OnTrak Action Brief

Got Leads!

Five Things You Can Do Right Now to Generate More Leads

In good economic times, or in bad economic times, a business can never have too many leads. Leads are the fuel that keeps your sales engine running. Here a few ideas that you can put to use immediately to increase your lead flow.

1. Get Visible

It is important have your message seen in as many different places as possible. If you have been advertising in the same publications for years, consider looking into alternatives.

Use a mix of media outlets. Spread your marketing across a variety of mediums, such as direct mail and online marketing.

Make sure you allocate a good portion of your budget to online marketing. Studies have shown that the vast majority of buyers use the Internet to research products and services before they contact a potential vendor. More on this later.

2. Be Selective

No company has unlimited resources for its marketing efforts. Therefore, you need to make every marketing dollar work hard for you.

The best way to insure that you are spending your marketing dollars wisely is to target your best prospects. Create a profile of your ideal prospect. The best way to do this is to analyze your existing customers. What do they buy from you and why?

Once you’ve got a profile of your ideal prospect, research the publications, web sites, trade events, etc., that these prospects use on a regular basis. Use this research as the basis for selecting the mix of media and events you’ll use to reach them.

3. Demonstrate How You can Solve Their Problems

Take a look at your messaging. Does it discuss how you can solve your customers’ problems? If not, it should!

All of your marketing collateral should be focused on how you can solve your prospects problems. Prospects will only buy from companies they believe can help them solve a specific problem.

A good place to start is by creating your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). This is sometimes referred to as an “elevator speech”, because it is designed to be short, concise and direct about why prospects should buy from your company.

Use customer referrals, testimonials and case studies to increase your credibility with prospects. This will help to demonstrate that you understand the industries you market in and can solve specific customer problems. It also helps to differentiate your company from the competition.

© 2008 OnTrak Consulting, LLC 757-292-6019All Rights Reserved www.OnTrak.us.com

Got Leads! – Five Things You Can Do Right Now to Generate More Leads

4. Use the “WOW” Factor

It is becoming increasingly difficult to get your message heard in today’s hyper-competitive business world. Shouting the loudest, or the longest, is certainly no guarantee that your message will be heard.

We are in a new era of marketing. Traditional or “interruption” marketing no longer works. Just think of how many times you actually answer your phone, or actually watch a commercial on TV. The rules have changed and so must your marketing.

Surveys conduced by GlobalSpec and ThomasNet have shown that nine-out-of-ten buyers start with the Internet when sourcing products and services. That means your prospective customers are researching your products and services before they will contact you. Needless to say, you must have an online presence.

However, having an online presence is not enough. You need to have a reason for these buyers to come to your site repeatedly and to follow through with requests for additional information, or for contact from your sales department.

This is where the “WOW” factor comes into play.

Your web site needs to provide the information your buyers are looking for. It also needs to be interesting and even entertaining.

So how do you do that?

The good news is that you have many cost-effective options to be creative using multimedia presentations on the web. Here’s a simple list of the techniques you can use:

On demand Webcasts Web seminars Podcasts Flash Presentations Interactive Videos One-click connection to customer service

Many of the items on the list above can be created in-house, reducing their cost. You can also find many firms, both on the Internet and locally, that can produce videos and Flash presentations for you at a reasonable cost.

Remember, regardless of the mediums you select, your message must be consistent and focus on how you can solve prospective customer’s problems.

© 2008 OnTrak Consulting, LLC 2 757-292-6019All Rights Reserved www.OnTrak.us.com

Got Leads! – Five Things You Can Do Right Now to Generate More Leads

5. Stick To It!

Marketing is a timing game. Even after you’ve created the profile of your ideal prospect, and created the messaging that focuses on how you can solve their problems, it still comes down to whether or not the prospect is actively looking for a solution.

That fact suggests that your marketing efforts need to be ongoing and continuous. You can’t expect to start marketing only after your current sales pipeline has dried-up. That, by the way, is the worst time to start marketing!

Studies have shown that it can take between 7-10 “impressions” (marketing lingo for contacts) before a prospect will recognize and act on a marketing message. This helps to reinforce that your marketing needs to be continuous.

Summary

A consistent and increasing flow of leads is the life blood of any business. In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, you need to market smarter. Through techniques like creating a profile of your ideal prospect, to structuring your messaging around how you solve customer problems, you will increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Adding the “WOW” factor to how you deliver your message will further increase the quality and number of leads you generate.

About OnTrak Consulting

We help small and mid-sized businesses increase sales and profitability by improving sales and marketing processes and leveraging technology. To learn more, visit our web site: www.OnTrak.us.com , or call us at (757) 292-6019.

© 2008 OnTrak Consulting, LLC 3 757-292-6019All Rights Reserved www.OnTrak.us.com