| If you are in sales, chances are you will need to | | | | advertising can generate better brand positioning, and |
| generate leads and find some new customers. Even | | | | make prospects more willing to respond to your cold |
| if your job is to solely focus on existing key | | | | calls and direct mails. |
| accounts, it will still be a good idea if you have a | | | | So how do we synergise all the above? |
| couple of new customers once in a while to make up | | | | Depending on your budget and how much control |
| for the attrition of old ones. | | | | you have over your sales and marketing initiatives, |
| However, most sales organisations rely on 1 or 2 | | | | there are different lead generation combinations for |
| methods to generate leads, when they probably can | | | | different sales teams. |
| get better results if they were to synergise a few | | | | If your main lead generation methodology is to make |
| methods to generate a lot more QUALIFIED leads. | | | | cold calls, just like what the financial planning and |
| Here's how you can do so: | | | | executive recruitment industries are doing, what you |
| * Cold call. Cold calling (usually calling the entire phone | | | | can do is to compliment this with a little direct mailing |
| directory) is probably the most common of all ways | | | | and events organising. |
| to generate leads. However, the problem with cold | | | | My personal financial planner in Singapore sends out |
| calling is that it takes a lot of time, and hence the | | | | periodical newsletters by e-mail, informing her current |
| Return on Investment on the time and resources | | | | and future customers of the latest insights on what |
| spent is actually quite poor. Cold calling though, will be | | | | could affect your financial wealth. In case you are |
| more helpful if you use it as an invitation to an event, | | | | wondering if she has lots of time to do the writing, |
| rather than trying to secure a 1-to-1 appointment | | | | she actually didn't do the writing at all. All she did was |
| with a stranger. | | | | to copy-and-paste or attach the financial articles |
| * Direct Mail. Whether you are mailing brochures or | | | | written by the experts, and send them out. And |
| doing mass e-mailing, you can reach out to many | | | | people responded to her mailings! |
| people in a short span of time. The downside again is | | | | In addition, because she sends out high-quality |
| most of the recipients tend to throw your | | | | articles, she's been perceived as an "expert" too. |
| information into the trash can, or delete your e-mail | | | | Even though she didn't write them, she knows where |
| the moment they got it. However, studies show that | | | | to find them. That somehow gave her prospective |
| if you can combine a direct mail campaign with a | | | | customers more confidence in her, and are more |
| phone call, you are likely to get a lot better | | | | willing to meet up with her. On top of that, she gets |
| responses. | | | | lots of referrals since her prospective customers |
| * Trade shows, exhibitions and conventions. These | | | | know they can benefit from receiving her e-mails. |
| are great events to meet a lot of potential | | | | It is also well-known that executive recruiters need |
| customers, resellers and partners. However, trade | | | | to search for candidates via cold-calling. Now, there |
| shows and exhibitions are expensive events, and | | | | are many executive recruitment firms that have |
| there's no guarantee of the quality of the attendees. | | | | diversified into executive coaching, career |
| There are exhibitors who collected a lot of leads of | | | | development training and other workshops targeted |
| which none of them lead to any sale. | | | | at their targeted candidates. |
| * Create your own event or roadshow. Rather than | | | | If you have already spent a bomb to participate in a |
| participating in trade shows, exhibitions and | | | | tradeshow or convention, you may want to |
| conventions, some companies find it cheaper to | | | | advertise further to tell more prospects that they |
| organise their own events or roadshows instead. To | | | | can find you at which Booth at the event. For the |
| do so, you will need a strong organising team to put | | | | really "hot" prospects, you can even host a dinner |
| together the event, AND to get qualified prospects | | | | after hours and firm up the relationship. |
| to attend the event. | | | | In a nutshell, while we can see the pros and cons of |
| * Advertise. If you have the financial muscle, | | | | different approaches to generate leads, the key thing |
| advertising in the right media will give you exposure | | | | is NOT to rely on just one of them. If these |
| to the right target audience. However, there are less | | | | approaches were to work in tandem, you can expect |
| leads generated from advertising as compared to | | | | your number of qualified leads grow exponentially. |
| cold calling or direct mailing on a dollar-to-dollar | | | | And if you have the right skills and attitude, expect |
| comparison. The good thing though, is that | | | | your sales to increase drastically as well. |