Category Archives: Strategy

Blogs under this category explore strategy in lead generation and the many marketing methods that fall under this term.

How will GDPR affect B2B Marketing? An update on the state of play

When I first started looking into GDPR last summer, I, along with many others, had identified that big changes were in store for direct marketing. I even thought that this may be the end of e-mail marketing as the most popular B2B marketing tactic. It then became obvious that the regulations distinguish between corporate subscribers and personal data. This is significant as it could mean that the rules for B2B direct marketing may stay largely unchanged. This Blog attempts to give you the latest low down and provide some clarity:

A key fact some people are not aware of, is that GDPR itself does not mention marketing at all, rather the two relevant documents here are:

The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA)
The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR)

As you might have guessed, both have existed for some time but GDPR has given them extra importance since it has the power to act against offenders. One more important factor to bear in mind, is that the new e-privacy Regulation (ePR) which is currently being agreed by the EU to replace the PECR will not be completed by the time GDPR comes into effect in May. The new ePR may bring some additional changes affecting B2B marketing which are unconfirmed at present.

But what are the actual rules and what can you expect to be able to do or not in the B2B market after May 25^th? Well, I did a lot of reading and found some useful Blogs but they all said slightly different things, here are a few examples:

In May 2017, the Upfront Blog interviewed Lecturer in Law at University of Hertfordshire Henry Pearce who said: ‘At present, PECR specify that B2B email marketing and similar activities would not have to obtain the express opt-in consent of any individuals whose personal data were involved in said activities. Therefore, in the context of B2B marketing activities involving personal data, if individuals are given the option to opt-out this is sufficient to establish consent. The GDPR broadly also retains the abovementioned conditions for processing of personal data contained within the DPA, but with some important clarifications, particularly regarding individual consent.’ Read more…

What did I make of it: Whilst Mr Pearce did his best not to answer the question directly the Blog does provide good guidelines for ensuring your data system is robust.

In July 2017, Blue Sheep Blog wrote about the new e-PR and said: ‘Although an unfinalised draft, the new e-Privacy Regulationcontains several key points relating to electronic communications that will affect B2B (and B2C) businesses, including applications to more communication services, simplified rules on Cookies and changes to soft opt ins which relates to messages to existing clients.’ On the subject of B2B data being classed as personal or not the Blog said: ‘Depending on whom you ask, you’ll hear mixed messages’. Read More…

What did I make of it: This Blog does a good job of clarifying the situation and explain the distinction between B2C and B2B data.

In January 2018, Lead Forensics produced a Blog which related to the definition of ‘personal data’, ‘sensitive data’ and ‘business data’. Under the business data category, it read: ’GDPR only applies to data relating to individuals, not relating to businesses. So, data that is clearly related to a business such as business name and address, landline number and info@ email are all outside of GDPR ruling. However personal business email addresses can fall under a classification of “personal data”.’ Read More

What did I make of it: Very helpful infographics for those who like the information summed up clearly.

In the light of personal business e-mails being considered ‘personal data’ you might want to read the Marketing Centre Blog which clarifies the term ‘legitimate interest’: ‘Legitimate Interest is one of the 6 lawful reasons for processing personal information defined in GDPR. The regulation states specifically that “the processing of personal data for direct marketing purposes may be regarded as carried out for a legitimate interest.”In fact, the DMA view is that B2B marketers will be able to make use of the legitimate interest legal grounds for their marketing activity in most instances. Keep in mind, though, that the definition of legitimate interest is still a matter of debate. GDPR requires the sender to justify that a communication is in the legitimate interest of and does not risk the privacy of the individual. ‘Legitimate interest’ should not be used as a reason to ‘catch-all-and-carry-on-regardless’. You can download the DMA guidance on legitimate interest here.

What did I make of it: The Blog raises some key points and offers some useful links. It helped me understand how legitimate interest works.

So how do you settle it?

The surprising answer is, read the Direct Marketing Guide put together by the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office – they are in charge). The document is well written in easy to understand language and includes plenty of examples. It’s not even too long.

Key points to take away:

Whilst we await the new e-PR to be agreed by the EU parliament the main legal documents referring to B2B marketing are DPS and PECR
There is ambiguity as to whether business e-mail addresses (for limited companies and corporates) are considered ‘personal data’
The main justification for B2B marketing under GDPR will fall under ‘legitimate interest’ though you will have to treat this with care
The biggest change to practice will be around data management so you need to sort this out as a matter of urgency.

