How To Get More Sales Opportunities, Leads, And Clients To grow your business, to have more paying clients, and to increase return on investment through high leads and appointments, it takes work, a lot of real work.

Irrespective of the nature of the business you do or its present level, be it just a startup or already a brand, it is always the aim of every founder and CEO to get more clients. However, sales opportunities do not magically present themselves- your positioning determines the level of quality of sales prospects that you get.

The fact that you are reading this means that you have a business whose conversion rate you would like to increase and maximize your profit or return on investment. It is irrelevant whether your business is at its early stage, or you started it years ago. Also, your return on investment might be on a gentleman's scale, or you might still be on the break-even side, or you might be a little more established, with multiple six, seven, or eight figures of revenue at regular intervals. Wherever you fall on the highlighted spectrum, we all have one thing in common- we consistently seek to get more clients and increase profit level.

There is no doubt about the fact that, in order to get one's next client, it is necessary to first get one's next lead. Without a "lead", it is not feasible to sign a paying client. And the only way to land your next client, the next one, and the one after the next is to position yourself in front of your prospects, convert a percentage of them into leads, schedule appointments, and do all your possible human or alien best to turn at least two of them into clients.

Related: As An Entrepreneur, Selling Is Something You Should Celebrate- Not Delegate

It is true that, at some point, today's experts were once novices and were uncertain about what worked best for their business, so let's start learning what it takes to grow your business to your dream level and even beyond.

Here are three most important steps to follow:

1. Align properly in order to be visible to prospective clients.
2. Make sure that a reasonable percentage of your communication with your prospects translates into solid leads and appointments.
3. Ensure that a minimum of two of your leads become your clients.

These pieces of advice sound simple, but should I ask you whether you have been doing it consistently and strategically? When you get a prospect on the phone, or you sit down face-to-face with them, there is a good chance that they are going to do business with you. However, you simply have not been getting enough opportunities, right?

For that reason, let's look at the three steps in more details.

1. Align properly in order to be visible to prospective clients

One of the best ways to be more visible to prospective clients is to develop a compelling digital environment, starting with a website with simple and welcoming home page. This will make it easy for prospective clients to have a good view of your services. Furthermore, optimize your profile on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. If you do not know how to do all of this, hire a professional because you cannot afford to be hidden. If you're not a secret service agent, visibility counts.

It is important to systematically target the right prospects through digital marketing and business profile optimization, because these processes work on a deeply ingrained psychological trigger which will get them to agree to meet with you.

Related: Want More Business? Try Building Solid Personal Relationships

2. Make sure that a reasonable percentage of your communication with your prospects translates into solid leads and appointments.

You cannot grow your business by cutting costs, although costs do need to be properly channeled. The only way to expand is to create a steady flow of leads. Without this, your business could be in jeopardy. Therefore, it is important that you build a system to generate a consistent flow of opportunities in odd and even periods. Schedule appointments with your prospects and ensure that you are considerate of their time. It is always good to maintain a high level of professionalism throughout the meeting.

During the meeting, occasionally talk about your successes and do not forget to mention times when you failed and how you overcame that. This will make you genuine and authentic and a person who can help their business see the light at the end of the tunnel. Don't feed them with too many feel-good messages, state realities when need be. Before the appointment ends, ask how long they plan on working with you and let them understand what they stand to gain with long term agreements.

3. Ensure that a minimum of two of your leads become your clients.

It is really sad, but the fact remains that most people do not know how to close a deal or are not ready to put in the work. They are either being misguided by individuals who advise strategies that do not really work for anybody, not even for them. Or they are one of the dreamers always looking for the get rich quick methods, and they are still employing the "effort down the drain" techniques to grow their businesses.

Keep close tabs on a minimum of two of your prospects and ensure that a good term of business is presented to them. Have a close look at what they do and tweak your terms to suit their needs. Make it a solution to their problems and desires.

To grow your business, to have more paying clients, and to increase return on investment through high leads and appointments, it takes work, a lot of real work. And always remember that quantity has a quality of its own, do more strategically and earn more.

Related: Sourcing New Clients? Decide On A Marketing Strategy First