by Pat Shaughnessy

Lead generation is the "life's blood" of your sales engine. This article covers five key lead generation strategies that you can put into practice today.

1) Use Pay-per-click ads like Goggle adwords. This system is a great way to jumpstart your lead generation process. It only takes a few minutes and your ads will be up and running.

2) Get on a consistent online press release program. Online press releases have several advantages over their offline counterparts:

a) They have a lower barrier to entry - the editorial hurdles are much lower with online press. Most sites will print a release as long as the basic grammar and spelling is correct. Product upgrades, feature announcements are all fair game online.

b) They provide web rank boost, through links to your site.

c) They often rank higher in search engine results than your own site does. This is especially important for new sites who do not rank well in the search engines. An online release with a popular online trade site can pop you up to a first page position for a key search term.

3) Ride the coattails of a well established partner. Do you have a larger better known partner that you can use to help make your programs and events more successfull? Larger companies often have a well established user list and can be of great help in publicizing webinars and other events. In addition, they will have a larger sales force that can provide you with sales opportunities as well.

4) Try speaking at your next industry trade show. Even if your budget is limited and your are unable to exhibit at an industry show, you may do well to speak on your product or services. Speaking can be an excellent lead generation mechanism for your business. Be sure to pick a "catchy" and popular topic related to your products. You will also find that although, you may not get as many leads as you would if you were on the show floor, the quality of the leads will be much higher.

5) Try calling at multiple levels in key accounts.

A common cold calling mistake is to call high in an organization first. This is often done because the names of VPs are readily available on most company web sites. The problem with this strategy is that these people are very busy and hard to reach. You should try to reach them, but when you do, you must have a crisp business value related message to deliver of you will get nowhere. A great way to gain background information on issues that the manager may be facing is to call lower ranking members of the leader's team. The lower ranking members will be much more accessible and can provide you with invaluable background information.

Pat Shaughnessy is Principal and Founder of Technology Sales Seminars (www.sales-training-lead-generation.com), a sales consulting and training company that helps companies dramatically increase their sales. He can be reached at 1-978-808-0626 or Contact us via online form .

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