Leads are the fuel that makes your financial machine run. You must constantly add new names of prospective customers to your pipeline, then work on taking as many of them as you can to the next step in the dance: customer.

Don’t just sit back and wait for leads to show up. Institutional advertising gets your name out, maybe even makes you "well known" in your market. But it does nothing to generate real live leads.

Lead generation advertising entices people to respond, to raise their hand and let you know that they’re at least somewhat interested in what you sell. To get people to do that, you have to offer something of value and make it free of cost and free of risk for them to get it. By the way, be sure to offer something that would only be of interest to the kind of people that you want to reply so you don’t spend a lot of time and money sending free stuff to people who will never buy from you.

Don’t confuse lead generation offers with buyer incentive offers. A buyer incentive offer gives them something extra if they buy. If someone who has never heard of you sees a buyer incentive offer, you are asking them to make the leap from "total stranger"to "ready to hand you their hard-earned money." If you sell pizza, that may be possible. If you sell kitchen remodeling services, it’s a big leap.

Do what do you offer to generate leads?

I love information products. It can be as simple as a checklist: "Ten easy, inexpensive things you can do yourself to save 20% on your winter heating bill." How about a book? If there is a title in the book store that would only be of interest to your prime prospects... and it has something to do with your business, it may make a great offer. An example would be a free book about kitchen design from that kitchen remodeling service.

I send you a free ezine every week. You are a lead for me. The information in my ezine is only of interest to people who are responsible for their organization’s sales and marketing - the kind of people who buy what I sell. I’d like you to buy one (or all!) of my books some day if you haven’t already. I’d like you to recommend me to speak at your suppliers’ annual meeting or your association’s convention. I’d like you to hire me to help with your advertising and promotion.

If you don’t hire me, recommend me or buy from me, I really don’t lose anything. This ezine goes out to hundreds of people. Some will never do business with me. Enough will to make it worth my while.

But if you send something physical, like a book, it’s different. Say I’m a financial advisor, and I offer a free copy of a book that I’ve written on trading options. After I mail that book, I am going to go after that lead aggressively. I’ve spent some money to get the lead, I’m going to go after it. Most people realize that you aren’t in the business of giving away books, so it should come as no shock to them when you come calling later.

Start taking the first step in the dance with your public. Offer something that motivates them to contact you. Then follow up with buyer incentives and you’ll build your business fast.