How to Generate Sales: 7 Steps for Finding the Right Prospects

Today technology has made a tremendous impact on the lead generation process.  The foundation of a successful business has an ever-growing customer base. You need reliable sales leads that will continuously bring more revenue into business every month to grow your business.

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Today we have countless opportunities to generate leads for businesses. Sales lead generation spans multiple touchpoints for various businesses. We cover the best ways a company can use its digital footprint and online presence to generate new customers through lead generation efforts such as SEO (search engine optimization)optimization or PPC campaigns, tailored made email, and more.

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A lead is a prospect or business interested in your product or service offerings.  Let's start by exploring the ways of generating sales. Sending emails, creating infographics, hosting webinars, engaging the potential client through social media posts and more are ideal sales.  lead generation. Here we look at some quick tips to identify the sales leads or right prospects for sales.

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What Is Meant By Prospecting?

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Prospecting is the initial part of any sales process of any business. It is an action of the prospects in an opportunity. Prospecting starts when people are just an opportunity and turns them into one of your best prospects or even customers. 

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It is a process of starting a conversation with the prospective customer. The most common prospecting techniques are cold calling, qualifying leads, cold emails, social media, and networking. 

The Importance of Sales Leads

Sales leads are individuals or businesses interested in your product or services. Based on the level of interest and fit of the leads, become your potential prospects. The perfect sales lead could be a person or business who makes purchases of goods or services. Finding the right prospects will improve the sales and increase your ROI.

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You can use different techniques to identify whether they are interested and fit for the business. You can identify your ideal sales leads through  Ads, cold callings, cold emailing, social media posts, social media platforms, referral programs, networking offering products or services, free trials, and more. 

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By also implementing inbound marketing methods, your business can create a steady stream of interest and make the leads to buying your offerings. Using the following prospecting tactics your business can generate new sales leads. 

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Finding the right prospects (person or business) that will boost the purchase of your product and services. To find your actual prospect, you need to identify their level of interest and determine if they're the right fit for what we offer. If you're not already receiving enough sales leads, it could be time to take action and start generating more leads. The reason why? It will help you reach your goals faster.

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Sales leads are the first step in the sales process. They provide information about potential customers who may want or need your products or services.

You can generate these leads through various methods such as:

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1. Direct mail campaigns

2. Social media marketing

3. Online advertising

4. Telephone calls

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‍All leads are grouped into major two categories:‍

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‍Sales Qualified leads/ Qualified Leads - These are people who have shown interest in the products and services you offer by requesting information from you via phone calls, emails, etc. They might even be ready to buy right now.

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‍Marketing qualified Leads - These are prospects who haven’t requested any information from you yet. They could be just browsing through your site, reading about your business, or watching videos on YouTube.

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The Importance of Generating Sales Lead 

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Generating the quality leads has always been an important part of the sales process. In fact, it’s one of the most crucial steps in any business. The reason why? Because without leads you won’t have anything to sell. 

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In other words, if your business doesn't generate enough leads you won’t get enough opportunities to close deals and make money. This means that generating more leads is essential to growing your business.

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7 Steps For Finding The Right Prospects

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Finding the right prospect is the first thing in sales. You need to figure out to whom you are going to sell your product/services. You need to be very careful when segmenting your market because it could make a difference in how you sell. It's important not just for this business but also other ventures down the line so take some time to figure out  your prospective buyers (People who are willing to buy from you).  

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For example, if you are a software company specializing in HR management software and your product users are human resource professionals, then the first step of your sales process is determining the right companies and people to target. Finding the right prospects is the key approach to success in sales efforts. Here are the 7 steps to help you to find the right prospects. ‍

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1. Identify and Focus on Sales-Ready Leads‍

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Prospecting and qualifying the leads is not about having too many conversations but about having conversations with the right prospective buyers. If the sales reps and the marketing team find the right high-quality leads will help you shorten the sales pipeline in your sales cycle and enable business to more sales deals closer. 

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Building a clear and qualifying lead will enable you to remove the low-quality leads who are not interested in your product/ service. In the qualifying process, you can identify your ideal leads in the early stages of the sales process, focus on the right prospects, and neglect non-quality leads.  

