Transform your business development

Sales Lead Generation Ideas

Some thoughts and observations on all things business development related. Read on to learn about how to generate new sales leads and create sustainable lead generation activity...

Category Archives: Lead Generation

6 Reasons Why Outsourced ‘Pay On Results’ Lead Generation Is Easier Than Having An Internal Sales Team.

June 15, 2010 – 7:37 am

Some companies we speak to, and in fact nearly all as they mature, will turn to in-house telemarketing and sales lead generation functions.

Why?

It’s probably a control thing.

Most organisations want to shape their own sales destiny, and not leave it in the hands of a third part supplier.

Natural evolution is another reason. As companies evolve, their professional sales departments need to evolve and grow with them. You need a good ‘internal sales‘ learning ground to breed the next generation of field sales people.

Past a certain point in their persuasion we can’t stop companies brining telemarketing ‘in-house’. But we can still present the reasons why we think it might not be the best idea.

Before we can help you understand why outsourced lead generation works, you need to appreciate just how difficult establishing an in-house sales team can be.

Here’s our thoughts on some of the challenges faced by companies looking to develop internal sales lead generation functions. You’ll see the process poses difficulties and problems right from the beginning.

1. Recruiting The Right Internal Sales Person

Okay picture the scene, you decide the way to grow your business is by hiring an internal sales person. There’s just a few hurdles to get over: You’ve got no sales people. You’re not a sales person and you’re not really sure what they should be like.

Sounds impossible from the start, yes?

Well it’s the situation most growing technology and digital media businesses find themselves in when they move from relying on word of mouth and referrals to grow onto creating sales with outbound sales and promotion.

Unless you’ve worked in sales-driven organisations, amongst true sales people, it will be very hard to know what to look for.

In most situations we have seen, the recruitment process fails to deliver the right amount of quality short listed candidates, normally ...read more

By James | Also posted in Pay On Results | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Do You Feel Like Finding More Sales Leads Is Like Looking For A Needle In A Haystack?

May 19, 2010 – 7:39 am

“Find me some red hot sales leads!” is something we hear a lot. If we had a pound every time a client said they were struggling to find hot sales leads, we’d be rich.

Recalibrating What You Expect From A Lead Generation Agency

As a lead generation agency, we speak to a lot of people, like you, who need to put more leads in their sales pipeline. But you might be surprised to know, the first thing we need to do it recalibrate expectations about what to expect from a professional lead generation agency.

The reason we have so many of these conversations is that most telemarketing companies promise so much but deliver very little. When speaking to other telemarketing companies, you’ll be promised heaps of ‘hot sales leads’ but in reality, you find out the number of leads promised will be a lot less than you might think. Here’s why…

How To Start Looking For That Elusive Sales Lead

First up, finding a customer who is ready to buy your product or service within a short time frame is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Trust me, the only way to even get close to success would be a harsh numbers game of a hundred cold calls a day, five days a week – and even then our experience shows the return might be less than three opportunities.

Imagine, spending your whole week on the phone and uncovering only three sales opportunities; The work itself is tough and offers little reward to the person wading through the database.

There’s a second problem too. By definition, if you’ve found someone ready to buy it follows that they are some (if not all) way down the line in their purchasing/evaluation process -so it’s likely that you’ll be entering the game at half-time ...read more

By Fiona | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Targeted Lead Generation

March 9, 2010 – 1:37 pm

Qualifa Targeted Lead Generation

  • Targeted Demand Creation.
  • In this presentation: What we do. Clients. Our approach. Why us? Meeting examples. Contact us.
  • What we do: Help digital media and technology businesses engage with more potential customers. We stimulate interest & demand for specific propositions. Facilitate senior level new business introductions. We offer performance based services – no set up fees, no retainers, no overheads.
  • Clients.
  • Our approach: Deep understanding of client propositions. Identification of USP’s and differentiators. Intensive research on target sectors and customers. Articulate compelling outbound sales messages. Effective use of social networks and proven prospecting methods.
  • Why are we different? Unlike traditional telemarketing services we focus on ‘sales intelligence’ to drive results. We only employ highly trained and motivated graduates who are paid on results. All account activity reviewed at Director level on a daily basis to maintain quality It’s about the proposition, research and contacts.
  • The type of meetings we book… La Senza Petrofac Virgin Atlantic Reed Thomas Cook Monster Nintendo Boden Balfour Beatty News International. We are specialists in major brand introductions and senior level appointment setting.
  • Contact us call:0203 1950001 enquiries@qualifa.co.uk ...read more
    • By James | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

    Quality Sales Leads & Successful Pipeline Management

    March 9, 2010 – 9:44 am

    Many growing digital media companies say that their main problem is ‘closing’ sales opportunities. They get shortlisted in a competitive pitch and stake the next wave of plans on a one in three chance of winning. The reliance most digital media and technology businesses place on closing a small number of key sales leads presents a big problem – if you lose one, there’s nothing to fill the void.

    There’s a tried and tested way of hedging against this situation -successful pipeline management; the more quality leads you have, the more you are likely to win.

    Companies need to protect against over-reliance on winning major projects by ensuring that the supporting pipeline is kept full at all times with quality sales leads and consistent lead generation.

    So, what is pipeline management?

    Typically a 3:1 ratio applies: of three final stage (shortlisted) pitches, typically one will be won. Taking this further back in the sales cycle, the ‘times three’ effect is usually accurate. To get three quality leads to the point of final pitch, you’ll need nine sales leads to get to the stage of formal proposal. To get nine to formal proposal, you’ll more than likely need over 20 ‘value proposition’ meetings or presentations. This means you’ll need around 80 quality sales leads in active conversations.

    Of course all of this doesn’t unfold overnight. Lead management and maintaining a healthy sales pipeline is ongoing and often has a time frame of three to six months from initial conversation to contract sign off.

    With this in mind it makes sense to take a long term view and get strategic about gaining introductions with new business. Setting aside other elements of your marketing and client acquisition strategy (search engines, events & exhibitions etc) the single most effective way to generate quality leads and interest in your proposition is to ...read more

    By James | Also posted in Appointment Setting | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

    Copyright © 2011 Qualifa | Privacy Policy

    Qualifa is a division of Sales Prospects Ltd. Company registration number: 6854037 Registered office: Mill House, 103 Holmes Avenue, Hove, BN3 7LE

    Website by Oli Pyle