Sales

If you were to ask any business what they need more of, they’d all say the same thing…

Sales leads, right? 

But not just any sales leads. Businesses need red-hot sales leads. Prospects that have a specific problem that the business can solve for them.

Because let’s face it, you could have all the sales leads in the world. But if your leads aren’t after what you’re offering, they’re not going to buy, are they?

And these days customers are savvy. They know what they want and they’re willing to shop around to get it. 

So what’s the best way to stand out as a high-quality business that can help your customers get everything they need?

You get referrals.

Lead Generation Made Easy

It’s a proven fact that consumers are influenced by the opinions of others. After all, every company says they’re the best, don’t they?

But if others say they’re the best as well, it’s far more effective and is a surefire way to achieve lead generation success.

And when it comes to B2B sales leads, referrals aren’t just effective, they’re essential.

Harvard Business Review says that a whopping 84% of B2B sales begin with a referral. 

Not only that but referred B2B sales leads offer a 16% higher lifetime value than normal sales leads.

So, as well as being great for your sales figures, they also offer long-term profits for your business.

Profit Soaring Sales Leads

Why are referrals so valuable?

Think about it, when you’re shopping around for a product or service, it can be time-consuming and stressful, can’t it?

Everyone tells you they have exactly what you need, and they all showcase the huge benefits they offer. So when it comes to deciding, you’re scared to make the wrong choice. After all, it’s your choice and if it goes wrong, it’s on you.

But if someone else gives you a recommendation and refers a company it takes away all that stress, doesn’t it? They know what they’re talking about. And the great thing is, even if it doesn’t work out, it’s not your fault, because you were listening to the recommendation.

That’s the power of referrals you see, they take away any stress or anxiety of deciding. Meaning your referred sales leads are all high-quality and easy to convert.

Discover The Untapped Field Of Sales Leads

So, how do you set about getting top-quality referrals for your business?

Believe it or not, there’s a huge, untapped field of customers that are ready to buy from you with the right referral.

Where do you find this deluge of referrals that could transform your business?

With your competitors…

That’s right, your competitors could hold the key to your massive success and you to theirs.

I know what you’re thinking, why would my competitors want to recommend me?

It’s simple. You see, every business has its strengths and weaknesses…

Businesses succeed when they focus on their strengths and market as mentioned in Forbes. Providing quality work comes naturally when it plays to your strength, doesn’t it?

But most businesses make the mistake of offering everything, whether they’re good at it or not.

This leads to them being overworked, stressed and providing low-quality work that upsets their customers. Ending up with bad reviews, a poor word-of-mouth reputation, and a dwindling business.

When you focus on your strengths you can contact your competitor and find out what their strengths are. Chances are, you’ll both have different strengths. 

When you have an unsuitable client, you can then recommend them to a competitor who offers exactly what they’re looking for. Your competitors do the same, and voila! 

You’re all serving high-quality clients with outstanding work that you enjoy, and they love…

Everyone’s reputation goes up, your leads keep flying in, and your business skyrockets.

Plus, imagine how strong it makes your business look when you’re happy to refer someone to a competitor. The clients will be so happy that you’ve pointed them in the right direction they’re sure to use you when the time is right, and they’ll recommend you to everyone. 

So you see, referring to your competitors is one of the best things you can do for your business.

Collaboration Equals Red-Hot Sales Leads 

Collaborating with your competitors can truly transform the future of both your business and theirs. But you need to make sure that it’s a level playing field and that you’re both working as hard for each other, don’t you?

That’s where LeadFellow comes in. LeadFellow is an easy-to-use lead management software that makes everything simple to track.

LeadFellow helps businesses work together to share referrals and generate red-hot leads for each other.

It makes skyrocketing your sales easy with genuine, top-quality sales leads that are easy to convert into valued customers.

And the great thing is, you can earn money for the referrals you make as well as enjoy soaring sales figures for your own business.

You simply sign up as a referrer and a provider, and speak to your competitors to find out the skills they offer and what kind of customers they’re after. 

