The Secret To Effective Lead Generation
by Bob Serling

 

In order to be as successful as possible in your lead generation efforts, it's essential that you understand the strategy that drives a successful lead generation campaign:

The purpose of a good lead generation piece is to get the prospect to take the next step.

Please re-read the last sentence. Unless you understand this critical strategy, the majority of your lead generation efforts are destined for a direct trip to the trash bin.

Because you want to gently prod your prospects to take the next step, and just the next step, it follows that your lead generation piece (whether it's email, snail mail, or a space ad) should be short and to the point. And this is where I see the majority of my clients going wrong in their lead generation efforts. 

The temptation is to tell your entire story - what a great deal you have for your prospect, why your company is the leader in your industry, how your cousin Louise loves everything about your product or service, your office hours, your web site address, and pictures of your kids at their most recent soccer game. Hey, why not establish a little rapport that you can cash in on later, right?

Wrong.

Telling too much - even a single sentence too much - in your lead generation piece will only work against you. 

The Foundation Of Your Lead Generation Message

OK, so now you know that you have to keep your lead generation piece extremely short. But what exactly should you put in your lead generation piece? In order to motivate your prospect to take the next step, and to take it NOW, your lead generation piece must be built around:

The promise of great potential.

You must convince your prospect to interrupt the important task they're involved in and take a minute to respond to your lead generation piece now. This is a tall order, especially when you have just a few paragraphs in which to achieve it.

Let's take a look at an actual lead generation piece I created for my own business last week that will illustrate how you accomplish your goal. The piece is an email I wrote to get a large, successful premiums and promotions manufacturer to take the first step towards licensing one of our new products.

Dear Mr. Johnson,

I have a new product in development that I believe would be ideal for the premiums and promotional items industry. Since it's used with a very popular item - the television - it should appeal to a broad audience.

Would you be interested in taking a look at this? If so, I'll email a non-disclosure agreement to you as the patent application has not been filed yet.

Thanks for your time. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Regards,

Bob Serling, President ProductLab, Inc. www.Product-Lab.com

Analysis Of The Lead Generation Piece

As you can see, this piece is extremely short. The entire message is just two paragraphs and there isn't a wasted word in it.

The first sentence demonstrates that I know exactly what his company does and that this message isn't just a shot in the dark. The second sentence delivers the promise of great potential:

Since it's used with a very popular item - the television - it should appeal to a broad audience.

In the premiums and promotions industry, the goal is to find new products with two qualities: (1) They appeal to massive audiences; and (2) They have longevity. 

Since the unit price of premium and promotional items is usually quite low, manufacturers are looking for items that will generate large orders from major corporations. This is what I mean by appealing to massive audiences.

By longevity, I mean sustained appeal that causes the item to be reordered over and over again for many years to come. There aren't too many things more popular than television, so the potential promise for this product is substantial. 

The second paragraph establishes that the product has been submitted for patent protection, which is another factor that's important in a licensing deal. It also demonstrates that my company understands how the licensing game is played and that what's to come in the future can expected to be professional and well-prepared. With that, I bring the message to a close.

What Isn't In My Lead Generation Piece

Please notice that I didn't provide any information on production costs, market tests, potential customers for the product, ease of manufacturing, and so on. I have all that information at my disposal, but if I reveal that now, there's less urgency to respond to my lead generation piece. Also, those details are better presented on the phone or in person, as they can be misinterpreted if delivered in an email, letter, or space ad.

And now for the results...

How well did this lead generation piece work? It was emailed late Wednesday afternoon and I received a positive reply the next morning. I then emailed the non-disclosure agreement which was signed and returned to me the following day.

I now have an appointment to present the rest of the details, and hopefully secure an agreement to license the product, next week.

As you can see, it didn't take much to accomplish this. You can do the same for your business. Now that you understand the underlying strategy of creating successful lead generation pieces, all you have to do to start enjoying better results is put it into action.


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