Selling Leftovers

Are you turning away business?

Sales prospects, or “leads”, are a commodity item. You can sell them.

If you are turning away business, I guarantee the contacts that aren’t a good fit for you have value to other people who do what you do.

There are almost always people in your space who have less mature businesses. Remember when you were starting out?

Here’s how selling leads works:

• Reach out to a good competitor that’s smaller or newer than you

• Negotiate a price per lead

• Send leads as soon as they come in

• Keep track of what is sent

• Send an invoice at the end of the month

There are other versions of this, such as having them pre-pay a flat rate because you have a dependable number of leads, or doing referral commissions where you only get paid if they make a sale. But what I laid out above is the most common format.

Pro tip: people absolutely hate it when you sell one lead to multiple providers. Each business hates having to compete like crazy, trying to be the first to call and then do a high-pressure close before the others have a chance. The shopper hates it because their phone gets blown up by several sales people all at once. It’s not good for anyone. Build just one good business relationship.

I have seen these types of collaborations between competitors turn into supplier relationships, business partnerships, and even acquisitions.

Can you sell your leftover leads?

This is from Trail 9 of Profit Hiker: 11 Trails to gain lasting elevation in your business. Find the book right here and the program over there.