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.

After investing in inbound marketing, you’ll want to start doing lead generation and make that investment pay off. There are a lot of moving pieces to do lead generation the right way, and this post is meant to be a primer for those firms looking to pump up their game or those new to inbound marketing.

Lead generation is a necessary function for any business that needs to grow. So in today’s world, that’s essentially every business. And the reality is there are a ton of opinions surrounding the different strategies and options for lead generation. You can utilize intrusive strategies and buy a list of e-mails, phone numbers, or addresses that “seem” to fit your ideal customer profile. You can go door-to-door and personally solicit the customers you want to call on. You can spend lots of money on mass marketing tactics and “push” the benefits of your company hoping to “pull” prospects in. OR you can position yourself as a thought leader and expert in your industry, engage in active discussions and have folks calling your sales reps directly for help! Inbound marketing is one of the best and most cost effective ways to generate qualified leads. 

In order to meet your revenue targets, you'll need to know how many leads you need to get there. This infographic will help you do the math.

First, determine your annual revenue target and divide it by your average sale, in order to discover the number of wins you need. Then work from the bottom up to learn how many top-of-the-funnel leads you need.

A recent study by Google shows that 89% of B2B buyers use the Internet during the research process. Whether you get a call from these prospects or whether your competition does instead will depend on how well your website does its job. Here are six elements you can add to your site to generate more leads.

If you are in sales, then chances are you are focused to some degree on your closing rate. Don’t get me wrong, looking at the closing rate is certainly something that you want to pay attention to. But it's not the most important metric like it once was a couple of decades ago. The buying process is no longer as simple as it used to be. Now the sales cycle is longer, and it involves more moving parts. In 2016, you need to spend more time marketing your services and getting more qualified leads. At the same time, you need to engage in pipeline marketing techniques to pull your prospects through your sales funnel. Allow me to make my case. 

Wouldn't it be fantastic if you had a steady stream of leads coming into your sales department? Wouldn't it be even better if this steady stream were filled with qualified sales leads? This is possible, and it's often achieved by businesses actively working a lead generation strategy that includes both inbound marketing and thought leadership marketing.  

It's almost summer, when everything slows downs just a bit. Kids out of school, family vacations, and most of us looking for opportunities to enjoy the summer weather. Unfortunately, just like the summer sun can dry up even the greenest lawns, our sales pipelines can be reduced to a trickle if we don’t remain disciplined with our lead generation efforts. Below are some lead generation ideas that can ensure that your summer fun doesn’t turn into a winter misery of missed revenue targets. 

You say you’re serious about building a lead-generation program using content (inbound) marketing. But are you?

Here are a dozen ways we tell the difference between the pros and the poseurs, between those who are deadly serious and those who just playing at it.

Lead Generation

Serious: Making a full commitment by establishing lead-gen as a priority, building out a complete plan, allocating resources (most especially, the human resources), setting goals, and measuring outcomes. 

Unserious: Dipping your big toe into lead-gen to see if it will work for you. No quasi-effort will deliver, but a commitment will.