RELATED: <\/em><\/strong>What is Lead Generation and How to Do It<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales managers, you never know when that magical source of inbound leads will dry up, and all you have left is the raw talent of your sales team’s ability to find new business for themselves, without anybody\u2019s help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales reps, being able to source your own leads will let you go above and beyond what everyone else is doing, crushing your quota while everyone else is complaining about not getting enough leads. Reps who can generate their own leads will always have an edge over reps who can\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bottom line, no matter how many leads your organization gives you right now, or how they\u2019re getting them, you should still be self-generating leads. You need to be a hunter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When was the last time you took a closed a deal that started from you personally generating the lead? <\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to self-generating leads as a sales rep, here are the top 3 ways I\u2019ve done it \u2014 both as an individual contributor and as a sales leader teaching others how to generate leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Events can be a fantastic source of leads as an individual seller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No, you don\u2019t need to shell out big bucks for a huge event sponsorship with booths and swag. That can be a great strategy for an organization to get behind, but as an individual rep, you want to focus on lead generation strategies that aren\u2019t reliant on the rest of your company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As an individual, you can generate leads by going to events, large and small, and meeting other people in your industry and market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n RELATED: <\/em><\/strong>How to Rock the Trade Show: From Introduction to Follow-up Emails (With Templates)<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you sell marketing software? Find marketing related events in your area and start meeting people. Don\u2019t limit yourself just to the major conferences or tradeshows. Find smaller events that will give you the chance to network and build relationships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And don\u2019t be afraid to pay out-of-pocket for some of these events. In many cases, it\u2019s worth it to pay a small ticket price to walk away with a couple of valuable relationships and conversations, versus haggling with your manager over how much budget you can get reimbursed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you\u2019re at these events, focus on meeting people and engaging with them on a human level. At smaller events and meetups, don\u2019t be the person who is there just trying to sell everyone on your product. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Find a short response to the question, \u201cSo what do you do?\u201d that includes your target market and the pain point you solve. Try to keep in as short and simple as possible so you can say it to anybody you meet, opening the door for a sales conversation if they are in your market and have the paint point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But never being pushy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I like to use a variation of, \u201cI help companies generate leads,\u201d sometimes replacing companies <\/em>with startups<\/em>, founders<\/em>, B2B companies<\/em>, sales leaders<\/em>, or marketing leaders<\/em>, depending on the event and audience. If that statement is relevant to the person I\u2019m talking to, they\u2019ll follow-up to ask more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n RELATED: <\/em><\/strong>The Perfect Networking Follow-Up Email Strategy (With Templates)<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n For people dealing with their own lead generation problems, that statement almost always gets a good response. If they couldn\u2019t care less, then I can let the conversation naturally flow without being off-putting by trying to sell them on something they don\u2019t want or need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This strategy is about good old-fashioned cold calling<\/a> (and emailing).<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you hear people describe a sales rep as a \u201chunter,\u201d they are usually talking about someone who isn\u2019t afraid to go out and prospect for their own new business. If you\u2019re good at cold prospecting<\/a>, you\u2019ll be able to bring in business<\/p>\n\n\n\n The upside here is that so many salespeople will do anything to avoid any kind of cold outbound activities. Many sales organizations nowadays are structured so that the only people who ever prospect regularly are junior sales reps (usually called Sales or Business Development Reps) whose sole focus is generating leads through cold outbound prospecting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What this means for you is, if you are willing to go the extra mile and do your own prospecting, you can be a rockstar in your sales organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RELATED: <\/em><\/strong>How to Set Up a Winning Sales Cadence For Prospecting<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you get started generating your own leads through cold outbound prospecting?<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, you need to define your audience and then build a list of prospects.<\/strong> In some industries, cold email will be your primary prospecting channel, in others, cold calling will work better. Most will be a mix. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are hundreds of tools out there that will help you source phone and email data (even if it\u2019s just corporate phone numbers and guessed business emails). LinkedIn will also be your friend here (more on LinkedIn below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next, you need messaging.<\/strong> Build a call script<\/a>. Write a sequence of cold emails. There are too many techniques to list here, but having personally written thousands of cold email campaigns for companies, my advice for writing a great B2B cold email<\/a> is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1) be relevant<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2) be concise (with your language)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3) make it easy (for the prospect)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you have your messaging and your list, you\u2019ll need a way to send emails and make calls.<\/strong> With email, it can get tricky to manage prospecting directly out of your email inbox. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Most people who send more than a few cold emails per month will want to get a cold email tool (like Mailshake) to manage this process. (Don\u2019t use a marketing email platform. Make sure the tool is designed specifically for sales.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The topic of cold prospecting goes deep.<\/em> For more, I\u2019d highly recommend diving into this blog and picking up a copies of Fanatical Prospecting<\/em><\/a> by Jeb Blount and New Sales Simplified<\/em><\/a> by Mike Weinberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve saved the best for last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my opinion, LinkedIn is the <\/em>number one tool for individual salespeople looking to generate their own leads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So long as your target market is on LinkedIn, you should be on LinkedIn. My company, RevenueZen, has generated close to 40% of our new business through LinkedIn in the last couple of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RELATED: <\/em><\/strong>LinkedIn Lead Generation: A Proven Process to Close More Deals on LinkedIn<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Selling on LinkedIn<\/strong> can be as simple as growing your network by sending relevant connection requests to people in your market and then starting conversations with them. In some ways, this is similar to cold email, but you\u2019ll typically need to be a bit \u2018softer\u2019 in your approach. Connection requests can include a small message so make sure to tell people why you\u2019re connecting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you use InMail to send messages, you can fit more characters in your message, but you\u2019ll still want to follow the tips above for messaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once people connect with you, follow-up with them.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Check out their profile and ask relevant business-related questions. You shouldn\u2019t spam your product pitch to everybody you\u2019re connected to. Simply have human conversations that are professionally relevant and people will engage with you about your product (if it solves a pain point for them). <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is what people mean when they talk about social selling on LinkedIn<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\nLead Generation Strategy #1: Events<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"events](\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/01-Lead-Generation-Strategy-1-Events.jpg?resize=263%2C263&ssl=1\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nLead Generation Strategy #2: Cold Prospecting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"cold](\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/02-Lead-Generation-Strategy-2-Cold-Prospecting.jpg?resize=263%2C263&ssl=1\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nLead Generation Strategy #3: LinkedIn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"LinkedIn](\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/03-Lead-Generation-Strategy-3-LinkedIn.jpg?resize=263%2C263&ssl=1\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Do a search on LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Read through a profile. Send a customized connection request or LinkedIn InMail, and start conversations with people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n