Get Rid Of Your Lead Generation Problems Once And For All

Writen by Neal McCrea

Every business needs a good lead generation plan. No matter how well you retain customers, some of them will leave you. Customers no longer need your products, go out of business or change location. Sometimes, even if you're the best, you'll lose them to competitors.

So it's important you keep filling that sales funnel. Don't expect to achieve high enquiry and conversion rates right away. As long as you're creating enough new ways for customers to learn about your value proposition, you'll get plenty of quality leads filtering through.

Here are the first five of my top ten methods of lead generation:

1. Risk removal - new business can be a scary area for some people because it's outside their normal comfort zone. However, you must keep adding new customers in your business. It's almost certain you'll lose existing customers for a variety of reasons, so you must keep replacing them (and more) to move your business forward. One way to achieve this is to lower or remove any perceived barriers to doing business with you. Offer a risk-free guarantee or a free trial to get new customers on board.

2. Mailing lists - somewhere out there is a mailing list that would be perfect for your business. It will contain the right type of target customers for your products and services. You can often determine this from the characteristics of your current customers.

3. Telemarketing - we all hate those cold calls, don't we? Your telemarketing needs to be smart to overcome the perception that all cold calls are intrusive. You need some degree of certainty that the prospect already is, or will be, interested in what you have to offer.

4. Public relations - often the cheapest, but most overlooked, method to get your messages out there. A good, targeted press release or news article can out-perform even the most effective advertising.

5. Directory ads - most businesses advertise in the local Yellow Pages or trade directories. How effective is it? Do you do it just because everyone else in your industry does?

I'll give you the other five (plus maybe a bonus one) next time. Then look out for a more detailed article on each of the top ten.

Neal McCrea has generated over $20 million in business over the past 15 years. His website http://www.newmarketingplan.com contains hundreds of ideas, tips and templates to help with your lead generation.