Lead Generation Tips

Consider The Following Lead Generation Tips

We have put together some lead generation tips for anyone involved in telemarketing and telesales.

Lead Generation is as it sounds, developing new enquiries and opportunities.  Some lead generation tips can help your business.

This is normally done via the phone, by calling up a prospect, doing a demonstration (this is basically chatting through your service) gaining their interest and making a sales opportunity.

This is never an easy task.  Whether you are doing it on your own or whether you are a professional.  It is an uphill struggle and being motivated to do call after call is hard.

Who Does Lead Generation?

This is done by telemarketing companies normally, this is based on them calling up a list of prospects (either bought in or supplied by you) to gain either an appointment or meeting opportunity.

Some Lead Generation Tips

• Be prepared for the days calling.  Ensure that you have a tidy and organised work area so you feel comfortable.
• Smile when you dial.  Sounds corny but a smile will charge your voice tone and since “what you say and how you say it” is the only way to communicate on the phone, you need to make sure your voice tone is as good as possible to get the best result.
• Get your data ready to call before calling.  Mincing around throughout the day will upset the flow.
• Tenacity.  Telemarketing is tough and is a numbers game.  Each call is different and the sale may be the next call
• Numbers – The more prospects you call and talk to, the greater your chances of success.
• When calling, get on a first name basis as soon as you can. * see below.
• Talk to people like you have known them for years
• Get people talking about themselves (everyone likes talking about themselves)
• Be friendly and be real.  People buy people and you need to sell your personality.
• Many telemarketing experts advise that getting on a first name basis with a prospect takes you into the friend zone and you can talk on their level (as opposed to Mr or Mrs etc.).  Some would argue that it is not professional to go in to a first name basis right away.  If you are doing high level telemarketing (calling up CEO’s or high profile people) then it may be good to tread carefully.  High profile people or CEO’s may wish to be treated as such and can get offended easily.  Silly but playing by their rules may just get you what you want.  Imagine you were calling up Bill Gates, head of Microsoft, how would you talk to him?

How To Get Past A Secretary

At the top of the lead generation tips is how to tackle secretaries.  Secretaries can be the gate to you getting through to your prospect or your worst nightmare preventing you from talking to your prospect.

There are a few approaches that can be made, each one works but some are more effective than others.

The most important thing is honesty, if you are asked if you have spoken before (and you haven’t) then do not lie.  Sales tactics are importand but should not be disceptive.

The clever sales person is the one that will win the race.

• Be polite to them. They are the ones that can open doors.
• Find out what days off they have or when they take lunch breaks.
• Normally they ask if your call is expected, if you have sent an e-mail advising you will call, you can answer yes honestly.
• If they know your voice and recognise you, joke about it and make them laugh.  Tease them about being a good guard etc.
• If they are set against putting you through, get a colleague (of the opposive sex) to call instead.

Lead generation tips cover a range of areas as we can see.

Secretaries are known as gate keepers, or guard dogs – they need to be treated with respect and care otherwise you may loose the chances of getting through them.

Bring them on side, if you know they have been on holiday, ask them if they are refreshed and get them talking about it to you.

If it is a Monday, ask if they had a good weekend and get the conversation going. Secretaries tend to have mundane jobs, so lightening the mood may well be the key to getting through.

A Few Tools And Lead Generation Tips For Success

The best advice is an e-mail followed by a phone call.

Gone are the days of having to wait 2-3 days for the post to be sent to a prospect, only to be told that it has not arrived andbeing asked to re-send it.

Phoning up a prospect first and having a quick chat does a couple of things:

• You find out if the prospect is really the right person to target
• They know you and will recognise your name
• You can follow up quicker

Why waste time e-mailing the wrong person?  If you are advised to speak to someone else, great.

You have a reason to call your prospect (and a way of getting through the secretary).  ‘Oh, Hi John, I was talking to Bill earlier and he suggested that we speak regards…”

We have put together a few tips on lead generation strategies for startups and new companies which may be helpful.

When To Follow Up

Even though e-mails are instant, it is still advised to give a prospect a few days to mull over the information and read your gumph.  When you send an e-mail introduction to a prospect (with a link to your website or attatchment) they will probably not read it right away.

Generally leaving 2-3 days is the norm for follow up.  If you talk to a prospect on a Friday, giving them a follow up on Monday is fine.

Important lead generation tips is Always agree with them when is good to talk next. At the end of the call always agree a follow up time and ask them if that is convinent with them.

This gives them the illusion of control and sets them more at ease.

They may even just see it and delete it or open and delete it.  Do not be discouraged; ‘send me some information’ is just a fob off that people use.

When doing a follow up, assume they have read the e-mail/info and use it as a pivot to opening the conversation again.

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