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Sales Lead Generation Ideas

Some thoughts and observations on all things business development related. Read on to learn about how to generate new sales leads and create sustainable lead generation activity...

Category Archives: Lead Generation

10 Things You Can Do To Maintain Momentum In Your Sales Cycle

July 13, 2010 – 11:09 am

So, you’ve had your first meeting with that sales prospect you’ve wanted to speak to for a while. You think the meeting went well and your potential dream client was saying all the right things. You left feeling confident but…

Now what?

What Actions Can You Take To Drive The Sales Process Forward?

There are many things you can do to build on the momentum of a successful initial sales meeting and avoid the dreaded, “We’re waiting for the client to get back to us” sales-sapping blackhole of no-return. But here are our 10 favourites:

1. Establish a reason for a follow-up meeting

Don’t just follow up with an email to answer your prospect’s questions. Instead schedule a meeting where you can teach, show or demonstrate your answers.

2. Have a better understanding of your prospect’s procurement process

Does your contact need to go through a complicated buying process? Learn how you can help make it easier. Find out exactly what your prospect needs to allow them to place an order without any hiccups.

3. Get buy-in from the people controlling the purse-strings

Providing a sound business model and examples of the sort of return on investment is how you can make sure the Financial Director is on your side.

4. Engage the C-Suite

Often the CEO or other C-level Director is the key to successfully turning your prospect into a loyal customer. Sometimes you need to target your sales pitch at what interests them.

5. Don’t forget the Techies

Arrange meetings with technical support/Design teams within your prospect’s company. Show them how to integrate your product, make them feel comfortable knowing support is available to them.

6. Drip-feed relevant PR and product news

Has your product just added Chinese language support which will let your customer access a whole new market? Does your widget now work on the ...read more

By Gary | Also posted in sales leads | Comments (0)

6 Reasons Why Outsourced ‘Pay On Results’ Lead Generation Is Easier Than Having An Internal Sales Team.

June 15, 2010 – 7:37 am

Some companies we speak to, and in fact nearly all as they mature, will turn to in-house telemarketing and sales lead generation functions.

Why?

It’s probably a control thing.

Most organisations want to shape their own sales destiny, and not leave it in the hands of a third part supplier.

Natural evolution is another reason. As companies evolve, their professional sales departments need to evolve and grow with them. You need a good ‘internal sales‘ learning ground to breed the next generation of field sales people.

Past a certain point in their persuasion we can’t stop companies brining telemarketing ‘in-house’. But we can still present the reasons why we think it might not be the best idea.

Before we can help you understand why outsourced lead generation works, you need to appreciate just how difficult establishing an in-house sales team can be.

Here’s our thoughts on some of the challenges faced by companies looking to develop internal sales lead generation functions. You’ll see the process poses difficulties and problems right from the beginning.

1. Recruiting The Right Internal Sales Person

Okay picture the scene, you decide the way to grow your business is by hiring an internal sales person. There’s just a few hurdles to get over: You’ve got no sales people. You’re not a sales person and you’re not really sure what they should be like.

Sounds impossible from the start, yes?

Well it’s the situation most growing technology and digital media businesses find themselves in when they move from relying on word of mouth and referrals to grow onto creating sales with outbound sales and promotion.

Unless you’ve worked in sales-driven organisations, amongst true sales people, it will be very hard to know what to look for.

In most situations we have seen, the recruitment process fails to deliver the right amount of quality short listed candidates, normally ...read more

By Gary | Also posted in Pay On Results | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Do You Feel Like Finding More Sales Leads Is Like Looking For A Needle In A Haystack?

May 19, 2010 – 7:39 am

“Find me some red hot sales leads!” is something we hear a lot. If we had a pound every time a client said they were struggling to find hot sales leads, we’d be rich.

Recalibrating What You Expect From A Lead Generation Agency

As a lead generation agency, we speak to a lot of people, like you, who need to put more leads in their sales pipeline. But you might be surprised to know, the first thing we need to do it recalibrate expectations about what to expect from a professional lead generation agency.

The reason we have so many of these conversations is that most telemarketing companies promise so much but deliver very little. When speaking to other telemarketing companies, you’ll be promised heaps of ‘hot sales leads’ but in reality, you find out the number of leads promised will be a lot less than you might think. Here’s why…

How To Start Looking For That Elusive Sales Lead

First up, finding a customer who is ready to buy your product or service within a short time frame is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Trust me, the only way to even get close to success would be a harsh numbers game of a hundred cold calls a day, five days a week – and even then our experience shows the return might be less than three opportunities.

Imagine, spending your whole week on the phone and uncovering only three sales opportunities; The work itself is tough and offers little reward to the person wading through the database.