Then when you have prospects that don’t fit your business but suit your competitors, you refer them through LeadFellow.

LeadFellow’s powerful software helps you track where your referrals are and pays you once a deal is done.

And the best part?

If you receive a referral, there’s nothing to pay until you close the client and generate a sale!

You see, with LeadFellow, there’s no risk and high reward.

Contact LeadFellow today to start transforming your business. We’re ready to help you enjoy a constant flow of red-hot sales leads, build your brand awareness and word-of-mouth reputation.

There are many different channels for finding potential clients. All of them, however, are divided into two categories: traditional or online media. The channel choice depends on your industry, employees, and company strategy. Here is an overview of the five most important channels for creating revenue today.

Referrals

Referrals are the best way to find a client who needs that exact product or service you are offering. Referrals are usually friends, acquaintances, clients, partners, etc. who often mention quality and satisfaction in their recommendations. If you think about it, no one would recommend anyone who did a bad or sloppy job, would they? That is what makes referrals the most successful way to reach your sales goals.

SEO

Search engine optimization is a marketing activity aimed at being seen on search engines with the best keywords to describe your product or service. Almost every product or service gets searched online, your company included. Using specific keywords on your website helps to direct more organic traffic from search engines onto your site. The higher your site ranks on the search engine results page, the more visitors it will receive. All these visitors carry the potential to become your future clients.

Co-marketing

Imagine a scenario: you offer a product/service A while your partner offers a product/service B and those products/services are interrelated. In a case like this, it is beneficial for both of you to make a deal to recommend each other. This helps to grow your sales and share marketing costs.

Trade shows, fairs, conferences, courses

All of these are traditional ways of attracting clients. You can easily introduce your products or services to people while they can ask for extra information on the spot, so potential clients can be convinced of the quality and suitability of what you are offering in real-time.

Social media

This includes channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. which are all playing an important role in people’s everyday life. The ads and messages displayed in those networks change people’s behavior patterns which in turn gives businesses great opportunities to build stronger brand images. A strong image and an online presence give you a competitive advantage compared to companies that ignore those channels.

Cold calling

Cold calling is one of the hardest marketing activities. If you know how to do it well, however, the closing percentage can end up being pretty sweet. On average, the closing percentage is 1-3% and the success is often dependent on the price and quality of the product or service.

Cold calls are being made also today. They are vitally important for companies that are just starting out and who do not yet have proper resources for marketing or for hiring external salespeople. Nearly all successful salespeople have done cold calling during their lifetime and probably will do it again.

Tips for cold calling

Here are 5 tips we have gathered from their success:

#1 Focus on the client, not yourself. Listen to the client and to what they have to say, identify their needs and focus on those needs. Don’t talk extensively about yourself or your company, but instead, focus on them.

#2 Don’t build your sales calls on a set scenario. Do not build a script. Premade scenarios and scripts will turn you into a robot who is clearly reading pre-written words. No one is interested in hearing that, so a real dialogue never gets born. Every sales call is different and making a call without listening to the client is a waste of time. Build your call on an interactive conversation.

#3 Ask strategic questions. Questions lead to answers. Questions help to create a dialogue which helps you build your sales pitch and answer questions. Without strategic questions your call can turn into small-talk from where it is difficult to get to the point. Come up with some important questions first and ask them in the right place as part of the dialogue.

#4 Don’t try to close the sales with the first call. Statistics show that salespeople sell the least during their first call and that success factor grows with time. Naturally, this depends on the price of the product/service but it can be said that 80% of the sales are closed during the 5th call.

#5 The key is in simplicity. The easiest you can define your product/service in a call, the easier it is for the client to buy it. Complicated description of a complex product – FAIL. Clear and simple description of a complex product – SUCCESS.

To understand how we make sales calls today one needs to know the history of telemarketing.

