As a salesperson, quality sales leads are your lifeblood.
The more you have, the more opportunities you have to make sales and blast through your sales quotas.
But the tricky part is generating those quality leads – so you can be most efficient and effective with your sale calls – and limiting the weaker leads that hold you back and frustrate you.
Here’s how you can start generating new, quality sales leads right now:
Keyword Research
In many niches, you can find tons of qualified leads through keyword research on sites like Yelp.
Here’s how to do it:
- Search your keyword in Yelp. For example, if you're a web developer who specializes in creating websites for local tax lawyers you might search “Tax lawyers near Los Angeles, CA.” If you sell POS software to retail stores you could start with "clothing stores in Tallahassee."
- Load the results into a spreadsheet with each lead’s phone number, name, and website link.
- Use cold calling software to get quicker results. With dialer software like PhoneBurner behind you, you can make 60-80 calls an hour, compared to roughly 20 if you do it manually.
Trade Shows
Trade shows are a great opportunity to generate new leads. They’re filled with potential customers who are open to new opportunities.
Here are a few tips for generating leads from trade shows:
- Be aggressive. Talk to people as they walk by (start by asking a compelling open-ended question) and bring them into your booth or section.
- Consider contests to build a crowd around your booth. Trivia, contests, raffles, and other interactive activities are great for building a crowd.
- Qualify leads after the talk. Mark them down based on how serious they seemed about buying, the urgency of their need, and whether or not the person was the sole-decision maker for the type of purchase
- Showcase products in your booth. Have samples of product in the booth for prospects to explore and see.
- Follow up within a week. Quick follow up is key, so you stay fresh in their mind.
Sales Prospecting on LinkedIn
With a good LinkedIn strategy, you can generate high quality leads and turn those cold calls into warmer ones.
Here’s how you can find high quality leads on LinkedIn:
- Seize every opportunity to connect – connections build on each other
- Join relevant groups related to your target industry
- Map out the decision makers within your target prospects, so you can skip the middlemen
- Track who your competitors are connecting with – these connections can be a great source for new prospects
- Follow the new contacts and recent LinkedIn activities of your current customers and prospects
- Participate in discussions and endorse your connections
Generate them from Your Website
Naturally, your own website can be a great source of new leads. Whether people are coming to the site directly, or finding you through blog posts, search engine queries, or referring websites, you'll want your site to be set up to effectively collect leads for you - via phone, an email list, live chat, or an online form that can go directly into your CRM.
Revisit "Old" Leads
One of your best sources of new leads might just be your old ones.
Consider this... according to @marketingdonut 80% of sales require 5 follow-ups after the initial meeting, yet 44% of reps give up after a single follow-up.
What does that tell you?
The average sales rep has some fantastic leads in their pipeline, that simply aren't being nurtured.
Think about past customers you've lost, old leads that weren't interested, and hot prospects that didn't convert. There's gold in these lists. You just have to mine them.
Remember... oftentimes the difference between "yes" and "no" is just timing.
Now is a different time. So try again.
Buy Them
Sometimes it just pays... to pay.
Consider looking into telephone lead suppliers, lead generation experts, and appointment-setting companies. While it's certainly not the cheapest method, the steady stream of quality leads might well make up for it with higher ROI.
It ensures you spend more of your time doing what's most valuable - talking to targeted, and even pre-screened leads who have already shown interest.
Just be sure to start with a well thought-out buyer persona. It will drastically improve the quality of the leads you receive with this method.
What's your best strategy for generating quality leads?
