Home >> Resources >> Free Sales & Marketing Tips >> Lessons to Live By

Lessons to Live By For Successful Lead Generation

 By Robert J. Ritter, President, First Direct Corp.

1. Too many leads is practically as bad as too few. Manage the flow or pace of your leads such that you can properly handle them.
   
   
2. Speak to your audience. Focus on your audience and design your message for them, and only them.
   
   
3. Database it! Generating leads without putting the information in a database is like filling a bucket with a huge hole in it. If you’re not databasing your leads, you’re losing them almost as fast as you find them.
   
   
4. Establish exclusivity; the prospect’s sense that they have to buy from you. Otherwise, it’s just like sending business to your competitors.
   
   
5. Be prepared to qualify leads. Know what to ask them, when to ask them, who asks them and what you do with the information before you even begin to generate leads.
   
   
6. A lead generation campaign without repetition is like making a sandwich without bread; the good stuff falls out. To get your fill, you have to follow-up and you must be repetitive.
   
   
7. Testing is the key to more leads and better profits. Test big elements first; items like the headline, the offer, the list or media. Don’t assume, test!
   
   
8. Map out the process. Marketing is a multi-step process with lead generation being one of the early steps. Each step has a purpose, an objective. Are you doing lead generation to make the sale or to generate a qualified lead? If it’s the latter, then don’t get ahead of yourself. Do those things which make the phone ring. Don’t try to make the sale in your lead generation campaign. And remember, what happens after you generate a lead is as important as generating the lead itself.
   
   
9. Lead with the message and use the graphics to support it. You’re not designing art, you’re creating advertising. People buy benefits. Don’t lose sight of the fact that graphics role is to support the marketing message and appeal. Anything that gets between that message and your customer is bad for business. Remember the saying, "If it doesn’t sell, it’s not creative!"
   
   
10. You live or die by your offers. Repeat Axel Andersson’s corollary after me, "If you want to dramatically increase your results, dramatically improve your offer." Or as Bob Hacker would say, "It’s the offer, stupid."
    
    
11. Speak to both sides of the brain – satisfy logic, stimulate emotion. Cover both bases!
    
    
12. AIDA or else! Everyone in marketing should know this formula by heart. Attention or Awareness>Interest>Desire>Action. The AIDA formula is - short, sweet and complete!  Miss one and you just as well have missed them all!
    
    
13. Make it easy on the customer in every way you can. Easy to read, easy to understand, easy to respond, easy to pay. The easier it is for the customer, the better it is for everyone!
    
    
14. Risky for the customer is risky for you. The riskiest business is the one that makes a proposition that the consumer feels is risky. Reducing your customers’ sense of risk increases the odds of your success!