Top Lead Generation Software for Small Businesses: Boost Your Sales and Accelerate Revenue with The Right Tech

Introduction

As a small commercial services business owner, generating qualified leads and converting them into sales take priority over everything else- at least if you want consistent growth.

However, lead generation can be challenging and complex- especially with limited time and resources.

That’s where lead generation software comes in – these tools can help streamline and automate the process, allowing you to focus on other aspects of running your business. 

In this article, we’ll explore what lead generation is, why it’s important for small businesses, and the top software solutions available to boost your sales.

Ready to get started?

What is Lead Generation?

Definition of Lead Generation

Simply put, lead generation is about figuring out who’s interested in your services and guiding them through the process of making a purchase. This process often requires several steps:

1. Attracting Qualified Prospects
2. Delivering value to increase their level of interest
3. Then, they are converted into “leads,” – prospective customers who are ready to buy.

Sure, the lead generation process is more complex than just the 3 steps I mentioned. Still, it’s basically about warming up potential customers to your business and guiding them toward making a purchase.

Importance of Lead Generation for Small Businesses

Lead generation is absolutely vital for small businesses. Just as a beating heart keeps a human alive, leads are often seen as the lifeblood of a growing business.

Effective lead-generation strategies and tools are downright indispensable. Maintaining consistent sales and revenue becomes incredibly difficult without a steady stream of leads.

Most of you can think back to when you started your business. You probably had a fantastic product or service but soon realized that without customers, it just gathered dust on the shelf – taking up space and draining your wallet.

Eventually, most small business owners realize that they’re on a sinking ship without leads.

Building a Lead Generation System

When you first start building a lead generation system for your business, it can feel like you’re spinning your wheels- putting in a ton of effort and spending money with little to show for it.

Everywhere you look, there’s an Account Executive (AE) eager to spend your money, promising with absolute certainty that their product will boost your sales and revenue.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a bottomless bank account or endless amounts of time to generate leads. I need something that will start boosting sales today… or at least this quarter.

One of the tools we’ll discuss today will do just that. We’ll come back to this in a moment, but first, let’s examine the traditional sales cycle.

Understanding Lead Generation Strategies and Stages

The Lead Generation Process: How to Generate Leads Through the Sales Cycle

A traditional lead generation process involves attracting visitors to your website or social media and converting them into leads by guiding them through the stages of the sales cycle. Here’s an overview of the typical sales cycle stages and how to deliver value at each step to generate leads:

1. Prospecting: Identify potential customers that fit your ideal customer profile. I like using what’s called an Avatar to accomplish this. An avatar is a fake person that represents all of the characteristics of your perfect customer so you can target your messaging specifically to them. In this stage, the most important thing you can do is deliver value by sharing helpful content and resources related to their challenges or to help them get their desired results.
2. Qualifying: Determine if the prospect has a need for your product/service and the budget and authority to purchase. Deliver value by asking questions to understand their specific situation and how you can help.
3. Nurturing: Build relationships with qualified leads by providing relevant information and content. Deliver value with targeted content like case studies, whitepapers, and product guides.
4. Presenting: Demonstrate how your product or service provides the best solution to the prospect’s needs. Deliver value by customizing your presentation and showing how you can solve their specific pain points.
5. Handling Objections: Address the prospect’s concerns and reservations about your offering. Deliver value by actively listening to their objections and presenting information or guarantees that resolve their fears.
6. Closing: Finalize the deal and get a signed agreement. Deliver value by making the purchasing process as smooth as possible and setting the stage for successful onboarding and implementation.
7. Follow-Up: The sales cycle doesn’t end with the close. You must deliver the end result that you sold them. Build a relationship with them. “Check in” to ensure they are satisfied and look for opportunities to upsell, cross-sell, and ask for referrals. Deliver value by serving as a trusted advisor and partner in their success.

Once you have a process in place and know how to deliver value at each step, keep in mind that there are different types of leads.

