Tips for Generating Higher Quality Sales Leads
By Bob Milroy
President
Alexander Marketing Services

Decades of research clearly confirms that few business people have the time or the inclination to inquire about products for which they have no purchase or specification responsibility. Nonetheless, there are simple steps that can help separate great leads from good ones.

The first way to ensure higher quality leads is to prevent marginal prospects from inquiring in the first place.

• Buy advertising space in more targeted publications or consider geographical inserts if your business is confined to specific regions of the country.
• Consider direct mail instead of advertising and purchase your lists with specific selections such as company type, prospect size, titles, geography and buying authority.
• Limit press release distribution to more focused publications so you don’t attract interest from those you cannot or will not pursue.

Help prospects qualify themselves
Use qualifying copy points in your headlines and subheads. Instead of writing “New hospital billing software,” write “New billing software for hospitals with 100-500 beds.” By doing so, you’ve just eliminated the part of your audience you aren’t interested in and qualified the other.

Make it easy for your qualified prospects to respond
On response forms, ask prospects to tell you the timing of their need. Ask other questions that the prospect feels will help you send them more specific information. As a rule, the more information they give you the more immediate their need.

Finally — always provide multiple contact options such as, phone, fax, e-mail, and website. As another rule, those who call are more qualified than those who take “anonymous” routes to request your information.

Bob Milroy is the President of Alexander Marketing Services (AMS). AMS is a full-service, business-to-business marketing services company with offices in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Chicago, Illinois.