The roots of telemarketing date back to the mid-20th century when a group of housewives started calling people to find potential cookie buyers. Around 1965, telemarketing became more popular, and more people became professionally trained to make sales calls. Five years later, telemarketing became widely recognized.

From ground rules to laws

In 1991, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act was passed by the US Congress which established some rules that telemarketers had to follow. For example, they were not supposed to call potential customers before 8 am or after 9 pm or use artificial or prerecorded messages. They also had to maintain an internal Do-Not-Call list and always state their name and the name of the company they were working for.

The act created some ground rules but the rising amount of sales calls and the assertive behavior of salespeople created a public uproar in the US in 2003. That resulted in the passing of the Do-Not-Call Registry Act law. This law created an option for consumers to willingly opt-out of telemarketing by registering their phone numbers on the list.

The Do-Not-Call list, caller IDs, and answering machines made it easier for people to ignore cold calls and telemarketers and to eliminate them completely. That forced salespeople and telemarketers to reinvent their methods to be more acceptable and less intrusive to potential clients.

From assertiveness to personalization

Today, cold calling isn’t as cold as it used to be. The tone of sales calls is mostly nonintrusive, personalized, and genuine. The internet and social media have given salespeople and telemarketers a huge potential to learn about their potential clients beforehand and to personalize their message for each client.

The future of telemarketing will be directly related to constantly developing technology. There are already some companies out there that are using automated but human-assisted telemarketing where the voice of the talker is pre-recorded. The salesperson just chooses the right answers through an interface and the so-called sales bot does the talking.

Read more about personalized cold calling from How to make more efficient cold calls?

Hang Up on Telemarketing

Gone are the days of dreaded telemarketing calls interrupting our dinner or stealing our precious time. It seems like the universe has finally come to its senses and handed over the reins to a much more delightful and effective approach: referral marketing.

Picture this: You’re peacefully enjoying a meal with your loved ones, savoring each bite, when suddenly your phone rings. But fear not! Instead of an awkward conversation with a stranger trying to sell you something you don’t need, your phone buzzes with a notification from a friend recommending a product or service they genuinely love. Cue the collective sigh of relief.

Referral marketing has stepped up as a breath of fresh air, replacing the tired old ways of telemarketing. It harnesses the influence of personal connections, capitalizing on the trust and authenticity inherent in recommendations from those closest to us. Imagine it as a virtual grapevine, transmitting uplifting vibes and practical advice, all without the cringe-worthy sales pitches and mechanical monologues.

A warm lead can be defined by the word itself. Warm means positive, closeness, good contact and safety. A good example is a children’s game where one kid hides something and the other one has to find it. When the searcher is getting closer to the object, the hider shouts “Warm!”.Therefore we can say that a warm lead is someone who is ready to close a deal. A cold lead is exactly the opposite: you are far away from closing a deal or finding a lead, and there is probably a long way to go until the cold lead turns into a warm one.

What does it mean in sales?

Sales activities are set in place to get from point A to point B. Point B stands for a successful deal or sale. There are many different possibilities and channels for getting to point B. [Check out our post Sale channels – how do they work?]

Sales channels create a way that can be either easy or hard. The easy way means that you have to put in less effort to achieve the same results compared to doing it the hard way. The key component in an easy way is a warm lead.

A warm lead is an icebreaker, a conqueror of the first barrier, the remover of the first filter – you have quickly made your way to a point where it would otherwise take a long time to get to. Figuratively, you have just taken an elevator straight to the top of a skyscraper by just pressing one button, while your competitors have to take the stairs instead.

The most common channels to obtain a warm lead, starting from the warmest and ending with the coldest, are:

Recommendations – a friend, a partner, a relative, a client, a competitor or whoever recommends you as someone selling great products or services.

A current client – they know you, and you have an established relationship.

Re-marketing – a person who has seen your brand somewhere and knows something about you. This could happen through newsletters, advertising campaigns, websites, and social media.

LeadFellow is focusing on the first channel – recommendations. Refer someone through our software and control and monitor your best salesman basically for free!