We all love our acronyms and John Jantch points to his three lead generation C’s of cost, credibility and control.
“Generally speaking there is no one magic way to generate a tons of leads. Granted, for some businesses there are more effective ways, but on the whole long-term effective lead generation comes down to a combination of advertising, public relations and a systematic approach to referrals – the lead generation trio as I like to call them… In order to better understand why this blended approach makes such sense let me introduce the 3 Cs of lead generation: Cost, Credibility, and Control.”For example, referrals can be extremely low cost, can have high credibility depending on the source but you give up a lot of control – i.e. someone else is ’selling’ your business.
The defining factor for me though is a 4th C – consistency.
Good ideas for marketing your business are relatively easy to come by – encouraging referrals is good, as is paying attention to public relations and good online techniques aren’t bad either.
So if we all know, more or less, the kinds of things that can help us promote our businesses then why do so many small businesses struggle?
They don’t do it consistently.
Asking on client for referrals isn’t going to change your business – asking every client will. Running one ad in the paper may be a waste of money – consistent advertising over time can deliver.
In order to do something consistently though you either need an iron will or, better yet, a system. System help keep you on track and allow all the various strategies you can employ to work as a coherent (another C to add) whole.
So whatever strategies you intend to use, develop a system and do them consistently.
