Generating Your Own Leads
Starting out in sales means that you absolutely need to hustle. You’ll most likely need to double or triple your output compared to your top-ringing salesman who no longer needs to cold call. The guru of your sales department is most likely not knocking on doors. The doors are mostly likely half opened for him or her.
Pounding the pavement for a year the old fashioned way as a new salesman can quickly become physically tiring and quite discouraging. Don’t get me wrong; you should always try to stay in front of your clients. However, cold calling door to door may be enough to make you cut your days short. You’ll need alternate methods of selling other than the desperate typical pitch, “I just wanted to see if there was anything I can do for you…I’ll just follow up in another month or so.”In order to generate more leads and keep yourself motivated, you’ll need additional outlets. Yes, industry magazines are helpful, but you’ll want to branch out further than that. Most companies you’ll find in industry magazines are repeat leads. You should also be looking out a bit further, not just in your backyard.
Keeping your funnel filled with leads can be as easy as a few clicks of your mouse. Business-to-business trade sites may be the most underrated lead generator. I managed to stumble upon several business-to-business sites that span the globe and keep your leads coming in even while you’re asleep. These sites generally are free, but do offer other perks and benefits if you subscribe to their service at a gold or platinum level. I found that the free subscription worked just fine. Setting up is pretty much straight forward. You’ll need to state your company information (contact, address, products/services, etc.) and YOUR contact information. Don’t make the mistake and leave the main office number. That’s a great way of getting your leads stolen.
Leave your cell phone and/or email address so that each lead will fall into your lap, and no one else’s.You’ll find that these trade sites allow you select your industry category and/or product category. Select what best describes what you are offering, and analyze the search return. You will find the list of companies who are seeking your products (offers to buy). Click on each one and start pre-qualifying them. Some will state their basic requirements, annual incomes, number of employees, etc. If your company has minimum order requirements, you may want to filter through the ones that look like home-based phony businesses looking for free samples. Trust me…they’re out there, so beware. Now that you’ve searched all offers to buy, there’s still more leads to be found.
There are hundreds to thousands of other companies listed on these sites that may not be listed to buy, but may be listed to sell. Simply seek out products that use your products, and gather all of their information as well. For example, I offer fragrance materials and services. So, I would seek out selling offers for candles, soaps, detergents, air fresheners, aerosols, personal care products, cosmetics, and so on. You’ll find a ton of leads this way, and believe me…it’ll be enough to keep you busy for a while. Some popular sites that I recommend are Alibaba.com and tpage.com. I managed to gather hundreds of leads on this site, and ended up making many of them my clients.
This method, other than just seeking leads from search engines, will give you leads of companies that may not have great search engine exposure. Not every company is set up to give you a return by simply typing their product in the search field. Be creative, and stay that way. Pretty soon you’ll exhaust these websites, and you’ll need to find other ways to fill your funnel. Try writing a few articles like this one on a few different sites for extra exposure. A press release on yourself and what your company offers is another great way to get your name out in the open…which in return…will get you more leads.
I hope this article helps a bit. If you implement at least one of these tips, you’ll soon have more leads than you can handle. Well, almost.
Robert Yorey, Jr. is a full-time Sales Executive for Alpine Aromatics, covering the Northeast United States and International Sectors. Alpine Aromatics custom creates and manufactures fragrances for personal care, home air care, fine fragrance, industry, and more. Robert can be reached via email at ryoreyjr@alpinearomatics.com My website http://www.robertyoreyjr.com will soon have more sales lead information if you care to visit.
