Turnarounds Start with Lead Gen and Lead Management

     

 A Turnaround Must Start with Increased Lead Gen & Precise Lead Management

As the cartoon suggests, there is a lot more to a turnaround than just turning the chart around. Most often when a turnaround is in process, offices are closed, people are terminated, expenses are

chopped, and at the same time there is an emphasis on new sales. Aside from the profit-robbing ‘special offers’ intended to boost sales, the smart CEOs (usually those with a marketing background) carve out money to aggressively pursue the marketplace by creating outsized demand.  By ‘outsized demand’ I’m talking tornado-type demand that creates double to triple the lead count obtained before said turnaround was launched.  You can’t save your way out of a down-turn.

There is an adage: "To increase sales, increases sales activities."  I change that to: "To increase sales, increase marketing activities.”  

Why it Matters:

To increase sales, increase marketing activities.

It is my belief that, dollar for dollar, an increase in marketing (lead gen) activities will bring more results faster than firing the sales manager, turning over the sales ranks, training reps on sales skills, reducing travel, increasing travel, cancelling marketing activities (odd thing to do in a crisis), firing the marketing manager, or firing the CEO.

By increasing demand (leads), you’ll increase sales activities.  Double the lead count-- double the opportunities. Double the opportunities--double the pipeline.  Double the pipeline and see sales increase smoothly upward month by month, as long as you increase demand. The rule to save a company is cut expenses and increase demand.

Of course, it helps if you have a precise, process driven (not a cookie cutter) lead management system in place to handle the demand increase, distribute leads faster, filter out the tire kickers, and nurture the real potential buyers.

Pretty simple formula don’t you think?  And it works.  

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This cartoon has been created by Stu Heinecke of CartoonLink.    Its sponsor is HubSpot.