How to generate leads from the resources you already have

Call your partners- Partners can be a great source of short term sales opportunities. Work directly with the sales reps at your key partners. Before you consider working with a partner, be sure you are comfortable with their approach to selling and their reputation on the street. Once initial trust is established, the formula is simple–give a lead to get a lead.

Start with an overview conference call or meeting to determine overall fit- Do they call on the same types of accounts and functional areas as you? Are they active enough to be able to provide you with enough leads to make spending time worth while? Once you have determined that there is a fit, take some time and do a lead swap with them. Be prepared to give them a few currently active projects or at least some valuable contacts in organizations they may want to penetrate. Expect to get roughly the same type and quantity of leads in return.

E-mail your existing contacts- Chances are, if you have executed a performance for your past and existing clients, 9 times out of 10, they are willing to refer you to someone that is in their network.  Many times, companies focus on creating new leads from a “floating source”.  This “floating source”? Pulling from a completely new area that you are not familiar with, or cold calling.  But why cold call when you already have a great network to pull from? 

Creating incentives for your existing clients is a great way to go.  Let them know that you would like to discount their current or future projects in exchange for new business and referrals. 

Operational strategy and executing your business plan

Well-implemented strategic planning provides the vision, direction and goals for the organization, but operational planning translates that strategy into the everyday execution tactics of the business that will ultimately produce the outcomes defined by the strategy.  Operational planning is the conversion of strategic goals into execution.   Businesses tend to waste time and money by investing way too much in what the plan is.  More important, the execution of the strategy that is laid out. 

No business likes to admit it, but most are lacking in the know-how, competencies skills, knowledge, experience and discipline to carry off precise execution of strategic goals. Operational planning is all about having good execution and offers help to those organizations who struggle with why and how to do it.   

Executing a strategy for a business plan can be an extremely layered process.  It is all about pushing each step to it fullest potential.  This in turn will build on the next step and help the transition towards getting the job done right.  They range from ugly Excel spreadsheets to beautifully bound books, and if executed correctly, a happy client.

Unless operational planning has accompanied the strategic planning effort, the strategic plan will always accomplish less than the intended result, resulting in wasted effort.

Most companies would receive a failing grade for their operational planning efforts. This is largely due to a lack of understanding of how such planning should be done. True, it is sometimes perceived to be the less appealing part of planning, but it is essential that operational planning be done and organizations must learn how to do it properly. Many companies have the attitude of, “Don’t we have people to do that?”. Far too often, they don’t, yet they still expect this operation to be handled by someone.  This is once again, wasted effort.   

Operational planning must be done if strategic goals are to be accomplished. The strategic goals of the organization must be translated one business unit at a time. Why? The goals mean something different to each area of the organization.  All plans are based upon that area’s function in the enterprise.

It is not enough to simply put the strategic goals out there and let the business interpret the strategy on its own. To do so is not planning, but instead is crossing fingers and hoping for the best.   Before executing the strategy you have set in place, I suggest that you ensure that you are able to carry your plan out to the very end with no holes in your business plan.