11 Powerful Methods Of Sales Lead Generation - By Jim Klein

Are you searching for new and innovative ways of sales lead generation? Are you lacking in sources of good quality leads? Are you tired and bored using the same methods for generating sales leads?

If you answered No to these questions you're either satisfied with the income you're earning - or you're not interested in earning a 6-figure income in sales. Please stop reading this article.

If you answered Yes, then you're going to be very excited to read not only this article but the rest of the series I've written on sales lead generation.

Here are the 11 most profitable methods I've found for sales lead generation that have turned hundreds of sales people into 6-figure sales people.

- Sphere of Influence

Create a list of at least 100 people you know. Send out an introductory letter telling them about your product or service. Talk with each person at least every three months. Send them information of interest at planned intervals throughout the year. Consistently ask for and receive quality referrals. Remember, if each person you know also knows 100 people, well you get the idea.

- Cold calling

Using cold calling effectively for sales lead generation requires five key ingredients. Target the market you are going to call. Know your objective (get an appointment, get a name). Have a memorized script. Smile. Be prepared for rejection. Have fun!

- Knocking on doors

This method is much the same as cold calling. I used this very effectively in real estate. I used to knock on doors year round. Do you think people would remember someone who knocked on their door in the middle of winter?

- Farming

This is another technique that is used effectively in real estate and can be adapted to any product or service. Pick a market of 200 homes or businesses and become the only person they think of in regards to your product or service.

- Seminars

Seminars are great for sales lead generation. People who attend your seminar have an interest in the information you are presenting and a need for your product or service.

- Mass mailing

Also known as direct marketing. Successful used of this method requires mailing a well written sales letter to a targeted mailing list.

- Newspapers

Pay attention to the local news, business and announcements sections. Look for the people who get promoted, have babies, buy and sell homes and start up new businesses. There may be leads here for your product or service.

- Email publications

Getting email addresses of past and current clients, your sphere of influence and any one else you come in contact with is a great way to keep in touch.

- Hairstylist

Most everyone has a barber or hairstylist they use on a regular basis. When ever I'm in the chair the conversation covers a variety of topics.

Offer them a $1 for every card they pass out or motivate them even more by offering a percentage of the sale that result from their referral.

I've even picked up business myself while getting my haircut. Keep your ears and eyes open at all times.

- Daily Contacts

Every day when you leave the house take twenty business cards with you and make it a point to give them away. That's twenty cards times five work days. If you're really ambitious, do it on Saturday and Sunday also.

When you're looking to generate lots of quality sales leads the more lines you have in the water the more fish you're apt to catch.

These are all effective methods of sales lead generation and should be used regularly.

About the Author:

Boost your sales by 30 to 50 percent or more in the next twelve months or less. Discover the proven sales skills used by the most successful sales people in the world, so you'll close more sales and make more money faster and easier.

How to Accelerate Your Success with a Mastermind Group

by Jack Canfield

We all know that two heads are better than one when it comes to solving a problem or creating a result. So imagine having a permanent group of five or six people who meet every week for the purpose of problem solving, brainstorming, networking, and encouraging and motivating each other!

This process is called masterminding and is one of the most effective success tools you can adopt! It is a powerful way to support your dreams and bring unlimited resources to your business and personal life.

Participating in a mastermind group has been critical to me. I can't imagine achieving all I have without one, and it certainly made my goals happen much faster.

A Process for Accelerating Your Growth

The basic philosophy of a mastermind group is that more can be achieved in less time when people work together. Sometimes called a "dream team", your mastermind group is made up of two or more individuals who voluntarily come together on a regular basis - weekly, biweekly, or monthly - to share ideas, thoughts, information, feedback and resources.

Your group can be composed of people from your own industry or profession or people from all walks of life. You can focus on business, increasing each other's income, building a business, raising better kids, or solving a social problem.

Within your mastermind group, you benefit from the other members who empower you and draw out your full talents, resources and abilities. They trigger, stimulate, and motivate you to become all you are capable of being.

Creating Your Dream Team

The key is to choose people who are already where you'd like to be in your life - or who are at least a level above you. In forming your mastermind group, start by carefully enrolling another friendly, on-purpose, like-minded individual. Start by meeting together and then adding other selected, unanimously agreed-upon individuals who will work in total harmony for the good of each other and for the good of the group.

