Prospecting - Page 2

The holiday season is in full swing with Thanksgiving here in the United States being celebrated this past Thursday and the unofficial/official shopping season kicking off with Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. There is no question that there is a lot happening during the next month; we do not believe the question is whether or not you will be busy during the season, rather, will you be busy doing what is needed to help grow your business?

Community involvement is something we see a lot of business owners do when they first get started. We mentioned it in the tried and true article because the activity typically wanes as a business matures. Why? You get busy. You get older. Your kids get older and have fewer activities. The reasons are many, but our focus is not just how "you" can be involved in the community, but how your "business" needs to be involved in the community. Once again, this is a team activity and these ideas should be shared and discussed with your staff.

This month we've looked at lead generation methods that are tried and true and many using technology. This week we're discussing lead generation that is meant to be explosive and creative. Being creative isn't always unique, but can mean using an idea you've seen done successfully and figuring out how your business can do something similar. The ideas this week are meant to be a bit more creative and create a buzz. Like all of this month's articles, we encourage you to get this in the hands of your staff and start talking about what is possible and stop focusing on what is impossible.

How much time does your business dedicate to the act of generating leads?   In many businesses, the answer is shockingly low.  Lead Generation is something that we all know MUST happen, but it's not something that is scheduled or planned.  To create a true lead generation process, your business needs to commit to spending the time necessary for implementation.   We challenge you this week to talk to your team about dedicating the time to go over the ideas we've shared this month and then schedule the time to implement a few that you like for your business

Last week we focused on lead generation ideas using technology. This week we want to take you back. Back to the ideas that were just so good you stopped using them!   These tend to be ideas you used when you first started but got so busy (because they produced sales) that you just stopped using them. The challenge this week is to read them without the assumptions and prejudices that you've built up over time. It will be easy to read the list and say, "been there, done that." We challenge you to take the list to your staff and ask, "How could this work for us?"

July Spotlight: Lead Generation Ideas

Does your business have more leads than it can handle? If not then you'll want to follow along in July as we explore all types of lead generation ideas.   We'll take a look at using technology for lead generation, tried and true methods, out of the box ideas, and being involved in the community.   Each week we'll have a quick introduction and then the content you really want: IDEAS.   We encourage you to print out these articles, take them to your sales meeting, and encourage your staff to brainstorm ways to implement these ideas.

Using Technology in Lead Generation

Whether you're a technology expert or a novice, there are lead generations strategies using technology that can help you grow your business.   Here are a few of our favorites:

You have probably heard it said many times that Sales is a numbers game.  That has certainly been our experience here at E-Myth Benchmark, but just what does that mean?  I mean seriously, in real numbers what does that mean?  If you were in front of 100 potential customers who were all within the demographic model of your most probable customer, and you offered them an opportunity to buy whatever it is you sell, how many would you expect to have immediate interest?

Actually, there is a fairly consistent answer, regardless of what you are selling.  It’s about three percent.  That number has come up several times in recent quantifications we have done both internally and with clients.  It is so fascinating (to those of us who are fascinated by human behavior and the sales process), that I recalled reading about it several months ago and went back to review it.  “It” is a book by Chet Holmes, entitled “The Ultimate Sales Machine” (Forward by the one and only Michael Gerber), which I highly recommend. 

Lead generation is the continuous activity of sending the right messages to the right markets, through the right delivery channels to gain attention, elicit a response and earn you a qualified lead.  Count them - that's three rights: 

• The right message
• To the right prospects
• Through the right channels

Two rights and one wrong will not get you the lead generation results you need!  If any one of these three rights of lead generation aren't working, then you've lost the ability to motivate the right prospects to see your message, or if they see it, to have enough interest in your message to respond to it.