Types of Leads: MQL, SQL, PQL, and Service Qualified Leads

Not all leads are created equal. Understanding the different types of leads can help you tailor your approach and prioritize your efforts.

• Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL) are contacts who have engaged with your marketing team’s efforts but aren’t ready to receive a sales call. They may have downloaded a whitepaper, attended a webinar, or signed up for your newsletter.
• Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) are contacts who have taken actions that explicitly indicate their interest in becoming paying customers. They may have requested a demo, asked for pricing information, or started a free trial.
• Product Qualified Leads (PQL) are contacts who have used your product and taken actions that indicate interest in becoming a paying customer. For example, they may have exceeded usage limits on a free plan or asked about advanced features.
• Service Qualified Leads are contacts or customers who have indicated to your service team that they are interested in becoming paying customers. They may have expressed dissatisfaction with a competitor or inquired about additional services.

The Lead Generation Process: How to Generate Leads

As we mentioned in the last section, the traditional lead generation process involves attracting visitors to your website and converting them into leads. Here’s a general overview:

1. Drive traffic to your website through various channels like search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, social media marketing, and content marketing.
2. Once visitors are on your site, entice them with an irresistible offer, like a free eBook, whitepaper, of course, in exchange for their contact information.
3. Deliver the offer through a landing page with a form to capture the visitor’s details, turning them into a lead.
4. Nurture the lead with targeted content and offers, guiding them through the customer journey until they are ready to make a purchase.

Lead generation involves using various promotional channels to drive traffic to your landing page and start generating leads. The most effective lead generation strategies use a diverse approach, combining multiple channels.

Cross-channel Engagement: Key to an Effective Lead Generation Strategy

Taking a diverse (cross-channel approach) lead generation in your business will generally increase its effectiveness. 

This may include tactics like cold calling, email marketing, social media marketing, PPC advertising, SEO, content marketing, and more. The key is to experiment and find the right mix that works for your business and your audience (target customer).

It’s also important to focus on quality over quantity when it comes to leads. Attracting a smaller number of highly qualified leads is more valuable than a large volume of uninterested or unqualified leads. Be patient, as it takes time to build a successful lead-generation process.

Before we discuss the top lead generation software for commercial services and small business owners, let’s consider how you can maximize those strategies.

Top Strategies to Generate Leads

Cold Calling

Cold calling is a tried-and-true method for generating leads, and for good reason. While it may not be the most enjoyable task, it’s a cost-effective way to reach potential customers and can be a game-changer for businesses willing to put in the effort. It’s been a staple of sales operations since the telephone was invented.

Our internal data suggests that six is the magic number when it comes to cold calling. It takes an average of six calls to reach a decision-maker and get an answer- but if you’re willing to handle a bit of rejection before you know it, you’ll be well on your way to generating high-quality leads. 

Of course, calling someone six times requires a bit of persistence- but, the rewards can be significant for those willing to put in the work.

Cold Emailing

Cold emailing can be an effective way for small businesses to generate high-quality leads. It involves reaching out to potential customers via email, even if they haven’t shown previous interest. When done right, cold emailing can generate an ROI of up to 4300% (you read that right—a $44 return for every $1 invested) more than any other channel.

The key to successful cold emailing is understanding your prospects’ needs and interests, highlighting the value you offer, and providing a clear call to action (CTA). Personalization is also crucial—take the time to research each prospect and tailor your message accordingly.

Warning: If you don’t personalize cold emails, they’ll be marked as spam, and Google and others can blacklist your domain, so this must be done correctly.

Creating Relevant Blog Posts

Blog posts can be a powerful tool to inform, educate, and convince leads to become customers. A successful content strategy should be focused and planned, taking people through the sales process.

Consider your target audience’s questions and objections at each stage of the customer journey, and create content that addresses those concerns. Optimize your blog posts for search engines to attract organic traffic. Use relevant keywords, meta descriptions, and header tags to improve your rankings.

