7 Lead Generation Methods To Maximize Sales Potential

The number of leads your business has — that is, the number of people on your email list — the greater the potential of your business.

In fact, many entrepreneurs believe, Russell Brunson and Jon Morrow included, that in today’s world, you can reasonably expect to make about $1 per month per subscriber.

So 1,000 subscribers equals $1,000 per month.

And 100,000 subscribers equals $100,000 per month.

The key, of course, is getting people on your email list.

So to help, here are 7 lead generation methods to maximize your sales potential — to fill your email list with your dream customers. These methods are taken from Russell Brunson’s bestselling books, Traffic Secrets and DotCom Secrets (I highly recommend purchasing and reading those books!), as well as from my own experience as an online marketer.

Let’s dive in!

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1. The Dream 100

We’ll start with what I think is the most important lead generation method we’re going to discuss in this article.

It’s the strategy that Russell Brunson used to grow ClickFunnels, become an internet marketing sensation, and promote his books to bestseller status.

It’s called the “Dream 100” and it’s available to everyone.

The Dream 100 is basically a collection of 100 influencers — bloggers, podcasters, Instagramers, YouTubers, etc. — in your niche who you’d love to turn into advocates for your products or services.

Maybe these people would become affiliates, maybe they’d promote your brand in return for favors, or maybe you’ll simply pay them for promotion.

The first step in this process is to list out your Dream 100. This will take a little bit of time and research. Identify…

25 influential writers in your niche.
25 influential YouTubers in your niche.
25 influential podcasters in your niche.
25 influential Instagramers in your niche.

Ideally, try to identify influencers who are within your “reach” — financially and relationally. If you’re just getting started, then you might target influencers with less influence because they’ll be more accessible. If you have a big brand with a big budget, then you can shoot for the moon.

Once you have these lists — I recommend making a spreadsheet — you can either work your way in or buy your way in.

To buy your way in, the process is quite easy. Simply reach out to the influencer and ask how much they charge for advertising/sponsorship. They’ll give you a price and you can negotiate with them. The good news is that there will always be influencers for every budget — you just have to find the ones that charge what you can afford.

To work your way in, you’ll have to spend time rather than money. This will usually include reaching out via email to introduce yourself, engaging with the influencer on social media, and working to build a relationship with the influencer.. so that when you ask to be a guest on their podcast, guest post for their blog, or trade favors, they’ll be more open to working with you.

Here is Russell Brunson’s process — outlined in Traffic Secrets — for reaching out and building relationships with influencers over a 60-day period.

Days 1-14 — Follow all of your influencers on social media and pay attention to what they’re doing. Dedicate your daily social media time to consuming their content and engaging with their posts.
Days 15-30 — Reach out to your influencers and open up a dialogue. Do not pitch them. Just try to start a conversation. Compliment them and tell them how much you appreciate their content. Keep engaging with their content via shares, likes, comments, etc.
Days 31-60 — Rather than pitching the influencer, give them something for free. Offer them free lifetime access to your service, or a free bag of products, or something else. Only ask for their feedback in return. Your goal is to turn them into a fan of your brand.

Once the influencer is a fan of your products/services, you can ask them to become an affiliate or even promote your stuff only if they like it. Because of the rapport you’ve built with them, they’ll be more likely to work with you.

To be clear, the GOAL of all of this is to get more of your dream customers on your email list — so make sure that the offers, products, or promotions that you’re putting in front of these influencer’s audiences start with capturing the person’s email address.

That way, those people become a part of your audience and you can continue marketing to them for free.

2. Reverse Squeeze Page

The first lead-gen method we discussed was macro — we didn’t talk about what you’d offer your dream customers to get them to convert, only about how you could get in front of your target market via influencers.

Many of the following tips — this one included — is going to be about what you offer and how you offer it. But you can use the Dream 100 system to get any offer in front of your target market.

So: the Reverse Squeeze Page.

This is a lead-gen sales funnel that we’re big fans of here at ClickFunnels. And it’s really simple. Here’s the flow…

As you can see, it only consists of two pages.

The reverse squeeze page (the first page) is where you offer your audience something for free — this could be a downloadable ebook, a white paper, a cheat sheet, a free course, or something else. To receive that free “gift”, they have to give you their email address.

Then the “Thank You” page simply thanks them for opting in and gives them an introduction to your brand.

Obviously, whatever you offer in the reverse squeeze page funnel should be extremely appealing to your target market so that they can’t help but sign up!

