Part 4 of 7:
The Lead Generation System That Feeds a Sales Team
A sales system only works if there are leads to run through it.
Many founders rely on referrals and word of mouth to generate business. In the early stages, that can be enough.
But referrals alone rarely sustain a growing sales team.
If the goal is predictable growth, the company must create a consistent lead generation system.
One common problem is underinvestment. Some companies spend less than one percent of revenue on marketing. When that happens, growth stalls.
A healthier range for most companies is seven to ten percent of top-line revenue invested in marketing and lead generation.
That investment fuels the pipeline. Without it, the sales team has nothing to sell.
Lead generation usually includes a mix of strategies.
Some are traditional:
These approaches still open doors, especially in industries where relationships matter.
But companies should also experiment with newer marketing systems.
The key is balance.
Maintain the strategies that already work, while allocating part of the marketing budget to test new channels.
Give those experiments time, often six months, to see whether they produce results.
If they work, double down.
If they don’t, try something else.
Another mistake many companies make is expecting salespeople to generate most of their own leads.
Think about the highest value use of a salesperson’s time. It’s meeting with prospects and closing deals.
Generating leads is often the most time-consuming part of the sales process. When salespeople spend most of their time prospecting, they spend less time selling.
High-performing closers want to spend their days moving from meeting to meeting, converting opportunities.
When the company provides consistent lead flow, those salespeople can do exactly that.
Before hiring a salesperson, the company should ensure two things exist:
Once those pieces are in place, hiring becomes much less risky.
And that brings us to the next challenge.
In the next article, we’ll look at how to recruit A-player salespeople instead of settling for B- and C-level performers.