Lead Generation & You – Ways to Generate Leads

If you're a newbie marketer who's looking for some helpful information about how to perform lead generation to get results fast, then you've come to the wrong place! If you are looking for a quick fix, then this post is definitely not going to answer your prayers. Why? That's because lead generation is not something you can just do overnight and expect to have a full list of leads to work with the next morning (although maybe some have done it). Generating good leads takes time. If time is something you don't have, then you'd best be on your way in search of more information. If you can be patient however, keep reading.

While we're talking about patience, allow me to say that it is a key learning when it comes to lead generation. You cannot hope to be an effective lead generator if you can't learn to wait. So now that you've read thus far, and in a way have been waiting for us to get to those tips you are looking for, we'll finally get to talking about the different ways in which a newbie marketer like you (or maybe not a newbie but just browsing around) can do lead generation for business to business leads.

So now brace yourselves! Lead generation tips are coming (forgive the lame meme)!

Too Obsolete For Sales Leads? You Might As Well Outsource To Find Out

Obsolete. That is a powerful word to use against a business, if not an entire industry. Once you see that label placed, businesses start kissing their sales leads good-bye. Who would want a service or a product that nobody seems to need any more?

Use Telemarketing To Be Sure

Well if you are really going to think that way, you should at least see for yourself just to be sure. More specifically, why not hear it straight out of prospects' mouths? Do you really want to bank the future of your business all because you stumbled upon statistics that lambasted your industry?

If you really think it is time to pack your bags, you might as well finish up with something simple like outsourcing telemarketers to hear your prospect's final say. At the most, you might learn that you are giving up too soon and at the very least, you can tell yourself for certain that you put up one last fight.

The best part is outsourcing comes with a lot of perks that makes this plan all the more easy for you:

• It is cheap: You do not have to worry about spending too much money or time just overseeing the whole thing yourself. If this is going to be your final marketing run, it might as well be easy on your pocket. And the more experienced the telemarketer, the faster you can get it over and done with minus the risk of undermining the quality of results. 

Related Content: B2B Appointment Setting: Why Should You Outsource? [INFOGRAPHICS]

• Real results: The results you get are of your own making and are not simply on the word and deed of a third party. And even if some people might accuse you of picking your sample, you at least know that this sample still sees a lot of value in your business. On the flip-side, you have also harder evidence on why your industry could be facing obsolescence. That knowledge comes with its own power: finding something else to try. 

• Giving effort to the very end: Sentimental as it may sound, it is better to have one last attempt to get as many B2B sales leads as possible than just simply sit there and let them go by. No matter how terrible the results may be, you manage to at least make a few more sales before throwing in the towel. 

Besides, it is not truly the end is it? While being rendered obsolete can be a crippling experience, it always teaches the same but powerful lesson: never give up. Sure, you might think that nobody needs what you have anymore but are you sure that you are not limiting yourself? Maybe it could be time to develop new ideas or simply switch to a different market. Try to expand your range of application and just create different approaches to more unique prospects.

Related Content: Wide Lead Generation Can Run Into Very Unique Prospects

Ultimately, just because you have been considered obsolete somehow is no excuse to just get on your knees and die quietly. You may have your back to the wall but the rest of your body can still move. Outsource to lead generation companies to find out if the game is really over or you have only just begun!

Maintaining Sales Leads Means Staying Focused On What Works

Don't be so easily tempted by every new marketing tool that comes around the corner. But more often than not, your sales leads are generated best when you stay focused on what works best for you and not always because of a new tool. If you're being intimidated by a promotional display of statistics and the fear being left out, then at least do some more careful research before you risk falling for hype.

And speaking of which, there's no doubt that hype tends to describe a lot of things that declare themselves new and revolutionary. This doesn't mean you should close off to change but you must always have an objective evaluation for any marketing approach (new or old). Being prone to going after what's new all the time comes with the following risks:

• It requires you to start from scratch – For example, suppose you've been using telemarketing to communicate with prospects. Lately, you've been increasingly bombarded to use social media. Unfortunately, once you cave in, you find that social media requires a different strategy, different metrics for measuring success, and a different set of tools. Furthermore, your original strategy suffers because of neglect and decreased investment. Meanwhile, the total amount of sales leads that you're generating is an all-out low because of the combined failures of both.

• It wastes resources – From the resulting failure, all the money and time you've poured into both becomes a major waste. Wouldn't it be better to have at least come up with a plan that properly manages the amount consumed by either? Yes, in business, there will always be a need for risks but that doesn't give you the license to take risks that you can't recover from!

• It may not be what your market wants – Just blindly adopting a new kind of marketing approach is pointless if your target market still would have preferred you did things the old way. This is critical when targeting sales leads by industry because not all of them are buying into the marketing hype either. You won't always be alone when it comes to sticking to old forms of communication. On the other hand, it would be very rude (and ironic) to approach these businesses with the very same marketing tools that they reject!

Again, this doesn't mean you should close yourself off to change. It simply means that you need to maintain focus on what works. So far, if an old method is your golden goose, don't just kill it for the sake of trying something new! Instead, approach the latter with caution and focus on it only after you've gotten it to work for you. If a new marketing trend is purportedly killing all the old ones, then it should reflect on the results.

Having the best sales leads should always come first in B2B marketing. It shouldn't instantly suffer for what comes second, being the methods you use. Now, in case a method does start doing well, integrate it slowly. Gradually adjust the amount you invest in correspondence to that success. Better yet, if it can be used to improve the old techniques instead of eliminating them, then push on with that! No matter what, keep focusing only on what works.

How to Combine Lead Generation Methods

Finding the right path to business success is sometimes, if not always, a hard and demeaning task to accomplish. If finding one method for generating quality b2b leads is hard enough, then what about looking for two methods to get such leads; or even three?

We must acknowledge the fact that there is not one, true single way to get these leads. For instance, one can implement Internet marketing means such as posting on social networking sites and posting videos on Youtube. Businesses can then mix an online lead generation method by getting the services of highly trained professionals in lead generation companies.

Question is, how can one combine these methods effectively?

If one marketing niche for lead generation and appointment setting is not enough for you then you can combine these methods to form a more powerful campaign. To do this, you can hire and train seasoned Internet marketing professionals to do the online part of your campaign. After which, you can hire the services of telemarketing companies to implement your offline part of your marketing course. Both marketing techniques will then be handled by professionals highly trained in their specific niche in letting your business generate your desired b2b leads.

Implementing two methods for your b2b lead generation and appointment setting campaign will allow one's business to increase the acquisition of financial success to a great degree. Such accomplishment can also be acquired in a shorter amount of time since there are now more hands working on the task.