As always, we will be delighted to help if we can. Do check out our GDPR support here and get in touch if you would like more information.

A few key reasons not to throw the baby out with the bath water

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Current affairs offer us many examples of throwing the baby out with the bath water, Brexit being a particularly prominent example. If you read The Chimp Paradox by Dr Steve Peters, you will be aware of how the chimp can rule our lives, leading us to make some hasty choices to prove that we know best.

With GDPR now in place I hear many business owners declaring that as these new regulations are a headache, they will give up on marketing all together. Others are being less defiant and plan to give up on e-mail marketing as a strategy. I understand this approach as many business owners of established companies hold two key beliefs which support it:

They know they get most of their new business from referrals
They see marketing as an expensive overhead with no guaranteed results

You might be surprised to hear that I don’t disagree with these beliefs: I regard networking and referral marketing as my key new business strategy. Like everybody else, I have seen mixed results from new business campaigns. The difference is that I have not given up on pursuing new business from scratch and have instead created an eco-system utilizing many strategies.

Sounds mysterious and complicated you might think. Others will regard it as marketing speak and they are probably right. What I mean by it is that I have come to accept a few beliefs of my own:

Every strategy has its own rhythm and requirements which need to be taken into account in order to drive it forward.
Referrals are great and much easier to deal with and convert. However, they don’t necessarily drive your business in the direction you currently seek.
Very few things in life are guaranteed. Marketing is certainly not one of them but it’s essential to your business.

So, before you and your chimp run ahead and delete your marketing databases, suck your e-mail marketing company and free yourselves from the marketing overhead altogether, remember:

GDPR is not an excuse to stop marketing but rather to do a better job of it
Developing new markets is essential for your business to thrive and grow
Things rarely work by magic, but they will deliver value if carefully planned and executed.

As always, we will be delighted to help if we can. Do check out our GDPR support here and get in touch if you would like more information.

Why good data is queen and wears the trousers

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Jonathan Perelman, VP of Agency Strategy at BuzzFeed once said; “Content is king, but distribution is queen, and she wears the pants.” I strongly agree with him although I am sure he means trousers. I would take it a step further and say that the quality of one’s data in specific is queen and wears the trousers.

You might wonder why good data is so important. Indeed, I see many companies with a great big database which they have compiled over the years. The list is normally a mixture of current and former clients, prospects and various contacts who approached the company over the years. If this is your marketing list, I think you need to review it for the following reasons:

Much of the information is likely to be out of date: some companies will have closed and decision makers have moved on.
The list covers a mix of target markets: customers, suppliers and introducers. It makes creating a targeted message very hard.
The new GDPR rules mean that you will need to obtain consent from at least a part of the contacts on the list, in order to continue sending them marketing e-mails.

What do I suggest that you do instead? I would recommend buying a data list from a good source over any other method. Just before you rush into getting one, you should consider the following elements:

Identify your specific target markets’ industries
Identify your specific target companies’ size and employee numbers
Identify the relevant decision makers you would like to approach
Consider the appropriate geographic footprint
Consider the size of your list and allocate a budget

My recommendation would be to approach a list broker, who can research a number of optional lists and buy up to 2000 contacts, no more. Another important factor is to ensure that the data is GDPR compliant.

Buying a data list would mean that you can tick many boxes around obtaining specific data. However, I would recommend that you consider doing some further research of your list to make your marketing campaign more successful. Here are a few things to consider:

Connecting with all senior contacts on your list through LinkedIn. This will allow you to start a relationship and find out more about their current needs.
Finding additional contacts who may be involved in making the buying decision. Sending communications to a variety of contacts within an organisation, particularly a large one, increases your chances of getting a response.
Review the companies’ websites to identify additional key information such as new products, new projects, new recruitment drives, new senior appointments etc.

You will be absolutely right to say that doing this kind of research in large volumes is very time consuming. This is why I recommend that you buy a smaller list or prioritise specific companies within it to make the project more manageable. Another option is to outsource the data research to a third party.

Happy to speak in person about your data options. Click here to find out more about how we can help make your data better.

How many cold calls have you had this week?

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In Barking Up the Wrong Tree, an excellent book about success, Eric Barker mentions some interesting research into insurance sales. The project concluded that sales people could actually be hired on their level of optimism alone. Apparently, agents who scored in the top 10% of optimism, sold 88% more than the most pessimistic tenth.

