Consulting
www.vincentconsulting.co.nz
Every business would like to have more high quality prospects, but many businesses just don’t have sufficient time to spend on generating leads, or may be doubtful on how best to do it.
You are not alone – this issue affects most business. The goal is simply having enough qualified prospects that lead to an increase in your business revenues.
In any given industry, there are a whole lot of potential lead sources that can be used to supply your business with highly qualified sales leads. Some are very simple and inexpensive to set-up, others are more involved. Some will give you a trickle of leads, others will produce a flood.
An effective lead generation system should:
• Require little effort to effectively run it with the ability to be put almost entirely on autopilot
• Generate names, addresses, and even email addresses of people who respond and are interested in knowing more about your specific product or service
• Create a positive relationship of trust and generates a perception that you are “the” authority in your industry about your product or service
• Generate improved income. The system works like a radio volume control that increases your business when turned up and maintains your business when turned down.
The basics of lead generation include firstly targeting best buyers. For most of us, if we look at our financial statements and income from sales we will see that the Pareto 80/20 rule is working within your business. That is, just 20 percent of your clients are giving you 80 percent of the business and profitability. These are your best buyers or dream clients.
The next step is to become more proactive with your follow ups. Follow up always in a diligent, timely and continuous manner.
Every day that a lead goes unattended you are eroding the viability of that opportunity by a huge amount. They would not have responded and become a lead if they were not interested in the benefit your product or service offers.
The key to success with handling leads is to have a proactive system in place, even if it’s a simple as picking up the phone and calling your lead. Each new lead responded to you because they were interested, so pounce on each opportunity.
Proven lead generation systems include:
1) Direct Mail to your Best Buyers.
2) Publishing content.
3) Advertising.
4) Referrals.
5) Networking.
6) Speaking.
7) Online SEO, Google etc.
