How To Find Sales Leads online: What You Need to Know

In order to generate revenue, you need customers. And in order to get customers, you need to understand inbound marketing.

But what if you don't have a marketing department or your marketing team doesn't practice inbound? What if you have to find sales leads for your business?

Here, we’ll review the online channels that’ll help you generate leads and tactics you apply to fill your pipeline today.

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What is a sales lead, and how does it work?

Individuals or companies that are potential buyers are known as sales leads. Marketing, referrals, social media, networking, product trials, and consultations all serve to identify a sales lead.

A lead does not become a prospect until he or she has been validated to determine his or her level of interest and suitability as a potential customer.

While many salespeople don't have the marketing backing to rely on a consistent supply of inbound leads, they still need to hit their targets.

Solution selling is a term that refers to the process of providing solutions to challenges. They know that sales is about consulting around the prospect's issues, not closing the deal.

It's all about allowing the prospect to set the pace of the procedure and giving education and advice in order to boost their confidence and trust. This makes it simple for a customer to purchase goods or services.

Here are some ideas for making it scalable as well as efficient on your own.

How to Obtain Free Sales Leads

1 Use third-party advertisements

Websites like Fiverr and Upwork can be a fantastic source of leads for your sales staff.

You may provide your services on these sites to get more leads. The nicest aspect about getting free leads via third-party postings is that they have the potential to conclude quickly.

When there's a match between your company and the customer, they'll most likely want to get started right away, which is great for time-to-close KPIs and bottom-line revenue.

2. Create content

In this chapter, we'll discuss how to create content online to earn free leads in both the short and long terms.

When you utilize social media to promote your material, traffic to your website may rise fast, as well as leads.

Your work will continue on your site and become more authoritative in search engines over time since more individuals look for queries that your work answers for them.

All of this is completely free and only takes effort, talent, and consistency to accomplish.

3. Network online

Networking online with people in your market can provide your business free leads, whether you're active on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter or participate in forums like Reddit and Quora.

This approach of generating new consumers might be time-consuming, but it will help you to better understand what your consumers are searching for and why they buy your products or services.

As a result, you'll develop a sense of empathy and client understanding that money cannot purchase.

How to Find Sales Leads

1. Optimize your social media profiles to increase their reach

When was the last time you updated your LinkedIn or Twitter profile? It's a fantastic method to attract more leads by maintaining your social media profiles current and up-to-date.

The most important social media platform for salespeople is undoubtedly LinkedIn. Make a great LinkedIn headline and description to help people learn what you do and who you serve after seeing your profile.

Another social media platform that salespeople may use to connect with leads and build interest in their business is Twitter.

Make sure you have a professional-looking profile photo, tag your company's account, including a link to your LinkedIn profile, and test out some relevant hashtags.

Making these easy modifications to your social media profiles puts you in a better position to appear in search results for potential consumers, making it even simpler to connect.

2. On relevant social media sites, look for individuals who might benefit from your services

Salespeople are on LinkedIn, but many of them aren't making the most of it to generate top-of-funnel activity.

It's a salesperson's goal to be able to connect with interested prospects in a high-value, low-effort manner using social media, and it's an excellent method to do so.

A few quick ideas for using your social media presence to generate leads:

1. Make an effort to meet as many people as possible. The more connections you have, the farther your reach will be.
2. In the "Share an Update" area, describe and assist a certain sort of prospect with a particular kind of problem by a specific date.
3. Get three testimonials from clients who can vouch for your expertise, professionalism, and effectiveness.

3. Ask your current customers for referrals

Over the past year, I've asked my clients this question a lot, and they all report that it's difficult for them to effectively collect referrals.

Everyone agrees that a referral collection approach is successful, yet many struggles to put one in place. To get you started, here are the seven actions you can take:

1. Make sure the client is satisfied (and, if they're not, set up a phone call to figure out how you can improve things).
2. Call the customer and ask for a 10-minute conversation.
3. Thank the client for his or her business, and let them know that you appreciate your working relationship with them.
4. Asking if she has any more contacts or firms who might be interested in the same level of service is an excellent place to start.
5. Get the contact's name, phone number, and email address, as well as why your customer thinks he or she is
   a good match.
6. Inquire if they can hook you up with a quick introduction email.
7. Oh, and don't forget to give extra credit if you can. Send them a handwritten note or a tiny item like a T-shirt if you can. Little touches go a long way toward expressing gratitude.

4. Work with your personal network to identify potential leads

Working your personal network is another frequently neglected alternative that is simple to get started with since you have established trust.

There are folks you'll encounter in a personal context that you wouldn't consider a lead generating machine, but who might be exceptionally beneficial.

You have friends, neighbours, colleagues, and acquaintances — but they exist in different categories that don't always overlap.

The secret to success is really straightforward — if you're at the stage in your relationship where you can discuss business with each other, let potentially useful contacts know.

Identify the sort of firm you're searching for (size, number of employees, revenue amount, location, etc.) and send them an email to forward. It's a wonderful approach to expanding your presence.

Of course, mixing personal and professional matters in this manner has to be successful and polite — but it's a fantastic method to grow your audience.

5. At networking events, be proactive in engaging with new leads.

Attend as many of these events (both in-person and online) as possible, since they're a fantastic way to expand your reach while also potentially enticing new clients.

Here are four things I like to remind people of before they get started networking (whether in-person or at a virtual networking event):

1. Typically, discussing your "always be assisting" attitude in person is a major differentiator.
2. Hand out business cards to anyone you meet.
3. Offer to connect on LinkedIn from your phone while you're standing next to someone. I usually ask them if they'd want to connect on LinkedIn, and.

6. Review closed/missed possibilities.

These are firms that have already heard about your company's services. They may have seen a product demo or spoken with you during a discovery call, but it wasn't the right time to buy.

Touch base with these prospects once every six months. Inquire about their priorities, whether their firm and team objectives have altered, and what their challenges are.

Invest in marketing to these prospects since they are already more qualified than new, warm leads.

Enrol them with inappropriate marketing email drips, give them relevant blog articles, and maintain interaction individualized.

It may not be the right moment for you to follow up the first or third time you do so, but it could work to your advantage on the fifth attempt. You'll be the first vendor they contact if you stay top of mind.

7. You may also write guest articles for other websites and blogs

Have you started blogging yet? You should. Begin by writing about something you're an expert in.

It might be sales process optimization, referral marketing, or your product/service — whatever it is, start writing and sharing it on your company's blog, as well as your personal social media platforms and with your consumers.

It's critical for you to be recognized as a thought leader in your area. Not only will it demonstrate your knowledge, but it'll also educate your prospects.

Do you require assistance with your first post? For a brief tutorial, contact either your resident marketer or blog editor. They might even agree to assist you develop a few posts for you.

Whatever your size or industry, you may develop high-quality leads online to increase revenue.

Whether you're a writer, networker, or public speaker, the chance to interact with people and create leads online is well worth your time. Try these internet strategies to help you make more sales in the fourth quarter.