Ask any salesperson what the hardest thing to teach a new sales rep is, and many will say “Asking for the sale”.  Ask any experienced web marketer what most Web sites do the most poorly on, and they’ll say “creating a clear call to action for the potential customer”.  The two are related.

10 years ago, business owners were content having an online brochure as a Web site.  Now that everyone has an “online brochure” at a minimum, things have evolved substantially.  Websites have become revenue generators in and of themselves.  For a sales person, the most important step in generating revenue is ASKING for it.  On Web sites, this is also the most important step.  Maybe its not quite asking for the sale (yet), but it is important to ask for something.

What do you want prospects to do on your Web site?  Once they read how awesome your company is (just like they do on every other Web site), what do you want them to do?  Call you?  Email you?  Give you their email address?  Like you on Facebook?  Buy now?

You must make it easy on them.  Make it extremely easy and extremely obvious.  But choose one, and only one.

Let’s be honest.  Most web surfers don’t care how awesome you say you are.  They care about finding out the information they need to find…quickly.

Are most of your Web site viewers in research mode, or “buy now” mode?  If they’re in research mode, give them something to help them out with their research on your home page.

• A white paper on the different business VOIP options.
• A comparison chart of different telecom carriers.
• A <Fill in the blank here on the biggest pain points or needs of your prospects>

To catch those prospects that are in research mode, companies often give away this type of valuable information in exchange for an email address.  To do this, just create an opt-in box, IN PLAIN VIEW on your home page, and advertise a free guide for XYZ.  In return, ask for an email address.

If you use an email marketing software, find out from them how to setup this opt-in box on your Web site or blog.  Mailchimp is a great free service to do this with.  This process can also be done effectively using aWeber, Infusionsoft, ConstantContact, iContact, or any other number of email marketing services.

And this will involve some web programming and webpage redesign.  But effortless lead generation is well worth the effort.