Every small business owner has worried at some point about not generating enough leads for their business. Fresh leads are the life support of any business, regardless of industry. Nothing happens without leads. No sales, no revenue and most importantly, no profit.
We’re tired of hearing small business owners struggle to find leads.
Most of the time a failure to generate leads is not to do with the business. It’s usually not even to do with the product or service. For example, we’ve seen a highly skilled plumber who had over 25 years experience struggle to find leads. His plumbing services were far more superior in terms of skill than other local plumbers, but he was still struggling to generate leads until we helped him with our 5 easy lead generation techniques. Now before I give the impression that generating leads quickly in your local area will be easy, it’s not. The truth is generating leads is hard, but that hard work will pay off through future word of mouth recommendations and referrals. Do the work once and keep a local customer for a lifetime.
How to get instant leads for your small business: 5 easy techniques
1. Cold Calling
You are probably screwing your nose up now I’ve said this. But the truth is we managed to grow our web design company to over 250+ clients in 2 years through cold calling alone. All you need is good phone manners and come across as an expert consultant in your field, rather than a salesperson. You have to want to actually help the person on the other end of the phone and not just their money. Identify their requirements through asking open ended questions and then tailor your services exactly around their requests.
2. Warm Calling
If you are strongly against cold calling then warm calling may be for you. Warm calling is the process of calling previous customers that you’ve completed jobs for. This technique can be hugely effective because the previous customer has already got a relationship with you. If you are honest and explain you are short on work in the upcoming month very few people would just do nothing. Most of the time they will ask their acquaintances, friends and family if they know anyone in need of your services.
3. PPC (pay per click) Advertising
Now if you have no idea what I’m talking about this article I wrote the other day will explain what PPC (pay per click) advertising is and how it can work for small businesses. For example, if you had an electrical company in London you could set up an advert so that it would only appear if someone was searching for “electricians London”. The only time you would be charged is when someone actually clicks on your advert. You need to then direct them straight to your business website from that advert.
4. Flyer Drop
Printing out a load of flyers? Are you crazy? No I’m not. Flyer dropping in small local villages and towns has always worked and always will for most business. Small business owners seem to forget that if you want more leads, it requires a lot more work and time. We’ve seen clients website stats and call rate increase dramatically as a result of flyer dropping. It puts your business name and services directly into the hands of a potential local customer. Not only this but people tend to keep contact details of local businesses they think they’ll need in the future. TIP: try and put your business card or flyer in a sealed brown envelope because people will always open it.
5. Crazy discount offers
This can be used on any of the lead generation techniques above. Once you have a prospect who is interest in your business services, but isn’t quite pulling the trigger, you can use a crazy discount that will potentially create a ‘now’ factor. When you create a ‘now’ factor people will be more receptive because no one likes losing out on saving money on something they want. I really hope these 5 lead generation techniques has helped you learn how to get instant leads for your small business. You need to make sure that you implement 2 or 3 of the above techniques to get the best results. Do not put all your marketing eggs in one basket or you’ll be in the same position you’re in now, not enough leads. If you would like any help on the information above, please contact our team for free advice.