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Qualifying the leads with a series of queries through calls will save your time and effort on low-quality leads, and this will declutter your sales pipeline and help to earn more loyal customers.

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2. Ask for Referrals With Current Customers 

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Your current business customer is a great source for generating a new lead. Using the referral program is the best way to attract new sales leads by following up with your current customers. They've already purchased from business, so they know more about how your product works and should be an integral part of lead generation strategy for obtaining more business coming in through these channels. 

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The warm referral is more powerful than cold emailing or cold outreach with the prospects who know nothing about your business. Referral through your current customer will already be influenced by the thoughtfulness and effort that went into building relationships, which means it will be much easier for your business to make an impact with it. 

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Warm Referrals work best when combined with other marketing methods like newsletters (to remind people) or social network posts/updates. This way it's not just "a coincidence" if someone takes action after seeing one of these updates from their favorite brands or business. 

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However, reaching your current customer after-sales doesn't take much time, and asking for a referral from the current customer will help the business to generate more sales. Here are some of the top strategies that help your business turn your current customer into a source for generating more sales leads. 

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Following strategies helps you to turn current customers as great source of generating sales leads:

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• By asking the customer feedback and ensuring them how much the customers are satisfied with your product or services.
• Set up a quick call with the current customer after-sales sign-ups to thank them.  An thanks email or call will show your business how much your brand values the relationship with the potential buyers. 
  

• After the customer referral, give your customer a thoughtful gift of the referring leads on the referral program. ‍

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3. Work With Your Networks to Find New Sales Leads

When you're working with your network, you'll likely want to focus on people actively looking for a solution to a problem or opportunity. This type of person is called a "prospect." Prospects may not necessarily know exactly what they want yet, but they're interested enough to look around for solutions.

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You can also tap into your network by asking friends, family members, colleagues, and acquaintances who know anyone who might benefit from your services. Once you've identified your target audience through networking, it's time to find out which ones are interested in buying. 

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To do this, you'll need to ask questions. Here are some examples of qualifying questions:

‍What would be the main benefits of using our service?

• How much does it cost?
• Do we have any competitors?
• Who else should we contact?
• Why did you choose us over all others?

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Finding mutual connections and being interested in your product or services are incredibly valuable sales leads. It is a great way to connect to your prospect and initiate a conversation. Ensure you have identified the niche or the specific type of business or person you are looking to connect with. For example, business sizes, industry, geographic location, job title, and more.

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Mention the mutual connection information while sending the connection request. Have a friendly and professional tone on the prospecting process.  Avoid sales pitches on the networking. 

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4.  Networking Events for Finding Sales Leads 

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Make attending in-person and online networking events a part of your routine when looking for new sales leads. Networking is an effective way to reach out, build relationships with people from past interactions as well as others you may never have met before but come across through this type of outreach process; it also allows time spent face-to-face that can't be replaced by other means like cold calling or sending mass emails which could result in wasted opportunities if not done right.

‍Here are some tips for making the most on every networking event: 

• You should approach networking with an open mindset and try to help others first before yourself (or selling anything). 
• There will come up opportunities to easily slip back into "sales mode," but not be more sales communication as the purpose of the networking event is to build a relationship with the targeted prospects. Be careful when these moments arise. 
• Get to know about their business and their problems. Explain briefly how your product or services will help them solve the prospect's problems. 

For in-person networking business events you need to exchange your business cards with new people you meet in the event. Then start adding  their contact details to your customer relationship management system (CRM) and start sending follow up within the week by sending an email. Initiate your email campaign by thanking them for attending the event. This helps to build a positive impact about your brand. 

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5. Build An Email Sequence Or Email Follow-Ups

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An email sequence is a sequence of emails that are automatically sent to groups of people on your email lists. The primary goal of email marketing is to build recipients' interest in your company's products or services.

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An email sequence or email follow-ups are a series of emails that are sent automatically to a group of people on your mailing list. The email sequence's goal is to build interest and trust for the products or services offered among the targeted customers. You can attract potential buyers through coupons codes, promotional offers, anniversary discounts, etc.

