Lead List

How to get sales leads for you business

A lead list is a list of people or organizations that may be interested in purchasing a product or service.

What is it?

A lead list is a list of people or organizations that may be interested in purchasing a product or service.  Generally a marketer will build a list of prospects during the planning stages of a sales campaign.  The main advantage to using a lead list is that it compels a company to build a more specific marketing plan.

How to build one

            If you want to build a lead list (as opposed to buying one which will be covered later) it helps to segment your leads into hot, mild, and cold groups so that you can properly allocate marketing resources.  Depending on your market and the way you create your list it may make sense to do that before or after creating the list.  There are many different places to gather leads from, and they will differ depending on your market, but below are a few general ideas that should work for most businesses.

  1. Study your competitors
 

If you can get some insight into who your competitors are working with this is a great strategy because the

leads will be highly qualified.  These leads are already buying a product or service that is very similar to yours, so it will be easy to get them to listen to a business proposal.  Even if these leads can’t be converted into customers quickly, it's good to keep them on file and reach out to them once per quarter or two because plans change and a client that is fully satisfied with their current service provider may want a change in 6 months.

2. Study your current clients.

 
Profile some of your target customers and think about where you might find people or organizations with similar characteristics and needs.  For example Best Buy has built about 8 customer profiles and it uses these to think about how to promote their brand and sell their goods.[1]  With these profile have spent more money targeting niches and less on broadcast messaging.  This strategy has allowed them to forge deeper relationship with all of their customers.[2]
 
  1. 3.  Leverage the power of the internet

 

The internet lowers barriers to information sharing so that knowledge becomes less of a competitive advantage.  There are many ways to perform prospecting online, though this method works best if you are targeting businesses.  For example if you are a distributor of snacks you can search google maps for gas stations, grocery stores, dollar stores etc. in your area.  If you are targeting high net worth individuals you can search yellowpages.com for

 
 
 
 
 
 

Buying a lead list

 
There are two main ways to create a lead list.  The first is to buy marketing leads; the second is to participate in lead generation.
 
Marketing Leads- There are many companies that maintain current databases of contact information for almost all individuals and businesses in the United States.  These companies will let you select a list of leads based on demographic information (age, race, location).  These leads tend to be much cheaper than leads actively generated by a company, but they don’t convert as well.
 

Lead generation- Lead generation refers to the act of capturing the contact information of a person who may be interested in buying a product or service.  These leads come from folks who take the time to submit their information to a company because they are interested in making a purchase.  These leads cost more than marketing leads, but they convert better because they come from folks who have demonstrated an interest in making a purchase. 

 

Conclusion

While there are many ways to create a list of leads, there is no question that creating a list of people to market to is a valuable part of any marketing campaign.  This list will help a marketing manager retain a customer-centric mindset when devising a marketing plan.
 
 

See Also:

1. "The Art of Selling" - Video interview with a co-founder of Amway Rich DeVoss.
2. Exclusive Leads - A knol I wrote about the costs and benefits of exlclusive leads vs non-exclusive leads.
3. Lead Generation for the complex sale - Book written by Brian Carroll.
5. "Developing a Sales Lead List" - Article at startupnation.com
6. "Creating a Sales Plan" - Article at businesslink.gov
 
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References

  1. Article in The Consumerist about Best Buy's marketing strategy.
    http://consumerist.com/368894/leaks-best-buys-internal-customer-profiling-document
  2. Wall Street Journal article about Best Buy's consumer focus.
    http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB109986994931767086-M9uR_yM46i_MkHNJQ5cl3LgiJ2E_20061221.html?mod=blogs

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Justin Baker
Justin Baker
VP Interactive Marketing
Chicago
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