There is a common misconception among business owners involved in marketing. They seem to be under the impression that in order to get fresh, responsive leads, you have to spend a fortune either cold-calling or cold-prospecting via direct mail to potential prospects. While these may be proven methods of getting new leads, they are both costly and ineffective, at best.

How would you like to have, at your disposal, a cost-effective way of generating a constant stream of qualified prospects interested in your products and services, for only a small investment in advertising? Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, not really.

Since the beginning of my career, I have been a total non-believer in the cold-calling, cold-prospecting methods of marketing. I've always found them to be wasteful and intrusive to the prospect. Certainly not a good way to make your first impression on a potential client!

So how do you generate a steady stream of fresh leads? I use a combination of vehicles. My favorite, by far, is classified advertising. I use this media because it is very cheap and it reaches the markets I'm most interested in reaching. I use simple, 10 to 20 word ads that don't actually sell anything, but simply peak interest and get the prospect to respond, typically, for free information.

An investment of about $100 can bring back about 150 to 200 fresh, qualified leads. Compare that to the cost of cold-calling or cold prospecting via direct mail and you can already see what I mean by having a better way to produce those all-important leads for your business.

The next vehicle I like use is simple display advertising, again in selected publications that I know my target audience is reading. These ads have the advantage of getting even more fresh leads to respond, but at a slightly higher initial cost. The increased number of leads generated by a larger, more visible ad will almost always justify the additional cost.

Although, I'm not totally convinced that the Internet is a powerful marketing vehicle just yet, I have used it successfully in generating leads for only pennies per lead. This is a medium I am still testing, but I'd recommend it, if you are familiar with it and can set up a web site without spending thousands of dollars. I learned as much as I could and did most of the work myself, which saved me a lot of money.

So, let's assume that you have placed some classified ads and you begin to get qualified leads. What next? Simple, prepare a sales letter and send it to them IMMEDIATELY! A qualified lead is only qualified as long as they are interested in your product, so it's very important to get your marketing materials into their hands as quickly as possible. If they supply you with a telephone number, have your sales people call them the day they get the lead, not days, weeks or even months later. I've found that waiting just one week costs you about half of your sales potential of your new leads. Often, I have found that my prospect responded to my ads because they were ready to buy and when I waited, then called, they had already bought… from my competitor!

So, head this advice; answer your leads promptly. These are people, who are ready to buy, and that is why they will answer your classified or display ads! Unlike cold prospecting, you are "selecting" only those people who have a current need or strong interest in what it is you have to sell.

These are the strongest, most cost-effective ways that I have found to generate all the leads you'll ever need to grow your business without having to spend a fortune to do it! I encourage you to take advantage of both classified advertising and small display advertising and to cut back or even completely eliminate wasteful cold calling and cold prospecting.

Just remember these quick things. Use classified ads first. Test your headlines and your offer where it is cheap to test. When you have found a winning formula, don't change it! Use the same formula in your display advertising. Try different publications at different times of the year.

If you want a steady stream of leads, keep your ads running in multiple publications and keep up with placing your ads before they expire. It is entirely possible to generate more sales using this method than by any other marketing method I have ever found!

(Mr. Imbriale is a nationally recognized business coach specializing in business development. Reach him at 516 754 9144 or via e-mail at roberti@ix.netcom.com)

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