So on Monday I came into work and the first thing I was told by my Manager was ‘Phoebe, I have some exciting news for you!’, he then proceeded to disappear to a meeting. So I sat at my desk working and wondering what the news would be, a new heater, a new client, a new office!?!

When he came back he said that we had been given a major sales campaign, by one of my clients to work on. At first I was extremely excited, thinking about the commission and prestige that went with managing such an important campaign. Then I started to think about what they had asked of us… 48 meetings in 2 and a half months, fully qualified with top brands…. and I started to panic.

However, this blog post is all about what you can do to fully prepare for a new campaign and how to make sure you don’t run out of data and consequently sit there twiddling your thumbs. As I have stated in previous blog posts, Sales Lead Generation is invaluable to every single company that operates, if no one will buy their product or service, then they are rendered obsolete. That is why I have the important task of finding these opportunities for our clients to go into a meeting, show them what they can do and how much they can benefit their company and hopefully they will leave the meeting with a new client opportunity.

So to start, it is imperative that you look at the data that you have, you need to have the right contacts within the right companies to target. You do not want to be wasting your time booking meetings with companies that your client does not want to see. Obviously with the brief you are given you should know the sectors to target, the seniority of the contacts to target and the qualifying questions you must ask. As we have a large database of contacts we can sift through them quickly and make large sub-databases full of people and companies to email and call. The problem with many databases that you can buy from the Internet is that the contacts are out of date, the emails may be wrong and they just are no use. That is why the data you use is very important to the success of a campaign, ensure that if you buy data in, that it is from a reputable seller, also do not underestimate the use of LinkedIn and Jigsaw for finding contacts.

So once you have a large database what is the next step? In my opinion it would have to be the pitch, a salesperson is only as good as their last pitch! It is essential that the Lead Generation pitch is eloquent, punchy, full of information and includes a call to action. Personalisation is also advantageous as it makes the reader of the email consider that it is not just a mass email marketing mail-out. So by adding the contacts job description and company that they work for, it can make people feel that we have taken the time to research the company and genuinely recognise that we can help them in some way. If your client has case studies you must also include them, so that the pitch is more interesting and engaging.

Lastly it is important to plan your activity down to the last detail, here is a list of how you should plan your time:

1. For your own use, plan how many emails you can send a day and set yourself goals, so that you stay focused for the duration, repeatedly sending emails can be tough!
2. Focus on a specific sector and then sub-section it so that you can mould the pitch exactly to fit each sector, for example for the retail pitch tweak it slightly for men’s and women’s retailers and department stores etc.
3. If you are doing the campaign with other members of staff, start some friendly competition and perhaps offer small prizes or bonus commission for the person who obtains the most meetings during the campaign.
4. Keep correspondence with your client, ensure that they are up to date with progress on a weekly and even daily basis. This allows the client to adjust the process if needs be and feel confident that you are doing all you can to reach their goals, as they want these meetings even more than you want the commission!
5. Use a mixture of targeted emails and calling to make sure that you get as much information as possible, some people do not get a chance to reply to emails and sometimes calling and speaking to the person you are trying to get hold of actually renders more information. After all they may not be looking for your service now but in 6-12 months time you could organise a meeting, you must always log these possibles as you will be grateful for them when the time comes!

To conclude as a Business Development Intern I have learnt just some of the ways of lead generation, but I am certain there is a lot more to learn! I hope that these tips help you in your own pursuit of new leads, however always remember that Qualifa is here to help, if you have an amazing digital media product or service and are not sure how to go about letting people know about it then send an email to james.lewendon@qualifa.co.uk and we can show you just how beneficial outsourcing Sales Lead Generation is.