Here are 7 simple things you can do, to increase the number and the quality of your sales leads and enquiries. Take a look through this short list and see how many of them you are already doing.
1. Ask
Think of the contacts you have, who already have access to your ideal profile of customer or client. Are you asking these contacts to introduce you? If not, it’s time to start! To fully leverage this approach, you will need to motivate your contacts.
Remember, motivation comes from the fusion of two words: Motive and Action. If you want your contacts to take action (to recommend you) you need to give them a strong enough motive (or reason) to do so.
2. Make it easy for people to contact you
If you want people to get in touch, you need to make it really easy. Take this blog for example. The link to my contact page appears in the menu, on every page. On the contact page, you will find an extremely simple contact form. Plus, I list my Twitter account, which is set to receive Direct Messages [DM’s] from anyone.
As a result, I regularly get messages, emails and Tweets from people asking about my services.
3. Just ask for their name and email address
This leads on nicely from the previous point. If your website or blog already has a contact form, how much information do you require from people, before they can send their request to you? All you really need, is their name and email address. Each additional ‘field’ (like their surname, company name, phone number etc), which you ask them to fill in, reduces the percentage of people who contact you.
In other words, you can increase the number of sales leads and enquiries you get, simply by removing these unnecessary barriers! Once someone has contacted you via the form, you can always request additional information if you need it. It works.
4. Get your full contact details into the ‘signature’ of your emails
Your full contact details should also be visible on your emails. This way, if someone forwards an email from you, to one of THEIR contacts, that contact will easily be able to get in touch with you, if they wish. When you consider how many emails you write in a year, this could get your contact details in front of hundreds or thousands of new people.
5. Search Engine Optimisation or SEO
If you have a website or blog and you want more sales enquiries, the best way is to ensure that your site’s attracting lots of targeted prospective clients. This is where Search Engine Optimisation or SEO comes in. No, keyword stuffing is a terrible idea, as is 99% of the SEO you see advocated on common websites. That will drive traffic to your site, but when they arrive, the keyword-stuffed-bullshit that awaits them will ensure they leave as fast as they came. I cover this here in my main marketing tips page.
A true SEO expert [maybe 1 in 100 of those who claim to be experts] can help your site attract lots of people, who are searching for your exact product or service. There’s some great SEO sites, which provide useful tips, but I very strongly recommend you get expert help, if you are serious about getting sales leads from your site. If you want to know more about SEO, take a look at the excellent SEOmoz blog.
Of course, SEO is just 50% of the online lead generating equation! You also need…
6. Professionally written copy
This is a no brainer, yet almost every small business website makes the mistake of writing their own wording (or copy.) As a result, they get people visiting their site, but very few, if any, leads or enquiries. This blog generates enquiries on an hourly basis, because it’s written by a professional. If the copy on your site is not inspiring enough to compel people to click links, email, call or visit you – then why exactly do you have a site?
You can massively increase the number of enquiries you get, with this one simple improvement! Here’s exactly what you need.
7. Network online
Networking has changed massively over the past few years. The bottom line here is that today, via a number of extremely powerful online services, you can develop stacks of sales leads and enquiries and make some great contacts too. I personally use Twitter and Google+ though LinkedIn can also be effective.
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