Leads Groups or, “It’s not who YOU know…It’s who THEY Know” 

The Power of Leads Groups.

LEADS or Get Out Of the Way

A great way to get sales opportunities is through a “leads group”.  This is a group of sales staff from non-competing businesses that sell products and/or services to the same customer base.  It can be a national group and on the web, or it can be a local group that meets once a month or every other week at Bob Evans for breakfast.  At that meeting the members share leads and other information about prospective clients.  When the group is working it’s a beautiful thing.  When it’s not –when some members seldom show up, when leads are not forthcoming, it’s a waste of time.  Or, if your target market is model homes/residential and the group targets corporate business or vice versa, it may be a good group, but not a good fit.  You need to ask questions in advance and visit the group in action a couple of times before making a commitment.

For example, if I were in a leads group and targeting Corporate Whatever, USA, I’d look for a group that had been around for awhile and had the following sub-businesses represented:

 You get the idea.  For Residential/Model Home targeted groups I’d look at – Residential Furniture Design, Interior Designers, Exterior Landscape firms, Pool Services, Faux Finishes, or Mural Artists, Patio Builders, High-end Décor firms.  Again, you get the idea.  Some groups can be found through the Chamber of Commerce, others by calls to some firms from the above lists to see what they do and if there are any openings.

Then, once you’ve found the right group, work it.  Go the meetings, pay the fee, eat the breakfast, share leads and info and network network, network.  Couple of cautionary words, if you find yourself giving leads and then the recipient gets jobs but the leads you receive go nowhere, something is wrong.  If  they are not giving you hot leads but just names and numbers that are dead end, there needs to be some discussion.  And do not fall into the "woe is me" trap.  Yes, the economy is in the toilet, new projects are few and far between but, you need to bolster each other up, cheerlead, and celebrate each victory.

  Leads groups – a great way to increase your business through a structured system of referral trading.  Now, more than ever, Go Out There and Get ‘Em, Tiger.