A sales lead list must be specific

Make certain your sales leads are differentiated enough for your product. If you sell boat insurance, you'd better be calling boat owners, right? If you sell business insurance, a sales leads list of newly incorporated small businesses will be an easier sell than an established business.

I recommend: Take a look at the variety of specific business leads lists available from lead generation vendors including Certified Lists, Selectory, Intelius, and USA Data Corporation.

Lead generation is a hands-on task

Sometimes pre-cut business leads are just too far off-topic for specialized products and services. In that case, consult a big database company specializing in sales lead generation that will let you slice and dice millions of business leads until you get the richest possible list. If the product matches the sales lead list, sales will pick up.

I recommend: Sales lead generation, thanks to the Web, is not as mysterious as it sounds. Click on and off attributes -- years in business, zip code, industry and sector -- and get down to the perfect list of sales leads. Check with Zap Data, Hoovers, and InfoUSA.

Get your sales leads from call to close faster

Your key salespeople have got the sales lead list figured out: Make contact, close the sale, move on. But they can get bogged down in the sheer logistics of smile and dial: Busy signals, lunch hours, dead leads. It adds up. Alongside lead generation, you might need sales generation, too.

I recommend: Speed things up by coupling sales lead generation with appointment services. Telemarketers representing your brand make calls from the sales lead list, get the initial "yes" and instantly connect to the salesperson. Try business leads telemarketing services from Aspire Marketing Group and Go Leads. Take a look at lead generation software and lead management at Business.com's directory.

Success using business leads no longer begin and end with a phone call

The world of sales leads and the sales lead list is turning into a multi-channel proposition: Phone, mail, e-mail -- anywhere your business leads put their eyes and ears, you'll have to be there, too.

I recommend: Get that done with business leads software that turns your sales leads into trackable, usable customers you can touch again and again to cross-sell or up-sell. Some key customer-relationship management (CRM) software in this space includes Constant Contact, ContactPlus, Salesforce.com and Act! Not sure? Compare vendors using Vendor Guru.

Track the results of your sales lead generation efforts

Your have 50,000 names. But how many sales? Tracking the effectiveness of sales lead lists can be complex, but not impossible with integrated campaign software.

I recommend: Follow on business leads and test their quality using software from sales leads software companies like AIMpromote, AdTrack and Leads360.