Just tell me why is it that I should buy from you.

Running a small business is a rewarding yet challenging endeavor. Small businesses exist simply because someone was passionate enough about a service or a product and wanted to create value for their customers. Small businesses are run by individuals who are dedicated and committed to the quality of their offerings. Understandably their focus is on the existing customers.

Running your own business is a 24/7 activity. I know this firsthand. You have to constantly think about updating your offering to stay competitive, you have to think about accounting, taxes, regulatory environment, customer service and a lot more. Maintaining a sales funnel of qualified leads often takes a second seat until some crisis hits or an existing customer pulls their business away from your firm for one reason or another. Sure, we all have a “database” that we spam….ehhem! pardon me…email once in a while when we have some news to tell about our product or a service. But demand generation and lead nurturing programs are a whole lot more than that.

The main challenge of a successful demand generation program is reaching the decision makers with relevant content on a regular basis. This means that you have an intimate knowledge of their issues and you know what is keeping them up at night. How do you know this? Because they tell you. You asked them through surveys, they clicked to the links on your emails, they forwarded your newsletter to their peers, they downloaded your white papers and podcasts, they commented on your blog…repeatedly. Demand generation is about building a relationship with your customer universe that includes existing customers, prospects and visitors. Just like any other relationship, it takes time and effort to build and nurture. The beauty of the demand generation program is that when the customer is ready to buy, they come to you because you have become a trusted advisor.

You know you have an effective demand generation program, IF:

* You can name your 20 ideal customers by company, name, title, industry, geography and business challenge.
* You have an ongoing integrated lead generation program that includes more than just email, landing page and analytics.
* Your customers are the ones coming up with list topics you should cover on your next newsletter.

I will talk more about demand generation programs on my blog upcoming weeks. This is just a quick food for thought as a start. Please tell me what topics you would like to see about demand generation programs by commenting below and I will try to address those issues on upcoming blog entries.

Until then.