Did you know that 61% of marketers say that generating high-quality leads is their biggest challenge? Despite all the strategies and tactics out there, lead generation continues to be a major hurdle for many businesses. Acquiring new clients is one of the main ways to unlock your earning potential. Maybe you are feeling like there is no momentum anymore, or you have exhausted all ideas for generating new leads and do not know what to do about it.

Today we want to share with you three ideas that you can use right away to help you increase your profits.

Typically, most new business begins with a lead showing interest in your products or services. By employing sales strategies, the lead is persuaded to become a paying customer. The customer makes purchases at a set frequency and amount each year, and the profit margin is calculated by deducting the cost from the sales amount. To enhance your bottom line, these are the five key areas you can focus on, and this five-part series will delve into each one, starting with lead generation.

Lead Generation Strategies

Referrals

Word of mouth is by far the most effective method of lead generation. How many times did you purchase a good or service because your family or friend told you about it? In essence, referrals are your "free" qualified leads. You already did the work by impressing your client, it's time to cash in and collect on that.

Referrals can be a powerful way to generate new business. When someone refers a new customer to your business, that person comes to you with a certain level of trust and credibility already established. This can make building a relationship with that customer easier and ultimately turn them into loyal, and repeat customers. To use referrals effectively, you need to create a culture of customer service and excellence in your business. You want your existing customers to be so satisfied with your products or services that they want to tell others about them.

Tip #1

You can ask your clients, “Is there someone you know that can benefit from my product/service?". For your sales team, you can add that to the end of their sales script. Just like you won't get any business if you don't tell clients about your product/service, you won’t get any referrals if you do not ask for them. You can even take it a step further and create a referral program that rewards clients for sending you new business. Make it easy for clients to refer your business to someone else.

Content Creation

Creating compelling content is often an overlooked resource. Clients will do business with people they trust. Having an online presence by consistently posting compelling content can allow you to build trust with those you cannot reach individually. Any salesperson with inbound and outbound experience can tell you how much easier those inbound calls are.

One of the goals of content creation is getting pre-qualified leads that have already expressed interest in your product/service. Another is to establish trust in the community you operate in and to act as an added marketing component. While it does take a little time to draft those pieces it will not cost you money the same way paid advertisements do. This is what is known as organic reach. Depending on the platform you intend to post your content there are best practices to ensure maximum reach. Make sure to look up what those are ahead of your first post. They usually revolve around the length of the post, keywords used and impact within a set amount of time. For example, LinkedIn’s algorithm requires certain conditions to be met in the first hour of the post going live to have maximum reach.

Tip #2

When writing articles, keep them short, to the point, and on a topic that would interest your target audience. If you sell IT services, you could write about cybersecurity. If you sell air purifiers, a how-to article on how to use your product, or the dangers of microparticles in the atmosphere, are just a few examples. In addition, make sure to be consistent with your posts. Posting regularly once a month is better than posting every day for a week and then burning out.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is a strategy that focuses on improving the visibility and ranking of your website and online presence in search engine results pages (SERPs) to attract potential customers. The first step to generating new business through SEO is to identify your target audience and keywords. This involves understanding your target audience's needs, interests, and search behaviours and conducting keyword research to identify relevant and high-volume keywords.

Once you have identified your target keywords, the next step is to optimize your website's on-page elements and build high-quality backlinks to improve your website's ranking in search engine results. You can also leverage social media platforms to reach a wider audience and drive traffic to your website. By monitoring your website's performance and measuring your SEO results, you can adjust your strategy as needed to continue generating new business. SEO and content creation also go hand in hand. There are strategies you can use to affect your organic search results and those can be further enhanced using paid ads.

Tip #3

While you can optimize your own website and content for better visibility using numerous "how-to" resources online, there is a learning curve. This is an area that would benefit from a professional touch. You can find numerous SEO specialists that can be onboarded on a project basis, on freelance websites.

Get a competitive advantage!

One tip that affects every stage in the sale process is investing in yourself and your sales team. If you want the sales to grow, you and your salespersons must grow first. Here at ActionCOACH PRO, we identify five areas in the sales process that can affect your bottom line.

1. Number of leads
2. Rate of conversion
3. Average $$ spent per transaction
4. Number of transactions per year
5. Profit margins

We have over 60 strategies in each area that can help you increase your profits immediately. If you want to learn more, you can reach us at info@actioncoachpro.ca.

Thank you for reading!

Please let us know in the comment section below if you found value in this article and please share this with anybody that would benefit from more leads in their business. If you are interested in more tips and business advice, make sure to follow our page and subscribe to our weekly newsletter so you do not miss our next post, where we will discuss what to do now that you have leads.