New entrepreneurs often agonize about how to attract that first client. In a post this week on Entrepreneur .com in the Business Operations section, the question arose about how best to make that all-important first sale. Among other suggestions, author Pattie Simone stated that success depended upon “building a community and pursuing a number of different kinds of outreach.”

Selling goods and services in the small business world does require a balanced approach. The temptation to rely on impersonal internet selling can lure the proprietor into thinking that all the sales work can be done by a well-designed website. However, people always buy from other people that they trust, so relying on a website to make a significant numbers of sales will probably involve a very long wait.

A good website initiates a relationship with prospective buyers. Customers seeking information and doing pre-purchase research can be attracted to the company website and if the information provided is credible, the company brand is improved in the eyes of the consumer. The website can capture bits of information that will be fed back to the ‘real-life’ person to work the lead. It is then the responsibility of the owner to close the deal or to make sure that the prospect visits the office or storefront. The process of actually selling is usually a personal endeavor, especially for higher priced items, but lead generation or ‘lead gen’ can at least introduce the prospect with the company.

When designing the company website, care should be given to both building a community of readers and to providing a way for a prospective customer to initiate a relationship. The “raison d’être” for most business web sites is to generate leads for the sales team to work and close. Even new businesses can effectively use this process.

Setting up the web page to help with lead generation involves a couple inclusions. These can help attract and solidify a relationship with a prospective buyer.

Here at e1evation, we have years of experience in using websites like this one to generate leads and using customer relationship management [CRM] tools to management. Comment or ‘connect’ to discuss how this applies to you and your organization…