In the new sales and marketing paradigm individuals, consultants, entrepreneurs and small businesses can play on a level playing field with the big boys. Anyone can embrace the power of the internet, couple this with a powerful sales and marketing strategy and bootstrap their way to success on minimal expenditure.
In fact, minimal budgets, far from being a barrier to success, can actually focus your mind on what you really need to do to get more sales. Minimal budgets make you ask the question all of the time, "What will get me the best sales results?" Minimal budgets don’t lure you down the the tempting path of spend, spend, spend!
I had a friend who used to run a small business. He complained a lot. Mostly about lack of funds. "If only I had the funds to spend on advertising I could compete with the big boys." he used to say.
He didn’t and he went bust.
Since then he has set up a new business with a budget of £0. He even had to use someone else’s credit card to pay the £4.99 per month for his webspace!
His business is flying. Lack of cash focused his mind.
But in today’s new selling paradigm, lead generation is key. If you don’t know how to generate leads then you’re not playing the game properly. Most small business owners and professionals I speak to employ less than 5 methods of lead generation regularly. They rarely review or change their tactics. The average number that people employ is 2 or 3.
This is not enough.
If you want a successful business you need to utilise as many methods of lead generation as you can. You need to monitor the success of these lead generation methods, measure their results and tweak your strategies until you find a mix of 7+ minimum methods that work.
Once you have this mix you need to keep on shaking it up and trying other methods as well.
Here is a list to get you started. I am not saying that all of these will work for you or be practicable in your business or industry because every situation is different. B what they will do is set you off on the right track, get you thinking creatively about lead generation and, perhaps most importantly, they will remove the biggest blocker to your sucess, "But I don’t know what to do!"
Please comment and let me know other ways that have been successful for you and which are your favourite methods out of the ones below. I will share my top 7 with you another day but for now… and in no particular order, here are 98 lead generation strategies to help you grow your business…
- Sales letters to decision makers
- Classified advertisements
- Catalogues in venues
- Flyers
- Leaflet dispensers at tageted locations
- Special reports
- Online catalogues
- Telemarketing
- E-Newsletters
- Traditional newsletters
- Viral marketing
- Ebooks
- Magazine and paper inserts
- Associates and affiliates
- Introducers
- My top 100
- Family and friends
- Joint ventures
- Radio ads
- TV ads
- Position yourself / your company as an expert
- Internet adverts (PPC)
- Press releases
- Yellow pages
- Toastmasters
- Sponsor an award
- Fax marketing
- Business cards
- Chamber of Commerce
- Public relations (PR)
- Attend industry seminars
- Gather and use testimonials
- Offer a free consultation
- Offer a free trial
- Organise an open day
- Promote an industry event
- Give endorsements to prominent people
- Set up a Squidoo lens
- Write articles online
- Form alliances with your peer group
- Create a give away e.g. calendars, mugs, posters…
- Write for the local newspaper
- Syndicate a column
- Write letters to industry magazines
- Conduct industry research
- Send articles to clients
- Advertise on buses, bill boards, cabs
- Speak at the local college
- Panel at professional seminars
- Write a how-to pamphlet
- Offer a finder’s fee
- Do pro bono work for charity with industry links
- Sign your car
- Make up t-shirts
- Do a stunt (e.g. Richard Branson)
- Cross-promote with other businesses
- Enter a contest
- Create a contest
- Direct mail new clients
- Post card promotions
- Business cards
- Networking offline
- Networking online
- Trade shows
- Referrals
- Speeches
- Cold calling – foot
- BNI
- IOD
- Trade shows
- Franchise shows
- Blogging
- Social networking sites
- Christmas cards
- Birthday cards
- Thank you cards
- Add value notes / paper cuttings
- Promotions
- Article writing
- Online forums
- Bill boards
- Freebie pens / t-shirts / mugs
- Teach a class
- Send letters to papers as expert
- Local radio interviews
- Loss leaders
- Free teleclassses
- 3-foot rule
- Podcasting
- Youtube
- Ebay
- Mini-courses
- Two-step paper ad
- Rotary
- Church
- Masons
- Golf club
- Press release
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About Gavin Ingham
Wonderful list. Lots of great sources to experiment with to see what works and what doesn't. I think businesses ten to stick to one or two, when their target markets lie beyond those marketing channels.
Good stuff Gavin.
Question: Do you find that companies of 3-4 employees might have trouble implementing 7+ techniques? I would think that you need to be cautious not to overstretch yourself and thus only do a so-so job in each instance. Thoughts?
Jon
Most people do have trouble implementing 7 lead generation strategies. Not surprising really given most people struggle to implement 5 and some even less than that!
