Collabortive Coaching: What is the Best Way to Get Sales Leads?

I don’t like the name Collaborative Coaching for this series, if anyone has a better one, I’ll take it.

This is the third Collaborative Coaching post. The concept behind theses posts is to share a question a reader has asked and have it answered by the smart readers of this blog.

You can see the previous Collaborative Coaching posts here and here.

Today’s question is a common one. Most companies and sales people struggle with this; how do you generate sales leads?

The question:

I’m in the process of starting a new staffing company in Denver and I’m not a sales guy (yet). I hate the cold call, so I am looking for some helpful hints on how to build sales leads. Anyone have any good ideas how to warm up the cold calls?

Sales is simple. I break it down into 3 parts, access, influence, and delivery. Lead generation is about creating “access”.

There are two types of lead generation, passive and active. Cold calling is active, along with other sources like Google Adsense, and Yellow Pages ads. Another type of active lead generation is our network; our friends, former co-workers etc. LinkedIn is great for this. You can also buy leads from lead generation companies and depending on your business they can be very helpful. For start ups or new businesses, active lead generation is critical.

There is also passive lead generation. Passive lead generation is created through fanatical customer service, creating substantial product differentiation, having something customers just have to talk about, etc. Passive lead generation comes from how a business is run and how it chooses to approach it’s customers. It’s when we create word of mouth.

To generate a good steady flow of leads requires paying attention to both the active and passive lead generation approaches. The best way to do this is to create a plan. Evaluate your business goals and objectives against your products and services and how they compare with the competition, then execute the plan rigorously.

There is no shortcut or easy way to drive people to your business. That’s what leads are, people or companies who are interested in talking to you about your business. Getting people interested in what you have to offer takes a clinical approach in structuring your business, the messages you create, and selection of the “go-to-market” mediums. Be creative, look to leverage both passive AND active approaches and make it a habit. Lead generation isn’t a part time job.

Readers, what do you think? What are your thoughts on today’s question?

How Do You Get Sales Leads?