Don’t forget to include CTAs throughout your posts to guide readers to the next step, whether it’s subscribing to your blog, downloading a resource, or contacting sales.

Social Media Marketing

Social media is a powerful platform for lead generation as it allows businesses to reach a large audience with highly targeted ads and engaging content.

LinkedIn offers the best B2B lead generation, but it can also be expensive and time-consuming. TikTok and Snapchat offer the fastest audience growth, but they’re generally lacking in targeting features.

Facebook and Instagram tend to be the “best of both worlds” for commercial services, offering better targeting at relatively low costs.

Guest Contributing to Relevant Websites, Podcasts, and other Media

Guest “posting” involves contributing valuable content to websites, publications, podcasts, events, and other key centers of influence in your industry or niche. It can be a cost-effective way to expand your reach, attract potential customers, and establish yourself as an authority in your field.

Look for reputable brands that align with your target audience and offer valuable insights. Follow their guidelines and craft a compelling piece that showcases your expertise and contributes to their audience.

Be sure to include a bio with a link to your website, social media, and other online platforms where you can connect with them – if done right, this will drive referral traffic and sales.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Lead Generation

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps your content get noticed by search engines, making it more visible to people searching for information or products like yours. 

By optimizing your website and content for relevant keywords, you can attract qualified leads who are actively searching for solutions.

Some key SEO tactics include conducting keyword research, optimizing your site structure and navigation, creating valuable and keyword-rich content, building quality backlinks, and improving your site speed and mobile-friendliness. SEO is a long-term strategy that requires consistent effort, but it can pay off with a steady stream of organic leads.

There are great free tools available to help you find relevant keywords to focus on- my favorites are:

• AhRefs:  This tool offers keyword research, backlink analysis, and website ranking data to help you improve your SEO strategy.
• Google Keyword Planner: A free tool that provides keyword suggestions and search volume data for Google ads. It can also be used for SEO keyword research.
• SemRush:  Another all-in-one SEO tool that offers keyword research, competitive analysis, and website auditing features
• Answer the Public:  This tool provides keyword suggestions based on questions people are asking about your topic, making it great for “long-tail” keyword research.

Now, let’s examine the top lead generation software for small businesses. We’ve chosen these platforms based on several factors, including ease of use, ROI, integrations with other “lead-gen” tools, and features.

Keep in mind that every business is unique, so you’ll want to research and test different options to find the best fit for your needs.

Lead Generation Software for Small Businesses

Best Software for Lead Generation: Convex

Convex is the only lead generation software designed specifically for commercial services sales. Using the platform to generate leads is simple:

1. Find the Property, Contact, or Account that best suits your products and services—this could be anything from a property address a First and Last Name, to a hospital or airport in your area.
2. Check the Signals category to see who’s in-market and ready to buy.
3. With just two clicks, use Generative AI trained on their buying signals to send them an email or draft a script for a phone call.
4. Set up an automated follow-up sequence, or reminder, or add to your pipeline.

In other words, Convex is your “one-stop-shop” for commercial services teams wanting to boost lead generation and sales without all the complicated steps from the previous sections.

Our solution gives you all property intelligence data, like permit history, ownership, and tenant information, as well as contact information for the decision-makers. We’ve added intent data, which are “buying signals,” to let you know how likely a lead is to make a purchase, as well as Generative AI tools to help with outreach. This means that your sales reps can identify a lead and make contact in less than 5 minutes.

On top of that, Convex offers “data enrichment,” which is filling in missing info or updating outdated details to keep your lead database and CRM accurate and up-to-date. This not only saves you time and effort but also improves the quality of your leads.

Best CRM for Lead Generation: HubSpot

HubSpot is an all-in-one CRM, marketing, sales, and service platform. Its lead generation features include landing pages, forms, live chat, chatbots, and pop-up forms.

HubSpot also offers a powerful content management system (CMS) for blogging and SEO. Its free CRM makes it an affordable option for small businesses.

