When attempting to build highly qualified leads, the one who educates most usually wins. Consider your typical prospect and how much they really know about your products and services especially if they’ve never heard of your or your company.

Do your prospects know as much as someone who works for your company? Hardly! Frequently, in the early stages of the buying process, they will know less than 25% of the necessary information to make an effective decision so closing the knowledge gap can go a long way towards increasing the number of qualified leads and boosting sales.

To close the gap, consider visiting industry forums or Yahoo Answers to see what your prospects are asking about similar products and services then make it your mission to answer each question in the form of a series of articles or a free report that you can give away in exchange for contact information and permission to follow up with the prospect. This is much more effective than time wasting cold calling and far less expensive than a direct mail campaign to build up your prospect database.

Use online tools such as a micro-website or squeeze page to capture lead information which can feed an auto-responder to follow up with your prospects in a consistent and timely fashion which can further educate them as they migrate through the buying process. This will eventually result in a significant boost to your bottom line if done properly.

For business to business sales, consider the old way of prospecting where you’d dig through bulky company directories or rummage through financial reports to locate a prospect’s name and contact information then dial them up on the phone without much of an idea what hot buttons to push or what obstacles the company is facing that you may or may not be able to help with. With more modern ways to prospect, you can place “lead bait” out there to magnetize prospects to come to you to learn more about your products and services which will lead to a greater level of comfort with you when it comes time to make a purchase decision.

For business to consumer sales, the old way of prospecting often included purchasing expensive lists that may not be targeted to the level necessary to build a truly qualified database. With do-not-call lists expanding daily, cutting through the telemarketing clutter is very difficult to accomplish however it can be greatly simplified by offering something of value to your prospects that they’ll gladly exchange their contact information for your educational materials.

By incorporating educational marketing into your sales and marketing mix, you can greatly increase the number of qualified leads in your pipeline in addition to being recognized as an industry expert over time.

Roger Bauer is the author of “Endless Lead Generation Tactics,” a free eBook focused on increasing sales through lead generation strategies and tactics. To get your copy, point your browser to http://EndlessLeadGen.com now.

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