We can all agree that sales leads are critical to any business. Buying a Business List or some call it a Sales Leads List is a fast way to prospect for the most qualified leads. How to choose the right business list is the first step and perhaps the easier of the two. However, how to use it effectively to generate sales leads may be a little more complicated especially if you are not experienced. Below I compiled a few things you should know about Business Lists or Sales Leads Lists, how to buy them, how to use them and finally how to get the most out of them.

How to buy a business list or sales leads list. Lists are typically categorized a couple of ways; by industry or geography such as; nationwide, state, city, etc. The most common lists contain names, addresses, phone numbers, business categorization and where available sales and employee figures.

The number one thing I can tell you is NO list is perfect so I wouldn’t get too caught up with finding the “perfect list” and spending thousands of dollars on it. Businesses are changing numbers and people frequently as well as addresses so it is impossible for any list company to keep it up to date 100% of the time.  So rather than spending thousands on a so called “perfect list” that isn’t so perfect, I would suggest finding a more affordable list that is still big enough to generate solid leads even if the failure rate or bounce rate is 30-40%. However, I would suggest at least choosing a business list that is updating their information regularly against the NCOA (the USPS National Change of Address), which will help to minimize costly mailing list delivery failures that can add up. In the end, marketing or sales prospecting is all about the bottom line. Remember that if you are emailing, faxing and/or phone broadcasting it generally doesn’t cost you much for failed attempts. Keep the bigger picture in mind, which is a great segue way into the next topic.

How to get the most out of your business list and/or sales leads lists. Although I will not get into too much detail and discuss in-depth the best approaches, I will quickly hit upon a few pointers, if you will. One great way to prospect for sales leads is to purchase business list leads for a given geography or for specific business categories and then communicate with them quickly and cheaply using electronic means. By leveraging these large lists with cheap communication and a great offer you can quickly and cost effectively bring in solid sales leads, people or companies that are actually interested in your products or services.

As I alluded to above, I would suggest using various communication channels such as mailing, cold calling, emailing and faxing as they can all be effective. Set up a solid communications campaign that utilizes or piggy-backs each other such as sending a letter or fax and following up with a phone call.  Just don’t send one message, not hear back and assume they are not interested. Instead send a constant flow of messages over time. Any good marketer will tell you that on average you will need to communicate with a prospective customer 7x before getting he/she to respond.

Also, tailor your messages. Sending the same message and only changing the communication method may not be enough. By tailoring it to each individual, even as simple as inserting the customer’s name or mentioning the company’s name or location, the greater the likelihood you develop a “conversation” and not fail into the proverbial “spam” category.

Lastly, and this is very important, you must be sure to check local laws on such forms of communication to ensure you do not break any laws.

The dilemma of many companies these days is whether to invest more on developing new customers or in building stronger relationships with existing clients. Both are critical to the success of any business but what should be your emphasis? The answer is not that simple as the question is nearly impossible to answer but let’s quickly explore the topic on a top-line basis.

Retention is obviously critical to the success of any business. Historically, businesses that have a “churn and burn” mentality will not last long, but it does beg the question: what should be your focus? If your focus is on stronger profits and you have a large customer base than it would make sense to invest in building better customer relationships. And if targeting customers or businesses where there is an established relationship, direct marketing tools are well positioned to be utilized and successful in this endeavor. Results tend to be significantly greater, and profits higher, when customers are better targeted. Even former purchasers or users will respond better than individuals who have no experience with your organization.

However, even if your company’s focus is on creating better profits and retaining customers, developing new customers is also critical to the viability and growth for any company. Attrition is inevitable and even the most established businesses need new prospects to replenish their customer base. The most successful customer retention programs don’t keep 100% of their customer base. Maintaining a balance between customer retention and prospect marketing efforts is one of the keys to becoming a successful business.

So whether it is to promote a new venture, product, service, and/or to simply thrive in the growth stage of a business, an organization still needs to prospect for new customers. A business mailing list is the most effective means to reach this goal. It allows companies to broaden their reach and help with the prospecting/acquisition of new customers, patients, members, etc. Business mailing lists allows companies to broaden their reach but also to target their audience better, sell a product or service, generate a lead, drive traffic sell subscriptions or memberships, etc. Direct marketing being a proven medium, many organizations rely upon direct mail for their main marketing tool or as a support mechanism for their prospecting efforts. In short, simply talking to your current or in-active customers will not suffice. Businesses need to continue to broaden their reach for new prospects. Therefore a key to success will likely hinge on the use a mailing list to supplement your own in-house list. Now how to go about purchasing a business list is whole other topic entirely. A quick consultation with the folks here at Instant Business List may be the beginning to the continued success of your business.

So I’ve been asked numerous times, “which is a better resource or tool for marketing your product/service to businesses and generating instant business (or revenue)?” Well, I hate to break it to you but there is no simple or right answer for that matter to that question.  Debate, yes. Clear, no. Essentially both can be an effective resource to utilize in your marketing campaign, but the devil is always in the details. In short, a Business List can be cheaper to obtain, but more costly in reaching your audience by having to utilize direct mail or telemarketing tactics. Conversely, an Email List is typically more expensive to purchase, but obviously the medium is much cheaper. In either case the old 40-40-20 rule (40% Data, 40% Offer and 20% Creative) will apply no matter when measuring your marketing campaigns success not matter which resource you choose. Whether it is a direct mail or an email marketing campaign, I believe you will find statistics which show both will and/or can achieve similar results.

However, it would stand reason when developing a marketing campaign not to exclude any medium when trying to reach your target audience and generate instant business. Direct mail, Emails, Telemarketing, targeted ad campaigns, etc. All should be considered, weighed and perhaps all should be incorporated to some degree.

Note: before buying a Business List you should read 7 Dirty Little Secrets The Marketing List Companies Don’t Want You To Know! by registering at www.instantbusinesslist.com to receive your FREE copy!