There’s a second problem too. By definition, if you’ve found someone ready to buy it follows that they are some (if not all) way down the line in their purchasing/evaluation process -so it’s likely that you’ll be entering the game at half-time ...read more

By Gary | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Looking for a lead generation company?

March 15, 2010 – 10:07 am

Qualifa is a ‘lead generation company’. We’re also a ‘telemarketing company’ and a ‘demand creation agency’ that delivers sales leads, meaning that we help companies communicate their propositions and generate qualified new business opportunities by developing smart lead generation techniques.

We, like most companies are always looking for ‘hot’ sales leads – so if you’re looking to hire a lead generation company here’s some things to think about:

There’s no such thing as a ‘hot’ sales lead (despite what promises some lead generation companies will make).

It’s a simple process but there are no short cuts (despite what most average telemarketing companies will tell you).

Don’t worry, there are some proven ways in which you can increase your sales leads (read on!).

To help you with this here’s some thoughts and information how to find quality ‘telemarketing companies’ who can deliver sustainable ‘sales leads’ to your business. We’ve also linked to some free resources on how to create a successful lead generation function…

It’s our view that:

Cold calling is a bit dated (there’s no such thing as ‘telemarketing companies’ now) – the tried and tested methods of phoning 100 people are day really are over. The Internet provides us with hundreds of smarter ways to research and engage senior decision makers to generate sales leads.

Ignore what firms call themselves (lead generation company, telemarketing company, ‘Hot’ sales leads R Us) – it’s about the lead generation techniques that they use not what they claim to be. Look for those that harness social media to deliver longer term lead generation strategies for their clients.

Traditional telemarketing companies have had their day (you’re going to need to seek out lead generation companies for the Internet age) – check what they talk about, is it cold calling and telesales or sales pipeline management and qualified appointment ...read more

By Lesley | Also posted in Appointment Setting, Pay On Results, Telemarketing, sales leads | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Targeted Lead Generation

March 9, 2010 – 1:37 pm

Qualifa Targeted Lead Generation

Targeted Demand Creation. In this presentation: What we do. Clients. Our approach. Why us? Meeting examples. Contact us. What we do: Help digital media and technology businesses engage with more potential customers. We stimulate interest & demand for specific propositions. Facilitate senior level new business introductions. We offer performance based services – no set up fees, no retainers, no overheads. Clients. Our approach: Deep understanding of client propositions. Identification of USP’s and differentiators. Intensive research on target sectors and customers. Articulate compelling outbound sales messages. Effective use of social networks and proven prospecting methods. Why are we different? Unlike traditional telemarketing services we focus on ‘sales intelligence’ to drive results. We only employ highly trained and motivated graduates who are paid on results. All account activity reviewed at Director level on a daily basis to maintain quality It’s about the proposition, research and contacts. The type of meetings we book… La Senza Petrofac Virgin Atlantic Reed Thomas Cook Monster Nintendo Boden Balfour Beatty News International. We are specialists in major brand introductions and senior level appointment setting. Contact us call:0203 1950001 enquiries@qualifa.co.uk ...read more
By James | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Quality Sales Leads & Successful Pipeline Management

March 9, 2010 – 9:44 am

Many growing digital media companies say that their main problem is ‘closing’ sales opportunities. They get shortlisted in a competitive pitch and stake the next wave of plans on a one in three chance of winning. The reliance most digital media and technology businesses place on closing a small number of key sales leads presents a big problem – if you lose one, there’s nothing to fill the void.

There’s a tried and tested way of hedging against this situation -successful pipeline management; the more quality leads you have, the more you are likely to win.

Companies need to protect against over-reliance on winning major projects by ensuring that the supporting pipeline is kept full at all times with quality sales leads and consistent lead generation.

So, what is pipeline management?

Typically a 3:1 ratio applies: of three final stage (shortlisted) pitches, typically one will be won. Taking this further back in the sales cycle, the ‘times three’ effect is usually accurate. To get three quality leads to the point of final pitch, you’ll need nine sales leads to get to the stage of formal proposal. To get nine to formal proposal, you’ll more than likely need over 20 ‘value proposition’ meetings or presentations. This means you’ll need around 80 quality sales leads in active conversations.

Of course all of this doesn’t unfold overnight. Lead management and maintaining a healthy sales pipeline is ongoing and often has a time frame of three to six months from initial conversation to contract sign off.

With this in mind it makes sense to take a long term view and get strategic about gaining introductions with new business. Setting aside other elements of your marketing and client acquisition strategy (search engines, events & exhibitions etc) the single most effective way to generate quality leads and interest in your proposition is to ...read more

By James | Also posted in Appointment Setting | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

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