9 Ideas to Jump Start Your Lead Generation for When Your Sales Pipeline Has Slowed to a Trickle

It's the time of year when everything slows down just a bit. Holiday plans are in full swing, travel is happening again, and most of us are looking for opportunities to enjoy the holiday season.

Unfortunately, our sales pipelines can be reduced to a trickle if we don’t remain disciplined with our lead generation efforts. 

Below are some lead generation ideas to ensure your seasonal fun doesn’t become a winter misery of missed revenue targets.

Lead Generation Ideas 

1. Re-engage and Interact with Your LinkedIn and Twitter Network

Most sales professionals have done a great job of building a vast network of colleagues, former business associates, clients, prospects, and friends. But when was the last time you interacted with these valuable contacts? 

Reach out to them again. Remind them about what you do and the solutions you offer. Share some insights that reveal your subject matter expertise. And look for opportunities to help solve their business problems.

2. Ask for Referrals

While you’re engaged with your network, ask them for referrals. But don’t stop there. Pick up the phone and talk to your customers. 

You’ve provided valuable business solutions to them — who do they know that might need your help as well? If you don’t ask, they probably won’t tell.

3. Join LinkedIn Groups and Participate in Discussions

There are over a million groups on LinkedIn, and they're as varied as the LinkedIn members who start them. 

Find relevant groups that your target prospects are members of and join them. Look for discussion topics and questions that you can respond to. Better yet, start a discussion and solicit feedback from group members.

Remember, people in these forums aren’t looking to be sold to, so don’t give them your pitch. Instead, educate them. Tell them something they don’t already know. This is a great opportunity to display your subject matter expertise and build your network — and you may just uncover a few leads in the process.     

4. Attend Local Networking Groups

This may be the “old-school” way to network, but it can still be effective. It allows you to tell your story, make new connections, and get referrals from new sources. Plus, with in-person events starting to take place again, there are several people looking to connect!

5. Target the Competitors of Your Successful Customers

Your best prospects usually have the same characteristics as your best clients. They probably have similar business problems that need to be solved and similar economics. And you have a ready-made success story to share and demonstrate your expertise. Who are your client’s competitors? These should be some of the first companies on your target prospect list. 

Research who the key decision-makers and decision-influencers are, and then make sure they know who you are and what you’ve done in their industry.

6. Reevaluate Your Target Account List — Research Opportunity Triggers

Now look beyond the competitors of your best clients. What are the characteristics of your best customers? Who are the companies that share these characteristics? But don’t just focus on basic variables like vertical market, revenue size, etc.

Look for businesses that have similar business problems that you can help solve. Then, do a little research. Read their press releases and earnings statements, and listen to their investor presentations.  Look for an opportunity “trigger” — an event, circumstance, or stated problem in their business that you can leverage to tell your story.

7. Deploy Inbound Marketing Tactics

The best way to find new leads is to have them find you first. 

Inbound Marketing is a methodology used to attract the attention of prospects using content creation — content that positions you and your business as a thought leader/subject matter expert/trusted advisor.

Develop content that educates and informs. Start blogging to share your unique perspective and thought leadership. And then promote your content via social media. This may not yield results overnight, but as you build your audience, you will actually get your prospects to self-identify and “raise their hands.” 

• When is the best time to plant a tree? 20 years ago. 

• When is the best time to start Inbound Marketing?

It’s the same answer. So, if you don’t have an Inbound Marketing strategy, start one today. 

8. Leverage Outbound Tactics with Content Designed for Inbound

Push the content that you’ve developed for your inbound strategy to all of the contacts in your marketing database via email. 

It's a great way to nurture your “not-ready-to-buy-yet” prospects and keep them engaged over an extended period of time. Make sure you also include your old “dead” leads. It’s amazing how fresh new content can breathe life into leads that have been dormant for months. That lead that you gave up on in 2021 may turn into your hot new opportunity that closes in 2023!

9. Stay Positive and Work Your Plan with Disciplined Execution

When your leads have slowed to a trickle, it can be easy to get discouraged. I’ve never seen a successful, discouraged salesperson. Stay focused. Stay disciplined. Work on your plan. But don’t be afraid to start something new. It may be the tactic that opens the spigot to your sales pipeline.  

Seasonal fun can coexist with a full pipeline. These ideas should help you keep things flowing!

Editor's Note: This post was originally published July 8, 2015 and has been updated.