29 Jul 09 Lead Generation for the Self-Employed Meeting Planner

Whether you are a meeting planner or a freelance chicken coop cleaner, one thing is clear: you need to market your services, communicate with clients, and turn leads into sales. The first two are getting easier every day. The Internet and email has helped immensely with reach-out efforts of all businesses that use it. However, turning leads into sales is still done with the personal touch. Here are some ways to boost sales by what sales experts call lead nurturing.

Lead Quality

The first thing you need to do is determine if you lead is ready to buy–in your case, ready to book an event. If you get most of your leads through the internet, have a form available for your leads that ask when they think they will be ready to commit or if they are just shopping for ideas. Word it in a way that makes them feel comfortable telling you the truth. If you work by phone, have the questionnaire handy to ask them verbally.

Get Permission for Future Communications

You don’t want to just send them newsletters or call them uninvited. Make sure you’re welcome before you add to their already stuffed email and voice mail inboxes. This is a very important step because it tells them you respect their privacy and time.

Find Out What They Might Want

Even if your lead is not ready to make a commitment, you can still get some preferences. Does the potential client primarily arrange business meetings for his company? Does she book lots of incentive travel? Does he need some intensive conference planning?

These techniques are designed to help you save time–no need to try and sell red widgets to someone who wants blue ones. If you need help developing your lead generator page and website in general, talk to online marketing experts. They can help you make the most of your marketing efforts while filtering out the leads that will just waste your time.

Tags: Business Meetings, Chicken Coop, Freelance, Future Communications, Handy, Incentive Travel, Intensive Conference, Internet Email, Lead Generation, Lead Generator, Marketing Efforts, Meeting Planner, One Thing, Personal Touch, Questionnaire, Red Widgets, Sales Lead, Shopping, Truth, Voice Mail