Many successful small business owners are continuously looking to expand their customer base and grow their businesses. Business growth can be a difficult and long-term process, though. One of the foundational elements of growing a business is having access to a steady stream of sales leads. A lead is a person, or business if you have a company that sells to other businesses (B2B), that has an interest in the products or services you are selling.
Most successful businesses succeed because of their large customer base, the number of customers your business have will determine your sales to some extent. Although many small business owners find it very hard to get customers who will patronise their services. There is no need to worry if you are in this category.
Most successful businesses succeed because of their large customer base, the number of customers your business have will determine your sales to some extent. Although many small business owners find it very hard to get customers who will patronise their services. There is no need to worry if you are in this category.
Experts say the best thing to do is learn how to generate sales lead as this is an integral part for any successful entrepreneur. Even though you do not consider yourself as a salesperson, you need to understand that the possibilities for finding new customers range from cold calling names from the phone book to buying lists of potential customers. You can also adapt to technology like search engine optimisation to drive new customer to your website. You need to know that sales and marketing are the engines of entrepreneurship. Although having these skills are not enough, you have to be expert in the ability to sell and market your products especially if they are intangibles products.
You must understand the intricate functioning of the human that’s making them happy, sad or arousing their passion. It is also important to conduct market research to understand your target audience and their needs, you need to know how to determine which lead generation techniques are best to broaden your sales horizons and how to increase sales by following several strategies to sell additional products or services to your existing clients. Below we are going to look at some of the best practices to adopt to find more customers and increase sales fast, boost your revenue.
Here are some tips for creating a system that will help you identify sales leads in your small business, and — with the right focus and effort — turn them into customers.
Identify your target customers
According to experts, before you find a new customers and increase sales, you need to understand who your customers is, what value preposition you offer to them and what your competitors is currently offering in the market. There is an underlying disconnect between your motivation to increase sales and your customers motivation to solve their problems. These are things which you must know at first in your bid to increase sales and attracting more customers is really about you listening to their needs or being a solution looking for a problem.
Know your regular customers
Knowing your regular customers will help you in developing a marketing plan to reach new customers. When you are developing your marketing plan, you need to understand who you are already selling to when trying to expand sales, you have to find out who your existing customers are, what are they demographics and what do they look like? For you to achieve this, it means you must carry out market research. It can be done quickly and inexpensively by sending surveys to your existing customers using one of the online survey tools available either by paid or free tool. If this is successfully implemented, it will give your business a great deal.
Define the market for your business
Common Investment Errors Young Entrepreneurs Must Avoid
It is common to make mistakes when learning but when dealing with money such errors can have a very serious impact on your investment. It is best to start young when learning any skill or investing in your business. Entrepreneurs who begin from the scratch generally have the flexibility and time frame to take on risk and recover from their money wasting errors. It is also important to know the common mistakes to avoid in order to achieve a considerable level of success in your business. Below we are going to highlight some of the errors to steer clear as a young investor.
Poor investment knowledge
Poor investment knowledge is one of the common factors that often leads to the collapse of most young entrepreneurs many of these entrepreneur fail to painstakingly learn the ropes of their preferred trade before establishing it. They often end up burning their fingers and going back to square one before realising their mistakes. It is best to make mistakes while still learning than to suffer the repercussion of wrong investment decisions. Young entrepreneurs should scout for experts who have succeeded in whatever field they wish to invest. Learning from those who are doing will pay well at the end.
Procrastination
No serious minded entrepreneur will accept procrastination as favourable, procrastination is a thief of time and can be very detrimental while investing because the markets move so quickly. Good investment ideas are not always easy to come by, doing a research and a good investment idea arises. It is important to act on it before the market take note and beat you to it. Some of the young investors fail to act on their idea so quickly due to fear or inexperience. Missing out on a good idea can make a young investor revise his opinion upward and still purchase an asset when it is not warranted.
Over speculation
Instead of investing, these entrepreneurs sit back and speculate. Young investor is at an advantage in his investing life, an investor age affect how much risk he can take. Young investors can seek for bigger returns by taking bigger risks. Because if a young investor loses money, he has the time to recover it through income generation. This may seem like an argument for young investors to speculate but it is not. Most novice inclined toward speculation because they don’t fully understand the investment process. Speculation is often seen as equivalent to gambling as the speculator does not necessarily have the reason for a purchase except that there is a chance that it may go up in value. This can be dangerous as many other professionals are line waiting to take advantage of the less experienced counterparts.
