This is part of a series of seven posts. The first can be found here.

---

#4. focusing on branding, not lead generation:

---

The dot.com boom (and bust) happened in the early stage of my career. In the late 90s, I spent a lot of time in the San Francisco Bay area. Back then, there were a lot of companies that raised a lot of money to kick off their Internet startups. I remember attending a lot of launch parties during my visits. They were excessive, booze-filled events that were meant to grab the attention of the media.

During one event, I remember chatting with the company’s marketing director who earned an MBA from a well-regarded school. He told me that his startup spent $250,000 on the event that evening — my Midwestern jaw dropped. He grimaced at my reaction, and said that generating buzz and brand recognition was the new way of doing business. I took his business card, as I had done at all of these events, smiled and left.

Today, not a single one of those companies whose business cards I collected are still in business. While many of these US marketers had learned this lesson in the late 90s, I still see many exporters making this mistakes today.

While great brand recognition often helps the sales efforts, it far from guarantees them.

For many emerging B2B tech firms, great branding is a byproduct of successful sales efforts. And to get sales, you need prospects. And to get prospects, you need effective lead generation efforts.

Developing a great lead generation program doesn’t take millions of dollars or flashy presentations and brochures. It takes common sense and focus:

• Make sure your basic marketing materials — whether they’re brochures, presentations, white papers or even websites — all have a strong “call-to-action.”
• Make sure they are written to the industry that you’re targeting.
• If you just starting out, make sure that your prospect list is well under a thousand well-targeted contacts — 400 to 500 is ideal.
• Messaging is more important than method — you don’t need a Facebook page if you focus on creating a dialogue with your prospects.
• Focus on a higher frequency of “touches” instead of flashiness — which is expensive and guaranteed to have minimal return on investment.
• And don’t forget inside sales support — especially if you’re working with distributors and manufacturing reps — despite what they tell you, they won’t do follow up calls.

And if you still think that you need brand recognition to break into your target market, reach out to the media, industry analysts, and other thought leaders. For they will have a greater impact on your bottom line than any full-page ad

When you focus on generating great prospects one by one instead of your brand, name recognition will follow your sales growth.

Net Sin: Providing Poor Sales Channel Support