Every professional sales person knows that the best way to increase sales is through good, qualified sales leads. When you get good referrals from satisfied clients, it saves you a great deal of time and money. The benefits to you when you increase sales leads are many.

• Sales leads give you an automatic “in” with the new prospect.
• Sales leads save marketing dollars.
• Sales leads save time allowing you to skip the prospecting part of the sales process.

One of the best ways to boost your sales success is to increase sales leads.  There are several tried and true ways that you can implement to increase sales leads.

Reward referrals.

This is the “what’s in it for me” approach to getting more sales leads. You can offer your current clients a discount for providing successful sales leads. You can also offer other incentives for each sales lead that they provide. It is significantly less expensive to offer rewards for good leads than it is to prospect new leads. In order to receive the referral reward, the referrals need to be qualified and you may want to make it contingent on actual closed sales.

Always ask for referrals.

This is probably the simplest and most overlooked way to increase sales leads. After you close the current sale and you have a satisfied customer, always ask for referrals. You should even ask for referrals from people who don’t buy. Non-buyers may not need your product or service right now, but chances are, they know someone who would benefit from what you have to offer.

Be customer focused.

The only thing customers remember more than bad service is outstanding service.  You need to provide service to your customers that is more than they expect.  You want them to talk to other people and potential clients about the excellent service that you provide. Providing great customer service creates sales partners for you and helps to increase sales leads.

Keep in constant contact with current customers.

To increase sales leads, you need to maintain contact with your current customers on a regular basis. Keeping in touch with your customers will keep you informed as to the needs of your customer and will help to build customer relationships. It should go without saying that after every sale you should be following up with your customers to thank them and make sure there are no problems or issues. After that, you should contact them regularly just to check in. Every time you are in touch with a customer, you should be asking them for leads. The stronger your relationship with your customers, the more likely they are to help you increase sales leads. 

Explain the benefits of providing referrals.

Often customers are reluctant to provide leads because they feel they may be imposing on the other person. The customer may not understand that by providing leads, it helps to keep costs down by saving on marketing and other sales expenses. These costs savings should be passed on to your customers.  When the customer understands the benefits of providing qualified referrals it can help you increase sales leads.