Five-Step Lead Generation System

Follow these five steps closely to develop your business' "Ultimate Lead Generation System." Each step is significant, so take the time necessary to do it right. 

STEP 1: Find Out Why People Buy From You 
List the three most compelling reasons why your clients buy your services. Take the time to ask your salespeople and even your clients to find out the true problems they are trying to solve when clients buy from you.

STEP 2: Create a Special Report 
Your special report should provide "insider" information that the average prospect would not know. It should be highly educational and should NOT contain "sales" information. Your special report could be a written report, an audiocassette, a video, or a CD-ROM. 

Create an exciting title for your report. The best pulling titles (from my personal experience) start with "How To," use numbers, and are framed to avoid the fear of loss. For instance, "How To Avoid Six Common Design or Construction Mistakes that are Costing You millions of Dollars." 

STEP 3: Develop a Direct Response Advertisement 
Create a small ad that looks just like a newspaper article that includes the following elements: 

Element # 1. A strong compelling headline. Hint: Use the same headline as your special report.

Element # 2. Identify the problem in the first sentence. For instance, "85% of today's hotel owners are losing thousands of dollars every year by making design and construction mistakes..." 

Element # 3. Announce the solution to their problems by offering your special report. You might say, "Recently a new special report was released that identifies what these design and construction mistakes are and gives a simple step-by-step explanation about how to avoid them.

Element # 4. Tell people how to get your report and what benefits they'll receive by acting immediately. For example, "Stop making these mistakes and receive millions of dollars in higher occupancy and room rates right now by calling 000-000-0000 and requesting your special report right now."

You can elect to offer your report for free, which will increase the number of leads you receive. Some of those leads may just be "tire kickers." 

The only way to avoid this is to make it a little difficult for your prospect to respond. Charging a small fee for your special report will ward off some freebie seekers but I'd rather deal with a few tire kickers then lose some potential customers. 

STEP 4: Set Up Your Response Mechanism 
Prepare to receive a lot of leads by developing a response mechanism that logs all leads and tracks where they came from. The worst mistake you can make is writing a hot report, running a great ad, and then losing your precious leads. 

Use a toll-free, direct response phone system to capture names and addresses. The telephone makes it easy for your prospect to respond and using a toll-free number lowers the risk of loss for the prospect. It also allows you to handle many incoming calls simultaneously without any effort on your part. 

You'll need to create a phone script to welcome the caller, repeat the offer, and invite them to respond by leaving their name and address. I always make a second offer for an extra free gift that I can email to them to get their email address. 

Include the words "free recorded message." This lets the caller know that they won't be getting a sales job when they call, which again, decreases the risk of responding. 

STEP 5: Set Up a Follow-Up Fulfillment System 
Suppose you've run your lead generation advertisement and calls are coming in requesting your free report. How do you manage all your new prospects? Imagine if you are going to send them three to five follow-up marketing pieces? It will soon become a nightmare if you're not careful. 

I highly recommend using ACT Contact Management System to manage your leads. It is not the only software that can manage your leads but it is the simplest. And it also has a feature called, "Activity Series" that is extremely powerful and keep your entire marketing program organized and simple to manage. 

The Activity Series allows you to set up a series of marketing activities performed at specific times. For instance, after you have received a lead you will send out your special report immediately. You might call the prospect in two days. You then might send a follow-up postcard in five days and finally send a sales letter with a spectacular offer in ten days. 

Once you've set up your Activity Series you simply attach it to your new lead and the software does the rest. The next morning you arrive and select the task list and it will tell you all the marketing activities you have to do that day for all the prospects you're managing. It's poetry in motion! 

The Magic Is In the Follow-Up

In the system that I have just presented to you, generating leads is the easy part. Converting the leads to cash-paying customers is the tricky part. 

You must follow up immediately, persistently, consistently, and persuasively. DON'T setup and kick off your lead generation system without first putting some real thought into your follow-up marketing system. 

Use telemarketing, postcards, sales letters, email, and voice broadcasting coupled with powerful, juicy, irresistible offers in order to persuade your prospect to become your client.



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