Lead Generation?

Time flies! The week started (and that feels like yesterday) thinking about how well the sales and marketing teams should be doing. Some planning had been done last week to support the sales process:

• Basic logo design.
• Business cards.
• Digital stationary that includes letterhead, fax, sales invoice, technical specification, compliments slip.
• Identified some freelance sites that could use to pitch for work such as guru and elance could be used.

Also started last week was:

• The design and creation of the logo (more because it was possible to do it in house but we need to change this habit).
• The submission of the business cards order to Overnight Prints that delivered all the way from Germany this week. It's great to finally have something to give to people when they ask. It had been annoying to miss out on some of the opportunities that have appeared in the last couple of months.

Putting the sales and marketing hat on, which was unusual to wear, we started to think about how to promote the company and also how to measure the performance. The first step was to add the following to this site:

• Updated that blog to have a few more gadgets, including the logo and te!! a frend.
• Signed up and added Google Analytics, Quantcast, Alexa and Woopra (but be warned this is still in beta and even tho you can get an account it may take a while to get your sites approved and start receiving real time statistics).

The marketing plan was started to help the sales, communications, marketing and public relations of New Edge Engineering. Part of that plan was to get in touch with a few people that had asked for help from New Edge Engineering in the past (but no business cards to give to them at the time). This has started some good conversation but lead time and the accounting lag caused havoc with the cash flow, therefore started to think of other ways to create a cash flow. The obvious way was to sign up to a number of freelance websites and start pitching for work straight away but the process of filling in profile information, which is a necessary evil and the Linked In profile has served so well, slowed the progress. It would be great to find a tool that could populate other profiles based on the Linked In profile.

The other great thing that has been happening this week is the generation of ideas, especially other people sharing theirs. Great stuff but the ideas need to prove there is actually a market to sell to and determine if investment is needed.

Also had the chance to talk to a few experienced business owners about New Edge Engineering's ambitions and direction. Thanks to Judith who gave me, and everyone who attended the Money Gym property weekend, a chance of a free wealth consultation. Also thanks to Jon and Nick from Nativ who answered many questions about what they would do differently and gave some great insights.