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common question asked by a new business owner is: "How do you find
customers? ¨ Customers are the lifeblood of any business. The more
skillful you are in looking for prospects, the greater your chances of
success.
Selling begins with your leads. Whether you use your lists for direct
mail or to cold call prospects, getting information about your potential
customers should be the core of your sales and marketing plans. Some of
these leads may become your customers, but some may not be interested in
what you have to offer. Nonetheless, looking for people or businesses that
may need your products or services should be a huge part of your day-to-day
activity.
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Your prospective leads can come from various sources. You can get
information about potential clients from your family, friends, and even
media. Other times, you have to buy leads from reputable sources. For the
most part, however, you must institute a system for collecting, updating and
compiling your list of sales leads.
Lead generation is a continuous activity. The business world is in a
constant state of flux. New businesses are created everyday. Some close or
reduce their operations particularly during these difficult economic times.
You need to be prepared to add new leads over time, as well as clean and
update your existing lists. If you use your lists for direct mail, frequent
updating for address and personnel changes will reduce mailing cost by
cutting down on undeliverables.
Where do you find these leads? If you are selling to businesses, there
are three ways to go about finding potential clients: research them
yourself, buy leads from a specialized source, or pay a lead aggregator
service.
1. Do-it-Yourself Research. Public libraries are a rich source of
business-to-business leads. Go through national directories, and trade
publications for lists in vertical industries. You can also find valuable
information from publications such as business or major metropolitan
newspapers, particularly those that lists new business registrations in the
locality. New businesses are good prospects as majority may not have any
supplier of products or services that they need.
2. Get from Specialized Sources. If your target audience consists of
members of any national, regional, or local associations, membership lists
are a very good source of sales leads for you.
- Chambers of commerce are a fertile source of potential B2B clients,
particularly if your market is narrow in scope and confined to a particular
geographic area. They sell their membership lists, which often include the
names of the contact person in the organization and other key personnel, if
any. If you are a member of the chamber, you may be able to get substantial
discounts when purchasing their list of members. Expect to shell out $250 to
$500 for a one-time purchase of the chamber of commerce's membership list
(the drawback is that you will have to monitor changes in the membership
list yourself).
- Trade publications. Other businesses in your industry may be most
likely to subscribe to trade magazines and publications. Print publications
especially generate a significant portion of their revenues from selling the
contact information of their subscribers. It may not be cheap, depending on
the kind of industry and nature of the publication. Leads can go as low as $
0.01/name to as high as $.15 /name depending on the volume of names you
may order.
3. Buy from Lead Aggregators. Information about your market constantly
changes everyday. Your role as an entrepreneur should be on top of all these
changes, and be constantly on the lookout for potential new clients.
However, getting all the information may be time consuming, costly, and
at best, incomplete. Your effort may simply skim the surface of all the
available business opportunities out there. New businesses are registered
every day, and some new entrants that fit well with your business may slip
past your radar screen. You may also miss out a number of Requests for
Proposals (RFPs) sent out by buyers looking for your kind of product or
service.
A cost-effective solution for small and home-based businesses is to use a
sales lead aggregator service.
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