Many successful small business owners are constantly looking to expand their customer base and grow their businesses. However, business growth can be a difficult and long-term process. One of the key elements of growing a business is constant access to a steady stream of sales leads. A lead is a person or business if you have a company that sells to other businesses that are interested in the products or services you sell.
Here are some tips for building a system that will help you identify sales leads in your small business, and – with the right focus and effort – turn them into customers.
1. Increase your engagement with your customers
Relationships are all about sales and talking to the people who reach out to you to do so. For example, when people reach you with questions about your product or company, instead of just mentioning them on your blog, you can ask them if they mind having a quick chat with you.
2. Constantly refresh your email lists
It is impossible to generate leads from an old email list that contains incorrect information or does not match the parameters of your target person. If you haven’t cleaned up your email list for a while, you may still be cold-emailed people who are already your customers.
3. Use chatbots on your website
Customers want to do business with companies that respond promptly to questions. Although companies respond within 12 hours on average, research shows that consumers expect responses within 1 hour. You might think, “Well, but they know we’re not working right now,” or, “They’ll surely understand that we’re in another realm of time.” While customers can understand and understand later, there are thousands of businesses offering services just like yours, so you don’t want to take that opportunity.
4. Join and participate in social media groups
LinkedIn and Facebook are great places to connect with other professionals, share your skills, and find leads. Once you join a group, don’t start by pitching members as this can cause people to separate. Instead, do the following to establish a relationship:
- Start a conversation
- Engage in other people’s conversations
- People appreciated their content and the events they were planning to organize
Once the group members recognize you, you can use the platform to generate interest in your products.
5. Use SEO to increase website traffic
High ranking your website in search results will increase your website traffic. To get a better rank, you must do search engine optimization on your website. Some of the basics of SEO include:
- Keyword optimization on both landing pages and blog content
- Constantly great content post
- Link building
Again, it is important to point out that SEO and content creation can be technical and time-consuming.
6. Create a sales funnel
Once you know who you are targeting and decide how to reach them, you need to have a plan to collect contact information. The first part of the process involves funneling all prospects into a standard form or landing page that encourages them to share their contact information, usually in exchange for a free gift, coupon, sample, or any other value-added incentive.
7. Use an email newsletter to build relationships
Now that you’re in touch with prospects, it’s time to cultivate those relationships so you can take them from the lead stage through sales (and ultimately repeat sales). One of the best ways to keep in touch with your prospects is through an email newsletter.
