The Top 5 Challenges Companies are Trying to Solve with Inbound Marketing

Over the past five and half years, LeadG2 has worked with over 100 companies to learn about their top sales and marketing challenges. While not every company has identical challenges, there are certain challenges that seem to be a constant theme. Some of these challenges deal with basic marketing needs such as better marketing and branding and developing an online presence, while others are challenged by not having a sales funnel full of new leads.   

We recently analyzed the responses to our Sales and Marketing Discovery Questionnaire, which we give to each client before we start working with them. Here's what we learned about the top five challenges that companies say they're facing in today's business environment.

What is the main problem you’re trying to solve with Inbound marketing?

1. We need more leads for our salespeople. (78% of responses)
2. We need to better market our company and brand. (67% of responses)
3. We need a system for nurturing leads. (61% of responses)
4. We need to strengthen our online presence. (61% of responses)
5. We need a new stream of revenue / more revenue. (57% of responses)
   

Now that we have each of these main challenges out in the open, we can take a closer look at each of these challenges and provide some guidance on how to remedy each one.

We Need More Leads for Our Salespeople

This is the most common challenge that we see with companies considering engaging with LeadG2 for consulting. For most companies, it’s a pretty simple formula for generating revenue, and it all begins with having more quality leads. The more leads that the sales team has to work, the greater the revenue potential. Note that in our survey we didn’t delineate between "quality leads" and "more leads."  If you are a Sales Manager or have been in sales long enough, you already know that salespeople want more “qualified leads,” leads that they can close rather than just more leads. If getting more leads for your sales team is a challenge, it might be time to consider developing a lead generation strategy that can help remedy your situation.

We Need to Better Market Our Company and Brand

While generating more leads was the number one challenge that companies voiced, doing a better job marketing their company or brand was a close second. Our survey indicated that over 50% of our respondents didn’t have a website that was dedicated to providing prospects with what they were looking for. Many companies today aren't sure how to reach their prospects and engage their interest, beyond what their salespeople are doing.

We Need a System for Nurturing Leads

For many companies, generating enough leads is not the main problem they are facing. Many high performing companies are generating a lot of leads but their conversion rates are extremely low because they don’t have the proper resources or knowledge to set up a system for nurturing leads. Lead nurturing can be extremely beneficial for companies that have a long sales process and a lot of information gathering takes place before a purchase decision is made.

We Need to Strengthen Our Online Presence

According to our research gathered from our sales and marketing questionnaire, over 50% of companies responded that they don’t have a website dedicated to providing prospects with what they're looking for. Not having a website or having a website that badly needs to be updated can make it difficult to represent your company to prospects as a leader in your industry and one that is cutting edge. One of the first things a prospect does is to visit a company’s website. If it’s not informative, or a good portrayal of the brand, most prospects will move onto the next competitor.  

We Need a New Stream of Revenue / More Revenue

More than half (57%) of the respondents stated that new streams or more revenue was a challenge for them. For most, if not all companies, the more leads you have, the more sales you have in that period. So the key to generating new streams of revenue ties back to the challenge of needing more leads.  

The good news for those seeking to use inbound marketing to solve these five biggest challenges is that inbound can help a company do each of these things, and more.