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Archive for the ‘small business lead generation’ Category

New Legislation Spells Tougher Times Ahead for Some Small Businesses

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

If you’ve had a chance to take a peak at the cover of today’s Wall Street Journal, then you know that there are dramatic changes on the horizon for sole proprietors, small business owners, and independent professionals alike. It’s going to become increasingly important that small businesses stick together, generate small business leads, follow up on every sales lead and stick to referral marketing.

“The House bill, which also would impose new taxes on the wealthy estimated to bring in more than $544 billion over a decade… under the House measure, employers with payrolls exceeding $400,000 a year would have to provide health insurance or pay the 8% penalty. Employers with payrolls between $250,000 and $400,000 a year would pay a smaller penalty, and those less than $250,000 would be exempt.” -Janet Adamy, Wall Street Journal

Unless you’re an insurance agent, you may find this landmark legislation to be a serious blow to small businesses; either because you’re directly effected or now you’re

If big business and government can’t get it right why not dump that load onto small business, besides they like working right? Small businesses being under representation in Washington has always been a concern and in the last few months the situation has become even more serious.

Regardless of personal feelings toward any single piece of legislation, the overwhelming majority people agree that small business is not properly represented in the political arena.

Consider the results of this Harris Interactive poll back in February -

small-business-influence-in-dc

Question: Now a question about the power of different groups in influencing government policy, politicians, and policy makers in Washington. Do you think small business has too much or too little power and influence in Washington?
Source: Harris Poll
Date: Mar. 12, 2009
Results:

too much 5%
too little 90
about right 3
not sure/ refused 3

Field Date - Feb 10-15, 2009

Universe: Country: United States
Method: telephone
Sample Size: 1,010

The Single Most Important Competitive Advantage to Generate B2B Leads… You Already Have

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

The small business environment is extremely competitive. When professionals decide to go into business for themselves they are figuratively saying, “I can provide a great service, one that exceeds the current offering.”

This D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) attitude created some very talented service professionals along with some fierce competition.

Attracting qualified sales leads involves more than just you and your prospect… there’s also your competitors. Identifying the competitive advantage in your marketing strategy is the key to small business lead generation. You must ask yourself:

“What barrier-to-entry does my marketing strategy have?”

In the entrepreneurial world, a new idea is often valued based on a competitor’s ability to duplicate that idea. Small business marketing follows the same fundamental principle; especially when marketing online.

For example, any small business owner can post ads on Craigslist. This neutralizes some of the advantage of marketing through Craigslist.

Television advertising is a good example of exclusivity in marketing strategies. On TV, money and scarcity are the barriers; every television program presents a different level in the barrier. Would Nike advertise during the Super Bowl if anyone else could as well?

Every marketing strategy is different so you’ll need to ask yourself this simple question: “How easy is it for my competitors to duplicate this marketing strategy?” If there is no barrier-to-entry then you may want to reconsider.

The biggest barrier-to-entry of a marketing strategy

Your referral network is unique and it’s yours. Competitors may have access to theĀ  same advertising opportunities, web postings and may even have their own referral network; but they can’t quite duplicate the dynamics of your referral system.

The advantage of exchanging referrals with a diverse group of professionals you know and trust cannot be leveraged by anyone but you!