A current search for “sales lead generation” on Google will uncover more than 12 million websites, most which focus on internet, social networking, email and list purchases as a sales lead generation method.

What about the old fashioned method of telephone lead gen cold calling? Is the telephone extinct? Definitely not! Outbound, B2B telephone calls are still one of the best methods to generate leads for your sales force.

• Through a two way conversation, your lead gen reps will be able to collect the most up to date, accurate information about the target companies and their buying needs. Then, can tailor sales presentations to effectively align with those customer needs.
• Even if the target companies are not in a buying mode, your lead gen calls can also serve as a method to create awareness, promote your company and plant seeds for future sales.
• The telephone is one of the best methods to find and speak directly to the true decision makers. Information found via web search or on purchased lists is often outdated. Email open rates are very low.

Thoughts On Email Lead Generation for Sales…….
I fully support email marketing techniques, but don’t feel they are the best method to generate inbound calls or leads to the salesforce for a variety of reasons.
- Overall, B2B email open rates are in the 10-30% range.. i.e. up to 90% are never opened or looked at. As you know, business email volume is way up. Many unsolicited B2B emails get caught in spam filters. And, more and more business leaders are reading email on their Blackberry or mobile devices, with images and colors turned off and your email may not make it to their priority list. (For more info on email open rates, refer to the Constant Contact site.)
- I have also managed a number of email follow-up call programs. The marketing teams provide a list of all the contacts who received an email and ask for telephone follow-up. It sounds good on paper.. but the reality is, due to the low open rates and quality of email lists, these types of programs are often equivalent to a cold calling program. I have found that in MOST cases, the emails do not often warm up these contacts.

Thoughts On Buying Lists of “Leads”…….
There are some sales leaders who call a “business listing” a lead. A “business listing” is simply a business name, address, telephone and contact name(s). In contrast, “a lead” is a business listing that has gone through an additional qualification process. The additional qualifications make them more likely to be prospective buyers for your product or service, A fellow blogger, Mitsu Fisher, wrote about this topic in ‘The Definition of a Sales Lead”. Worth a read….

And…When you buy lists, you have no idea how updated the information is.. I have personally found that up to 25% of a purchased lists’ information is inaccurate.

Final thought.. business lists are (usually) not leads. You may, however, use purchased lists to generate telephone based leads.

How To Generate Telephone Based Leads…
If you would like to set up an in-house telephone lead generation department, you may find this Hub Pages article helpful.. “How To Set Up A Telephone Based B2B Lead Gen Department”.

There are also many companies you can hire to generate telephone based leads for you. Try Googling “B2B telephone sales lead generation” and you’ll uncover close to 400,000 listings.

1. Sales Lead Generation Through “Triggers” & “Alerts”