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‍There are two main types of email sequences: Trigger-based and time-based.

Trigger emails send messages at certain events, such as when someone performs a specific action on your site, has an abundant cart, or interacts with an ad in their browser. These can be very effective for marketing because you know exactly what to make sales closer. 

‍Time sequence emails show up at prearranged times like immediately after making purchases or subscribing to newsletters/newsletters or an anniversary email. This type might not provide as much interest sometimes but is still worth considering since people check these more often than triggers anyway. 

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To attract the leads, have a specific goal in mind while creating email sequences. Each email sequence needs to grow the reader's interest. Here is the example email sequence and include a relevant CTA at the end of the email message to make the reader take action like (Reaching the sales team over a call to get more information about your product or service or providing click here button to purchase the product.). As per HubSpot research having personalized CTAs are converting 202% more than the basic calls-to-action (CTA).

1st email: In this email, introduce yourself and mention to the reader common pain points. 

2nd email: Speak about the values of your product or service offering.  

3rd email: Share the client success stories of how your offering has solved your customer problem. 

4th email: Explain how your product or service is effective and brief them on what you do for clients.

5th email: Share benefits product or service instead of focusing on the product feature. 

6th email: Reach out to the potential buyer with exciting offers and special discounts or free trials.

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Using the Smartwriter tool your business can craft hyper-personalized email subject lines, catchy intro that hook your email subscriber and make them take action. The Smartwriter tool will generate personalized messages that get you 8x more replies in minutes using AI. You won't have to waste time on reaching and writing emails for each prospect anymore. You can completely automate your entire outreach and email sequence process 40% faster. Smartwriter offers 7-days free trial and sign up today. 

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6. Write & Share Informative Blogs

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Crafting a blog article can help establish your brand as an expert in your field. Sharing knowledgeable and insightful writing adds more value, and it will help the potential leads. With effective blog topics, you can start engaging your potential buyers through blog articles, and sharing the blogs on the newsletter email is a great way to engage your email subscribers. You can also offer product updates, tutorials, and more to engage and induce interest among the prospects.

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Blogging or writing blog posts is one of the best ways to share what you know and keep in touch with your customers. A blog post can help drive traffic, leading potential clients or visitors down a relevant path towards conversion on the website and leading them closer than ever before. Blogging is part of a content marketing strategy.

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You can also create an email newsletter to publish blogs and articles. This has the added benefit of building relationships with your target audience. People (Email subscribers) have already been interested in your product or service. It is a way to get even closer than other marketing methods like social media or word-of-mouth referrals alone.

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An online newsletter will allow readers who don't know how to engage with content from various sources by giving permission upfront. These newsletters are great sales tactics; emails are too pushy. 

7.  Host an Online Workshop or Webinar To Generate Potential Leads 

Articles and blog posts are great for sharing knowledge about your product or service, but they're one-way conversations. You will write your business valuable contents that help the customer. In contrast, webinars enable interactive teaching that can be more impactful in creating sales leads than a traditional article would've been. 

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The internet has made it easier to connect with prospects across the world. Webinars and workshops provide an excellent opportunity for sharing knowledge that will be useful on both ends of the communication chain.

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Sharing information about what you do and how your product/ services help the clients build trust between seller & buyers. People sign up because there is value when attending these types of events, such as increased leads from participants' contact lists and later used marketing efforts at no extra cost. 

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You can create and host live webinars or limited-time live webinars offers. This is a great way to reach the right prospects and answer questions in real-time or give away limited-time offers for those who attend your live events. You could even share the online workshop video as emails if the participants. It enables the prospects to view the webinars and even miss out.  It helps to build trust in the business and improve sales. 

Conclusion

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Identifying the right prospects and qualifying them is the primary goal of any b2b business. The primary sage of the b2b sales funnel is quality leads. There are many possible ways to generate quality leads in this article. We have covered some techniques that may work better for your business.  

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The most crucial part of sales is generating quality leads. Achieving the best results in lead generation is a challenge for every marketer, but you can achieve the best results on your sales & marketing through these techniques. Identify what works well for your business and implement them flawlessly.