How important is Lead Generation for your Business? – Let me know your thoughts?

Hi People, SME’s, and the general Public,

(Please be gentle, this is my first blog, so any tips would be most helpful).

This is just a short post to get things started.

I will add new content and posts later this week on this subject matter.

My name is Matt, I have spent the last 9 years in sales, working across marketing, IT, and Finance.

During my career I have had exposure to numerous roles, account management, lead generation, internal / external sales.

Earlier this year I went live with my own high end B2B Lead Generation business; which is right now run and managed 100% by myself, including all campaign work.

Each role has taught me a new skill set, new training, new theories on cold calling, relationship building, and essentially closing the sale.

One key fundamental thing I have noticed with prospecting, (whether it be cold calling, event based marketing, or inbound interest) is times are changing.

The game has changed, social media (Linked-in, Twitter, Facebook) is changing the way we do business, the way we form relationships, the way we grow our business.

However, despite the changing landscape some off the basics still apply (in my opinion), I honestly feel that cold calling (B2B) is still a strong skill that will help you to grow your business, by securing new clients (It takes allot of patience, and self-motivation).

Don’t get me wrong there are key structural assets that need tweaking before working on a cold calling prospect campaign to hook potential prospects, such as industry analysis, market dynamics, who are you going call (SME’s, corporates).

So based on the above can anyone share their own personal experiences when it comes to prospecting (whether you’re a business owner, or employee).

Do you find one method more effective than the other? (i.e. cold calling vs social media)?

As a business owner do you feel you have enough time to prospect, and if not what are some off your personal challenges in this space.

If you’re like me and have spent a number of years prospecting for other businesses, or even your own company, what do you think has changed? (Do you think cold calling is just as effective as it was 10 years ago?)

What are your thoughts on external lead generation firms? would anyone have a story or two to share?

Thank you for taking the time to ready my first blog; and remember this is my first post, so please be gentle, and feel free to provide tips etc.