Let's stop doing random acts of lead generation

I don’t know about you but I seldom meet a B2B marketer who has time to think. And it seems that the pressure keeps building as more of us seek to do more with less.

That said, it’s vital for us to think before we execute. It’s not about doing more campaign activity… it’s about doing the right things repeatedly better.

The simple act of a sales and marketing team finding time to think and collaborate together is vital to developing a solid lead generation program. Our results will improve because we're following this approach: ready, aim, aim, aim, and then fire. 

Mike Gospe wrote a great piece for MarketingProfs, "Lead-Generation Blueprints in 30 Minutes." I like the article because it shows how one marketer took time (just 30 minutes) to think out a problem with his sales team and develop a game plan before they executed. The ROI results of this approach are truly remarkable.

My sales and marketing meets together weekly via "huddles" it really helps them get the same page and collaborate. It's amazing what can be accomplished in just 30 minutes.

Here’s a list of 35 other ways that Marketing and Sales can collaborate together.

Comments

[Troy Bingham]

Great article. Our sales and marketing team have just undergone the development of an educational marketing initiative in which we will work together to get better quality leads in the doors. Will keep you posted on the success but we have high hopes.

[Janet Johnson]

Brian,

Your "ready, aim, aim, aim, and then fire" approach is indicative of your knowledge of marketing and the marketing process.

We're starting to find that many digital "marketers" are not as well-versed in the art of marketing as they could be.

One of my clients, WebTrends, is so concerned about the state of marketing awareness among their target audience (the selfsame digital marketers) that their CMO, Kathleen Brush (herself a marketing turnaround executive) is writing and thinking and sharing her thoughts (seminar series here:(http://tinyurl.com/4uxpot) on upgrading the skills of those we're trusting with lead generation activities more and more...

Re: "Huddles" - brilliant. It's the people that make the programs work - the technology is dumb and blind (and very efficient regardless) without them.