Lead generation is extremely important for a business. New leads helps a business grow.

Here are some of my school fees on lead generation:

• It sometimes take longer to close sales.
• Just because they said yes does not mean yes.
• Not all campaigns work well. A lot fail. They fail because that is life, it is the nature of things. 80/20 rule. 80% of income will come from 20% effort.
• There are a lot of moving parts in any marketing campaign.
• If you can get lots of leads with online marketing; be grateful, not every business can.
• Test. Test. Test.
• There is a statistical tipping point for campaigns to work (for some businesses it is R2000 per month for others it is R2 000 000 per month)
• Follow up. Follow up. Follow up.
• 100% of a successful lead generation campaign is dependent on the sales process.
• It is marketing, then sales; not marketing and sales.
• Marketing has a job to do.
• Sales has a job to do.
• Both marketing and sales need to build momentum.
• Sales does not mean a person. It could be a sales letter, video sales letter, landing page, sales funnel, webinar, etc.
• The goal for marketing and sales is different.
• Blueprint the process. Have a clear understanding of the process; steps and actions. Find what is breaking where and fix it.
• The measurement for marketing and sales is different.
• If you have never marketed before, there will be some school fees to get it right.
• Paper is powerful. Plan more on paper before doing work.
• Capture your ideas.
• Test your ideas.
• Test your marketing.
• Test your sales.
• Show me. Do not say it is so. Show me. We did work for a client where they had more than 300 leads per month. Sales were lacking. In a previous life I did quality assurance audits on processes. I visited the sales team for an hour in their office. Here is what I discovered. The sales people did not respond fast enough, only a day or two days later, and had no follow-up process in place. It hurts.
• Measure your ROI.
• Understand your ROI.
• Some marketing gurus brag about a 3 ROI. Most business owners want a 10 ROI. I have had campaigns from a 0 to 22 ROI. Even lost clients on a 8 ROI. It is simple math and the success of a campaign depends highly on the market and sales process.
• Compare your ROI (many times in B2B a sale took 4 years or more; when you start a campaign and expect sales to be in month one; it is not always possible, sometimes we get lucky, sometimes it takes 72 weeks).
• It is not timing the market. It is time in the market.
• Marketing is a long term game.
• Not everyone who sees your message responds the first time.
• Just because you like your website does not mean it works.
• They are watching. Yes, your future client is watching you. They have visited your website. Read your emails. Watched a video. Saw you on LinkedIn.
• Trust comes first.
• Results is the name of the game.
• When you kickstart your marketing again; have numbers (results) of past campaigns on hand to compare.
• Work towards a specific KPI. If your cost per lead is R80 and your cost per sale is R700, first get channels working to get to those numbers or less.
• Develop a marketing and sales dashboard.
• Use CRM tools.
• If your sales people scream and kick against a CRM there is something else going on. Better have a look.
• Sales just dropped. There might be something else going on (3 very bad experiences here … each time a sales person(s) was buttering both sides)
• Know your statistics.
• Understand your statistics.
• Know these numbers. Traffic, leads, quotes, sales.
• Know your cost per lead.
• Know your cost per sale.
• Review your digital marketing reports weekly.
• Have a daily sales goal. Weekly goal. Monthly goal. If one slips all of the others slip.
• Talk to someone about your marketing and sales. Someone outside the company (I do this often with the CEO or business owner).
• Talking clears your mind and gets you thinking. Saying things out loud is different to the conversation in your head.
• Ideas are not free. They have a cost. It is called implementation.
• Campaigns that fail, hurt.
• Sometimes the market does not want what you have.
• Customers vote with their wallets.
• Just because you think it is cool; does not mean it will sell.
• Not everyone is looking for what you have. Deal with it.
• Products and services with better margins and higher value can support effective marketing and sales processes. When what you sell has low margins and a low value it becomes very hard.
• There is usually a lot less people looking than what you think.
• 3% of the market is considering your type of products at this moment.
• More traffic is not the only answer.
• If any one of the 3 key marketing pillars are misaligned your campaign WILL fail (client, message, channel).
• Do not stop outbound marketing when you start inbound marketing.
• The secretary sometimes searches.
• Find out how your customer buys. If they have a procurement or supplier process, follow that process for best results.
• If you ask me for 500 leads a month, usually that means your sales process sucks.
• There are 5 things you can do to change anything:
  • Start doing something
  • Stop doing something
  • Do more
  • Do less
  • Do it differently

Writing has this magic power. When you write you clear your mind. You create order when there is chaos. This list on marketing, sales and lead generation is an important one. I will update this list and will come back to it often. If you never learn from past mistakes you will keep on making the same mistakes. That is insanity. Rather learn, remember and do better every time.