Our last post was about building that foundation to get you ready for creating a marketing plan so you can start generating qualified leads. This post today is sort of the second layer. It’s the next step in terms of moving forward with generating leads. So if you haven’t already read the previous post, please check it out here.
We’re going to look at the following questions that’ll move you in the right direction. Let’s get started.
1. What makes you different than the competition? Specifically, I’m talking about in a marketing sense. Are you faster to deliver? Do you have the most amazing product in the marketplace? Do people get overwhelmed (in a positive way) by the amount of customer service you provide? What truly makes you stand out from the competition? List one to five things that make you different.
2. As you think on the previous point, try to hone in on one differentiation you can exploit in the marketplace. By that, I mean something you can market like crazy because it is so much better than the competition. It has to be difficult for them to copy you. What is your 10x advantage? What is the one differentiation that makes you the best, and how can you maximize it?
3. Analyze what has worked in the past and what hasn’t. Look at your last twelve months in terms of marketing. Analyze, test, and measure your results. Review all the lead generation sources that you’ve used. What are the top eight ways with which you generated leads last year? What were the specific marketing vehicles?
For example, was business networking one of your top eight? Referral marketing? Direct mailout? The internet? Perhaps social media? Think through where you created your top leads.
4. Look at how much you invested into each marketing activity. This is super important, so don’t skim through it. First, what was the hard, monetary cost for each lead generation method, if any? And next (which is actually even more important), how much time did you invest?
For example, let’s say you were in a networking group that costs $500 a year. Should you use $500 as your full expense for this lead generation method? No way! What about all the time you spent at the meetings? Make sure you know how many hours you put into them and understand exactly how much your time is worth. So if your time is worth $100/hour, factor that in. Say you put 50 hours into this networking group. That means in total you’ve invested $5,000 worth of time on top of the $500 hard cost. Then the total cost for creating qualified leads through this particular group is actually $5,500. Know that, and you’ll get a true representation of what your ROI is for each lead generation method. Not looking at time as a cost is one of the biggest mistakes people make.
So keep those four points about lead generation in mind, and stay tuned for the next post that’s going to bring it all home. Have a better than amazing day.
