Referrals are every agency's dream. Do good work. Others take notice. Inbound, warm leads get referred. What happens when those referrals aren’t coming in as much as they were in the past? Or, better yet...how do you get in front of the drought to ensure a steady flow of new leads that could convert into revenue-generating opportunities for your agency? A strong outbound sales process is a lot easier to set up today than it was even 5 years ago. The key is creating a consistent process for identifying prospects and using the right tools to automate the most time-consuming components of this strategy. Before we jump into the framework for building the strategy, ask yourself whether you have the right team in place to generate new business. Do you have folks on your team responsible for searching for new business? Do they have experience generating leads or are they better suited for managing referrals and building relationships that could develop into new business? This can be a tough exercise and possibly requires a shift in responsibilities or a new hire to execute the new strategy outlined below. The fastest-growing companies in the last 5 years all have one thing in common...a highly motivated, process-driven inside sales team tasked with making it rain. Their playbook isn't rocketed science or proprietary. It follows a very simple methodology that I’ll share with you now. 1) Define your prospect segments. Your current clients are the single greatest asset you have to define new segments or reinforce that you need to focus on a specific niche. For example, if you primarily work with auto dealerships then you need to go and find other dealerships to contact. If your work [...]