Lead Gen – Asking The Right Questions

In a perfect world, our marketing and sales efforts would produce our desired revenue growth. But as many small and mid-sized businesses know, the challenge is not just deciding on the right lead generation activities to drive enough qualified leads, but also to increase the productivity of your sales team, and to improve your visibility to your target audience.

Like many business owners, you might understand the need to make changes to your marketing and sales processes, but aren’t quite sure what needs to be fixed or how to fix it. You want increased sales and increased brand exposure – but how do you get there, and where do you start?

The answer to fixing your sales processes lies in asking yourself the right questions.  “Leave no stone unturned,” as it is said, because the more you ask, the more you answer, and the better your business becomes.

As the owner of a marketing agency, with almost 20 years of marketing experience focusing on small and mid-sized businesses, I’d like to share with you a few questions that you should consider, in order to generate the right leads, increase your productivity and improve your visibility, to help get you to where you want to be. The questions do not have simple answers, and will require some time and consultation with your sales and marketing team.

If you need some more clarification on any of these questions, or help in deciding what to do with your answers, consult with a marketing agency you trust to find more specific advice on how to generate your desired results.

1. What market segments do you target, and why (e.g. Small businesses)?
2. Which specific businesses do you tend to approach (e.g. bakeries, daycares)?
3. How much do you know about them? (What is important to them?)
4. Who are your competitors, and how well do you know them?
5. How do you fare compared to your competition? (Do they have more staff? How do your prices compare? Do you serve different regions? etc.)
6. How are your current lead generation tactics performing?
7. How can your current lead generation tactics be improved?
8. How effective is the current sales process in educating prospective clients, and optimizing close rates?
9. What marketing and sales tools are currently in place, and how can they be improved?
10. Are there additional marketing and sales tools that should be developed?
11. Is the required marketing and sales technology in place to support the lead generation, sales and post sales activities?
12. What are the technologies that should be put into place?

Can you see how asking yourself these questions might help your business to strategize more efficiently? Are there any questions that you didn’t understand – or are there any questions that you ask yourself, when strategizing a new lead gen, that you think ought to have been included in this list? Please let me know in the comments below.

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