When a business can successfully and reliably generate leads then it makes the whole business run better. So how do we generate leads? The conventional wisdom today is to build a “lead magnet” on your website and then do a ton of outreach, advertising, and promotion to drive traffic to that “lead magnet” to build…
When we are looking to grow our business there are a lot of avenues we can pursue; better proposals, better presentations, sharpening our pricing, networking, advertising… But there’s only one thing that’s likely to consistently grow your business, and that’s more leads. The more people you talk to who are actually interested in buying your…
As the business owner, the job of business development for your creative agency has been yours—from the beginning. But the thing is, you don’t like it. Maybe you don’t feel good at it, or successful as a salesperson, or maybe it just feels icky. But none of that matters now, because there’s a solution. You’re…
“I’ve tried that, it didn’t work…” I was having a discussion with an owner of a B2B creative services firm about his business development process. He had a strong business that he’d built by leveraging his personal network, but he wanted to see more growth. This is a business owner who’s aggressive and isn’t afraid…
Cold is not usually a positive association. Cold coffee. Cold weather. Cold attitudes. Not many people will jump up and down with excitement when you’re describing something cold…unless it’s ice cream. The same goes for cold leads. They’re not the easiest to work with–and you need to find a way to warm them up while prospecting without…
“In the age of the Internet, caller ID, and email, how do we sell? How do we reach prospects in a way that will convince them to work with our firm? I don’t think we can just go bang on doors anymore, but I’m not sure what to do instead…” On the one hand, the…
As I write this, it’s the first day of summer in Chicago, and I’m thinking about taking some time off. But not the whole summer! There’s still work to be done, even though some of my clients, partners and prospects may be away or moving at a slower pace right now. The summer months always give…
Ten years ago, our goal was to have an “Internet presence.” Why? Just because. So we put up our drab-looking, copy-heavy, hard-to-find websites with a goal of being nothing more than “present.” And we were good with that. But today, just being”present” doesn’t cut it. The Internet has evolved and so has what we expect – or should expect…
One of the most common representations of the sales process is a funnel. We don’t expect all of the prospects that go into the top of this so-called funnel to turn into sales. In fact, a good sales process has a systematic way to determine early on which prospects will likely to convert into sales…
When you get new customers, do you know what happens to them? Are they thrown into a sea of impolite customer service representatives and employees? Are they getting the high-quality product or service you promised them? New sales are but a small part of a successful business. While new customers are important, actually critical, to every business, properly managing and…