How to Generate More Sales Leads

We hear it time and time again: salespeople are having a difficult time generating quality leads. Though sometimes this is due to an exhausted market, a lot of the time it falls onto the sales people having unrealistic expectations (assuming the company they work for will give them a list of quality leads) or remaining in their comfort zone (working with current, already established customers). Rather than providing leads, it’s important to have the right processes in place to teach your sales team how to generate them on their own. Think of this analogy: give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man how to fish and feed him for a lifetime.

In a lot of organizations, it is the the marketing department who are generating the leads and the sales team doing the followups. The problem with this is that the leads aren’t coming from those doing the selling. The sales team is receiving cold lists of leads from the marketing department, lists filled with people they have had no contact with and in turn, no trusting relationship with. It’s important to empower the sales team to be a part of the lead generation process and take ownership of their leads – start to finish.

However, bringing the marketing manager/team into the equation is still important. Empower them as leaders by expressing that they are in the position to really help the sales team. One tactic is to provide the marketing team with a criteria for the types of leads the sales people are searching for. This will hopefully result in the creation of lists with higher potential for success.