After You Are Done: Lead Generation for Future Sales

One of the more desirable goals of many sales professionals has long been to generate a better, more cost-efficient leads list of better quality customers. Unlike other forms, lead generations ask for the prospect to provide detailed contact information and, their permission to be contacted at a later date to discuss their product or service needs.

You can offer, in exchange for providing their personal information and agreeing to be contacted, a special offer or a perceived high value item. This can be a product sample, a coupon for so much off their first or second purchase with your company or entry into a sweepstakes.

The goal of lead generation is to get information from perspective clients for future sales. You must first do this by, grabbing the prospects attention and then by creating a desire for your product or service.

There are a few ways to get the lead generation form into the hands of perspective clients. There are the countless home shows, trade shows, in which you set up a booth and ask people walking by if they’d like to sign up for a free whatever in exchange for their personal information and permission to be called by a salesperson later. This is highly inefficient and a major waste of time, unless you are required by your company to be there, then network with the other sale professionals would be of great help.

Another nearly useless way to generate leads is to place a box with an announcement of your service or product on it where people can see it, such as restaurants and bars and have a little form for people to fill out their personal information to win a sweepstakes or get a free sample of your item. Most people stay away from this because they know a salesperson will call them and unless your product or service is really what they want or need, it’s a no go.

Your company’s website would be the ideal place for a lead generation form. And here are a few ideas to make the form more accessible to potential customers.    

• Keep it short – as with any form, especially on on-line, people skim the highlights and read only every other word/sentence. Put important information in bold or italic so they jump out at the potential customer.
  
  
• Keep it simple – be straightforward and don’t put a lot of words that could be easily misunderstood in the form, yet you must include all necessary disclosure information.
  
  
• Put the offer up front – it’s a good idea to use your company’s logo as part of the promotion, which builds trust, shows you are not afraid to say who you are. (Ever see work trucks out and about without a company name on them? Why is that?)
  
  
• Reinforce key benefits – throughout the form or introduction, repeat the offer at least two more times. List your key benefits in order of importance. Remember, you are trying to get them to give up their information in exchange for a benefit or something of value.
  
  
• Include a ‘Call-to-Action’ – use action words such as “Join” “Subscribe to our mailing list for the best offers” “Try it before you buy it” and so on.

Do Not Do Any Of The Following Things On The Contact Form:

• Do not pry – the required amount of information should be kept to a minimum. Ask the bare minimum to get the prospect into your sales funnel and leave it at that.
  
  
• Remember your form of communications – how are you going to start communicating with this perspective customer? Via phone, e-mail, in person? Then only ask for that information. Or better yet, ask them how they would like to be contacted!
  
  
• Ask people to opt in – don’t assume they want your information or newsletter then have them opt out if they don’t. It’s better to allow them to sign up then have the hassle of trying to get out of a newsletter. 

Most important, through out your communications with the perspective customer, make sure you are clear that you are providing an offer in exchange for personal information and their permission to contact them regarding your product or services for a possible sale.

Once you receive the information (lead), take care of it. Use it wisely and don’t abuse it. You now have a fresh list of potential clients and can begin again, going down the list until you get a sale from each one of these, only to begin again. Its call sales!

Professional Sales Lead Generation <-- Super Smart Lead Generation Ideas!

“You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.”                                                                             Sam Rayburn