“I NEED LEADS!!!”
It’s already May, and the start of the year has been quiet; and that’s probably the understatement of the century. My inbox has tumbleweeds, and my phone is mostly reminding me what silence sounds like.
Bloody marketing department! They're meant to be filling the top of the funnel, but all I’m getting are e-mails from customers wanting some fancy ROI tool we promoted in a recent webinar.
If I don't turn this around in the next few months, I'll be updating my CV.
Sounds familiar? We have all been there. The economy drags, deals slip or disappear entirely, and suddenly the pipeline looks worryingly thin.
Fear not. As salespeople, we actually have a surprising arsenal of activities at our disposal. We can generate leads ourselves. And it all starts with one realisation:
“I am responsible.”
Filling the funnel is OUR responsibility. Nobody is going to do it for us. We are the CEO of our territory and the buck stops with us.
If your target is £2m and your average deal size is £50k, you need to close 40 opportunities a year. Give or take. And if our win rate is 1 in 3, we need to generate around 120 opportunities. That’s 10 per month.
Better get going.
Here are some proven ways to generate leads. Totally without the marketing department.
We all have a network: former colleagues, university contacts, customers, your manager. Use it. It’s ok to ask for help. Being helpful is ingrained in human nature.
• “Could you help me find the head of…”
• “Is there anybody you know doing…”
• “Do you know who is doing your job at your competitors?”
• “Is there anybody else in your organization who…”
You will be surprised how quickly you get names, job titles and companies in your territory. Ask for an introductory e-mail. Do they maybe even have a direct phone number for you?
What do you owe them in return? Probably not much. Be useful when they need it. Be a decent human being; return the favour one day and provide excellent customer service. Things you probably do anyway.
Regularly. Buy them lunch once a month if you can. Make it a habit.
Service engineers (or application chemists) have a unique position with customers. They're in customer labs every week, they're trusted when things go wrong, and they hear things procurement doesn't know yet.
They can tell you when they spot an ageing competitor instrument. They hear about planned upgrades, expansions and frustrations. They often know about projects long before procurement gets involved.
They just need to trust you won't go in heavy-handed and damage their relationship with the customer. A bit of rapport goes a very long way.
Take a moment to define your ideal customer.
What industry are they in? Pharmaceutical? Biotech? Food QC?
What environment do they work in? Discovery? Process development? Quality control?
What job titles do they hold? Lab manager? Lead scientist? QC analyst?
Now ask AI (or Google) for lists of companies active in these areas within your territory.
Finally, use LinkedIn search — even the free version works well — to find people in these companies. You can search by location, company and job title. With tools such as KASPR or Lusha, sometimes you can even find business e-mail addresses directly.
You will build a target list surprisingly quickly
.
Personalised outreach messages with a clear value proposition and a call to action (think PVC) can have an amazing success rate.
But you need to put in the elbow grease so that they:
Address something relevant and personal for that specific customer
Explain the benefit of talking to you
Invite the customer to respond
These messages can’t be generic. They need to resonate.
Be careful with AI-generated language. If the message doesn’t sound like you, customers will switch off very quickly.
No matter how well-written our outreach messages are, not everybody will respond.
People are busy. Things fall by the wayside. Life gets in the way.
That’s why phone follow-up works.
More often than not, people remember your message and will apologise for not getting back to you. It's a low-effort, high-return activity that most people avoid because it feels uncomfortable.
Salespeople have one of the toughest jobs on earth. We need to look after existing customers, close current opportunities and make sure we continuously refill the funnel with new ones. It’s like juggling with one more ball than you are used to.
But this can be learned. Practice makes perfect, and, as my friend Jonathan says:
“Consistency beats heroics every time.”
Let’s put in the good work. Results will follow. Then we remember that we not only have one of the toughest jobs on earth, but one of the best as well!