Keeping the pipeline full and opportunities moving through it has gotten increasily difficult for almost everybody. I talk wtih sales people and leaders all the time in industries as diverse as technology, marketing, professional services, advertising, financial, healthcare and more. They’re all pretty much saying the same thing. Chances are, these are the same things being said within your organization.

 

We may not be able to unilaterally market our hemisphere out of a lingering recession, but we can put some programs in place to begin developing and nurturing leads–today. Let’s explore two more of the five fastest wasy to generate leads. Read about the first two of the fastest ways to generate leads here. 

 

3. Speaking Gigs. Secure speaking engagements for your executives, technical people and other relevant and qualified experts. Large conferences and tradeshows will begin accepting abstracts for presenters at least nine months in advance. Not exactly a quick way to generate leads. But the sooner you start looking for these opportunities, the sooner you will have executives lined up. And stay plugged into good events so your executives can be reached out to for regional events that don’t take as long to plan. Remember, some people come to tradeshows to evaluate and buy.

 

In addition to major conferences, contact chambers of commerce, relevant associations and other business organizations to see about being added to their calendar for a more imminent event. There are a multitude of such organizations in most metropolitan areas in the United States. If the audience is a fit and includes some well qualified potentials, this can be a powerful initiative. If the topic and content are good, this builds and fosters credibility that will move your organization to the short list of service providers or vendors.  

 

4. White Papers. Do you have valuable, current white papers that fit with the strategic direction of your organization? Even if you don’t have finely polished papers, you probably do have components of good white papers circulating in your proposals, internal documents, client deliverables, etc. We know that nailing down your subject matter experts to develop white papers can be a challenge. But it’s worth it. White papers can be important for promoting to your marketing database, as well as to the rest of the prospect world. And if you use a white paper distribution service, you’ll build valuable credibility and leverage Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your key services and products.

 

Government decision makers and the corporate C-suite alike tell us all the time that they read resources that help them and their teams be more effective. Examples of such resources include content-rich newsletters, bylined/contributed articles, case studies, blogs, analyst reports, and white papers. For all of your content-driven materials, ask yourself: how does this help the decision maker do his or her job?

 

The credibility valuable content builds is paramount for companies selling professional services and products to the government. But remember, this initiative won’t be successful if materials are simply sent off blindly to an overflowing inbox of an unwitting recipient. Rather, these resources will serve as door busters for your business develop teams. And they will serve as incentives to use at different points in the sales cycle.

 

If you don’t have one already, create a library of powerful, valuable materials for your business development team.

 

Want to learn more about B2G marketing? Join me at The ASBC’s 5^th Anniversary Conference and Gala April 23, 2009 in Vienna, VA. I’ll be presenting on “11 Essential Steps for Marketing to Government.”

 

Read more about how the ASBC conference will help you do business with the government.

 

And now, for the first 3 tips for securing the perfect marketing agency for you:

 

1. Commitment to delivery. Agencies sometimes lack structure. Everyone you talk with is going to tell you they hit their clients’ deadlines. To get to the real issue, ask their references about their track record in hitting deadlines.

 

2. Seeing the big picture. Your account manager should have a firm grasp of your business objectives. The agency methodology should be more about helping you reach your goals than creating award-winning pieces. They must understand how and why you want to impact your audience.

 

3. What’s the ROI? The agency needs to be able to demonstrate return on projects like yours. If you’re looking at web marketing, what’s the agency done and how has it impacted their clients? If they’re trying to sell you on direct marketing, what’s their track record? How have they measured past success and how will they do it for you? A formal measurement methodology in plain English is a huge plus.

 

Check back soon for the rest of the ten tips for selecting the perfect marketing agency.

Companies dedicate valuable time and effort to creating white papers and other useful content. Anyone in marketing who has ever been involved in trying to coax a white paper out of engineers or demos out of technical people understands the complexity (and often frustration) of this initiative. If these items are done well and marketed effectively, however, they can yield valuable results.

 

Assuming your white papers are more than marketing fluff and your demos are of value to your audience, then you should make anyone who wants to download this data give to get. If the content will help your prospects’ get their jobs done better, then they need to tell you a tiny bit about themselves in order to benefit.

 

It’s a mistake not to require some fundamental data from these individuals. At a minimum, require their first and last name, company and email. Other data like title, department and company size (and more) can be optional. But don’t make the data entry screen daunting. If you do, people will simply bail out.

 

The question of competitors is often raised. If you want to protect technical information and fear you competitors will be the prime beneficiaries of this initiative, you can control who receives the material. You don’t have to auto send the materials to just anyone. You can always have an internal vetting process to determine if you want to provide the materials to the requester. If they provide a hotmail or yahoo mailing address, you can contact them requiring a valid company address.

 

As with any sales effort, you can and should control each stage of the game.  

 
What about pure marketing materials?

A final note on permission-based content is that it should be restricted to educational materials, not marketing brochures. Nor should case studies be permission-based. Don’t make people jump through hurdles for materials like these. That will only drive prospects away and irritate them. That’s the opposite of sales and marketing.