Most sales training books and courses spend a lot of time on closing the sale, but very little time is spent on discussing the leads that, well, lead to those sales. Generating the leads is the first part of any sales process, and the more time you spend understanding this important step, the more efficient your business will become.

Can you count the number of leads you received over the past 30 days? Most people can answer that question with a handful of leads that have high potential or resulted in a sale, but a large number of potential leads fall out of the process, sacrificing possible sales.

Why does it matter? Because a company spends so much time and money to get leads, the more you know about them, the more profitable the business will become. And, wouldn’t it be worth it to use some of the things you learn about your leads to cut marketing costs or the time you spend getting leads?

Your first action plan is to create a way to track key information about the ways that you generate your leads. Here are some things to consider:

1. What is the main venue through which you get your leads? Before you have a lead, you only have a prospect, that is a website visitor or attendee from a networking event, for example. Note those places that you pick up prospects, for example your website, advertising, networking events or tradeshows.

2. Next, what are the more particular sources your leads come from? Pay per click advertising, a specific trade show, someone else’s website, or organic online searches are all examples of a specific source for your leads.

3. Finally, what is the quality value for each of the leads you receive from those general sources and specific sources? I have found that this is easiest to derive by assigning a percentage value to every lead received from a source. So, if a lead actually results in a sale, it receives a higher percentage value than one that expressed interest but didn’t get past the proposal stage.

Understanding where you are getting your leads and the quality of those leads will help you to spend your marketing time and money in the right places to increase your profits.

Marty Dickinson has been an entrepreneur and president of HereNextYear.com for more than ten years, and is committed to sharing small business success techniques with other business presidents. Get your free white paper: “7 Ways Your Stone-Age Accounting System is Stealing Money From You Every Day … And, How to Get it Back This Year” and learn about an online accounting program that makes it easy to track your leads and conversion rates.

Tags: lead generation, leads, marketing, Networking, profit, sales, small business

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