Reading this made me think about telesales consultants and how their job must require the biggest reserves of optimism compared with any other sales job. Considering what I sometimes say to some of them when they ask me yet again if I want to sell my business…. You must be very resilient, optimistic or desperate to be able to pick up the phone and do it all again.

Thinking back to that piece of research, I wonder if optimistic telesales consultants sell 88% more than their cynical colleagues. Moreover, considering the negativity that surrounds telephone sales I wonder if they sell anything at all. I don’t mean to be rude to telesales consultants, some of whom are very good at their job. At Your Business Development Team, we use telemarketing as an important tool in our operation. I also spend a lot of time talking to clients about the importance of picking up the phone and not hiding behind their computer screens.

What is the problem then you might ask, and what is the difference between telesales and telemarketing anyway? The best way to explain It, is to liken it to the difference between cold calling and warm calling. I believe cold calling is just another way to try and achieve a quick sale through cutting corners. It is often connected with a poor strategy and hasty action to try and pull quick results; now I am all for results and quick ones where possible but if you are looking for real results they often take time to achieve.

Consider your buying preferences; would you rather:

Get some relevant information first, allowing you to engage with the company and consider its product then get a phone call following up to get your feedback and build a better picture of your needs?
Have someone call you out of the blue asking you how you are today or telling you they are just conducting a survey…

No strategy is perfect or offers guaranteed results but I know which one I would prefer to be the receiver of.

As a business owner, a marketing manager or a sales director, it is important to consider this, particularly in the light of GDPR which is bound to bring about a surge in cold calling. I would hesitate a guess that many companies who used to spam you with loads of sales e-mails because it was easy will migrate to cold calls instead. So, even if it sounds really tempting, don’t go down this route, consider your target markets and how to contact them appropriately. Take the time to build an intelligent lead generation strategy and you will get real results much quicker.

As always, I will be happy to discuss your requirements in person. Click here for more information on setting up a telemarketing operation.

Why you should not ‘go gentle into that good night’?

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Just before Christmas, we went on a family weekend to Kidwelly in South Wales. One of our day trips was to Laugharne which, you might know, is where Dylan Thomas lived for many years. When visiting his house, I came across a quote which I found so compelling, I hung it in my office and made it my new year’s resolution. The quote is: ‘Do not go gentle into that good night, rage, rage against the dying of the light’.

For many reasons, I had a very challenging year in 2017. You might think it’s odd but I am looking forward to another challenging year in 2018. I believe that we do our main development and growth in the face of challenge. This is why I have found this quote so compelling.

So, how does it connect to my work and what I do for my customers? Having run my business for three years now, I am getting better at establishing who I like to work with. I think this is a really key stage in my journey as a business owner which has had a big effect on business retention and stability. For me, the key is in my clients’ confidence in their own product and belief in their own success. If you believe in your product, you know people will be interested in it and so you are prepared to go on a journey when establishing new markets. If you don’t believe in your product, you need constant reassuring and therefore find rejection very hard. This is a problem if you are developing new business as rejection is part and parcel of it.

One thing about choosing your customers is that you need to ensure you have enough options. I specifically refer to the SME owner’s tendency to only go out hunting when the drought has reached the door. So many of us would rather deal with customers who beat us down on price and give us no commitment, rather than go and get some new ones. If you want my top recommendation for 2018, build a lead generation system and ensure that you are constantly looking for new clients and developing more products and markets. Put a stop to the feast and famine approach this year and have a great 2018.

If you are not sure where to start, here are a few things we can do to help.

Main marketing trends small businesses should consider in 2018

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This time of year, the whole world and his wife are talking about future trends so I thought I should jump on the bandwagon too. I have spent a few hours wading through tons of articles and have created a list of my favourite trends from top influencers. To make sure it is useful, I have added a little translation relating the trend to small businesses. I hope you find it useful

Forbes: Place your brand purpose at the heart of your business strategy. Every brand makes a promise. But in a marketplace in which consumer confidence is low and budgetary vigilance is high, it’s not just making a promise that separates one brand from another, but having a defined purpose. This is where an organization identifies an aspirational mission and ties it to its day to day offerings. This unifying theme creates experiences which are centred around making tomorrow better than today. Successful marketers in the year ahead will place brand purpose at the core of business and brand strategy and use it as a lever of growth with internal and external audiences.

