How to Generate Leads – Part 2

Filed Under Business Development, Marketing Tools

In his book, Minding the Store, Stanley Marcus shared that his father Herbert Marcus once said, “There is never a good sale for Neiman-Marcus unless it’s a good buy for the customer.” Stanley said “His business philosophy was repeated so many times it became an article of faith in my mind, and on numerous occasions he demonstrated his enforcement of this principle even when it meant lost sales and profits.

But what does this have to do with generating leads?

Well maybe nothing at this point because we have to find leads before we can make the sale, and we literally need to learn and love marketing, in order to be successful.

So, on to the next step…

When we left off we were discussing the best way to generate leads and we organized our strategies into six categories. To be clear each of these categories involves different steps and you should expect different outcomes.

Lets begin by defining each strategy:

Direct contact and follow-up – This means making direct contact with a prospect. This can be done via phone, in person, or by mail, fax, or email. For this approach to be most effective the interaction you have with the prospect needs to be personalized. You don’t just want to send them some form letter. If you send a written communication it should be addresses to a specific person and should mention an issue they are facing or some recognition they received.

Once you make contact with somebody you can follow-up with less personal communications like articles, newsletters but these should not be the mode of contact you use to touch the prospect for the first time.

Networking and Referral Building – Many people, when they think of networking, think of working a room, shaking hands, and passing out cards and hoping these folks will hire them. However, this is not the only reason you should network Building a network is establishing a pool of contacts. These contacts can be used as sources of information, ideas, resources, referrals or may in fact become clients themselves.. The way you find these contacts, in addition to the traditional working the room method, can also be by phone or online.

Reaching out and finding referral partners does not have to be a waiting game. You can juice the engine by seeking out potential partners. By identifying people within your target market and getting to know them. After your first meeting or conversation, you establish a way to stay in touch with them so when the opportunity does arise they think of you and give you a call.

Public Speaking – Volunteering to speak in front of an organized group about your topic of expertise will almost certainly establish you as an expert or guru in your field of expertise. Unless of course you deliver a lousy presentation. Done well, public speaking provides more visibility and gives you a forum to help your audience understand the benefits of the service you provide.

Writing and Publicity – Crafting articles, a column, or even something as simple as a blog about your area of expertise is a great way to build credibility and visibility. When the dreaded word, writing is mentioned, some people cringe but there are ways around writing if it is not your cup of tea.If you are not comfortable writing yourself you can hire a ghostwriter or an editor to assist you with your work.

And, you don’t have to start big. Some business owners begin with ezines, newsletters and web sites before they expand their communications to publications with a broader reach.

In the publicity category you could arrange to be interviewed by a local publication like a small newspaper or journal. The interview should provide the publication with a story that is newsworthy not just a promotional piece or they won’t print it. A tie-in to a charitable event or holiday is always a great reason to establish contact.

Keep in mind that writing and publicity are great strategies for building your credibility and name recognition but you should not expect a landslide of calls from these efforts unless you are able to land a position for your article on the front page. These pieces are also useful in your marketing kit and for exhibit on your website.

Promotional Events – Trade shows and fundraisers are often methods you can use to put yourself in direct contact with prospects. The only problem with these type of events is they can cost you some bucks. Buying a booth, creating and setting-up a display, and developing and distributing literature to hundreds or even thousands of people can get expensive. In order for this approach to work you must determine the cost per head of each solid lead you receive from the event versus the cost invested.

Advertising – Advertising seems to be one of the avenues most business professionals gravitate towards first. I suppose it is the most obvious…but it is a path that should be pursued with caution. The problem with advertisements is they don’t really allow you to develop a repore with your prospect so they can get to know you and trust you.

Its effectiveness also depends on the type of business you are in. If you are offering a service that people need in an emergency or that they want to keep confidential an ad in the yellow pages can be effective.

In order to determine whether advertising will work for you , you must determine how clients usually select a service like yours. If most people hire a service like your via referral then advertising will be a big waste of money. It really is just about the math with advertising. You just have to evaluate the return-on-investment and ask yourself how many clients it will bring you and figure out if there is a more effective way to spend your money.

Once you identify leads then you can begin to build trust and credibility.

In my next issues, I will delve deeper into these strategies and discuss specific tactics you can use to generate leads.

Have a great week!

Karen Callahan

Technorati Tags: Business Development, Lead Generation, Marketing

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