Managed Services: How to Pursue Sales Leads (Forever)

Sometimes, I get distracted by Web 2.0 marketing strategies. I’m always telling managed service providers how they can leverage blogs, Web video, etc., to improve their search engine optimization (SEO) and attract new customers.

I got a healthy reality check on August 13 during the Ingram Micro Seismic partner conference in Chicago. That’s where Gary Beechum, president and CEO of Intelligent Enterprise/MSP University, described some basic but effective approaches to marketing and generating sales leads.

Gary presented a simple spreadsheet approach to help you build and design a year-long lead generation campaign that includes email, direct mail, newsletters and other deliverables. He also provided a few simple formulas to help you measure the effectiveness — the ROI — of each campaign.  You should reach out to him for more info.

The biggest takeaway for me was rather simple. Gary mentioned that you should market to your audience forever. Every potential customer in your database should hear from you at least on a quarterly basis, Gary asserted. Those quarterly “touches” are prime opportunities to use direct mail promoting your latest product or service.

Some potential customers may not respond for months — or years. Regardless, market to them forever — but measure everything (response rates to specific promotions, qualified leads, meetings booked, sales closed) to generate your ROI measurements.