What does this mean to small business: The idea of appearing helpful to clients and prospects will continue to be important to your marketing strategy. Brand purpose takes it a bit further and suggests that you relate your communications to your core business values. In other words, don’t just come up with a load of vague useful guides but make sure it is all connected to an overall theme related to how you specifically solve problems in your market place.

Marketing week: With GDPR coming into effect next May, marketers must get to grips with their data to ensure they are fully compliant. Marketers will need to take a direct interest in the makeup of their databases and what GDPR allows to be done with them, and then train their teams. This should hopefully be aided by clearer guidance from the ICO in the coming months, though that has been promised throughout 2017 and so far, little has materialised.

What does this mean to small business: Whilst we are awaiting some firmer guidelines from the ICO, make sure that you review your data and data policy, to ensure that you comply with basic requirements. As many SME’s don’t have the knowledge or resources themselves, don’t hide behind it, get some help.

Neil Patel: Changing formats mean content roles are shifting: In recent years, there’s been a consistent shift away from content churning. The brands experiencing the most success with content marketing aren’t just flooding their audience with content, they’re taking a media publishing approach. Blogging by itself doesn’t tie into all the pertinent marketing strategies of growing companies, and it doesn’t address the issue of new formats for consumption. The content team will need to grow and adapt for the next year and should include people who have a variety of talents including video production, audio editing as well as content optimisation and analytics.

What does it mean to small businesses: I am afraid it means that creating content is going to become more complicated and cost more money. The problem is that even in a B2B environment content has become very important and you need to work at it. In my opinion, you don’t have to go the full hog as before; content needs to be a part of your strategy ensuring it’s considered and budgeted for.

Circle C Studio: `Account-based marketing and sales strategies: This is a strategic approach to business marketing based on account awareness in which an organization considers and communicates with individual prospect or customer accounts as markets of one. ABM has been a hot topic in B2B marketing for the past few years and it picked up a lot of steam in 2017. For B2B firms with long, complex sales cycles that often involve many stakeholders and transactions that are typically high-value in nature, ABM represents a more effective way to generate new business than solely relying on “inbound” approaches to lead generation.

What does it mean to small businesses: This one is music to my ears and something that we have been working on a lot in 2017. Many small businesses seem to approach small and big companies in a similar manner. This often means that when approaching a larger business, they tend to stop at one senior contact rather than researching and finding multiple decision makers. You can also see this as confirmation that you need to deploy a number of tactics to make a campaign strategy work.

HuffPost: Growth Hacking: Also known as growth driven tactics, these are marketing processes specifically targeted for increasing growth in revenue. SEO is the still one of the best growth hacking strategies simply because you are getting more traction from people who are already inquiring about your product or service. As technology evolves to allow additional search options, you have to adjust your strategy to meet your audience where they are looking for you.

What does this mean to small business: In 2018 the need for outbound marketing will continue to grow. With customers everywhere having less money to spend, the race to their wallet will require you to come out of your comfort zone and go after your target markets. HuffPost mention SEO but of course there are many other tactics you can use for Growth Hacking including e-mail marketing, direct mail, LinkedIn and telemarketing.

Some interesting ideas there I am sure you agree. Not very much of the thinking is new but I think that it supports the notion that difficult market conditions require a tighter strategy. Here is how we can help in case you were wondering.

Have a great Christmas and a successful 2018!

Why is lead nurturing not really a sales job?

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If you have read any of my Blogs lately, you will have seen that I am very interested in buying and selling styles. I have also written quite a lot about follow up and why you, or your sales team, should not have the sole responsibility for it.

Working with customers to supply them with new business leads has made me realise how important timely follow up is. That’s still the case but recently I have come to understand the kind of follow up required in order to benefit from new business leads and I thought it would be good to share this with you.

Firstly, it’s important to understand the difference between outbound and inbound marketing:

Inbound Marketing: This term is used to describe the tools you create to help people approach your business when they are interested in your product and service. These tools include your website, referral marketing, content marketing and so on.

Outbound marketing: This term is used to describe pre-meditated activities you undertake to approach your target markets directly. These activities include tactics such as e-mail marketing, advertising and telemarketing.

Many established businesses I come across, survive almost entirely on inbound marketing and particularly referrals. This is a phenomenon I have written about before and would advise against. This Blog, however, is interested specifically in growing SMEs who utilise outbound marketing activities through their sales and business development arm. Not surprisingly, these companies generate many leads and then become a victim of their own success, struggling to keep following up with all of them.

