{"id":213,"date":"2007-09-11T18:24:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-11T18:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/officeondemand.ca\/blog\/?p=202"},"modified":"2009-11-11T08:42:32","modified_gmt":"2009-11-11T13:42:32","slug":"whats-the-1-lead-generation-small-business-marketing-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/lead-generation\/whats-the-1-lead-generation-small-business-marketing-mistake\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s The #1 Lead Generation Small Business Marketing Mistake\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;My business is like a roller coaster. When things are going well, I&#8217;m too busy working on projects to do any marketing. Then I finish those projects and don&#8217;t have enough leads to market to.<\/p>\n<p>How can I smooth out these ups and downs and grow my business even more?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8211; Bill, a management consultant Cambridge MA<\/p>\n<p>Ever wish you had more leads to pursue when sales take a dip or you finish a project?<\/p>\n<p>Or, even better, leads to pursue before sales take a dip or the work slows down?<\/p>\n<p>With a steady flow of business, you could manage staffing and cash flow better and significantly increase your annual revenue.<\/p>\n<p>When I asked Bill what he did to follow up with the hundreds of senior managers he worked with each year, he sheepishly told me, &#8220;nothing&#8221;. He didn&#8217;t have a follow up strategy. I asked him how many business cards he&#8217;d collected at the last talk he gave to over 50 senior managers. His answer? &#8220;None&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t be mislead; Bill is a successful consultant. He works with CEOs and top-level managers at Fortune 500 companies. But he was making one big mistake, and it was keeping him from being as successful as he could be.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s the mistake Bill was making? Bill didn&#8217;t have a lead generation system or a follow up system. When there was a drop in the demand for his services, he had to start his marketing from scratch.<\/p>\n<p>Want to avoid making this common marketing mistake?<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mfsstore.com\/5Pmanual.html\">Use this link to find out how &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How can you get off the roller coaster and bring in a steady stream of business?<\/p>\n<p>Think like a squirrel.<\/p>\n<p>As fall approaches here in Old Greenwich, CT the dozens of squirrels in my neighborhood are busy doing what squirrels do; they&#8217;re collecting nuts and storing them away. They instinctively know that the more food they gather, the happier and fatter they&#8217;ll be, come February.<\/p>\n<p>They have a system for collecting nuts each fall that gets them through the long winter.<\/p>\n<p>Weathering the ups and down of the business cycles requires the same kind of planning. To come out on top, you need a marketing system for collecting leads, storing them and following up on them. The more qualified leads you have in your database, the happier you&#8217;ll be.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s the easiest way to generate more leads every month? <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mfsstore.com\/5Pmanual.html\">Use this link &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A lead generation system gives you an organized way of contacting prospects, qualifying them, prompting them to contact you and helping them make the decision to buy from you.<\/p>\n<p>Is your lead generation system working as well as it could be to bring in a steady stream of new clients? Is it providing you with new sales from long-standing clients?<\/p>\n<p>Put Your Lead Generation Marketing System to the Test<\/p>\n<p>1. Do you have a system?<\/p>\n<p>Bill had no system whatsoever for generating leads. He was getting occasional referrals, but referrals alone weren&#8217;t growing his business.<\/p>\n<p>2. Does it work to prompt 10% of all people exposed to you or your marketing to contact you?<\/p>\n<p>Whether you are giving talks to large gatherings of your target market, as Bill is, or marketing online through your website, the basic concept behind a lead generation system is the same. You want to motivate as many qualified prospects as you can to contact you.<\/p>\n<p>Most small businesses and service professionals have websites, but few sites generate more than a trickle of leads. The graphics, content and marketing messages on your site should prompt a minimum of 10% of site visitors to contact you. If this isn&#8217;t happening, your site is broken and you need to fix it.<\/p>\n<p>3. Do you have a sequenced system of communication for converting prospects to clients?<\/p>\n<p>In my experience, only 1 out of 10 small business owners have a system for converting prospects in place. So if you don&#8217;t you&#8217;re not alone but if you want to grow your business you need one.<\/p>\n<p>Once a prospect expresses an interest, you&#8217;ve gotten them to take the first step in the process. It doesn&#8217;t mean they want you to sell them. Usually that is the quickest way to kill the sale.<\/p>\n<p>Prospects want to get to know you, trust you and discover the value of your product and services. Whatever media you use, your follow-up communication should accomplish this.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s involved in setting up your lead generation system? <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mfsstore.com\/5Pmanual.html\">Use this link to get the details &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You don&#8217;t have to go nuts to develop a solid lead generation system. With a simple, strategic marketing system in place, your business can grow every month, whether you&#8217;re immersed in a project or on vacation.<\/p>\n<p>If you don&#8217;t already have one, put your lead generation system into place this fall and see your business continue to prosper this winter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Charlie<br \/>\nSmall Business Marketing Ideas That Work<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Reblog this post [with Zemanta]\" href=\"http:\/\/reblog.zemanta.com\/zemified\/845b9066-835e-4ae6-a612-b05fbb8a2528\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/reblog_e.png?x-id=845b9066-835e-4ae6-a612-b05fbb8a2528\" alt=\"Reblog this post [with Zemanta]\" \/><\/a><span class=\"zem-script more-related more-info pretty-attribution paragraph-reblog\"><script src=\"http:\/\/static.zemanta.com\/readside\/loader.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;My business is like a roller coaster. When things are going well, I&#8217;m too busy working on projects to do any marketing. Then I finish those projects and don&#8217;t have enough leads to market to. How can I smooth out these ups and downs and grow my business even more?&#8221; &#8211; Bill, a management consultant [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,15],"tags":[192,381,386],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marketingforsuccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}