Sales Lead Generation without Cold Calling

The survey explains why cold calling, direct marketing and most other methods being used today are so ineffective. Individuals not get an estimated 3,800 marketing messages every day. They erect barriers to keep additional sales efforts away from them - voice mail, private email addresses and gatekeepers. When they want to find a supplier they contact a peer or ask for advice from colleagues. You must become known in the circles your buyers consult with. You must become A Big Fish in a Little Pond.

If Bill Gates or Steve Jobs phoned you tonight would you take the call? How about Donald Trump or Russell Crowe? Would you meet with them at 3:00 in the morning? Most likely. People would even take vacation time to meet with people like that because they know how valuable and important those men are. Of course neither you or I command that kind of respect or influence. However you can become like them if your pick a small enough target market and then work at building your reputation and relationships in it.

Becoming a Big Fish in a small pond can get you onto the radar and into the offices of people you want to sell to. Start by creating a list of the following items for your best target market:

• Important trade-shows and conferences
  
• Influential people, authors, experts who are known by your buyers
  
• The periodicals, trade publications and literature your buyers read
  
• Websites of your buyers, competitors and the industry, with special attention to news and information websites specific to your industry and target market
  

Also include in your lists the customers, colleagues and peers that you already know in your market that have influence and stature. If you don't know who such people are - call around and ask. Find out who people turn to when they need answers in your field and market.
Now you have those lists, you need to sell them. What will you be selling? Yourself! Work as hard at getting yourself known and respected as you do selling your products. Gaining notoriety and influence takes effort, persistence and time. Difficult? Certainly! But not harder than cold calling or working on deals that won't ever close because you don't have any other opportunities.

The key to becoming known is to carefully pick a small niched market where you can add something of value because of your knowledge, experience and offerings. Then find those that are the key influencers and have top of mind presence and build relationships with them.
Remember value isn't only what you know - it's what you're willing to do as well. Many important people are willing to teach and mentor others entering their field. Make a phone call and ask them out to lunch. Offer to send them current articles or research on their subject of interest. Sell yourself!

Want to find out ways of effectively connecting with your targeted market's movers and shakers? Want to know how to effective prospect and a process for sales lead generation that works in today's down economy? Click here for free video training that will fill your funnel and sales pipeline fast!

PS: I was only able to include a small portion of that survey here in a picture. However the full survey results, along with out to how to use them to get sales ready leads can can be found here.

Below are just a few of the ways to contribute value and become known within your target market:

Write: articles, case studies, and white papers on your solutions and industry. Submit them to the publications, websites and journals your buyers read. Leverage everything - a long article published in a journal can become a short blog post on the web. If you can't write, repackage the information your company has created, or outsource this to a college student in your area.

Public Speaking: volunteer to speak at trade-shows, association meetings and anywhere you can find a venue that your buyer and influencers attend. These are not pitching sessions. Instead inform the audience of important changes in your industry. Let them know what is on the horizon, where the technology or market is going. Inform them about important regulatory or legal issues they should watch out for. The subject list is endless.

Networking: few subjects are more important and misunderstood as networking. Networking is not showing up at Chamber meetings passing out business cards. What effective Networking means is attending the conferences and meetings your customers go to and making meaningful connections with them. Let them know what you can do for them. Follow-up with an article you've written or found that is touches on something important. In business it is a true saying that who you know is far more important than what you know. Find out where the important people go and make sure you impress them there.

In consulting and working with hundreds of sales reps and their companies, we've found the number one problem shared by all is getting in to see customers. In the past, buyers used salespeople to help define their purchase requirements. Today, buyers do much of their research online. Frankly they don't want sales people reaching them until they need a price or a quote. We no longer have the excuse of sharing product updates or the latest greatest widget - Google gives them that information. However if you know the right people and message them with appropriate hot topics your sale lead generation processes will produce:

• It produces sales ready leads
  
• It attacks leads to you instead of you finding them
  
• It automatically develops the leads not sales ready

Not all leads are created equal. Some leads will never buy, others are ready now. The vast majority - 80% or more - will buy but not today. In fact, lead statistics reported by the largest research firms say that only 8% of leads are sales ready when salespeople get them. However another 26% will buy within 12 months and another 33% in the following year.

That means with the right follow up your results go from 8% to over 67% - an ASTONISHING 800% increase in the number of opportunities you have to sell into.

So while you're following up on the 8% of leads in your funnel that are sales ready now - you must create follow up system that continue to nurture and grow the rest.

Knowing and being known by the right people so that they seek you out, take your calls and come to you when they're ready to enter into a buying process is the goal of effective lead generation.You're not going to get there by cold calling. If you would like to know more about how to connect, grow your funnel and the other aspects of modern effective lead generation just CLICK HERE Of course you can visit my main website at

Sales Contest: Win a Flip Camera Just By Having A Great Sales Story!

If you visit my website at Breakout Selling you'll see that I have to do a lot of writing and I need your help. Breakout Selling offers online sales training, sales training and sales training materials. In addition to that I've written several books on Lead Generation, Prospecting, and Selling in the New Economy. I really need some help and so I'm willing to offer a bribe to get it - a free Flip Camera. So let's have a Sales Contest.

Flip Cameras are the hottest electronic gadget sold on Amazon. These cameras take amazing video clips as well as great photographs. You'll love having one. The great news is that you don't have to spend over a $100 dollars to get one. Just share some of your hard earned experience with me and other salespeople. Every salesperson has interesting story and experience that can help others. Below are just a few of the tidbits that you can share to win a Flip Camera.

• The deal that didn't get away
  
• Prospecting methods you've had success with
  
• Good cold calling ideas and scripts
  
• A different sales contest you won
  
• What's working for you in this down economy

Sales Contest Details

Every quarter (and sooner if we have enough entries) Breakout Selling picks the best entry and sends someone one of these hot Flip Camera's. Why shouldn't it be you?

Today the number one discussion is on how salespeople need leads. Demand generation is critical. Sales prospecting, lead generation and capturing buyers attention has never been more important. Perhaps you have a good technique or method for prospecting. Share your ideas and enter to win a Flip Camera.

Here are the rules:

• The strongest and best entries win - like selling, merit and quality counts
  
• The story must be true and believable
  
• Ideas, techniques and methods must be usable by salespeople, not just managers and companies
  
• You must be a salesperson, rainmaker or a business person who sells
  
• You must share (confidentially and 100% private) your contact details so that if you win you'll get your Flip

I don't know how long I'll run this contest so if you're a salesperson (or a business person who sells) just go to the following link and see all of the details.

www.breakoutselling/win-flip-camera

Good Selling!!!