PRESENTED BY

LEAD GENERATIONFOR SMALL BUSINESS

S. Anthony Iannarino

Anthony Iannarino is the President and Chief Sales Officer

for SOLUTIONS Staffing, a best-in-class staffing firm, the Director

of B2B Sales Coach & Consultancy, and the author of

thesalesblog.com

2

There is no “most effective” lead generation technique. This is the trap of

mutual exclusivity, believing one method should be used to the exclusion

of others. And it is also a conceit to believe that because you prefer to

generate leads in a certain way, in a certain place, or at a certain time,

that this is the method your dream client prefers. You need to be where

your dream clients are, and you need to get in front of them. The “most

effective” way to generate leads is to use as many methods as are

available to you. This includes traditional advertising and marketing, your

website, social media marketing, a lead generation firm (like Pointclear),

business journals, your local Chamber of Commerce, networking events,

referrals and, dare I say, a well-trained sales force?

Alen Majer

Alen Majer is a sales expert, writer, trainer and author of sales blog

(www.AlenMajer.com). He draws upon more than 20 years of

international sales, management, business development, training,

coaching and entrepreneurial experience.

3

Your mission as a sales person should be to find companies that have

immediate wants and needs.  This means that something happened or is

happening to them: a move, a merger, new investors, etc. You have to

look for any event that might create the opportunity and trigger the sales

for you.Opportunities are everywhere. You just need to know where to

find them and you always need to be on the alert for them. Such Trigger

Events can be a springboard for your selling career and you need to be

prepared to act on them as soon as they are recognized.By staying on

top of your game, you’re always going to be a step ahead of the

competition. When businesses are making changes it means that they

are already primed for shifting into a new gear. With this pre-knowledge

and some further background research into the business, you could arrive

well-armed to present a winning solution that can assist in building a

better business. When a business is moving through a transitional phase,

they are almost always ready to take on new opportunities and to make

positive changes. Be ready to help them!As always, your research and

understanding before approaching the client is going to be crucial in your

presentation. This is what separates you from the rest of the competition.

By taking the initiative in being first in line and having the greatest insight

into their business, you have put yourself into a powerful position. Now it’s

up to you to reveal your expertise and divulge the finest solution that will

benefit their business in the most efficient way.Always be on the lookout

for Trigger Events that can open the door to new sales and new clients. It

could be the action-injection that your career needs.

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Art Sobczak

Art Sobczak helps provides ways to prospect and sell using

the phone, without rejection. Get his report on “The Top 10

Dumb Mistakes Made by Cold Callers” at

http://www.SmartCalling.com

4

The most effective technique is one that maximizes the return on your

time and money investment. One low-cost method is optimizing

your website for organic search so you drive free traffic for your

key search terms, provide a free offer to capture your prospects’ contact

info, then putting them in a follow-up sequence (phone, email, or mail, or

all of them) to get the prospect to take the next desired action

Brian Halligan

Brian Halligan is the CEO of HubSpot, a marketing software

company he founded to help businesses transform the way they

market their products by leveraging the internet. Brian is also an

Entrepreneur in Residence at MIT and author of the books Inbound

Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs and

Marketing Lessons From the Grateful Dead.

5

Hands down, the best way for small businesses to generate leads is with

inbound marketing. Creating content about topics that matter to your

prospects, optimizing that content for search engines, and sharing that

content in social media will enable your target customers to find you.

Then, once they’ve landed on your website, using calls-to-action and

landing page forms to convert visitors into leads is the best way to start

filling up that sales funnel with qualified, quality leads. Simple as that!

Chuck Swanson

Chuck Swanson has worked at various agencies in a strategic

business development roles with companies to help them better

understand their marketing and lead generation goals. Currently,

Chuck is a partner at Digital C4, an agency that helps companies of

all sizes improve their online brand visibility.

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I think there’s a shift in lead generation for small business really as a

result of the emergence of social media networks. Small businesses can

now effectively compete with larger ones provided their voice is heard.

Getting your voice heard in social media (and frankly in search as well) is

a three part endeavor and all centered around the keywords that define

your products, services and company in general. These three efforts

need to combined with other traditional communications, but if done

effectively can boost results. (1) Smart SEO – your site needs to be

optimized effectively for your keywords. (2) Well written content (blog)

using your keywords in the appropriate places. And finally (3) sharing this

content in your established social media networks – Twitter, Facebook,

LinkedIn or wherever your prospects and customers are gathering for

information.

Dan Olson

Dan Olson is the CEO of DIYSEO, a provider of SEO software. Dan

is the former Vice President at Performics, the largest search

marketing company in the United States that was acquired by

DoubleClick, Google, and eventually Publicis Groupe

7

Before thinking about effective lead-gen techniques for small business, I

believe a small business first must have a web presence via their own

website. Once the website has been created, I break lead management

down into three questions:“How do I drive traffic to my website to

ultimately generate leads? ”“What is the best way to get a visitor to

provide lead information to my site? ”“How do I manage this lead

information post submission”Driving Traffic – Many small businesses

quickly realize that a web presence alone isn’t enough and they need to

find ways to drive traffic to their site. I’m a bit biased but we really feel that

small businesses and especially ones with a local presence can now take

advantage of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) including local maps

optimization to get traffic for free. Many of our small business clients

didn’t know what SEO even meant a couple of months ago and are now

tapping into SEO via our application and getting leads.Getting Lead

Information – The most effective way to capture leads (beyond

highlighting your phone number on your site) is by having an effective

lead form on your site. An effective lead form, in my opinion, offers free

consultations, free white papers, or some type of incentive to offer up a

name, phone number, and email (don’t forget the email!). Potential

customer don’t hand that information for nothing – give them a great

reason for doing so!Managing Leads – This is getting even easier for

small businesses. Obviously look to leverage tools like PipeJump to

manage info all the way through the close process. You don’t have to live

in spreadsheet hell anymore.

