Sales Lead Generation

In many ways, banks can be considered to be in a powerful commercial position over their customers. They sell financial services whilst at the same time having a great deal of information about the personal financial circumstances of their customers. Whilst it is true that one particular bank account does not necessarily give a complete financial picture, it is valuable information and can be used.

With the information at their disposal, banks are able to quickly assess financial products which might be suitable for their customers. For example, a customer with a credit card debt might benefit from a cheaper loan, and customers with large amounts of savings might be amenable to the idea of investment products. This means that, when customers come into a branch, suitable options can be discussed with them and an appointment arranged with a specialist financial advisor.

Raising these possibilities is not usually seen by customers as aggressive selling. This is because the bank’s employees are able to suggest suitable and potentially helpful and well-targeted options. Goodwill is not damaged and yet good sales leads are generated. Then it is up to the financial advisors to close them.

As previously mentioned, banks are in a good position as they often have all the information that they need in their database to target products accordingly. Most other industries need to gather information in order to find out more about their customers’ needs. For example, a supermarket owner will not have the luxury of access to every single customer’s home in order to find out what they like to eat and drink.

Actually, the statement in the last sentence is no longer strictly true. Many supermarkets are trying to recreate similar positions of power over their customers. The last 10 years has seen the introduction of the store card and connected promotions. Each time a customer uses a store card with their weekly shopping trip, they are giving the supermarket valuable information about their spending habits. The store card will record the amount that a customer is spending and, importantly, which products they are inclined to buy.

Supermarkets have hundreds, sometimes millions, of customers and there is little interaction between them and the supermarket’s employees (other than the checkout staff). The typical way in which potential sales leads are generated and closed is through the use of targeted store card offers. This means that, if, for example, a customer is buying a lot of yogurt, the store card statement will contain specific vouchers in order to purchase a particular brand of yogurt at a discounted rate or with bonus store card points. This will encourage the customer to try a new product and, if they are impressed with it, it is hoped that they will come back for it again and again. In this way a sales lead is generated and even closed in many cases without the customer even knowing that they have been the subject of a sales technique.

This method is a particularly passive way of marketing and the risk of creating bad will from your customers is virtually zero. The customers see the voucher as an opportunity to receive something at a promotional rate and so both parties have the potential to benefit from this method.

The store card method is an example of an innovative way to obtain valuable information in a customer friendly way. The key is the word ‘innovation’. Whilst there are many obvious ways to generate sales leads, sometimes the best ones can arise out of a little bit of lateral thinking. The exact method which is most suitable will depend on the nature of the business and its customer base, but you might find that you are able to implement a similar system to the supermarkets (or maybe, like the banks, you are already lucky enough to already have the information on your database). If you do have the information then it is, of course, prudent business practice to try to use it as smartly and effectively as possible.

Banks already hold a lot of useful information about their customers and can use this to generate good sales leads quickly; other businesses are trying to simulate this effect in order to obtain similar benefits.