If your lead generation efforts are creating a lot of clicks or leads, but precious few sales, it might be due to setting the wrong expectations. Promising someone the stars will quickly gain their interest, but you will just as quickly lose that interest if the results are anything less than stellar. 
On the other hand, selling yourself short from the onset might result in some pleasantly surprised customers, but you will attract very few of them.
The key, therefore, is to properly set the customer's expectations throughout the lead generation process.
Understanding Value
The first step in correctly setting expectations is to correctly understand what value you have to offer. Why should your prospects be interested in responding to your call to action?
With lead generation, the initial value you are offering is usually not contained in your final product or service. You may be offering a free eBook, a free estimate or a free trial. Since the cost at this point is "free," any value being provided would be worthwhile to the right prospect.
By understanding the benefit being offered, you can craft your message to properly promote that benefit.
Being Honest
At its core, properly setting expectations is all about being honest. Again, you are providing value, so being honest about that can still be effective at generating leads.
Being honest does not mean being humble, and it does not mean you have to give every single detail from the start.
Wording Calls to Action
You want your call to action to be clear and compelling. You should only promise something that you can deliver, and be sure to word it in a way that conveys its value.
For example, asking readers to "register" on your site implies more about their value to you than your value to them. You want them to register, but why would they want to? On the contrary, if you offer them a way to "get free access" to your content, they have a reason to click. Both provide the same thing, and both are fully honest, but one will get better results and do a better job of describing what they can expect.
Providing Details
As prospects move from link to landing page to giving you their information, you should be giving them more information about what to expect. The initial invite needs to be kept simple and sparks interest, but prospects will want to know more about what they are getting into as they move through each step of the cycle. If you leave out some obvious bit of information, they may get suspicious, fear the worst and leave without ever giving you a chance.
Delivering on Promises
In an interview with Entrepreneur magazine, Richard Branson said the capstone to setting realistic expectations is to exceed those expectations, "preferably in unexpected and helpful ways." Be careful, however; overpromising and under-delivering is one way to ensure that leads do not turn into satisfied customers.
If you feel you have to exaggerate your benefits to get anyone interested in your offer, your problem is not really about setting expectations too high. The problem is that you are not delivering anything worth boasting about.
If you can promise value that a prospect will be truly interested in, and then fully deliver on that promise, you can expect your lead generation efforts to thrive.
* Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
