Sales Leads Made Easy |

Business-to-business lead generation is one of the few times in
life when you should start at the end and work backwards.

Before you write a single line of copy or design a single
element of your direct mail package, sit down with the sales
people who close the sales. Find out when and how they get
prospects to sign on the line that is dotted, and work backwards
from there to discover what you need to do to capture the
attention of these prospects in the first place and get them
into your sales funnel.

Here are some questions to ask the sales team:

1. What makes a prospect buy? (Is it price? terms? guarantee?
after-sales service? quality?)

2. What customer objections will endanger a sale? How do
salespeople overcome these objections?

3. Do prospects need a lot of information before making a
decision?

I am assuming that your clients’ B2B buying process (and your
sales process) consists of more than a few steps. Usually, it
looks something like this:

* Identify need

* Gather information on solutions

* Establish specifications

* Request proposals or quotations

* Interview top suppliers

* Make short list of suppliers

* Check references

* Test sample or demo product

* Select supplier

* Negotiate terms and price

* Sign contract

* Make first purchase

* Evaluate performance

* Make repeat purchases

* Remain loyal to valued, long-term supplier

* Drop supplier and start over again

Your goal with every direct mail lead generation mailing is to
figure out where prospects are in their buying cycle and to
target them there. The thing to remember in all of this is that
your goal in a multi-step, complex buying process is not to
close the sale but to move the prospect to the next stage. Here
are some ideas:

If prospects are at the needs-identification stage, offer them a
white paper or similar document that describes the customer
problem that your product or service solves.

If prospects are gathering information on solutions, offer them
a series of case studies or success stories that demonstrate why
your solution is superior.

If your sale involves many stakeholders, consider mailing a
different direct mail package to each person who influences the
buying decision. In complex high-tech sales, for example, you
can target the CIO (offer ROI benefits), the CFO (offer
cost-cutting benefits) and the IT manager (offer scalability and
ease of integration benefits).

In many B2B lead generation efforts, you will need to mail or
contact leads more than once before you generate a response and
have a chance to qualify them. That’s why starting at the end
makes such good sense. You’ll know how many steps you need to
take to reach the sale, and how many times you need to mail each
prospect (and what to mail) to turn them into a customer.

Alan Sharpe
http://www.articlesbase.com/direct-mail-articles/in-b2b-direct-mail-lead-generation-work-backwards-3147.html

Try this site for some free leads

Cold calling. Most people hate to do it and there is a cottage
industry of people making a profit by selling ideas on how to
generate business without cold calling. They’re making money
because they are using a basic marketing tactic that most of us
have forgotten how to use – give your customer what they want!
Tell a salesperson that they can get appointments without making
cold calls, tell them to buy your book, and you’ll make money
hand over fist. Why? Because it’s a solution that fits what that
market wants.

The fact of the matter is that there are many things you can,
and should, use to help generate leads. However,
business-to-business cold calling will always be an effective
basic tactic that will help you get an appointment with your
prospect.

Get Back to Basics

Here are 4½ steps that are so easy and basic that we have a
tendency to be suspicious of them. But if you just follow along
the steps, you’ll be on your way to doubling your sales
appointments in record time.

½ Step) Put yourself in the place of your prospect. Think about
what it will be like to get a call from you. You know your
product/service inside and out and are hopefully excited about
and believe in it. Your prospect isn’t excited about your
product/service and doesn’t believe in it yet! Also, you have
set aside time in your day to make calls, but your prospect
hasn’t set time aside to take your call. That’s why it is very
important to make the call all about them. Give them what they
want out of a cold call – hint: the solution to what they worry
about at work.

Step 1) Identify your ideal customer and their critical wants
and needs. At the very least you should have some generic
information about the markets that you serve and the obstacles
that they face from industry magazines, trade associations, or
industry analysts to help you target your cold call message.
This is just the starting point, but a great way to determine
how to give them what they want.

Step 2) Ask the “cold sweat” question. “What is it that wakes
your prospects up at 3AM in a cold sweat and in such a troubled
state that they would give anything to solve that problem?” If
you answer this question within the first 7 seconds of your
call, you will be more likely to gain the attention of your
prospect and be that much closer to gaining an appointment with
them.

Step 3) Once you have figured out what wakes your prospects up
at night, create multiple positioning statements that focus on
solving your prospect’s most difficult problem or achieving
their most important goal.

Step 4) Test those positioning statements and determine which
one results in better dialogue with your prospect and gets you
the appointment.

Here’s a very successful sample cold call script that I’m using
for my own business based on the 4½ steps:

Good morning Mr/Ms. VP of Sales, this is David from EMDCO.com
here in Chicago. We are the major B2B lead generation firm in
the area. Because of our expertise in your industry, we’re able
to solve the problems of the call reluctant/time constricted
sales force by delivering quick, reliable, and affordable lead
generation services. The reason I’m calling you today
specifically is to set up an appointment so I can tell you the
way in which we’ve been successful with (name client(s) that
prospect would recognize) companies. How’s (day) at (time)?
That’s it! I mention that I can solve what most owners,
presidents and sales directors worry about. They are always
thinking about the revenue numbers they have to hit, they know
they have sales people that don’t make sales calls for various
reasons and they know they want a reliable source of leads. I
know I’m not wasting my prospects time with a telephone
introduction like that.

By using this simple 4½ step process, it will help you formulate
your own quick introduction, allow you to quickly answer any
questions they have about you or your product/service, and
redirect the call back toward getting the appointment.

David Wells
http://www.articlesbase.com/sales-articles/4-12-steps-for-doubling-your-b2b-appointments-2279.html

Are you thinking or paying someone for a sales lead, or do you want to be paid for delivering one? If either, I cannot say how much is appropriate. However, sales leads generated on the Internet and sold to insurance brokers and agents are not sold on a percentage basis. They are priced on a flat-fee basis, something like $30 for a real-time lead, $10 for a lead three days old, down to $5 or $6 for an older lead. For more information, try http://www.ileads.com

What is the best way to get online leads? I’m looking for people who are specifically looking for a network marketing/home business opportunity. I know you can pay for leads, but are they legit?

I was where you are, just 9 weeks ago. I found an awesome generic marketing system which will help you generate qualified leads for any home based business. It will help attract both of the kinds of leads you need:
- Current MLMers who may be interested in something new
- Biz Opp seekers.

Best of all- the system is totally free! Really! They promised if I followed the system that I wouldn’t have to chase leads again, and that prospects would be calling me credit card in hand…and I swear to you- just this past weekend, I had a gentleman call, just to tell me he was signing up in my business! I was floored. I thought it was just hype, but that guy proved me wrong. I have had several e-mails from people interested in joining my business…which was a nice change from getting No, after No, after No….

visit http://bluescity.payitforward4profits.com

Good Luck!
Natasha