1. Your Dream Team should consist of 4-8 people. Most people find that 6 is the ideal number.

2. Meet weekly, if possible, for an hour to an hour and a half. This meeting must be held sacred as a life-enhancing priority. The meetings should be upbeat, enriching, encouraging and beneficial to each individual and the group's purposes. I always start our meetings with a prayer or an invocation. You could also start with an inspiring story.

3. Each member must agree to play full out -- to openly share ideas, support, contacts, information, feedback, and anything else that will help advance the individual and group goals.

4. Start by having each member share something positive and good that happened since the last meeting.

5. Next, have each member share an opportunity or problem they have experienced since the last meeting and ask for whatever support they would like on it. Appoint a time-keeper to make sure that everyone gets the same amount of time. This is important if you want your group to last. Everyone must get value at each meeting.

6. End by sharing appreciations and acknowledgements.

You'll find one of the real values of a mastermind group is the accountability factor - other members checking up on you to make sure you meet your stated commitments. It's one way to ensure you'll accomplish a lot more!

For more details about masterminding, read Success Principle #46 in The Success Principles book or utilize the mastermind worksheets found in The Success Principles 30-day Journey.

I'll be back in two weeks with another edition of Success Strategies. Until then, see if you can discover ways to immediately implement what you learned from today's message.

© 2009 Jack Canfield

Detachment and the Impossible By Guest Columnist - Robert Ringer

I received a large number of e-mails in response to my two articles on the impossible dream, and many of the comments prompted me to go into the subject a bit further. Primarily, I want to emphasize that when you're in a seemingly impossible situation , one of the most important but least understood tools you can employ to turn things around is detachment.

There are many things from which you can detach yourself, and one of the most important is the habit of judging people, actions, and circumstances as being right or wrong, good or bad. As Deepak Chopra says in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, when you are constantly classifying, labeling, and evaluating, you “create a lot of turbulence in your internal dialogue.” The more internal bickering that takes place, the less time and room (in your mind) you have for constructive thinking.

Worry, irrelevant thoughts, and fears only add to this internal bickering. All of these are abstracts from which you should make a conscious effort to detach yourself. Even more important is the necessity to detach yourself from needing the approval of others. When you are attached to peer approval, you tend to make bad decisions.

Then there is the pain and discomfort of your present situation. The more you struggle against the unpleasant circumstances of the moment, the more time and energy you waste. It's okay to want things to get better down the road, but don't waste time and energy wishing things were different than they are right now.

Accepting your present situation means detaching yourself from the pain it is causing you. Philosophically, you should learn to accept pain as a normal part of life. Which means, paradoxically, that the best way to eliminate pain is to not try to eliminate it. The more you fight pain, the more it is likely to persist.

Above all, learn to detach yourself from specific results. Practice the art of being flexible. Understand that circumstances constantly change and that things rarely work out precisely as planned. The results you end up with may be much different from the results you were after, but that doesn't necessarily mean they will be less satisfying. If you are too attached to a specific result, it shuts down your creativity.

Your mind-set should be: “I won't die if things don't work out as planned, so I'll just step back and let the Cosmic Ether work things out.” As with peer approval, when you are too attached to a specific result, you have a tendency to force decisions, and forced decisions are most often bad decisions.

All this doesn't mean you should permanently resign yourself to the circumstances of your currently bad situation. Nor does it mean that you should give up your desire or intention for a specific result. What you should give up is your attachment to that result. Or, as Chopra puts it, you should “accept the present and intend the future.”

When you become adept at detachment — from pain, from evaluating and classifying everything that crosses your path, from precise results — it gives you the time, energy, and mental clarity to focus on the single most important activity for overcoming an impossibly bad situation: exploiting opportunities.

What opportunities? The opportunities that are part and parcel of every “impossible” situation. Based on personal experience, I am convinced that the greatest opportunities lie in the eye of the storm — at the very center of your worst problems.

Use your will to detach yourself from your impossible situation and, instead, spend your time cultivating the opportunities it has brought into your life — keeping in mind that such opportunities may be heavily camouflaged.