Failing to ask detailed questions
It is important to note that it is your money that you are investing and even if it is not yours, you are accountable for whatever is spent on the investment and the outcome of it. You should be bold enough to ask all the necessary questions that you need to clarified on before putting down your money. One of the most important of forming investment decisions is asking why. Young investors who have not experienced the pitfall of investing can be particularly susceptible to making decisions without locating all the pertinent details pertain to the investment.
Not investing
You must understand the intricate functioning of the human that’s making them happy, sad or arousing their passion. It is also important to conduct market research to understand your target audience and their needs, you need to know how to determine which lead generation techniques are best to broaden your sales horizons and how to increase sales by following several strategies to sell additional products or services to your existing clients. Below we are going to look at some of the best practices to adopt to find more customers and increase sales fast, boost your revenue.
Here are some tips for creating a system that will help you identify sales leads in your small business, and — with the right focus and effort — turn them into customers.
Optimize your social media profiles to attract ideal sales leads.
If you have a social media profile, you need to keep it up to date. Keeping your LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram or other social media profile current helps you bring in more sales leads. The goal is to attract the attention of buyers and make it easier to connect.
- LinkedIn: Create a solid headline and description that will appeal to your target audience. Your headline and summary should describe what you do and who you serve. Focus on what your target buyer will be looking for, using keywords they would use. For example, don’t call yourself a “Sales Maven” – your headline should say something like “Sales Manager | Creating Solutions for Human Resources Managers in the Automotive Industry.”
- Twitter: In addition to your title and a link to your company’s account, include a professional profile photo, a link to your LinkedIn account and relevant hashtags that would matter to your target audience. Follow Twitter profiles in your industry and those of potential sales leads. Retweet and comment to keep your account active.
- Instagram: This social media platform is very visual. Include a professional photo, as well as attractive and relevant images, along with hashtags that would matter to sales leads. Keep it professional yet fun.
Identify your target customers
According to experts, before you find a new customers and increase sales, you need to understand who your customers is, what value preposition you offer to them and what your competitors is currently offering in the market. There is an underlying disconnect between your motivation to increase sales and your customers motivation to solve their problems. These are things which you must know at first in your bid to increase sales and attracting more customers is really about you listening to their needs or being a solution looking for a problem.
Landing page and form
Your landing page is the page the person lands on after clicking the call to action button for the offer. This page contains all of features and benefits of the offer, plus the form the user fills out to obtain it.
Tips for your lead generation landing pages:
Make sure the messaging is the same as the ad or piece of content leading to it.
Keep form fields to a minimum.
Test your forms to make sure they populate leads in your CRM.
Use anything BUT “submit” as your CTA button language
Create a Sales Funnel
Once you know who you are targeting and have determined how best to reach them, you need to have a plan for collecting contact information. The first part of the process involves funneling all prospects to a standard form or landing page that encourages them to share their contact information, generally in return for a free gift, a coupon, a sample or some other value-added incentive.
At this point, it is vital to have a customer relationship management (CRM) database that will help you keep track of potential customers through the process.
Know your regular customers
Knowing your regular customers will help you in developing a marketing plan to reach new customers. When you are developing your marketing plan, you need to understand who you are already selling to when trying to expand sales, you have to find out who your existing customers are, what are they demographics and what do they look like? For you to achieve this, it means you must carry out market research. It can be done quickly and inexpensively by sending surveys to your existing customers using one of the online survey tools available either by paid or free tool. If this is successfully implemented, it will give your business a great deal.
Ask current customers for referrals
Your current customers can be your best source of sales because they’ve already purchased from you, so they know your products and services work. Therefore, they should be an integral part of your strategy to attract new sales leads.
Warm referrals are more powerful than cold emails or outreach to prospects who know nothing about your business.
However, many businesses don’t take the time to reach out to current customers after the sale, beyond providing support or customer service when asked. They don’t thank customers for their business nor do they ask for referrals or help with generating more business.
