Have you been churning out quality content for years for your business and industry? Does traffic to your blog still come from old posts? Are ebooks published three years ago still converting? You're not alone.

Marketing is notorious for its jargon. And while the terminology itself isn’t necessarily what's important, what you do need to know is how these strategies and tactics can help you. In this post, we’ll explore inbound marketing and lead generation, and what each can do for you.

I spoke with a business owner recently about their revenue growth objectives. They were frustrated because the first half of the year didn’t go as planned, and their new business revenue numbers were lagging behind the goals they set at the beginning of the year. They were very optimistic, however, that the second half of the year would be different. They were confident they would eventually exceed all their growth goals.

When I asked what they were basing this optimism on, they went on to tell me that they had just hired a new salesperson. And this was not just any salesperson. This was someone with deep connections in their industry and a network of relationships that could get them in front of the decision-makers at some of their most attractive target accounts. In fact, this salesperson was even bringing a few deals with them that they expected to close very shortly. They had hired a rainmaker.       

I hope it works out for them.

Without a doubt, one of the very first steps I do when I'm onboarding a new client is ask them what their content inventory is. This inventory acts as an audit of any possible thought leadership that they might have already produced, whether it is printed or a digital version. 

I’ve recently learned that nothing makes a room fall silent more quickly than asking a group of sales managers, “Who here is in charge of lead generation?” Typically, the person in charge of lead generation is the same person who is in charge of setting appointments, finding needs, coming up with solutions, building proposals, making presentations, getting the contracts signed, ensuring that the contracts are fulfilled, and picking up the checks: the salesperson. 

It’s no secret that attracting prospects, generating sales leads, and building a robust sales pipeline are essential in the success of any business. What seems to be a secret to many, though, is how these objectives can be accomplished. Many organizations continue to struggle to execute lead generation strategies that produce consistent results. There is really no magic bullet to lead generation. But there are some fundamentals that are often ignored that will get consistent results when applied as a cohesive strategy.

Investing in Generating Leads and Closing Sales

In Part 1 of this series on budgeting for marketing and sales, I discussed 7 different building blocks – pieces of infrastructure if you will – that are fundamental for a growth strategy. In this post, I’ll be discussing where and how to use those expenditures to achieve your growth goals.

Recently I was talking to a general manager of a radio station who has been following this blog for some time now. For this article, I'll refer to him as Bob. Bob reached out to me because one of his general sales managers who also reads this blog had been telling him that they need to invest in an inbound marketing strategy.

Bob had some interest but he was not convinced he really needed to do inbound marketing. To Bob, inbound marketing just seemed like a way to let salespeople off the hook and not have to do their own prospecting. (This idea could not be more wrong—but more on that in a minute). In addition to the lack of prospecting, Bob looked at inbound marketing as an expense that did not have any sort of ROI, at least in the short run. So, with all that said, Bob asked me if I could convince him that he should do inbound marketing.

Sales superpowers? Yes, really. To understand what I mean, please take a step back from the world of selling and focus instead on the process of buying.

The easiest way to wrap your mind around this is to consider a few common business-to-consumer (B2C) purchasing processes like buying a car, remodeling a kitchen, or selecting a college. Looking through that lens, it is easy to see how different the process of buying is today than it was only 10 years ago. I’m sure you would agree that the most notable difference is the amount of time the consumer spends researching in advance.