How to generate more leads

Whilst this may sound obvious, we often see business leaders focused more on what they are trying to sell, rather than getting really clear on who their ideal customer is and what problem this prospect is experiencing that the company’s product or service solves. Becoming successful at sales is all about having great conversations that lead to strong relationships. But how can you start a conversation if you don’t know who you want to talk to!

Create detailed ‘Buyer Personas’ or ‘Customer Avatars’ that closely match the demographics and behaviours of your ideal customers. These are semi-fictitious representations of your future customers and include things like what they do, where they live, what lifestyle they indulge in, household income and other purchase drivers. Once you start this process you will find it both insightful and great fun too!

Once you have identified your ideal prospects and set out your communication strategies, you will need an effective system for collecting, collating, and managing contact information. There are many powerful CRM systems out in the market, some are designed for specific industries and customer groups. At ActionCOACH NextLEVEL we love using Hubspot for CRM, Sales and Marketing funnel management, but there are many out there to choose from.

These powerful tools allow you to store critical data, map out and optimise communications, use powerful automations to replace the human element of the nurture cycles and create consistency in timing and quality of communications. Use forms or landing pages that incentivise prospects to provide their contact information in exchange for a coupon, free gift, value-add or sample. In this scenario a customer relationship management (CRM) database is essential for keeping track of potential clients throughout the process.

Every sale begins with a powerful conversation. There are many ways to converse with your prospects and social media is still one of the most powerful. Small businesses can harness the power of social media to engage in conversations with prospective consumers and generate new leads. Even simple things such as creating a LinkedIn company page, Facebook page, Twitter or even a YouTube account can capture the attention of prospects as they navigate the virtual world, diverting them through your process to become leads.

LinkedIN and Facebook both have sophisticated nurture functionality to help build conversations and relationships within their ecosystems, but often these require both time and financial investment. That said, the scope and scale of these tools can help you reach highly targeted prospects that are a perfect fit for your ‘Buyer Personas’ so the investment can be highly rewarding.