How to generate sales leads? Tips, techniques and tools

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Knowing how to generate qualified sales leads is a determining factor not only for the success of marketing initiatives, but also for the sales area. After all, as anyone who works in the sales sector knows, no product sells itself.

Key takeaways from this article
Companies need to structure marketing strategies to attract more and more audiences. And leads can be defined as potential consumers.
The best way to generate new leads is organically, that is, by creating actions that convert through inbound marketing. Then, the sales team steps in to close the deal.
Among the best strategies for capturing new customers organically are: creating paid media campaigns, understanding user behavior and being sure of what a qualified lead is.
With the help of a CRM, managing qualified leads for sales becomes more assertive. In addition to optimizing conversions, it is possible to track them at each stage of the sales funnel. CREATE A FREE ACCOUNT to try out all the features of Agendor's CRM.
Ultimately, closing deals depends largely on the strategic partnership between the sales and marketing departments.

For example, the marketing area's efforts are focused especially on working on communication and the most appropriate approach for the company's target audience and personas .

Therefore, it is important to pay as much attention to planning your marketing actions as you do to planning your business' sales .

Following this way of looking at marketing, we can understand this strategy as being more than just focusing on lead nurturing. It generates commercial opportunities for the company.

Want to learn more? Then keep reading and find out what sales leads are, how to generate them correctly, and how many leads are needed for a sale!

What are sales leads?
A lead is basically a person or organization with the potential to become a customer. This is usually someone the company already has contact with and who has shown interest in the services or products offered. In other words, it represents a unique business opportunity, whether B2B or B2C.

Understanding what lead means, the question remains: how to create sales leads?

Well, some companies generate leads for their salespeople through Google searches. Others resort to purchasing a qualified mailing list to make this happen.

However, the best way to generate sales leads is organically, mainly through what we call an inbound marketing strategy . This way, only those who are truly interested will contact your company.

This way, salespeople have a much higher chance of success when approaching a lead and converting it into a sale. This is the best answer for anyone looking for how to generate qualified sales leads.

How many leads for a sale?
The truth is that there is no single answer to the question of how many leads are needed to close a sale. This is because the quantity depends a lot on the product or service, the value, the time of sale, etc.

For example, a company receives an average of 200 leads per month. Of these, 20 become customers. In this case, it can be said that the company needs 20 qualified leads to close a sale. Got it?

Remember that this is not a fixed number, okay? With this in mind, it is essential to monitor the business's performance to obtain concrete data that is consistent with the company's reality.

And a good way to do this is by using a CRM system , such as Agendor, which allows you to track, in detail, everything that happens in the sales process. This way, you can find out how many leads you need to capture to close a sale. Easy, right?

How to generate qualified sales leads? 8 foolproof practical tips
Among the main strategies for generating sales leads, we can mention:

be clear about the concept of qualified lead;
create forms and landing pages with value offers;
run Facebook Leads Ads campaigns;
generate sales leads with marketing lead nurturing;
understand user behavior;
ask current customers for lead referrals;
participate in roadshows, events and meetings, which are great places to generate leads;
provide a good customer experience on your website.
Below, we present each of the actions for generating sales leads in detail.

1. Be clear about the concept of qualified lead
One of the biggest problems faced by a sales team is identifying a qualified lead, that is, a contact who is truly ready to make a purchase.

This can cause the sales force to pay too much attention to a marketing lead that, under no turkey mobile phone numbers database circumstances, will close a deal or, on the contrary, will not evolve in the interaction with a certain company that, in fact, is a potential customer of the brand.

Therefore, the first step towards generating leads for sales is to understand who the lead is that needs to be generated.

By understanding the characteristics of this lead, their demands and their profile, marketing campaigns can be created to generate more opportunities that are part of this audience.

>>>> Read also: Consumer profile — what it is, importance and how to define it

2. Create forms and landing pages with value offers
Generating leads organically requires you to provide conversion locations, right? Basically, consider where users will share their contact information.

In this sense, landing pages and forms are excellent conversion channels. Exit pop-ups are also used to convert your website visitors into leads.

And to make a user feel attracted to sharing their data with your company, you need to offer a real incentive. Some of the most popular options include landing pages with:

e-books on topics that the persona may be interested in;
downloadable spreadsheets;
free webinars;
infographics;
access to research.
In parallel, pop-ups on websites offering freebies, discount coupons or extra free usage time are effective strategies for generating qualified sales leads.

>>>> See more: what materials can I use to generate more leads for the sales team?

3. Run Facebook Leads Ads campaigns
Social networks can also be used to generate leads, including in advertising campaigns, for example, Facebook Ads (in this case, with efficient profile segmentation).

Here, the ideal is to make a list of the company's marketing actions and think of ways to generate leads through these channels.

4. Generate sales leads through marketing lead nurturing
The generation of qualified leads for sales involves, in the vast majority of cases, a lead management process, which, in turn, occurs through the nurturing of these contacts.

In this case, nurturing focuses on “maturing” the marketing lead so that it becomes a qualified sales lead.

Through strategies such as sending segmented email marketing, you provide the lead with information about the product or service, so that they later recognize the problem that the brand can solve and then consider purchasing what it offers.

This “knowledge formation” movement is a fundamental step in how to generate more qualified sales leads and, furthermore, increases the reach of your content and, consequently, of your business, which is publicized and shared by these people with other interested parties.

To achieve this, each stage of the nutrition process must be very well developed, providing materials that respect each phase of the sales funnel .

There is no point in encouraging a lead to purchase or evaluate a product if they do not have full knowledge of what it is or how it can make their life easier.

>>>> Read also: How to use lead nurturing to generate more sales

5. Understand user behavior
Knowing the profile of your potential client, in a broad sense, is another practice that is part of how to generate leads, and can boost your marketing for sales.

There are tools that can help you monitor the behavior of your target audience, making it much easier to generate more leads and also identifying which approaches are decisive for convincing or encouraging a purchase.

Using the right tools, you can map:

most searched keywords;
most visited pages;
shared interests on social networks;
most clicked call to action (CTA) icons;
among other data that can be monitored, functioning as excellent sources of information.
The forms filled out by leads (containing data such as: place of residence, age, gender, academic background, etc.) generate decisive reports for the sales and marketing areas.

With this content in hand, you can direct your campaigns in a much more assertive way and, therefore, with much greater chances of conversion.

6. Use customers to ask for leads
There's nothing like generating qualified sales leads with the help of satisfied customers who recommend your company! This means that the customers that the company already has and who are satisfied are the best source of new contacts.

When an organization has a long-term relationship with a client and they are satisfied with the work they do, it is natural that at some point you will ask them for referrals, just as they might ask you for referrals.

That said, providing quality service to consumers is the best way to create a lasting relationship and then ask for referrals from future customers.

It’s much easier to reach a lead by saying that you were referred by a client. This shows that they believe in your work and helps to eliminate barriers to purchase.

7. Attend roadshows, events and meetings, which are great places to generate leads.
Events play a huge role in generating sales leads. Although not everyone closes deals at a trade show, many business cards are exchanged. The goal here is not just to showcase what the company does, but to create and develop new business contacts.

With this in mind, taking advantage of the contacts generated at these events needs to be the first step after they are held. It is precisely at this stage of screening that lead management allows you to evaluate and work on them correctly.