Thus, achieving sainthood is not the motivation for becoming detached. The only sound motivation for becoming detached is rational self-interest — the realization that if you keep your mind as clear as possible, you will have more time and clarity to concentrate on exploiting new opportunities.

Copyright © 2007 by Tortoise Press, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author.

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From the desk of Tom Hopkins …

Robert Ringer is one of the greatest personal development teachers of our time, which is why two of his books have been listed by The New York Times among the 15 bestselling motivational books of all time. Through his life-changing wisdom, Robert has helped guide millions of entrepreneurs, business owners, and individuals in all walks of life down the path to purpose, financial prosperity, peace of mind, vigorous health, a balanced life, and, above all, happiness.

I highly recommend that you tap into Robert Ringer's profound insights into life, human nature , and business and personal success by signing up for a FREE subscription to one of the most powerful e-letters on the Internet — A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World . It's like nothing you've ever read before.

The Complex Sale Today - By Brian Tracy

The Sale is More Complex Today

The entire process of selling today is more complex than it has ever been before. It used to be that we would make a single call on a single buyer who would make a single decision on our product or offering. In this simple form of selling, we used the attention/interest/desire/action (AIDA) model of sales presentation and focused intensely on numerous different ways of closing the sale. Then, once we had made the sale, in many cases we never saw the customer again.

Everything Has Changed
Today, however, everything is different. Today we must make multiple calls, an average of five or six, in order to make the sale. We deal with multiple decision-makers in an organization, each of whom can influence the purchase. Much of the sale takes place when we are not present. Sometimes we never even meet the final decision-maker who signs the check. And it is not unusual for a sale to be derailed at the last minute by something completely unexpected.

The Competition is Fierce
If that weren't enough, there is more competition than ever before, and it is more determined and resolute than it has ever been in the past. Not only must we compete on the basis of price, quality, services, capabilities, financing, and warranties with many other vendors of our product or service, but we must also compete with every other vendor of every other product or service who is striving to get the same customer dollar that we are after. Our competitors are extremely determined, driven the same as we are by tight markets and careful customers. They are committed to starting earlier, working harder, and staying up later thinking of ways to take our customers away from us.

Customers Are Overwhelmed
Our prospective customers are beset on all sides by every conceivable sales offering. Because they are drowning in details, options, and choices, they are in no hurry to make up their minds. With markets changing and contracting, the amount of discretionary funds they have available has shrunken, and they are more careful today than they have ever had to be in the past.

The Key to Profitability
The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer. If a business does this in sufficient quantity and with proper cost controls, it will make a profit. The profit is the result of creating and keeping customers efficiently.

Create and Keep Customers
As the president of your own professional sales corporation, your job is to create and keep customers as well. And just as a company must continually restructure and redesign its product and service offerings to satisfy the changing tastes of a demanding and competitive customer marketplace, you as a salesperson must constantly upgrade the quality and sophistication of your sales procedures and approaches if you are going to create customers in sufficient quantity.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, be prepared to make multiple calls on a customer to close a large or complex sale. Plan your sales work systematically so you always have a new reason for calling back.

Second, think continually about how you have to change and improve your selling and your offering if you want to succeed in a tough market. Work on yourself every day and never stop getting better.

About the Author:
Brian Tracy is Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a company specializing in the training and development of individuals and organizations. Brian's goal is to help you achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined.

Brian Tracy has consulted for more than 1,000 companies and addressed more than 4,000,000 people in 4,000 talks and seminars throughout the U.S., Canada, and 40 other countries worldwide. As a keynote speaker and seminar leader, he addresses more than 250,000 people each year.

He has studied, researched, written, and spoken for 30 years in the fields of economics, history, business, philosophy, and psychology. He is the top selling author of over 45 books that have been translated into dozens of languages.

You can learn more about Brian by visiting http://www.briantracy.com

The Foundation of a Salesperson - By Diane Helbig

My father was the quintessential salesperson. He believed completely in his product. He was confident but not arrogant. He truly cared about the well-being of his prospects and clients. And they knew it. It was a pleasure to watch him interact with his customers. Needless to say, he was very successful.

Let's explore each of these aspects of the successful salesperson in more detail.

1. Belief in one's product or service.

If you are going to sell something, you should believe it is the best thing out there. Understand what makes it stand out; what its benefits truly are. Be realistic. If there is something better on the market - know what it is and what makes it better. Then ask yourself - can I really sell my product?

