How to Generate Your Own Leads.

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  Java323209/05/07 Report as spam
  1

  excellent

  Good work Geoffrey! I am looking forward to the coming blogs on this topic

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  Donna R.09/05/07 Report as spam
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  RE: How to Generate Your Own Leads.

  Is this supposed to be a revelation? Referral business always results in a higher closing ratio than other methods that reach out to prospects that have no knowledge of your business. Duh. Wouldn't you be more likely to buy from a business referred to you than one that solicits you without the built in reinforcement of a known associate? Gee. How do you get those customers who will later refer you? You have to start at square one ... then it's actually up to many facets of the organization to provide a positive enough experience to the customer on an initial and ongoing basis to acutally result in a future referral. So, really, this is not so much a topic about Sales or Marketing as it is about Ensuring Customer Satisfaction.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine09/05/07 Report as spam
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  Bear with me...

  The trick is knowing how to get customer to call a prospect and set up your first meeting. And then turning it into an integral part of your sales process. That's a lot more than just having satisfied customers.

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  jrodmel200709/05/07 Report as spam
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  RE: How to Generate Your Own Leads.

  It's funny that this piece says that the basis of most real sales come out of "referral selling." Lately, I've been reading this book by Keith Ferrazzi called "Never Eat Alone." The core of the book focuses on developing relationships as a way to benefit all parties involved. Of course, one of the goals is better business! However, as the book and this piece says, if the person going into the transaction has heard good things about you and your business, then they will be more apt to buy into what you're selling.
  One thing that I wish that this piece touched upon a bit more is branding. I've also read a bit of "Branding for Dummies." One of the things that the book touches upon is the promise inherent in a brand. The idea of the promise isn't unlike a positive reputation in the community. A strong brand and a great reputation for excellent customer service and quality is what ultimately builds business.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine09/05/07 Report as spam
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  Brand doesnt' build anything by itself

  "A strong brand and a great reputation for excellent customer service and quality is what ultimately builds business."
  
  Well, sort of. Brand and reputation are abstract concepts and thus are not capable of "building" anything. Building a business requires human beings (usually Sales) to do something and they have to do it in a way that makes business sense.
  
  You could build a fabulous brand reputation simply by giving away products for free and supporting them for free. Your customers would love it, but the business wouldn't be very profitable.
  
  The trick is figuring out how to turn brand reputation into a repeatable process for developing new prospects into profitable customers. That's much more complicated.

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  nedelsha09/06/07 Report as spam
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  RE: How to Generate Your Own Leads.

  Geoff,
  
  Using referrals is a key element in sales but I think the way your post is written could imply that companies don't need marketing at all. I believe this is incorrect.
  
  The latest Marketing Sherpa research data shows in the technology industry for example that 60% of leads are generated by sales and 40% by marketing. Some good percentage of the 60% should be generated by asking for referrals as you describe so well in this post. But the 40% of leads generated by marketing still yield a good ROI for companies and so should not be ignored or unfunded.
  
  I believe the true picture of lead generation at a high level is that it is like a financial portfolio. Just having ONE approach is very risky. You need to implement a portfolio of sales AND marketing approaches to build a real sales machine.
  
  Nigel Edelshain, CEO, Sales 2.0, www.sales2.com

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine09/07/07 Report as spam
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  Marketing

  There's definitely something in what you say, so long as Marketing is actually committed, goaled on, and compensated for generating quality leads.
  
  What's more often the case, though, is the Marketing is goaled on producing "X" number of brochures, "X" number of trade magazine impressions, issuing "X" number of press releases, and attending "X" number of internal meetings.
  
  Companies with that kind of Marketing would be better served if they just handed out pink slips en masse to the Marketing group.

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  Melpo08/10/08 Report as spam
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  RE: How to Generate Your Own Leads.

  As a professional marketer, I very much agree with your last statement, Geoffrey. I think the biggest issue marketing teams have is that they don't tie their opportunity (not leads) goals to their sales goals. I seem to keep coming back to that in my own blog, because I see that mistake made over and over and over again.
  
  BTW, I've linked back to you several times in my own blog posts. You have given me great material for showing other marketers the sometimes very legitimate reasons why the rift between us exists.
  
  http://themarketingsurvivalist.blogspot.com/2008/07/bridging-gap-between-sales-and.html