When this happens, the business is effectively throwing away much of the budget and effort they put into their lead generation. Their problem is no longer of generating numbers but of converting them at a high enough percentage. This problem arises from two main areas:

Growing businesses are very busy and as a result, non-urgent but essential activities, such as lead nurturing and systematic follow up, get put to one side.
Follow up is normally an activity assigned to the sales team. However effective follow up requires listening skills and patience which is not at the forefront of every sales person’s mind.

What is the problem then?

When you are conducting a lot of lead generation activities, you will find opportunities before they find you. This means that you often speak to interested parties when they are very early on in their buying cycle and have not made up their mind on what they want and from whom. This means you will need to conduct quite a number of conversations before you are in a position to make the sale. Hence why persistent, polite and long-term follow up communication is so key.

So, what can you do? ·

Reduce your lead generation efforts·
Nag your sales people to follow up more·
Recruit a telemarketing assistant ·
Outsource your follow up requirement

Here is what we do:

Lead generation is key to continuous growth but your sales people’s time is better used developing hot sales opportunities. The reality is that effective follow up takes some experience, which means that outsourcing can provide a good solution for the following reasons:

You get access to considerable experience and skills
The activity must generate results to be continued
The contractual commitment required is considerably reduced

Click here to read more about our lead nurturing solution and get in touch if you would like to discuss this further.

Your sales team is so busy-what are they all doing?

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The sales trainer Grant Cardone says that to be successful in sales, you have to stick to the following steps:

Show up early
Stay late
Have 10 deals working for every deal you want
Spend zero time crying about how unfair the world is

I think this makes the job sound very busy and not much fun but I agree with the essence of it: done well, a sales job is a busy job that requires a lot of resilience, organisational skills and focus.

This is all very well but from your perspective, as a business owner or sales manager, it makes it very hard to keep track of what your sales people are actually doing. Taking into account ever growing sales targets, this situation can quickly become a real issue. This feeling of lack of control is a typical one and there are a few key contributors to it:

A sales job requires many interactions such as networking, seminars and customer meetings so sales people are often out of the office
Sales are ultimately measured by success. This gives some sales people the impression that they are able to do what they want as long as they deliver results
You often manage your sales team through KPIs but these are activity based, which is only a part of the picture
Sales data is summarised in pipelines but, as a manager, you have little knowledge of each deal other than what your sales people tell you

Solving this issue is not easy and often this escalating situation ends up in employment termination, which is both disruptive and expensive. So, what can you do to tackle this in a productive way?

Trust is really important. Most sales people, especially good ones, don’t like or need excessive control. If you are not able to create trust with your sales person it probably means that you should not employ them. Before you rush to conclusions, try and ask yourself whose problem it actually is, yours or theirs?
Make sure the team is clear on your vision for success. By that, I don’t just mean that you define and communicate it. Make sure they buy into it themselves and you are all clear on how you go about achieving it. The last thing you want are people paying lip service and then saying stuff like ‘Pie in the sky’ behind your back.
Set KPIs that cover the culture as well as activities. This means that the team is clear on how they are expected to behave as well as the activities they need to complete. A good way to have everyone comply is to ask the team to set the indicators themselves. Then they cannot blame you when they underperform.
Don’t depend solely on your team for information. This does not mean you don’t trust them, just that you understand that they sometimes get too close to a deal to admit it’s dead. Call prospects and customers yourself and go to joint meetings
Support and nurture your sales people. Let’s face it, you need them to grow the business. Most sales people work hard and want to do well so your support will make a difference to the bottom line. Note that your support and nurturing should come as a part of your management process and not instead of it.

One of the key ways to support your sales team and focus them is to take away some of their essential but non-urgent workload. An example of this is lead nurturing, which can take some time and patience and is better handled by specialist staff. If you lack resources, we offer an outsource service covering lead nurturing. You can read more about it here.

Get in touch if you want to speak further and share any helpful experience you have had with your sales people.

What are the key buying patterns and why are they key for sales success?

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In the world of sales and business development, people are always judged by their sales success. Their job longevity depends on developing an ever-growing pipeline with a high percentage of deals closed quickly. This has been my world for much of my professional career and whilst I got some great training along the way there was a key thing they all seemed to miss. I recently came across some research undertaken by Disc which basically states that only 35% of the population are likely to make a buying decision quickly. The remaining 65% like to take their time, which could be anything from days to months depending on the product.