Let’s look at an example.

This comes from Email Mastery, a site that helps people become great email marketers.

It’s simple and direct, but appealing to Email Mastery’s target market: “A free course to master email marketing in just 7 days.”

Here’s another example from Jacob McMillen, who teaches people how to become successful freelance writers…

I happen to know that both of these squeeze pages convert very well.

Because they offer something that the brand’s target market wants.

You can build your own reverse squeeze page funnel using ClickFunnels (click to get a free trial).

As for determining what to offer, ask yourself this question: “What’s the most immediate problem your target market is facing and how can you help them solve that with a simple informative resource?”

To learn more about creating a lead magnet, check out our article over here: How To Create a Lead Magnet That is Highly Effective [With Examples]

3. Webinar

Webinars have probably generated more leads for us here at ClickFunnels than any other type of offer.

Because webinars happen on video, they are easier to create, more persuasive, and great for both generating leads (during registration) and making sales (during the pitch at the end of the webinar).

This, for example, is one of the first webinars that Russell used to popularize sales funnels and grow ClickFunnels…

Here’s another example from Search Engine Journal…

Again, to figure out a topic, you can ask yourself the question: “What’s the most immediate problem your target market is facing and how can you help them solve that with a simple informative resource?”

You can use the Webinar Sales Funnel to get as many registrations (i.e. leads) and sales as possible…

Get your FREE webinar sales funnel template here!

But we still have the BIG question…

What are you going to say on the webinar? How are you going to sell people at the end?

Well, we’ve hosted hundreds of webinars here at ClickFunnels and, over that time, we’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t work. So we created a simple, proven framework for hosting a webinar that converts (based on the successful webinars of ourselves and our members) — you can grab it for just $7 over here.

4. Free Book + Shipping

Second only to webinars, the “free book + shipping” offer is our favorite.

The biggest downside to this (and why webinars outrank it) is that you have to write and publish a book in order for this offer to work.

Now it doesn’t have to be a long book — even 50-100 pages can work!

(And you can easily self-publish your book with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing)

But you do need a book.

Here’s what the offer looks like…

You offer a value-packed book for free and ask the customer to only pay shipping and handling.

This is a win-win because the buyer feels like they’re getting something for free and you get to cover your advertising and shipping overhead costs — in other words, you’re basically generating leads for free!

You can learn more about the free book + shipping sales funnel over here. If you’re up for the challenge of writing a book, then this can be a great way to generate leads!

5. Free (Or Paid) Challenge

There’s something about a challenge that makes people want to take action.

In this article, we’re offering you free access to our 5-Day Lead-Gen Challenge, which teaches you how to “generate new leads that are excited to buy from you.”

Pertinent to the topic of this article, don’t you think? 😉

We also have our One Funnel Away Challenge, which holds people’s hands as they create their first (or next) sales funnel…

The idea of these challenges is that you or someone on your team is going to walk a group of people through accomplishing some task to see how much they can achieve in a set period of time; say, a month.

These types of challenges work very well for generating leads — you can even charge a little bit of money like we do for the One Funnel Away Challenge to recoup overhead costs.

If the value is high, then people won’t mind paying.

Try it for yourself!

6. Have Multiple Doorways

In this article, we’ve covered our favorite types of successful lead-gen offers and sales funnels: webinars, free book + shipping, reverse squeeze pages, and free challenges.

But how do you get people to those offers (other than through the Dream 100 process)?

Here are the doorways that we recommend creating, regardless of the type of offer you have…

Exit-intent popup on your website
In-content forms on your website
Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Pinterest Ads, etc.
Links to your sales funnel on all your social media profiles.

You might think of some other doorways you could create for your lead-gen offers — the more you create, the more opportunities people will have to join your email list.

7. Funnel Hacking

An article like this can only offer so much advice.

No matter how much I’d like to, I can’t know exactly what type of business you’re building, your budget, your products/services, or your timeline.

This means I can’t give you everything you need.

Not directly, at least.

(I might not be able to fish for you… but I can teach you how to fish!)

And so perhaps the best thing I can teach you how to do is a little thing we like to call funnel hacking — this is the process of looking at your competitor’s sales funnels to see what they’re doing, learning from those sales funnels, and creating something similar that will work for your business.

Diving into this process in detail goes beyond the scope of this article, but you can check out our full funnel hacking guide over here — it’ll probably be the most valuable marketing skill you’ll learn this year.