Dan Waldschmidt

Dan helps super-stars change the conversation by avoiding

conventional wisdom, social peer pressure, and selfish behavior…

8

The most effective lead generation technique is dramatic acts of

kindness.  Instead of paying for lead lists, sending more marketing

newsletters, or leveraging social media to the max, small businesses can

catapult their growth by creating personalized and powerfully empathetic

encounters with existing customers. Go the extra marathon at any chance

to solve problems customers didn’t even know existed.  You won’t just be

generating leads, you’ll be manufacturing future customers.

Duncan Macdonald

Duncan Macdonald is Co-Founder of B12leads – and specializes in

B2B Lead generation, nurturing and tracking.

9

Inbound marketing is a great option. Although it is a slow burner, the

costs are lower and get it right and you can compete with larger less

nimble companies, at a fraction of the cost. A good 6 month plan is

required to get things moving.Don’t rule out more traditional outbound

methods. If there are good profit margins and you can achieve a viable

cost-per-opportunity model, then try renting an email lists or some cold

calling. For a small business in the early days, direct communication and

feedback from you market can be invaluable.What’s most important is to

convert and track your leads, work out what is working and what is not,

then refocus on those successful channels and work on the details that

make the difference.

Jill Konrath

Jill Konrath is a recognized sales strategist, speaker and author

who offers fresh strategies and practical advice for selling to today’s

crazy-busy prospects. Both her books, SNAP Selling and Selling to

Big Companies are Top 20 sales books on Amazon.

10

To increase lead generation, I strongly suggest that small businesses

publish a short, twice monthly newsletter that’s filled with high quality

content. This gets them in front of their targeted customers on a regular

basis at the same time it demonstrates their expertise. The articles can

also be repurposed on the website, ensuring an information-rich portal

that builds credibility and demonstrates expertise.

Mitch Tarr

Mitch Tarr is the Founder of ZinMarketing.com, an agency that

specializes in helping businesses generate more leads and retain

existing customers. Mitch also blogs at www.zinmarketing.com/blog/

11

I’d suggest that most companies take a close look at online lead

generation activities. Many companies hope the ‘Contact Us’ form on

their websites will do the job but that’s not lead generation.  With the

speed of which you can test, track, and modify online marketing

campaigns you should be able to discover which offer draws the most

qualified leads at the lowest cost.  Keep testing until you get a winning

campaign.

Sue Watkins

Sue Watkins has spent the last 20+ years developing marketing

strategies and campaigns. She also founded SMBmarketer.com

and authors the blog Smart Marketing Basics

(http://blog/smbmarketer.com) and tweets regularly about small

business marketing topics at @SMB_marketer

12

Two key tactics I found to be successful are to use PR and to develop

case studies. In fact, using these two tactics together creates a powerful

combination. Issue press releases on a regular basis, whether it’s once a

month, or once a week, that highlight your business accomplishments,

including winning a new customer, hitting a revenue or growth milestone,

offering a free webinar or seminar. These are great opportunities to keep

your brand top of mind in your market place. They also provide sales

tools for your sales teams to use for prospecting, etc. Creating case

studies is a great way to highlight your expertise and show how your

customers are benefitting from your solution

Tibor Shanto

Tibor Shanto is a Principal at Renbor Sales Solutions Inc. and is a

recognized speaker, author of award winning book, sought after

trainer and blogger at The Pipeline

13

It is important to expand the traditional view of “Referrals”, move beyond

like-to-like, i.e. CIO-to-CIO, or Production Manager-to-Production

Manager, and move to Circle-of-Influence model.  In the Circle-of-

Influence model you focus on key people already in the inner circle of

potential buyers and those they would turn to for input.  This can include

people already selling them other products/services; other consultants,

etc.  If you are selling applications, you may want to target and foster a

relationship with a recruiter placing developers on a contract basis with

the CIO in question.  Focus on where and with whom your target spends

time, not strictly their role.

Tom Demers

Tom Demers is co-founder and managing partner at Measured

SEM search engine marketing consulting, a boutique search

marketing agency offering pay-per-click advertising services and

search engine optimization services including link building

and content strategy and marketing.

14

The most effective lead gen techniques for small businesses are

educating and creating utility for potential prospects. This can mean a

variety of different things but small businesses that can help their

prospects by:Teaching them how to do something related to the small

businesses’ productEntertaining them with content related to what the

small business sellsActually doing something (with a free tool, by offering

a free version of a paid product or service, etc.) will have the easiest time

generating leads. Even when you’ve already paid a network or platform

(via paid search, display advertising, a sponsorship, etc.) for access to

potential customers, you still need to provide the prospect themselves

with something valuable in exchange for their contact information and

attention. This approach means that the relevant traffic small businesses

are buying from various channels will not only convert into leads at a

much higher rate, but also have a positive experience of and relationship

with the brand: meaning SMBs are not only generating more leads, but

also better leads that will be more likely to convert into quality customers.

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