The Art Of Finding Sales Leads

By Author: mikstroa
Total Articles: 3
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If you are interested in running your own business selling products or services, or if you want to have a career in multi-level marketing (MLM), then you're going to need sales leads and lots of them. While some people find that one source gives them more good business leads than another, most businesspeople do not limit themselves to one source of leads. Here are several resources for finding or generating leads.

Many business owners buy or rent lists of sales leads from companies that specialize in creating them. If you only want email addresses, you will spend less money on buying lead lists than if you want other information like addresses and phone numbers. The best list providers have their own staff and keep their information updated constantly. They compile corporate names and addresses, names of corporate officers and directors, and contact information for these people. They will also in some cases provide you with lead information such as a company's net worth and number of employees. These lists can be expensive, but the leads are often very solid, so the investment ...
... may be well worth it to you.

Keep in mind that most list companies rent or sell lists for fixed time periods, usually one year. Some of them will plant fake names in the list that they use to learn if you are using the list beyond the time you have contracted to have the list. This should not be a problem, however, because lists change rapidly, and a list of sales leads that's three months old is considered obsolete in many industries. Watch out for fly-by-night lead vendors who are only trying to make quick money for themselves. You should check out a company's bona fides before committing to buy a list from them.

Business owners will tell you that many everyday encounters can be opportunities to gain business and MLM leads. You can collect business cards at Chamber of Commerce meetings, and many towns have associations of small business owners that meet regularly to help each other find leads and to share promising leads with those who might use them.

You can also write down the names of possible leads that you find in daily newspapers (among writers of letters to the editor, for example) or trade magazines. Spending 15 minutes a day browsing websites related to your industry can also turn up sales leads.

One resource that you shouldn't overlook is family and friends. You never know when a friend, family member, workout buddy, or fellow civic committee member may know someone interested in what you have to offer. Some people establish an informal business relationship with a person who will send you leads whenever he or she finds them in return for some monetary return or finder's fee if the lead works out.