Are You Missing a Great Lead Source?

As sales and marketing pro­fes­sion­als, we’re always looking for new ways to generate leads. Do you offer incen­tives or product discounts to customers, vendors, and sales partners? Have you paid com­mis­sions or bonuses for new business to people outside your orga­ni­za­tion? If you use any or all of these lead gen­er­a­tion tools, have they worked for you, and have these practices occa­sion­ally generated sales? These ini­tia­tives may not bring in a large number of new clients, but they don’t have to. Any prospect intro­duced to you, in this manner, is a cost-effective bonus. Unlike some tra­di­tional prospect­ing, there shouldn’t be a large marketing expense to these strate­gies. Also, a referral lead is almost always a warmer lead; someone the prospect knows and trusts has rec­om­mended you. If you don’t have these programs in place, you should. Does this make sense? Am I preaching to the choir? Even if you’re doing every­thing mentioned above — you may be missing the boat.

Do You Offer Incen­tives for New Business to Your Employees?

Your employees can be your best sales people, and I’m not talking about your sales and marketing team. Pro­duc­tion, instal­la­tion, service, IT, and HR can all be lead gen­er­a­tors for you. For this to be effective, you must have a product or service your team believes in, and you need engaged and happy employees. If you have these two things, your team can generate leads with a little incentive and direction.

At TKO, we recently offered gift cards for new business referred by any employee. It’s only 90 days or so until Christmas, you know, but we haven’t stopped there. Here’s what we’ve done:

• Offered gift card incentives

• Published the incen­tives in a company-wide email and monthly newsletter

• Gave examples of who might use our products

• Trained team leaders on how to approach prospects

We’ve started a con­ver­sa­tion and we’re getting some leads, but something else is happening. Employees are express­ing their pride in what we do. They’re taking pride in their work and their company. They’re taking ownership. We’d love to know if you have similar programs.

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