Lead Generation

Earlier this week, I wrote about the importance of working smarter in order to drive efficiency and effectiveness – which will produce faster and cheaper operations without sacrificing quality.

So, I thought it might be a nice follow up to offer a few examples of ‘working smarter’…let me know what you think.

Highly successful sales and marketing organizations start with their current customers – they identify the best customers and use that information to target lead generation activities and attract more of the same.  (Less successful organizations don’t know who is in the customer file because they’re focused on pushing more messages and offers out and hoping someone responds.)

Highly successful sales and marketing organizations talk with their target audience and learn how to consistently deliver unique value.  They ask ‘what do we do that you value’ and ‘what do we do that you don’t value’ – then they focus more resources on the former, and eliminate the later.  (Less successful organizations just keep doing the same stuff over and over because ‘that’s how we have always done it.’)

Highly successful sales and marketing organizations test, capture data, analyze the data, develop practical recommendations based on the analysis that should improve performance and then repeat the process.  It’s about continuous improvement.  (Less successful organizations don’t test.  They don’t constantly search for ways to improve – but they do have the occasional fire drill when the leadership team notices something that they don’t like.)

Highly successful sales and marketing organizations adjust messaging and offers based on their understanding of their target audience.  When the economy changes, and the needs of the buyer changes, so do the messaging and offers.  Pricing strategies might be reworked in order to motivate retention – for example, they create tiered pricing based on volume and look at ways to offer better terms.  (Less successful organizations keep pushing the same messages and offers because ‘the product hasn’t changed.’)

There are plenty of other examples – share your favorites in the comment section so we can all learn together!