Get Rid of Your Lead Generation Problems Once and for All (Part 2)

By: Neal McCrea
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:23:29
Print this article | Tell a friend | For publisher | Social Bookmarking
Rating:
 

In my previous article I gave you my top five methods for lead generation. Here are my next five, plus a bonus, making a top ten (or eleven) in total.

6. Print advertising – both classified and display advertising can be rewarding, but expensive. You need to carefully measure the effectiveness of your advertising and balance this against other, cheaper, ways to generate new business.

7. Leaflets – can be useful for local businesses, or as inserts within targeted publications. Inserts must be very finely targeted, otherwise we all know what happens. That sheaf of inserts goes straight in the bin without so much as a glance.

8. Direct sales – for organisations large enough to have their own salespeople, it’s very important that your qualification and closing skills are top-notch. Firstly you have to spend time with the right prospects – those who are prepared to spend money to solve a problem that you can fix. Then you need to convince them to spend that money, and spend it with you.

9. Referrals – probably the best source of sales leads you can ever have. As a minimum, get some case studies from your best customers, stating the problem(s) they had and how you helped them. Better still, get your customers to call people they know who may have similar problems, introducing your business as a potential solution.

10. Free advice – often it will pay you to give away free advice. Don’t give away the farm, just enough information to make people feel like you’ve given them something of value. Some of them will reciprocate your generosity by doing business with you in the future.

That’s my top ten. Here’s the bonus:

11. Joint ventures – particularly if you’re just starting out it can pay you to piggy-back on someone else’s success. This could mean another company recommending your services to their customers via a direct mail or email communication. Or how about you offering a combination of your own and someone else’s complementary products or services? Your prospective customers will never have heard of you, but maybe your partner will have a higher profile.

I’ll cover each of these (including the first five) in more detail in my next few articles.

Neal McCrea has generated over $20 million in business over the past 15 years. His website http://www.newmarketingplan.com contains hundreds of ideas, tips and templates to help with your lead generation.

Article source: Expert Articles

Most Recent Articles in Internet Business category

  • Features of a professional website design - By: Orson Dixon
    No wonder you can find a website for every business and individual enterprise worth its name.
  • Setting up a web site to make money from home - By: James Betchley
    So you've decided to set up a web site to make money from home or supplement your income. It is important when setting up a web site which you intend to make money from that you decide early on what your theme and target audience will be - a top tip is to choose a subject or product that is close to your heart, this will make the whole process a lot less laborious as you will find it easier to keep motivated through the tedious process of search engine optimisation.
  • How to Become Internet Business Success - By: Seema Sharma
    Is your business seeing the kind of returns you should expect from your internet website? If not, then you will be able to get things up to speed in no time through following the steps outlined in this article. Through showing dedicated, and a willingness to invest, you will find that the results can often be lucrative and far more tangible than offline marketing initiatives.
  • Basic Things to Know About Affiliate Marketing - By: varinder singh
    The truth behind affiliate marketing is the fact that 90% of affiliates will actually make less than 100$ a month. Therefore, you shouldn't count on making Full time income unless you can get very good at the following: 1. Building a good web site that converts. 2. Search engine optimization. You'll need a lot of traffic, as maybe 1 out of 200 visitors will buy your products. SEO can help you get your site in the search engines so more people will be able to find you. 3. The trial and error of picking the right merchants and learning the correct ways to promote them. Too many people out there assume that affiliate marketing is actually a get rich quick type of program. These types of people will throw up a couple of banners, and then wonder why they never make a single sale or any money at all.
  • How to promote your business in eBay- rules and regulations. - By: Amit Kumar
    Auctions sites are a great way to promote your websites and sell any affiliate product. For example, EBay, the largest online auction there is, will expose your websites and products to millions of people who use it on a daily basis. People from more than 100 countries use EBay to either buy or sell products. Ever since its inception in 1995, EBay had already hosted billions of different auctions and its rate is growing at an incredible 30% a year.
  • Tips for Effective Sales Letter Writing! - By: Seema Sharma
    The global marketplace is fast becoming a real marketplace: it is growing noisier and even more crowded, with vendors all racing to sell their wares to the nearest customer, and with marketing techniques that can be clever
  • Tips to start Successful Online Auction Business - By: Aman Sharma
    The online business around the world is into billions of dollars. And one of the important part of this online business is Online Auctions
  • Bringing Your Retail Business Online - By: Nazeer Daud
    For business owners that have yet to bring their retail business online, it can be a daunting prospect. You will have to recruit a web developer, or appoint an agency; you will have to fulfil orders going all over the world; and you'll have to ensure that you get enough online customers to cover your costs.
  • EV SSL: A new weapon in combating internet fraud - By: Liam Derbyshire
    SSL was originally developed as a secure communications protocol to protect consumers from fraud in their online business transactions. When it failed in the form of widespread phishing scams, a better method was needed to win back customer confidence. The answer is EV SSL.
  • The Ugly Face of Website Downtime - By: Rob Seolas
    No one wants to be known as the company who lost out on a great amount of money because their website was down. The cold hard truth though is that a company can receive that label rather easily. Many well-known companies cringe when they see their names on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, detailing what went wrong.