The ability to generate leads is a cornerstone of success for any business. However, just as important is the ability to 
leverage qualified leads and turn them into sales. If you’re wondering, “How do I leverage leads?” you’ve come to the right place.
Value their Time
Valuing your leads’ time is the absolute most important aspect of leveraging every lead to its fullest potential. Make sure to have a specific purpose when you call, and respect that your lead is busy just like you—he or she won’t appreciate having their time wasted. That’s a good motivation for you to stay efficient as well—the more efficient you can be, the more leads you can close.
Make It Personal
Make your lead feel special. You could take them out to lunch or dinner, send them a hand-written card when their
birthday comes, or invite them to exclusive events. The more of a personal relationship your lead feels like they have, the more friendly they’ll be to the idea of completing their buyer’s journey with a purchase.
Always Ask for Referrals/Introductions
Fully leveraging sales leads doesn’t only mean going after the close. It also means getting any referrals from the lead that might turn into new customers. Since referrals are more intimate connections, they’re associated as more trustworthy in customer’s minds. This makes them one of the most powerful lead generation tools.
Asking for referrals and introductions also gives you a reason to reengage with old clients. Just make sure to include non-business related talk in your communication as well, to maintain a friendly rapport.
Ask for Feedback
Constructive feedback from customers, whether it’s positive or negative, is a great way to improve. Even if a lead falls through, a few words of feedback could help you improve your approach and do better next time.
Ask questions about how the client thinks your business is doing, what initially drew them to do business with you, find out what you could be doing better…every lead is an opportunity to learn and grow.
Use Your Promotion Outlets Wisely
Email marketing is your friend. Make the most of targeted marketing campaigns that keep your customers informed of promotions, new products, fresh blog posts, and other relevant content. Making the most of social media marketing is important as well.
Don’t only post things that promote your business directly—in fact, most of your posts should be interesting and 
relevant content that doesn’t go for any hard sell. It could be informational, inspirational, or even just something fun. Interact with social influencers on different platforms to get your name into popular conversations.
Posts should resonate with your target social media audience, but the sales process of turning social media followers and likes into customers can be a bit long and windy. It’s all about making your customers feel like they’re genuinely your friends!
To do this, make sure your posting is consistent, connects directly to potential customers, and uses high-quality content that incorporates a hashtag that increases brand awareness for your audience. Having a strong hashtag will improve your digital marketing strategy in other ways as well, such as raising your rank in search engines. A website blog with consistent posts is a great way to improve search engine optimization as well.
Every promotion of your business should include a call to action. This isn’t necessarily a call to buy in every case…it might be to sign up for your email list, watch a free webinar, visit your website, read a blog post, or other action. Also be sure to include a CTA on the homepage and log-in screen of your website.
Marketing automation software can make these tasks more efficient and maximize your return on equity. If you can automate email campaigns and queue social media posts, your sales and marketing teams will be freed up to work on other tasks.
Final Thoughts
To stay organized with leads, it helps to keep close track of communications. There are lots of options for sales navigator and productivity software that helps do this, so you can see exactly where you are with each lead, which you need to follow up with soon, who you took out to lunch, and other important details.
Even with the best software in the world, making the most of your leads calls for persistence, emotional intelligence,
warmth, and a love for your business and product. If you’re passionate about what you do, the enthusiasm will spread to your clients and you’ll make more sales.