Last week we talked about the hazards of throwing sales spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. To help you navigate those obstacles, I’m going to pose three key questions to you, to help you evaluate your marketing plans for this year. Here’s the first question to ponder this week:Where do your current clients come from?

Make sure that you’re tracking your sources of business and determining how to best leverage them. By way of example, ask yourself more in-depth questions such as:

Do you receive client referrals?

• Fine-tuning excellent customer service is very much a part of your marketing effort (people talk!).
• What one or two specific things could you do to improve your customer service? How will you implement them? Who will be in charge of implementing or monitoring that effort?
  

Are you in a networking group?

• Networking with other professionals, especially those who share your target market but are not in competition with you, can lead to a wealth of resources and quality business leads.
• If you haven’t already, consider checking out one of your local BNI groups.

Do people find you online?

• Maintaining an effective website can both drive business to you and help clients pre-qualify themselves.
• Make sure you do something each week that changes up your site and keeps it contemporary (like a blog!). SEO is another effective way to help search engines — and prospects — find you.

However clients find you, closely examine profitable efforts and determine whether refining them could help generate additional leads. More to come….