Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello,

We have launched our service 6 months back.

The target market is entrepreneurs and small business owners who would like to make their business sound professional. Everyone does!

- How do I go about reaching them?
- We have lately hired few telecallers who can broadcast abour our services to the target market.

How do everyone here get sales leads and how effective is it? Are there any alternatives to expensive infousa? Each lead is ~16.25c. Are leads so expensive when the conversion ratio is only 1%? Any alternatives?

Thanks.

Mark,

Thanks for the response. We have limited budget.

a) Telemarketing: we have already hired our reps and are training them. Before we went ahead with infousa leads, I wanted to check if there are any other alternatives.

b) Direct Mail: I am seriously considering them apart from Telemarketing. Did you do this before? Whats the best way of targeting and how do we go abt getting the leads?

Is USPS best carrier for bulk mailing?

Thanks.

I am pretty sure all of us on these boards have limited budgets. The goal should be to squeeze the life out of every marketing dollar you have so that you get the most bang for your buck.

Regarding your point on A, the answer is that there are a lot of other ways to collect leads besides renting them from a broker. I listed some ideas in my previous post. I am not saying one way is better than the other, but I am saying that there may be a more effective and less expensive alternative to InfoUSA. It is going to require you to invest some time and energy into experimenting with how the quality of leads generated in different ways.

One thing that you may want to consider is to narrow down your focus more than just "entrepreneurs and small business owners who would like to make their business sound professional". This is a very, very broad category that encompasses many specific industries. It is a huge giant that probably won`t feel the effects of the pebbles you are throwing at him.

However, if you narrow down your focus, and you can do this either by vertical industry or geographic location, then the target becomes much smaller and your pebbles now become rocks they can feel.

In thinking about how you can shrink the giant down to something you can effectively take on, you should narrow your marketing focus to a specific vertical market. In doing this you need to think about what vertical industries place a premium on sounding professional, and since you have settled on telemarketing you need to think about what types of business you will have success contacting over the telephone. For example, using these two considerations I might decide that law firms place a premium on their professional image and they do a lot of telephone communication. So I choose law firms as my vertical market. 

What I just did was narrowed my focus from 5.7 million small businesses to roughly 400,000 lawyers (I could not find specific numbers on small law firms in America). Now you need to get to know this particular market and what works with them so that you can better refine your sales process to accommodate and address their needs specifically. If done right this should increase your conversation rates as well.

I would even go one step further. Due to budget constraints you are still probably dealing with a good sized giant with a couple hundred thousand prospects nationwide. Narrow your focus even more by targeting only small law firms in your state. Once again you have now gone from tens of thousands of law firms to probably more like a couple thousand, where your marketing efforts are going to have even more of an impact.

You can adjust this strategy accordingly, in order to get the right numbers. Once you have figured it out I highly recommend a multi-faceted marketing approach to your audience rather than just telemarketing. But I will leave that for a different book!

If I understand correctly, you are a marketing company, offering branding type services or sales/marekting coaching.  I can offer some pretty good advice here, as I know first hand what works for getting these types of leads...for ourselves...we are also a marketing company.  I`m not sure if it would be easier or harder for your specific type of marketing though...

Telemarketing - if you do this, be weary.  Telemarketing leads can be very good, set appointments, but they can get costly.  My experience with telemarketing is that for every 100 companies that say they can generate results...1 or 2 do - the other leave you wanting your money back.  Most people would charge $75-100 for every appointment, I know a company that does it for $50.  Costs can add up quick, if you`re not closing.

Email marketing - you can get these types of leads for $30 at pretty good quality.

Is it rude to ask another retail store where they get their inventory? I need some sales leads for warehouses that sell video games and am having a hard time finding them. I figured I could just ask another retail store owner where they get their inventory.

Thanks for the reply!

Yes I have looked for wholesalers online. But I`m having a really difficult time because most of the wholesalers I`ve come across don`t carry an up to date inventory. Let alone the website looks completely unprofessional. I don`t judge books by their cover but I`m trying to make sure I won`t get scammed out of money. But you are right, it couldn`t hurt to ask.

Maybe I misunderstood, but why are you trying to sell to warehouses.  Generally warehouses store product.  Some other entity actually sells the product.  This could be the sales branch of the same company.  Or, a retailer who stores his product in a warehouse until the product is sold. 

If you are looking for a warehouse to hold your product, you can go with a 3P (3rd party) type of warehouse.  They will store your product, handle shipping and send you inventory updates.


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The older we get, the more excuses we make for not chasing after our dreams. But truth is, goals are attainable at any age.

I would definitely ask. It`s surprising how much information companies are happy to offer - even to competition.

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Avin Kline
AvinKline.com