Whether you're selling jumbo jets or Girl Scout cookies, the basic principle of sales is the same -- there's no sale if there's no client. Finding clients can be an expensive, time-consuming, often failure-ridden process. Picture those poor Girl Scouts going door-to-door with their Thin Mints and Samoas: half the people aren't home; six homeowners just went on a diet; and the competition is stiff (Becky and Nancy are working the same turf!). The first, and, some say, most difficult task for any salesman is generating sales leads. Sales leads aren't clients; they're potential clients. For example, realtors used to rely heavily on costly newspaper ads to generate inquiries. In this HowStuffWorks article, we'll cover some of the most popular techniques for generating and managing sales leads, including helpful technology for tracking and nurturing leads from first contact to closing. Let's start by exploring the basics of generating sales leads. In larger companies, generating sales leads falls to the marketing department, since they're responsible for creating all advertising and outreach materials.

However, in smaller organizations, it's common for salesmen to have to do their own sales lead generation. These referrals are also called sales tips. Besides networking, trade shows are excellent opportunities for business-to-business (B2B) networking. Web advertising is fast becoming the most powerful way to generate sales leads. These ads often lead to short surveys or contact forms that can be accessed in real-time by sales representatives. More on real-time and opt-in sales leads later. Telemarketing and teleprospecting are two similar but distinct methods of generating sales leads. Companies contract the services of a telemarketing firm that employs operators who read from a prepared script. Operators sell a product or service directly to the public over the phone. Telemarketing, unfortunately, has a terrible reputation for being a nuisance (calling during dinner hours, offering products that have nothing to do with the potential client, et cetera) and has led to the creation of the National Do Not Call Registry. In teleprospecting, the callers don't talk from a script.

Instead, they familiarize themselves enough with the product or service to be able to gauge the client's interest. If a client wants to know more, the teleprospector refers the client to a salesman. The quickest way to assemble hundreds or thousands of sales leads is to buy a sales lead list. There are dozens of direct marketing companies who collect and sell specialty lists for certain business and consumer sectors. The advantage of these lists is that a salesman can get instant access to thousands of names and numbers for a few hundred dollars. We'll talk more about specialty lists later in the article. Now let's talk about tracking sales leads and the technology that makes it easier. The sales funnel is called a funnel because it starts big at the top (a lot of potential clients) and gets smaller as you move further along in the sales process. At the top of the sales funnel are all the unqualified sales leads and sales tips that are generated by the marketing department or salesmen using the techniques mentioned on the previous page.

As the salesmen continues to work their way down the funnel -- making first contact, evaluating options and negotiating prices -- many of those initial leads will drop away. The more a salesman knows about his leads, the easier it is to offer the right services at the right time. For example, has the lead asked for a sample of the product? Has the lead changed addresses? Is the lead planning to initiate a large project in six months? To keep track of all of this tagged information, many companies use special lead tracking software or other customer relationship management (CRM) programs. In addition to the standard lead tracking software, a product called SalesGenius offers a new technology for tracking sales leads through e-mail. A salesman sends an e-mail to a sales lead using the SalesGenius Web site or by using a special SalesGenius plug-in for Microsoft Outlook. The e-mail contains a special encoded link to the salesman's company Web site.

SalesGenius will alert the salesman in real-time when the lead opens the e-mail and when he clicks on the link. Since each lead accesses the company Web site using a distinct URL, SalesGenius can track and record exactly which pages the lead views and what links he clicks. Using an online tool called the GeniusTracker, the salesmen can view which leads are currently on the Web site and even "replay" the pages they viewed to understand better what the lead is looking for. Products like SalesGenius allow salesmen to capitalize on the timeliness of a lead. There's no better time to make a sale than when a lead is actively searching out information on your product. In the next section, we're going to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of purchasing real time vs. These companies collect leads online through Web ads, surveys and affiliate programs with online retailers. Let's look at some important differences between real-time and opt-in sales leads.

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