BON Lead Generation Workshop – Lessons from the Trenches

You could be reading this because you’re a member of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Business Owners Network (BON) or because you’ve just stumbled across it?

The Business Owners Network (BON) brings together business owners from all sectors to share knowledge and experience and to increase business opportunities.

 

As part of the programme of events we recently conducted the BON Lead Generation Workshop. The session started off with a presentation from one of the members who shared some of his techniques for lead generation. However, in this post we’d like to communicate the additional, collective knowledge which emerged from the session and we’ve divided it into two areas:

1. Emerging Trends 2. Additional Lead Generation Ideas. The entire output has come from the members of the BON but we’ve backed it up with ‘real world’ examples:

1. Emerging Trends:

• A movement towards Help rather than Hype:

It’s the idea of utilising your own or your staff’s time to help someone who’s not a customer or a prospect. Why? To build trust and a great example of this is The Hilton Hotel Group’s Twitter handle @HiltonSuggests, the TAGLINE says “Exploring a new city & looking for insider tips? We’re here to help! We’re @HiltonWorldwide tweeps sharing our favorite travel suggestions” – I’m sure you get the idea?

 

• You’re Competing against everybody else for people’s attention: You better be heard, feel relevant but look different
• There’s movement towards Farming as opposed to Hunting: Cultivate rather than capture!
• Communicating with your audience via Social Media by being;

i.      Interactive

ii.     Informative

iii.    Approachable

iv.    Not just business

 

2. Additional Ideas:

• Strategic Alliances
• Lapsed Clients
• Telling stories to communicate your proposition and people remember how you made them feel rather than the facts you delivered
• Research
• Testimonials from Clients
• “Peace of Mind as part of the Value Proposition”
• Variable Message Signs

• Make People Feel Better and More Energised
• Alternative Radio – Unique Line Traffic Service; this one escapes me, please help?
• Bulk Mailing – Sending out cookies but phone for another free one! With a bit of refinement I’d love this one. A strong, motivating ‘Call to Action’
• Champion – Having a Fan Endorsement! Has to be the best new one yet! Believe it or not Lady Ga Ga uses this very effectively; love her or dislike her; she is widely acknowledged as being a very astute business woman. She has 35 million Twitter followers and 56 million “likes” on Facebook. Not only has she created a brand but she is cultivating a fanatical group of ‘FANS’, known as her ‘Little Monsters’; she’s known as ‘Mother Monster’ – Strange but true and lucrative!

• An old but somewhat forgotten one “Under Promise but Over Deliver”