I don't know about you, but I would find it difficult to sell something I didn't believe in completely. What you believe emanates from you. If you aren't completely sold, people will know it. Then they won't want what you have to sell.

On a separate note, your knowledge of and belief in your product will provide you with your marketing message. What you know and believe about your product or service is what you want to share with others. Small business owners have an advantage here. They believed so much in something that they were compelled to start a business around it. All that is left for them to do is share.

2. Confidence not arrogance

This is critically important. Being confident - in yourself, in your product or service, in your message - is essential. However, being overly confident or arrogant will destroy you. Arrogance leads people to 'sell'. To talk instead of listen. After all, they believe they know best.

You simply have to think about your experiences with arrogant people to know this is true. They're self-absorbed but not self-aware. A confident person doesn't have anything to prove. They possess a depth of belief so they don't feel the need to convince anyone of anything. You see, arrogance is born from insecurity - it's overcompensating for what one doesn't know or believe.

3. Truly care about the well-being of your prospects and clients

It is this caring that creates an environment where you are actively listening, and processing what you are hearing. You are realistic, honest, and capable of seeing things from the client's point of view. It's basic respect. You aren't trying to 'sell' them. Rather, you are trying to help them solve a problem.

You care about their well-being when you:

- Care that they get their problem solved - whether YOU can solve it or not.
- Care that they pay a fair price.
- Care that they make an informed (not coerced) decision.

You can see how when you believe in your product or service, are confident in yourself, as well as your message, and care about your client's well-being, you will develop outstanding relationships. It is those relationships that will bring you quality business for years to come.

About the Author:
Diane Helbig is a Professional Coach and the president of Seize This Day Coaching. Helbig works with salespeople, small business owners, and entrepreneurs, helping them realize success as they define it. Diane is also the Co-Founder of Seize True Success, a coaching practice dedicated to working with franchisees. Diane is a Contributing Editor on COSE Mindspring, a resource website for small business owners, as well as a member of the Sales Experts Panel at http://www.topsalesexperts.com. Diane also does some career coaching for Career Curve. To learn more or schedule a complimentary discovery session, visit http://www.seizethisdaycoaching.com or http://www.seizetruesuccess.com. Diane is a contributing author for "Chicken Soup for the Soul: Power MOMS."

Success Lessons I Learned From My Single Mom by Chris Widener

I was at a dinner party some time ago when someone posed this question: Who has influenced your life the most? I thought for a moment and said what no one else said, "My mother."

You see, when I was four, my dad died. At the time, it seemed like we were on top of the world. My dad was making over $80,000 a year (in 1969), we were living in the largest house in one of the most prestigious country clubs in Seattle. Then my dad came down with cancer and was gone in 6 months.

Soon after, we found out that my dad had only $30,000 in life insurance (I don't sell life insurance, but I can tell you this - you need more!). My mom and I went from the upper bracket to the lower middle financial bracket almost overnight. A year after my dad's death, we were comfortably lower middle class.

As I reflect back on my life, most of what I am today I learned from a tough-as-nails woman who went to work and busted her tail to get me ready for life. I realize now how many success principles she displayed while living her life. The following success principles, though they can be and should be applied by all of us, are dedicated to all of those single moms out there. You are doing a tough job. Keep plugging away, be tenacious, and love your kids. They'll see your life and turn out all right.

Don't whine during tough times. You know, my mom got a bad deal, but as I look back on it, I cannot ever remember her complaining about her lot in life. That spoke volumes to me and has been a lesson ever since. Two people working, one whines, the other makes the most of the situation and works harder - who do you root for? Successful people don't whine, they work harder and beat the odds.

Be creative. My mom immediately went to selling real estate. She did all right, but she also bought old houses and fixed them up and sold them. We would move in and she would hire the workers from the real estate office to fix up the house on the weekends. A couple of years later, we would sell the house and pocket some much needed extra cash. I moved a lot, but you do what you have to when your back is against the wall. Successful people get creative when it comes to solving problems.

Sacrifice for others. I know we didn't have much growing up, but my mom always found ways to give me the extras. We would cut back here and there so that we could take the mandatory trip to Disneyland or get new athletic shoes. Finding purpose by sacrificing for others is one of the highest calling in success. Successful people live not only for themselves but for those around them as well.

