25 Quick Tips for Effective Lead Generation 

To succeed in your Lead Generation efforts, there are a number of success factors that are necessary to enhance your chances of success. 

Check out our 25 fast-paced tips to maximize your opportunities in the coming year. They are only a snapshot but if you focus on these, your business will see growth. 

1. You can’t hit a target you can’t see – customer profiling is crucial to your success. Know the parameters that define your best customers and look for more of them. 
2. Good data is essential – without accurate contact data, your campaigns will fail and they will cost more. So, invest in a good target list for your marketing for each channel 
3. Rapport is king – when it comes to high-value and peer to peer selling, rapport is essential so work on that from the moment you engage with your prospects and through every interaction 
4. Focus on them not you – customers don’t care what you know until they know that you care. Work out what’s in it for them and focus on that rather than what you offer.
5. Be interested and interesting in equal measures – who wants to spend time with the most boring person at the party? Demonstrate genuine interest in your prospects and customers. Provide useful insight and reference points for greater engagement. 
6. Perfect the art of asking great questions – since people love talking about themselves. encourage them with a good blend of open questions to stimulate discussion and closed questions to qualify, narrow and filter
7. Advice first. Selling never! – if you focus your efforts on pitching your products and services, customers won’t trust you. Sales will come if customers trust you based on the advice you give. 
8. Benefits not features – it’s not about what you do. It’s what you do for the customer that counts. So, frame what you say in terms of how you can help them.
9. It’s a dialogue not a monologue – a sales call should be a conversation not a presentation. Don’t speak more than you listen. 
10. Failure is aiming in the wrong direction – it doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do if you select an audience that isn’t receptive. So, identify those most likely to need your services now.
11. People still buy people, so make friends – thank goodness we still live in a world of human interaction so focus on building your network and connections
12. Use your network – spend time cultivating a rich network of customers and contacts. They know people that know people so if leads don’t just naturally come to you, use your network 
13. Momentum breeds momentum – sometimes you have to fake it to make it and being active in the right areas will bring success to you.
14. Persistence is essential – you don’t always know when your best prospects are in the market for new suppliers. So, keep going and don’t give up too soon.
15. Following up is possibly the most crucial aspect of sales – so many sales people fail due to lack of follow-up. We’re all busy but don’t let potential business slip through your fingertips through inattention and poor systems.
16. Promptness is an asset. –  If you’re late to the party, you may not get in. Make sure you follow up all leads promptly and keep doing so until there is an outcome.
17. Use social reach for visibility and credibility – by extending your network and being active on social media, you enhance your presence and make your business more credible to potential buyers that check you out.
18. Share your knowledge – it isn’t about giving away the family jewels but Google and potential customers value the knowledge you share so provide tips in the form of videos, blogs white papers and other content.
19. Post regularly – visibility keeps you top of mind amongst your peers and the way to do that is to create compelling content that you post out to your network regularly on platforms relevant to your target audience.  
20. Multi-channel gives more opportunities for customers to find you – not every customer or prospect will respond to every approach. So, the more you use multiple channels, the more you will be seen. 
21. Integrate – subject to available budget, integration makes sense. You’ll never get 100% out of any marketing method. Connect on LinkedIn, send an email then follow up with a call. Choose your channels based on likely cut through.
22. Flexibility is a good basis for retention – you may have terms and conditions and internal ways of working that are hard to adapt but customers value flexibility.
23. It’s rarely about price – price is important but trust and demonstrable ability to deliver are more valuable in the long term so try to avoid selling on price alone. Be confident in your business. 
24. Crash through your fears – if you fear picking up the phone, that’s often understandable. But the next prospect doesn’t know the mess you made of the last call. Every engagement is a fresh opportunity to do business. 
25. Make friends with those who can refer you – there may be businesses servicing the same audience with which you can partner and cross-refer making that an additional sales channel.

These 25 tips aren’t the only ones you’ll need. However, master these and you’ll be more likely to propel your business to the next level.