Should You Build Relationships or Just Tell Them You’re Selling?

There are lead generation experts that will tell you that lead generation is all about building relationships with your clients and that it’s all about getting their trust. They will be the first to point out that lead generation should be viewed as a long term investment, and a businessman doing lead generation should consider himself a farmer, planting seeds that will eventually turn into prospects, which could later be harvested by being converted to sales.

But if you are a businessman that does not have the resources to hire a lead generation company for lead generation services and one that is working on limited time and budget, how much time should you spend tightening your belt while building relationships with your clients?

This is where the building relationships versus telling your website visitors that you are selling debate come in. When budget and time is limited, could you still wait for months until you tell your website visitor that you are selling something, or should you wait until they ask you?

Some take the middle ground by subtly putting buttons that lead to order forms, or adding a sentence or two about purchasing the products. Others simply add links that lead to a sales page. In the end, the decision is all yours. There are really no concrete rules about lead generation.

Your Lead Generation Will Fail If You Fail To Remember This

A lot of people that are doing lead generation on their own often fall into the trap of aiming to have a huge traffic in their website. Although this is a good goal to achieve, having millions of viewers visiting your website will amount to nothing if none of them will actually purchase your product. So unless you 
remember that you are doing lead generation in order to get sales, your lead generation program will just be another hobby, not a money making activity.

A lead generation company that offers extensive lead generation services will be the first to remind you that lead generation should be about converting prospects (website visitors) into clients. With this in mind, your lead generation efforts will definitely take a different shape. For example, you might be
able to attract hordes of visitors to your website by offering numerous freebies like e-books, programs, graphics and codes. But with the aim to increase sales in mind, you might modify the freebies scheme into getting more freebies if they enlist in your lead list, or offering more freebies once they purchase your product. Or you might also add more call to action buttons on your website that would lead the website visitor into purchasing your products or services.

So never forget that lead generation is not only about getting people to your website. It is about generating sales. Without converting prospects into leads and leads into clients, pretty soon you will not have the means to continue your lead generation.

Lead Generation: Think Short Term and Long Term

Lead generation should be viewed in two ways: short term and long term. Getting leads using short
term techniques is important because you will need to a supply of leads to generate sales. Without an
immediate supply of leads, your business may be doomed to an early death. If you are hiring a lead
generation company for lead generation services, be sure to include a healthy dose of strategies and
action plans in getting an immediate supply of leads.

While the short term lead generation techniques will put food on the table, the long term lead
generation techniques will enable you to make your business last for a longer time. Long term lead
generation is like canning fruits for winter. Everybody will salivate with the good smells coming from the
kitchen, and will be enticed to linger on for the long haul. You will also have something to dish out when
fresh fruits are no longer available.

So when you are making your lead generation program, be sure to have programs that will immediately
convert people into leads and programs that you will do today, in order for you to get leads later.

Lead Generation: Think Short Term and Long Term

Lead generation should be viewed in two ways: short term and long term. Getting leads using short term techniques is important because you will need to a supply of leads to generate sales. Without an immediate supply of leads, your business may be doomed to an early death. If you are hiring a lead generation company for lead generation services, be sure to include a healthy dose of strategies and action plans in getting an immediate supply of leads.

While the short term lead generation techniques will put food on the table, the long term lead generation techniques will enable you to make your business last for a longer time. Long term lead generation is like canning fruits for winter. Everybody will salivate with the good smells coming from the kitchen, and will be enticed to linger on for the long haul. You will also have something to dish out when fresh fruits are no longer available.

So when you are making your lead generation program, be sure to have programs that will immediately convert people into leads and programs that you will do today, in order for you to get leads later.

Selling is No Longer a Monologue

An American salesman is trying to sell ice to an Eskimo. He blabbers on and on and on about the need of the Eskimo for the ice, the superiority of his ice against the ice surrounding the Eskimo, etc. The Eskimo was listening to the man and would only be distracted every now and then by a discreet beep on his iPhone. After about 30 minutes, just as the salesman was winding down on his sales talk, A FedEx guy appeared and the Eskimo told the salesman, “I’m sorry I won’t be buying your product. You see, I posted on my Twitter and my Facebook that somebody is selling me ice and my followers advised that if I really need ice, I should get it from this company that they have tried. Plus they offer free delivery too. And I can purchase their ice online, with money back guarantee. ”

And the moral of the story, my friend, is this: Selling is no longer a monologue.

If you want to sell your product, get yourself and your product out there in the internet world. Talk to your clients and talk to their friends. Yes, it is a tall order. So you will need all the help you can get. Ask for it if you must. Search for an experienced lead generation company with lead generation services for your lead generation. There’s really no point in working on a prospect that will only be usurped by others because of your own bungled effort.

Before You Buy a Sales Lead List

Before you give in to the temptation of a quick solution to your lead generation problem and respond to that email that says they can provide you with millions of email addresses and contact numbers of companies, give yourself some time to consider these things:

1. Are you sure that the list is made of people who have willingly given their consent to be contacted by someone they do not know? Beware that some companies use email harvesting programs that scans sites and harvests email addresses, unbeknownst to the owner of the email address. If this is the case, your email may land in the spam or will be largely ignored by the recipient.

2. Can you narrow down the email addresses according to the demographics of your targeted niche? Buying a sales lead list might easily give you a million leads to work with. But qualifying those leads will require more time and effort.

3. Lead generation requires a lot of work. The tempting short cut of a sales lead list might prove to be futile when you begin to realize that most lead lists actually contain dead email addresses and contact numbers.

There might be valid providers of lead lists out there. But if you really want to make sure that your lead generation is going to work without the hassle, it is better to hire a lead generation company that offers excellent lead generation services. They will be able to generate leads for you that are qualified and would only cost you per lead.

Are you a B2B or a B2C company? Why This Should Matter

Your lead generation program should be suited to whether you are a B2B or a B2C company. If your company belongs to the B2B group, one of the most effective lead generation strategies is still telemarketing, especially if you are selling a highly technical product. Most key decision makers in B2B companies are either too busy to frequently check Twitter or Facebook updates or are not even technologically savvy enough to use the internet. This is why maintaining an excellent lead generation team in-house or through a lead generation company with extensive lead generation services that includes telemarketing is vital to your lead generation campaign. However, it must be noted that you must maintain a website with relevant and informative articles of your products and your product niche.

But if your company belongs to the B2C group, then building a solid presence in the social media platforms is a must. Online spending this year reached the 1 billion mark, a significant indication of the evolving buying habits of end consumers. What should be noted with the B2C group is that these are often people who are hesitant to give out personal information, especially their mobile numbers to companies so telemarketing might actually work against you. In contrast, the executives in the B2B companies maintain official phone numbers which they will not mind giving.