Best Sales Productivity Platform: Yesware

Yesware is a sales toolkit that lives in your inbox. It offers email tracking, templates, mail merge, and CRM integration to streamline your outreach. Yesware also provides data-driven insights to help you optimize your sales process and close more deals.

Best Visitor Tracking Tool: Leadfeeder

Leadfeeder is a B2B lead generation software that identifies the companies visiting your website. It provides detailed information about each visitor, including their company, location, pages viewed, and visit duration. You can then use this data to prioritize and reach out to the most engaged leads.

Best Landing Page Builder: Unbounce

Unbounce is a landing page builder that helps you create and optimize high-converting landing pages without coding. It offers a drag-and-drop editor, 100+ templates, and built-in A/B testing. Unbounce integrates with popular marketing tools like Mailchimp, HubSpot, and Salesforce.

Best Automation Platform: Zapier

Zapier is a powerful automation tool that connects your favourite apps and services, allowing you to automate repetitive tasks without the need for coding.

With Zapier, you can create “Zaps” that automatically move information between different applications, saving you time and effort.

For example, you can automatically add new leads from your CRM to your email marketing platform or get notifications in Slack whenever a form is submitted on your website.

With its extensive library of supported apps and user-friendly interface, Zapier enables small businesses to streamline workflows and improve productivity, making it an essential tool for lead generation and management.

Other Lead Generation Tools

In addition to the software above, there are many other types of tools that can support your lead-generation efforts:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms like Salesforce, Zoho, and Pipedrive help you manage and nurture leads through the sales process.
• Email marketing software like MailChimp and Constant Contact allow you to create and send targeted email campaigns to your leads.
• Social media management tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Buffer can help you engage with leads on social media and drive them to your website.
• Analytics tools like Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Kissmetrics provide data and insights to help you track and optimize your lead-generation efforts.

The right mix of tools will depend on your specific business needs, budget, and goals. But look for solutions that integrate well with your existing systems and provide the features and support you need to succeed.

Evaluating Lead Generation Software & Features: How to Find “the Right One.”

Every platform is different. The way you evaluate them will look slightly different because they offer various features and functions that generate dramatically different results.

Look for the features that help you reach your goals, including time savings, ROI targets, automation, analytics, and integration with other tools. Some key features of traditional lead generation platforms to look for include:

• Lead capture forms and landing pages
• Data quality and security
• Email marketing and automation
• Lead scoring and grading
• CRM integration
• Analytics and Reporting
• A/B testing and optimization
• Social media integration
• Chatbots and live chat
• Mobile responsiveness
• Scalability as you grow

Consider which features are most important for your business and look for a tool that offers a comprehensive solution to your current challenges.

Reading Reviews and Case Studies

Finally, read reviews and case studies to get a sense of how other businesses have used the software to generate leads. Look for reviews from businesses similar to yours in terms of size, industry, and goals.

Pay attention to feedback on ease of use, customer support, and results achieved. You can find reviews and case studies on the software vendor’s website, as well as third-party sites like G2, Capterra, and TrustPilot.

Don’t just rely on the positive reviews – look for balanced feedback that includes both pros and cons to help you understand the platform holistically.

Conclusion

Mastering lead generation is all about having the right tools and strategies in place to keep things moving smoothly. For small commercial services businesses, generating qualified leads and turning them into sales is necessary for consistent growth and success.

The lead generation software, strategies, and features we’ve explored in this article can streamline your effort, giving you the time and space to focus on what really matters: closing deals and growing your business.

Whether it’s Convex’s comprehensive property intelligence, HubSpot’s powerful CRM capabilities, or Zapier’s seamless automation, each tool offers unique benefits.

Choosing the right software isn’t just about picking a tool—it’s about finding a solution that aligns with your goals, integrates seamlessly with your existing systems and workflows (or creates new and better solutions), and ultimately drives results.Ready to elevate your lead generation process? Schedule a demo of Convex today to explore the best lead generation software for commercial services businesses.