Sales leads are the lifeline of most small business owners, business professionals, and salespeople, especially in B2B marketplaces. Sales managers pressure their staff to get more sales leads and close more sales. But, you cannot close sales, even with the best sales closing techniques, without leads. It all starts with a lead.

So, where do you get sales leads? Where do leads come from? There are plenty of sources for leads with some being better than others. Here is my list of ways to generate sales leads:

Customer Inquiries: A customer inquiry about your product or service is the best source of new business imaginable. The customer has sought you out so you know that he is already interested in your product or service. In this case, it is your job to keep that customer and be sure that he does not look elsewhere. You need to know your product inside out, know the features and benefits, and make sure the prospect likes you. Your closing ratio should be highest with customer inquiries.

Customer Referrals: When a current customer refers a colleague to you it is the same as him vouching for you. There is nothing better than this as a "trust" factor has already been developed. He would not give you a referral if he did not trust you. This is a good reason to ask for testimonials from all your clients. Your closing ratio from customer referrals should be high as well.

Advertising: There are many places where you can advertise your services, some expensive, some cheap, and some free. This includes yellow pages, flyers, and online business directories, classifieds, and websites such as trade-pals.com, craigslist.org, and LinkedIn.com. Your closing ratio should be good with advertising as well.

Cold Calling: Not everybody can cold call well. If you make an attempt at cold calling be prepared to put a lot of time and energy into it and be prepared for a lot of rejection. A lot of busy executives and decision makers are unresponsive to cold calling; it is interruption marketing and that usually doesnt work out well, especially if you called someone unknowingly that was on a "do not call list." However, it is still possible to generate some new business through cold calls just make sure that it isn't the only think you do to generate sales leads. Expect your closing ratio to be quite low with leads generated from cold calling.

Sales Lists: Companies such as InfoUSA, ZapData, and Dun & Bradstreet compile and sell targeted lists of contact names in specific industries, geographic locations, and company sizes of your choice. From this information, you can cold call, email, or do a direct mailing campaign to reach specific executives or decision makers. The closing ratio here should be better than doing random cold calls, but still not as good as direct customer inquiries or business referrals.