The secret is to find the ones that work for you whilst remaining flexible to the other options that are out there. Changing markets mean changing strategies are required. Some strategies work well in some markets and some situations and not others.
Some of the ideas on this list I have not used personally and I could never see myself using either… but I know people who do, and successfully too.
The right strategies for you will not only depend upon your product, your target market and your business sector but also on you and what suits your approach, style and business model.
If you split your business into on and off line strategies we are only talking about 3.5 strategies for each here. Add to that the fact that many very effective strategies are quite low maintenance and you're onto a winner…
Let's say for example that you decided to adopt online strategies of sending e-newsletters, creating a free downloadable resource, PPC and blogging – that's 4 already!
If you then focused on networking, creating a referral process and employing direct mail that would be your 7!
PPC and the downloadable resource are low maintenance. Once they are set up there is very little to do. For an example of a free resource join my newsletter and get the free audio.
Your networking strategy might be go to a handful of targeted industry events per month (or one good one!). You're probably at these anyway so little effort there!
One person could look after the direct mail and someone else the blogging and e-newsletter…
That would leave someone to focus on referrals… and once you have a process in place you could automate this online and build it into your existing face to face process offline.
So in answer, yes I think you could make it very hard but you could also make it relatively painless too. I guess the question has to be, how would your business benefit if you did?
Hope that helps.
Gavin
Thanks for a great article. Even the most challenged can find some excellent tips here. Thanks for the service you provide the community.
Very informative article.
Lots of interesting ideas to try. It's hard to keep track of everything so probably best to stick to two or three.
Hi Gavin,
A lot if interesting ideas. I wonder, are business cards so important they are on there twice
Seriously though, what would you say is the best lead generation strategy for a one man band with zero (almost) budget?
Wow… that's quite an exhaustive list! I think you've pretty much covered it. If people would stop whining about the recession long enough to implement some of these strategies, there would be no recession!
Aaron
Did I miss it: What about direct targeted emails to clients you want to work with?
William. No, I don’t think that you did! Well spotted.
I did have enewsletters and sending articles though… both of which I prefer. Shows how things move on doesn’t it as I mentioned online networking but I did not specifically mention Twitter or Facebook.
I actually wrote this list as part of a seminar some time before I posted it online.. I do have an updated list that I use as part of one of my programmes where I talk about the 20% of activities that actually produce 80% of the results…
To continue with the “Lead Generation” theme: (Nice blog spot here by the way)
I don’t know if the rest of you agree but, the obvious difference between a lead generation program and an appointment setting campaign is that a lead generation program stops one step short of setting a qualified appointment. Some clients, involved in a complex sale that requires a vast knowledge of the industry or strong knowledge capital, prefer us to qualify the lead and then hand it over to the client to have an in-depth business discussion and qualify the lead more thoroughly before they actually set a qualified appointment.
What you have to do is Select Target Campaigns: Some of our clients (Tech Company Lead Generation) request that we focus our cold calling to set qualified appointments on a short list of select targets. The Select Target campaign involves calling multiple times collecting information and escalating the qualification process until we set a qualified appointment. For enterprise targets involving a complex sale we can contact multiple decision makers and influencers to schedule a qualified appointment with each executive. All B2B appointment setting campaigns are customized to meet your needs.
The Bottom Line. Would sales increase if your salespeople and agents spent more time with qualified prospects and less time trying to find them? Appointment setting isn’t just a necessity – it’s an essential resource to help capture market share, build your business and achieve your revenue goals.
Here is what we offer, what do you people think in here about this?
* Decision Maker appointments
* You receive every email and communication with prospects (audio recordings)
* (No Shows for you = 0%)
* We have lists of over 25,000 potential prospects in the U.S.
* We can use your CRM list if requested
* Unlike most Lead Gen firms, you can directly call our Bus. Dev. people anytime
* Your account status is done DAILY by Phone not email like our competition
* Fast turnaround of your project
* Cost savings and revenue increase
* Significant improvement in the quality and productivity of your business
* RESULTS
Honestly, every post that you see on the web describes the next BIG methodology when it comes to B2B Lead Generation. At my company Partner Source, which is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, we approach the Lead Generation subject with science, as it is our business.
You have to have values that you stand by as an organization, Partner Source Values: Our principles define us. We stand for: Qualified appointments, results, performance and quality above all else. Outstanding Client Service is our dedication to responsiveness, consistent and effective communication with no surprises, and always meeting deadlines. Absolute honesty and integrity. Continuous Self-Improvement – the spirit of mastery. Making a difference with each person, every minute, every call, every day. We are dedicated to our client’s total satisfaction.
Glenn Wright
Partner Source Minnesota (B2B Lead Generation)