Ever heard the phrase, “You’ve got lots of potential”? It’s usually a consolation prize for someone who isn’t getting what they’re after – a sort of “better luck next time, kid” gesture.
It’s the same working with sales leads lists – you are not dealing with clients, but potential clients. As bad as that sounds, a sales lead isn’t as difficult to develop as cold-calling, as a sales lead is based on some action (e.g., someone inquiring through a website, leaving their card at a booth, or some other method of contact) that expressed interest in the product or service you or your company offers.
The goal of any sales lead campaign is to find or create actual clients and there are a number of ways to accomplish this, each with their distinct advantages and disadvantages. When it comes to generating leads, there are several techniques to choose from, depending on the size of your company. Larger companies usually have marketing departments manage building sales leads lists, but in smaller companies, sales reps often have that task.
Generating Sales Leads Lists
The following are some proven techniques for generating sales leads:
- Networking
- Advertising (TV/print/Web)
- Telemarketing and tele-prospecting
- Buying a sales lead list
Networking
It can be as simple as contacting people you already know and have a relationship with to see if they or someone they know may be interested in your product or service. Opportunities to meet people who have a more general interest (say trade show attendees) are also good prospects for business-to-business (B2B) networking.
Web Advertising
Online advertising has become the most powerful tool for generating sales leads. In one week alone (September 24-30, 2007), people clicked on over 53 billion online ads [Source: Nielsen NetRatings]. By incorporating short surveys or contact forms into web ads, sales representatives have a fantastically powerful new source for creating sales leads lists.
Telemarketing and Tele-prospecting
This involves using a telemarketing firm to contact possible sales leads and solicit their business. Everyone can relate to getting called by a telemarketer when you’re either not interested or it’s an inopportune time to be pitched to, which is why working with properly targeted sales leads lists is an invaluable tool for making a telemarketing and tele-prospecting campaign more effective.
Tele-prospecting
is utilized for B2B sales generation in which targeted business prospects are contacted by operators trained to be so well-versed in the product (and oftenthe potential client) that they can be more extemporaneous in cultivating interest.
Sales Leads Lists
As we mentioned earlier, targeted lists are ideal for capturing potential clients on a large scale and there are multiple direct marketing (DM) companies that specialize in providing general to highly targeted sales leads lists. As you can readily imagine, for a successful sales lead campaign, having a list of potential clients that are known to have purchased or expressed interest in your product or service can be a game changer for any sales or marketing team seeking to maximize the ROI on the sales lead generation campaign.