This means two important things to a Sales Director who wants his team to succeed:

Identifying early adopters is key to getting some sales in quickly and keeping senior management happy.
Keeping in contact with the rest of the medium to late adopters through structured follow-up is as important.

So, how to go about doing this? Read up on buying styles. As always, there are a quite a few theories and numbers. I like the Disc approach, which identifies four styles:

The Decisive: These buyers have a clear picture in their mind of what results they want. They are more often interested in “winning” or “promoting their own agenda” so they like to buy when they feel they have “gotten their way,” so to speak. They are attentive to actions or communication that will speed up those results. Discussions about details and minutiae are distracting to these individuals. They prefer to discuss top-line, big-picture concepts when considering the value of any offer.
The Interactive: These buyers want to shape events and enjoy “getting their way” when it comes to negotiations or buying something. They are interested in people and like to interact with others. They are most receptive to making a buying decision when they feel a sense of connection with the person, are in a more social environment and have had the opportunity to express their emotions about the offering first. This person is also particularly inattentive to details, preferring to stick to the big-picture and emotional benefits of the solution.
The Stabilizer. These buyers are more passive and introverted and interested in the how and why of a solution. Their primary interests are in maintaining stability within themselves and whatever situation they find themselves in. Messages that don’t address the specifics, or that champion radical change, are likely to alienate rather than resonate. They prefer to “take their time” more than any other dimension so any offering should give them plenty of time to decide.
The Conscientious: These buyers are also more passive and introverted. They too take a much more detailed and accuracy-based approach to their buying habits. Without sufficient data to prove any statements made to them, you will fail to achieve their buy-in. They are therefore receptive to offerings that provide proof that the solution works and proposals that are meticulously detailed.

The next thing to do is to make sure that you are able to identify the type of buyer hiding in new leads coming in as quickly as possible. This will allow you to ensure that they are approached correctly for the best outcome.

Your sales team should be hot on the heels of early adopters whilst the medium to slow adopters should be followed up appropriately. This sometimes means taking it away from your eager and impatient sales people. Often, everyone in your business is very busy and as a result non-urgent, but essential, activities such as lead nurturing and systematic follow up, get put to one side.

We have recently developed a lead nurturing solution to support this situation. Click here to read more.

What’s more important, new leads or conversion and what does it have to do with colourful plasters?

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I am sure it will not surprise many if I said that both were as important because one will not work without the other. So far so good, but here are a few questions for you:

Why do most companies invest more time and money in new lead generation and much less in improving their conversion rate?
How come every time you increase your lead numbers your conversion rate actually goes down?
Why should you consider it?

It will be interesting to hear your thoughts on this but as it’s my Blog, I’d better give you my take on things:

Why do we seem to value new leads over conversion?

Simply put, because it’s easier to measure and influence. It’s not that anyone is particularly stupid but we are all very busy. So, when it comes to lead generation, as it’s a simple number, you can easily work out how many you are getting from each channel, job done. In addition, new lead numbers tend to increase if you throw time and money at them so again, job done.

Improving conversion is much less obvious, which is why we often don’t get around to doing it. To make a difference, you need to work out all or a few of the following:

Your target markets
Their problem
The best solution for it
Your sales process
Your follow up system

Why does improving lead numbers, negatively affect your conversion rate?

I am sure you worked this one out yourself. As your conversion rate is a percentage based on the number of new leads, if that number increases but your conversion stays the same, it will be a smaller percentage overall. This is particularly true If you have a problem converting new leads.

Why is this important?

Getting these two numbers right, is the key to the success of any lead generation strategy. There is little point in generating leads if you cannot convert them. Many companies I come across are looking for smart solutions to generating new leads and in the process, get carried away with some shiny new methods. From my perspective, it seems like many are looking for colourful plasters to patch up the real cracks. Unfortunately, this can often result in wasted budgets.

What can you do about it?

Here are a few suggestions:

Review your strategy
Work out your actual conversion rate
Set monthly targets
Improve your follow up system
Put aside time and resources for lead nurturing

Who is affected most?

This is a universal problem but if you are a growing business and employ a sales team, this topic is absolutely key to nail. Often, everyone in your business is very busy and as a result non-urgent, but essential, activities such as lead nurturing and systematic follow up, get put to one side. This means that the money you spend on lead generation is often wasted.

We have recently developed a lead nurturing solution to support this situation. Click here to read more.