Following some of these strategies can help turn current customers into a great source of sales leads:
- Ask your account manager to ensure that customers are satisfied with your products or services and customer support. Have them reach out to find ways to make the situation better.
- Set up a time to have a quick conversation with your customer, and thank them for their business. Ensure that they understand how much you appreciate their relationship and discuss how you can add value to that relationship.
- Ask for the names and contact information of business contacts or other companies that might need your product or service, as well as the reasons why they would make a good fit.
- Ask your customer to contact the prospect on your behalf, first through a short email or phone call. You can provide them with what to say in an email so that the sales lead understands the value you provide.
- Thank your customer with a thoughtful gift for the referral. Make it something personal rather than related to the company’s products and services.
You can use the information about your existing customers to develop a target audience for your business in its drive to win new customer s and increase sales. There are core customers you are trying to reach, there are other markets that are also important to address. Explain to your customers how your business will help them solve their problems. The value preposition of your business has to be spelled out clearly before an customer will visit your store. You also need to figure out where to reach these customers and whether there should be a marketing or advertising plan that goes along with that outreach. This is vital in business.
Pick Your Promotional Methods Wisely
In order to generate leads, you need a promotional plan that will get your products and services in front of members of your target audience. There are a number of ways you can promote your business, and again, you will want to use your marketing plan to identify the most effective methods for your business.
Some marketing ideas include an informational website, a blog, social media, speaking engagements, industry events, current customer referrals, pay per click (PPC) advertising, and traditional advertising.
Common Investment Errors Young Entrepreneurs Must Avoid
It is common to make mistakes when learning but when dealing with money such errors can have a very serious impact on your investment. It is best to start young when learning any skill or investing in your business. Entrepreneurs who begin from the scratch generally have the flexibility and time frame to take on risk and recover from their money wasting errors. It is also important to know the common mistakes to avoid in order to achieve a considerable level of success in your business. Below we are going to highlight some of the errors to steer clear as a young investor.
Poor investment knowledge
Poor investment knowledge is one of the common factors that often leads to the collapse of most young entrepreneurs many of these entrepreneur fail to painstakingly learn the ropes of their preferred trade before establishing it. They often end up burning their fingers and going back to square one before realising their mistakes. It is best to make mistakes while still learning than to suffer the repercussion of wrong investment decisions. Young entrepreneurs should scout for experts who have succeeded in whatever field they wish to invest. Learning from those who are doing will pay well at the end.
Procrastination
No serious minded entrepreneur will accept procrastination as favourable, procrastination is a thief of time and can be very detrimental while investing because the markets move so quickly. Good investment ideas are not always easy to come by, doing a research and a good investment idea arises. It is important to act on it before the market take note and beat you to it. Some of the young investors fail to act on their idea so quickly due to fear or inexperience. Missing out on a good idea can make a young investor revise his opinion upward and still purchase an asset when it is not warranted.
Over speculation
Instead of investing, these entrepreneurs sit back and speculate. Young investor is at an advantage in his investing life, an investor age affect how much risk he can take. Young investors can seek for bigger returns by taking bigger risks. Because if a young investor loses money, he has the time to recover it through income generation. This may seem like an argument for young investors to speculate but it is not. Most novice inclined toward speculation because they don’t fully understand the investment process. Speculation is often seen as equivalent to gambling as the speculator does not necessarily have the reason for a purchase except that there is a chance that it may go up in value. This can be dangerous as many other professionals are line waiting to take advantage of the less experienced counterparts.
Failing to ask detailed questions
It is important to note that it is your money that you are investing and even if it is not yours, you are accountable for whatever is spent on the investment and the outcome of it. You should be bold enough to ask all the necessary questions that you need to clarified on before putting down your money. One of the most important of forming investment decisions is asking why. Young investors who have not experienced the pitfall of investing can be particularly susceptible to making decisions without locating all the pertinent details pertain to the investment.
Not investing
Many investors has the ability to seek for more higher returns, and take on higher risks when they has a long term horizon. Investors have the longest time horizon, a higher tolerance for risk when they are young. They are less experienced with having money and as a result, they are often tempted to focus only on how the money can benefit them in the present without thinking on any long term goals. They over spend money instead of saving and investing which can lead to bad habit and this contribute to lack of savings and retirement funds.
