Archive for Lead Generation
All Sales Channels are not created equal
Posted by: | CommentsHow do you go about creating sales channels and making them not competitive with each other. It is a pretty tall order in today’s world and one that really takes quite a bit of time so that they and yourself are not competing with each other. The Channel Advantage 
If you are trying to find the best way to take your product to market there is a U.K business link that you can take a survey to Identify Potential Sales Channels and it will give you a set of recommendations. It is only a 5 minute exercise and well worth it.
The Channel Advantage recommends using a 4-step process to evaluate and manage each channel.
It looks straight forward but in today’s world I think it is missing one component. There should be 1-block on the bottom saying consumer and final price. Distribution is so good these days that the channels cross over so effectively that the consumer has to see the same price. Many times even when there is value added services being included. So, how many sales channels do you have and do they all end up with the same price to the consumer?
Lead Generation in a recession, where do you start?
Posted by: | CommentsI have been thinking about this a lot lately, a lot! Since, I am what I would say wired into the social community I see a lot of information about:
- We should be ignoring the recession.
- Build community.
- Pull marketing versus push.
- Social media.
All of this being the soft side of marketing and selling. But we will make it through the recession by doing this? I believe that marketing is changing towards the items mentioned above but I also question can it effectively put food on the table today. I have been pulling out some old notes from years back just to see what was being said and what I was believing in tougher times. I saw a good mindmap of mine on Lead Generation , I just had to share. Look it over and see if it can help you.
Should there be a hole in your sales Funnel
Posted by: | CommentsWe marketers spend our time discussing target market, ideal client, core message but do we really listen to it! Do we take our own advice? That is the question I see many prospects questioning. We preach(ok, speak), give webinars, and even write books on the subjects. But do we ever not friend someone or hesitate about adding someone to our social media list. They might just become a client. So, we just say how can we help you and cram them into our funnel.
That says many times we just did not qualify them. Sound better! How
ever, I think we should put another hole in our sales funnel. Just not at the bottom, maybe in every section. Accept the prospect, and than see if he fits through our funnel. If we struggle keeping him in the funnel have a pressure relief valve that leaves him exit gracefully.
Wonder why we get bad clients? We are successful at cramming them through the funnel instead of leaving gravity do its job. You can provide an easy path and even accelerate it but stop trying to overcome objections, just provide answers to them and leave good old gravity take its course.
P.S. There is another way of getting people out of your sales funnel, it could be overflowing.
Your Marketing Organized
Posted by: | CommentsAn excerpt from: Duct Tape Marketing
One of the most difficult tasks for small business owners, when it comes to marketing, is organization. Until you start to look at marketing as one of the core systems in your business it will always feel like a disjointed and disconnected thing that you know you must do when you can get around to it. And that’s no way to build momentum.
For the purpose of this post I’ve created what I think is the ideal Marketing organization in the graphic below. (This is a smart art graphic that new versions of MS Office can create and save as an image – click on the graphic to see full size and feel free to borrow for your organization.)
If you can begin to realize that your company’s marketing system does indeed need to perform all of the functions listed above, you can more easily grasp how to create processes that assure you are accurately moving each and every customer logically along the path to becoming a hyper-satisfied referral machine.
And that’s the way to build marketing momentum!
My opinion:
As you know I am a systems guy and a straightforward,easy to understand chart like this is a great strategy and tool. To simple for some, but that I believe is the beauty of it.
I have taken a similar list and just tried using it in my last presentation. It goes a step further or backwards which ever you may decide. But instead of a linear list like this, I have made more of a Mindmap or spoke type diagram. This way I use linking connections and over lay my “web” on top of it.
My categories were formed from this new software package I have called Marketing Plan Pro Powered by someone….
P.S. I think this linear chart is easier to understand and may use it to introduce my circular chart.
