| 1.  Budgets | | set your budgets based on a percentage of forecasted sales, rather than a percentage of last year’s sales. Better still, budget for what is needed. | | | 2. Customer empathy | | marketing people need to speak to at least one customer and one prospect every week. | | | 3. Sales force empathy | | start treating the sales force as your customers. The end-customers are actually your sales peoples’ responsibility. Get out with your customers: the sales people. | | | 4. Don’t waste leads | | put programmes in place to follow-up old enquiries on a regular basis. | | | 5. Quantify | | measure the cost-per-enquiry, cost-per-qualified lead, cost-per-closed-lead - make the right decisions. | | | 6. Be accountable | | the information above will help you justify your budget requests. Don’t be afraid of being accountable – use it to your advantage! | | | 7. Don’t treat lists as "sales leads" | | a list of visitors to an exhibition, for example, should not be regarded as a list of enquiries. | | | 8. Segment your databases | | better information will lead to better targeting, and more orders. | | | 9. Improve your website | | have a fresh look it – is it easy to use? Is it pleasing to the eye? Is it easy to read? | | | 10. Brands are not simply names | | remember that brands reflect a company’s character and personality. | | | 11. Concern yourself with how quickly enquiries are handled | | how helpful your sales staff are and so on. | | | 12. Outsourced companies are part of your organisation | | make the most of your external suppliers and treat them as you would your company employees – as partners. | | |  | | 13. Sales rewards | | what about rewarding your company’s sales people, not just on sales, but accuracy of forecasts, amount of feedback etc. | | | 14. Filter sales leads | | don’t pass on every single enquiry to the sales staff. If the enquiry is long-term, then nurture it for them. Only pass it on when it is ripe! | | | 15. Pounce on qualified leads | | on the other hand, qualified leads are like gold dust – they must be picked up immediately. | | 16. Get feedback from the sales
staff | | they are in the best position to judge customers’ reactions to your marketing. | | 17. Avoid automated eMail
responses | | if you have a qualified enquiry, follow it up with a phone call – the human touch. | | | 18. Product fit | | remember to fit the prospect’s needs to the most appropriate product, and not the other way around! | | | 19. Get your sales people to "own" their customers | | they should know them inside out. | | | 20. Organise more training | | your sales & marketing staff always need more training. | |  | | | | |
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