Be independent. My mom didn't cut corners or get a leg up in anything. She worked hard for what she got. And she taught me to do the same. I can remember being taught to do things on my own that other parents were doing for their kids. Many of those kids still need their parents to get the job done. Successful people don't rely on others to do for them what they can do themselves.

Believe in yourself. When I would say I wanted to do something but didn't think I could, my mom would ask me, "Has anybody else ever done it?" I would say "Of course, lots of people." Her reply? "Then you can too. You are smarter than them!" Well, I probably wasn't smarter than them, but point well taken. If someone else has proven it can be done, then you have a chance! Successful people believe that they can do it!

Have a dream and pursue it - even if it takes years. My mom kept a dream alive and pursued it on the side as I grew up. The year I graduated from high school, my mom graduated from college. She was 54 years old. She kept her dream alive and worked at it bit by bit and finally it happened! Successful people dream big dreams and then complete them no matter how long it takes.

Stretch yourself. I can remember my mom taking me to business and real estate seminars when I was a twelve-year-old kid. Not because she couldn't find babysitting, but because she wanted me to learn something! Most parents wouldn't even think that their twelve-year-old could learn something there. Mine did. And I did learn a thing or two. Successful people stretch themselves.

Experience is the greatest teacher. My mom used to pull me out of school all the time and take me on these wild trips and journeys. I would say, "Uh, mom, shouldn't I be in school." She would always answer the same way, "Chris, we can't let school get in the way of your education!" Successful people understand that going to school can get you some knowledge and a degree, but nothing beats actually doing it.

Some things are worth more than money. One of the greatest sacrifices my mother made for me was when I began high school. I did well in sports and played in the evenings, so my mom quit selling real estate, which takes up a lot of evenings, and took a lower paying job as a secretary at the University. She rarely missed a game all through high school. Successful people realize there are some things money can't buy.

Chris Widener

Setting Your Goals

By: Brian Tracy

In my conversations with hundreds of top salespeople over the years, I have found that they all have one thing in common. They have taken the time to sit down and create a clear blueprint for themselves and their future lives. Even if they started the process of goal setting and personal strategic planning with a little skepticism, every one of them has become a true believer.

Becoming a True Believer
Every one of them has been amazed at the incredible power of goal setting and strategic planning. Every one of them has accomplished far more than they ever believed possible in selling and they ascribe their success to the deliberate process of thinking through every aspect of their work and their lives, and then developing a detailed, written road map to get them to where they wanted to go.

The Definition of Happiness
Happiness has been defined as, "The progressive achievement of a worthy ideal, or goal." When you are working progressively, step-by-step toward something that is important to you, you generate within yourself a continuous feeling of success and achievement.

You feel more positive and motivated. You feel more in control of your own life. You feel happier and more fulfilled. You feel like a winner, and you soon develop the psychological momentum that enables you to overcome obstacles and plough through adversity as you move toward achieving the goals that are most important to you.

Determine Your Values
Personal strategic planning begins with your determining what it is you believe in and stand for-your values. Your values lie at the very core of everything you are as a human being. Your values are the unifying principles and core beliefs of your personality and your character. The virtues and qualities that you stand for are what constitute the person you have become from the beginning of your life to this moment.

Your values, virtues and inner beliefs are the axle around which the wheel of your life turns. All improvement in your life begins with you clarifying your true values and then committing yourself to live consistent with them.

Fuzzy or Clear?
Successful people are successful because they are very clear about their values. Unsuccessful people are fuzzy or unsure. Complete failures have no real values at all.

Build Self-Confidence and Self-Esteem
Values clarification is the beginning exercise in building self-confidence, self-esteem and personal character. When you take the time to think through your fundamental values, and then commit yourself to living your life consistent with them, you feel a surge of mental strength and well-being. You feel stronger and more capable. You feel more centered in the universe and more competent of accomplishing the goals you set for yourself.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, decide for yourself what makes you truly happy and then organize your life around it. Write down your goals and make plans to achieve them.

Second, begin with your values by deciding what it is you stand for and believe in. Commit yourself to live consistent with your inner most convictions - and you'll never make another mistake.