Business Lead Prospecting
Business Lead Prospecting Using the Product to Attract New People
One thing I've noticed about my home business is that I rarely meet people who just happen to walk into my
house. Business lead prospecting requires you to be proactive. If I want new business, I must leave my nice cosy
home and go out and meet people. (unless I'm marketing on the Internet) If you are selling a food product or even
some kind of wellness product, you might want to consider setting up a stall at your local farmers market where
people care about nutrition. If you're selling some electronic gadget or some other non food item or service,
perhaps a reputable "flea" market would be better. Business lead prospecting doesn't require you to go blow your
brains out with some trade shows and home shows were the rent can be very high. If you've done the smaller venues,
and got a real good fix on your target market, the expensive trade shows maybe ok in the future, but not at
first.
Business lead prospecting does require that you find the right market for your product. About 15 years ago, I
made and sold homemade sausages at 4 different farmers market close to where I live in Southern Ontario, Canada. I
had been in one year round market for about 2 years and on a good day, I would sell $500 worth of product. Through
relatives, I learned that a new short term farmers market was opening up in the Toronto area. I went and on the
first day sold over a $1,000 worth of product from all new customers who had no idea how good these sausages really
were. Other markets in smaller towns in the are only grossed about $150 to $200. So location is really important
for business lead prospecting. Sam from Walmart was asked "what was the most important factor in the success of a
Walmart store?". His answer was "location, location, location." So if it was important for Sam, it's important for
you.
Business Lead Prospecting Using Signs, Banners and Such for Lead Generation
If you've got a really nice expensive looking car already, you might want to put a promotion for your company or
product on vinyl letters on the back window or someplace on the car where you can read it easily. I know some
people have had success with this method. It depends on the car, the signage and the person driving the car. Don't
be buying an expensive car just to do business lead prospecting. I have 3 trucks with both the Bread Roots name on
them and signs for a home business opportunity on the back and after 1 year can say, I should have kept my money.
Neither sign seems to attract any business. Keep in mind however, I am in a very small niche market with both the
organic bread and the "wellness opportunity". Such signs might work much better for a mass market business.
Business Leads Prospecting Using Newspaper advertising for Lead Generation
They say that in Cobourg Ontario, people only buy the local paper to read the obituary column. After spending
money advertising a business opportunity over several weeks with no calls, I tend to agree with that assessment. I
just can't quite believe everybody's making all the money they want and are totally satisfied with their current
lifestyle. This may not be true of your town. Try It. Don't make long term commitments. Just don't blow your brains
out. In my old days in real estate, I just put in one ad per night, never a string of the same ad over several
nights. If you do advertise this way, I understand the classified section is best and also the cheapest. I also
know that Tim Sales the author of Brilliant Compensation and a highly successful network marketer was recruited by
an ad.
Get Yourself Invited
Depending on your product or service and your product/market knowledge, you could get yourself invited to speak
at the various clubs like the Rotary, Lions, Optimists, or Chamber of Commerce or your local BNI group. If it's a
health product, you might try connecting with the local health oriented consumer groups, if your product addresses
any of the issues they meet to discuss. If you do speak intelligently on the subject, you will attract people to
you, rather than you chasing them. This method gets the numbers working for you: instead of presenting one on one
you are presenting to 10, 20 100 people at a time. You will be the local expert. It's best if you take the approach
of "speaking to give" rather than "speaking" to get at these functions. In my opinion, it shouldn't be a direct
sales pitch. I always go for the "soft sell" rather than the "must sell or hard sell" approach.
Prospecting Using the 3 Foot Rule: Hand Out Cards, Talk to Anyone and Everyone
This works best for naturally outgoing friendly type people who are a perfect fit for the of the "meet and
greet" approach. Some people are just spontaneous talkers. Enthusiastic words flow through them like the chirping
of birds first thing in the morning. They talk to anyone and everyone about anything. If focused on one thing, they
can be dynamite. My sponsor in the wellness business is just a bundle of energy who never stops talking all day
long. Ask her how she builds the business and she'll tell you she just talks to people. If that's your personality,
go for it. If you are a good actor you can play this part and after you're super successful, you can quit. You can
be like the actor Cary Grant wrote about himself as a eulogy at his own funeral. "I acted the part of Cary Grant so
long that I became Cary Grant." "If the mind can conceive it, the mind can achieve it." Napoleon Hill
Websites and Lead Generation
Lead generation is one of the major reasons why companies have websites. (It's certainly the
major reason why I have websites.) The hope is that their potential new prospects will find
them. With literally billions of websites that's becoming increasingly harder unless you know the rules of how to
play the game. The rules are elusive and subject to change. Unless you happen to be a fly on the wall at Google,
understanding the rules can be frustrating. Maybe there are no real rules, maybe the rules change monthly. Anybody
who claims to have this all figured is not exactly telling the whole truth.
There are some companies out there who advise small business owners to gather their own leads through developing
their own websites. In theory, a well written website with lots of content and positioned well with the right
keywords and meta phrases will be found by people interested in your product or service. Did I mention, there were
now how many billion websites? How do you get people to find yours? Well you could talk to your friends and
relatives and people in line at the mall. That sounds like you are right back at the beginning. Many in network
marketing companies have a replicated company website. According to some sources, Google ignores such website as
being redundant: Just cluttering up the internet with the same ol' content on hundreds or thousands of sites.
Yuk.
I believe websites are extremely important for developing business. Search engine optimization (seo) is
key. Even replicated websites fulfil the purpose of providing information to customers. It's just that you
have to send all the customers there. They'll hardly ever find you by searching. Unless of course, you brand your
name--more on that later.
Websites provide another very useful function and that is educating your clientele on the need for your product.
Often people don't even know anything about a product so how can they need something they know nothing about. So
how do you get people who don't know what they want to go to a website they never heard of to find out about a
product they don't even know they need. Good questions. Tell that to the guy who tells you the "product sells
itself". It kind of reminds of the lady walking by this absolutely gorgeous front yard who said to the gardener
that "God sure makes a beautiful garden". To which the gardener replied "Yes HE does and you should have seen it
when God had it all to himself".
Lead Generation: Blogging
If you have a business website then blogging is a must. I use Twitter as a mico blog. First it gives your
customers up to date news about your business Second: It helps improve your website rankings on Google because you
will have an RSS feed of your blog on your website. Besides these two very good reasons to blog, you should over
time develop a readership of people interested in your product or service. Consequently, you will develop a
relationship with these customers over time based on your blog. These readers will contact you by phone or via the
blog and become prime new customers for your business. Often people will read a your blogs over a period of time if
they find them interesting, informative and entertaining. (not necessarily all 3) So don't expect immediate
results, everything on the internet takes time. By the way, don't forget to submit your blog url to Google so it
can find you. Otherwise, it could take months and months.
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