Every business owner knows how important leads are. While not all of them will convert into sales, they are the best starting point for a small business owner seeking new business for his or her company.
The key with leads is knowing how to generate them on a consistent basis. Warming up leads over time is a great way to turn them into loyal customers. This is how revenues increase. You keep generating more leads and you keep converting them into sales.
Over the years, Small Business Trends has come up with numerous articles on generating and keeping leads. We hope that you enjoy our short list of lead generation and sales conversion articles.
Tips and Advice on How to Generate Sales Leads
21 Often-Overlooked Ways to Generate Leads Online
Did you know you can register to become an expert resource for local and national media online? This is just one way small businesses can generate leads in unconventional ways on the Internet.
Sure, you can use social media and email marketing. But for those interested in great solutions a bit off the beaten path, here are 21 often overlooked ways to generate leads online. Start generating leads online now.
13 Creative Ways to Use LinkedIn for Lead Generation
One of the best avenues for generating leads is LinkedIn. As a social network for professionals, it is good not only for recruiting people into your company, but also for generating interest in your products and services.
This list of 13 ways to use LinkedIn for lead generation is a good place to get started. Read up on LinkedIn lead generation.
6 Lead Generation Strategies for Local Businesses
If yours is a local small business, generating online leads may be a little tougher in some respects. After all, while the Internet reaches everywhere, you’re typically only looking for local customers who can buy your product or service.
So follow these six basic sales lead strategies to build the local leads you need.
5 Trade Show Follow-Up Strategies to Boost You to the Next Level
When you visit a trade show, you’re likely to make a lot of new contacts. Once you’re finally home from the show, it’s a good time to get started following up with those new names. This will help turn those contacts into leads.
And, as we’ve noted, those leads may someday become sales and loyal customers. Begin with these trade show follow up strategies.
5 Reasons Your Website Isn’t Attracting Leads
Your small business’ website can prove to be an invaluable resource in many respects. But it’s failing you if it’s not generating leads, too.
How do you know if your site is not bringing in potential customers for your business? Check out this list of the top five reasons small business websites are failing to generate sales leads.
5 Signs You’re Throwing Leads in the Trash
Did you just throw out a potential sales lead? This could happen literally or figuratively. A lot of small business owners are so caught up in the here and now of following a hot sales lead that they often neglect colder leads that could take time to develop into sales.
Check out these five telltale signs you’re throwing sales leads away. See if you’re guilty of potentially tossing money in the trash.
Ways To Build Trust With Prospects
The value of trust can not be overstated. That’s true in sales leads, too. If your leads don’t trust your sales force or sales pitches, they’ll likely tune you out over time.
Here are five ways to help gain that all-important trust from your sales leads.
3 Lead Generating LinkedIn Features to Capitalize On
LinkedIn really does offer some great means of generating leads for your business. However, some of these features, which can be among the most important for your small business, may take time getting used to.
Have a look at this simple LinkedIn lead generating guide and start using LinkedIn right away to start growing your business.
7 Tips for Your Business Sign or Lawn Sign
Buying a sign to post outside of your business is an important and sometimes expensive step. It’s a major investment in your business and reflects it brightly and boldly to the public. For those reasons, its important to choose carefully and select the kind of signage that will help bring customers (or at least potential customers) in the door.
Before you plunk down hundreds (or thousands) for your sign, check out these tips for your business sign that are sure to generate positive leads for your business.
5 Tools To Help You Close Sales Deals
Closing a deal with a lead is one of the most important steps in the process. And the ease and speed with which that deal is closed can determine if future business will be conducted with that customer.
These tools are designed to make several key aspects of closing a deal a lot easier. And in some cases, these tools to help close sales can do the work for you.
70% of Small Business B2B Websites Lack A Call to Action
Finally, know that you are not alone when it comes to your website and perhaps not generating leads. A call to action is essential for key pages of your website if you hope to have that website working for you to generate leads. Create your call to action.
Pencil Photo via Shutterstock
Aira Bongco
Leads will always be an essential part of any business. Without them, you cannot make a sale. So it is your responsibility to collect as much leads as you can and convert them in your funnel so that you can make some sales.
And the most important of all was, The Call to Action! You can inform them as much as you like but unless you can convince people to make a buying decision, or at least a step towards a buying decision, you have nothing.
Building trust is always important as well because people will buy from someone they know and trust. You need to be the one they trust when it comes to making a buying decision.
Thanks for the tips Shawn.
Graham Apolony
Big Note Marketing
Advertising Calendars
Valerie Dresner
Without leads you can’t generate sales as well, so you can think of more possible options on how to develop or encourage people in buying your products. Nowadays, people are looking for good quality products that can suit their peripheral needs. Every business has it’s own strategy to keep more progressive and consistent leads.
Cate Blan
Hi Shawn Hessinger, You totally forgot about the twitter and its power to generate the leads for the business. When compared to facebook and Gplus , twitter is the really helping tool for the business people in social media regime
Leads are king, but quality leads are aces. Some leads will never convert and you can spend a lot of time on them to no avail. Twitter is difficult as you only have a limited amount of word to capture you lead in amongst a sea of other tweets.
I have always hated cold calling to pull in new leads. I always felt like a used car salesman when I had to do this. I much rather pull in warm leads that I can qualify quickly and move through the sales process. Thank you for posting these.
Value proposition, Value proposition, Value proposition.
We have had success with having an offer that is engaging and gives the prospects the ability to “get something”, something that will help them solve a problem. For example, a compelling white paper or something free that is meaningful. We always thing in terms of helping an executive solve a problem. Once we ascertain the clients email, then we put them on a drip campaign and the emails look like they come from a real person, not from a canned system. On a separate note, we have also had success using LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
Great article Shawn.
Thanks,
Jimmy
In order to generate leads, you must be creative enough in a way that you will use the tools that are now easy to access and that a lot of people are fond of using just like the social media. We all know that leads are very important and it is up to us on how to find our own simple way just to generate them.
For small business owners, the most obvious lead generator doesn’t seem to be on this list, and that is tap into your network. Chances are high that you already know many potential customers and or clients. Open up your phone. Does everybody in your phone know about your business and what you provide?
Do they know how to “sell” your business to their friends?
Start with your network. Next follow up.
Those 2 items will generate more leads than you think they will.
Putting up an explainer video on your website can give you more sales. As instead of going through pages of content, your visitors can easily understand what you’re selling just by watching a video that talks about your business! Get your explainer video at clickcode media.
Thanks!
Also once you get leads, lead nurturing should be emphasized. Many businesses and/or salespeople waste good leads just because the prospect is not ready to buy (at that particular moment). You have to earn the trust and credibility first, which can take upwards to months in some cases. Don’t waste good leads, and nurture!
-Kate
Val M
Leads, leads, leads….They are the lifeblood of any business. No leads, no sales, no business. Then the question becomes, how to generate leads? There are no shortage of answers. But I think the best method for lead generation will depend on how successfully the marketer has identify his or her prospect, the latter’s needs and most importantly where that prospect is hanging out to find an answer or solution to that need or challenge. That will cut a lot of the time and money wasted trying to generate leads from every marketing platform available online or offline.
Robert Driscoll
LeadGeneration is imperative for a successful on line business. Unfortunately it can be very expensive. Some of the “Clicker” software can cost $thousands and then $300 per month. Ridiculous. I found a marketing system offers the same as the big boys (software) but is Totally FREE forever.
The marketing system is called Free Lead System and is Totally Free forever.
It sure saved me. Here it is http://FreeLeadSytem.add1inc.com
Robert Driscoll
Correction on the address it http://FreeLeadSystem.ADD1inc.com