Surefire Ways to Generate More Sales Leads Without Breaking a Sweat

Surefire Ways to Generate More Sales Leads Without Breaking a Sweat

You need more sales leads. What do you do? You’ve tapped out everything from your Brian Tracy books. Here’s how to kick things up a notch in the new age.

Get Referrals, The New Way

Referrals are one of the best ways to get leads, and most people intuitively understand this. But, if you’re running dry on traditional referral sources, turn to social media. Answer questions on Q&A sites like Quora, use Facebook to make new friends and offer valuable information for free, get involved in groups on LinkedIn, and start commenting on blogs you personally enjoy reading – add something of immense value in the comments section. You’ll get noticed by the blogger.

Over time, you can start dropping links in forum posts, comments on blogs where you’re well-known, on Facebook, and on LinkedIn, and people will find you on the web. Guess what? Those sites just referred business to you. That’s digital referral business.

Use Content Marketing

Content marketing is such a buzz word. Here’s how to make it work. Find the very best content in your niche. Figure out who is ranking highly in Google, Bing, and Yahoo!. Then, take their best piece of content and make it better. Don’t copy it – one-up it.

If the best content on the web in your niche is the “10 Best Travel Destinations For Newlyweds,” Create the “25 Most Breathtaking Vacations For Newlyweds.” Spend a lot of time researching locations, call up hotels and resorts, interview travel agents, and rate places based on reviews in Yelp and other social media sites. Then, compile the list, hire a designer to make your guide “pretty,” and publish it. Promote it using press releases, contact influential bloggers in your niche and hand it off to them, asking them what they think about it, and start buying ads to direct traffic to your online guide.

Manage Your Leads With Automation Tools

Automation tools can make your life so much easier. This mortgage software, for example, captures leads through websites, or by other “first contact means” and then manages them for you – providing you with rich details about contact history, allowing you to set reminders for followups, and tracking progression through a sales cycle.

Speak At Events

Speak at events, like trade shows and sporting events or business socials, so that you become a thought-leader. Will you attract clients? Maybe not directly, but the people you’re speaking to will be other influencers in niches related to yours. And, they will sing your praises (provided you do a good job).

You won’t have to market yourself directly by doing this. They’ll do it for you.

Take Out Ads

Everyone forgets about ads these days. But, direct marketing isn’t dead, it’s just changed its form. Stay away from Google Adwords unless you know what you’re doing. Hire a professional to help you with Facebook, LinkedIn, and other smaller PPC platforms. You can still get good prices for leads generated through these sites and you can test and tweak to continually optimize performance.

Brady McElroy is a marketing and sales advisor. He likes sharing his sales insights. His articles appear mainly on marketing and sales blogsites.