This is one model of the lead generation funnel from the blog of Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch. The thing to take away from this is that it takes many inputs in your overall Marketing Plan to get enough lead generation going for your sales teams.

You need a combination of many elements - PR, Advertising, Website, SEO, SEM, Direct Mail, trade shows, events, networking, webinars, dialing, and door knocking. How many of these tools are you using to meet your Sales Plan?

No one likes the Planning, but it is an important part of your success. Without planning, how do you make certain that you are doing enough (especially in today’s economy) to generate enough leads?

We’ll be back with more Lead Generation ideas.

The number one question I get asked: How does one increase their leads effectively?

It’s a great question. One part of my answer is What is your Sales Plan? Who are you targeting? What is your USP, the one thing that Differentiates your product from your competitor?

This picture (from Sales Engine Internat’l) describes how dialing for dollars and cold calling for lead generation is being replaced with web search (or SEM, search engine marketing like Google Adwords). Sales Engine says that “95% of all B2B sales begin with a web search”. I don’t know if I believe that.

When you replace cold calling and door knocking, your web marketing plan better be bullet-proof. And it cannot be static. Web marketing requires constant tweaking.

We’ll be back with more Lead Generation tips.