Every business needs to grow, and every executive at some point in his or her career makes the same fateful mistake. They assume a new sales leader, sales team or business development strategy will single-handedly kick-start the company’s growth trajectory.

The key to business growth isn’t more sales. Period.

Let’s be real: Even average sales professionals can be successful when they sell a product or service that’s in demand. Conversely, the best sales leaders won’t achieve their goals if there is no demand for what they are selling. And what’s worse is when talented sales executives eventually end up separating from companies because they can’t find the path to product or service demand.

Business growth is the byproduct of three things:

1.) Having a great product or service;

2.) Understanding how to differentiate the company’s brand in a crowded marketplace;

3.) Implementing a consistent demand generation engine.

Developing a great product or service and differentiating a brand in a crowded marketplace takes time, patience and persistence. These tasks are not easily accomplished. However, implementing a consistent demand generation engine can accelerate growth, even when a product is still evolving from good to great or the company hasn’t successfully differentiated its brand in the marketplace.

To learn how to differentiate your brand in the saturated marketplace, read how innovating your brand can help your business gain leverage over the competition, or contact us for more information.

The good news: Building a consistent demand generation engine is easy to implement.

So, if it is so easy, why isn’t every company doing it? It’s because impatient executives tend to overlook two simple words: Consistent and Engine.

• Consistent: We’re not talking about a tradeshow spree, an advertising campaign, a market blitz or even a standard lead generation program. Generating demand requires the consistency achieved through implementing a program that never stops – ultimately producing ongoing demand.

• Engine: Demand generation is not a program. It’s an engine. A demand generation engine POWERS growth. It fuels the top line.

The best sales executives know that their success has as much to do with the demand equation as their own abilities. That’s why they choose to join companies offering the products or services that people or organizations want.

At the same time, an average sales professional can become successful when demand is high, because selling is easier. Nothing ignites sales performance faster than an abundance of leads consistently flowing in.

Another benefit to a consistent demand generation engine, is that it’s a lot easier to single out top sales performers, as they will be the ones to quickly convert those leads into sales, rather than complaining about lead quality. No accomplished salesperson wants to be asked why they haven’t converted leads when other members of their sales team are converting leads left and right.

Build a demand generation engine that delivers in three steps.

So, how do you create a consistent demand generation engine? At Promote On Purpose, we recommend three steps:

• Grow awareness by dramatically increasing website traffic. Statistically, only about 2 percent of the prospects that visit your website are likely to purchase. No one will buy from you if they don’t know you exist. So, if you want to increase sales by 10 percent, you need to increase web traffic by 200 percent.

• Generate interest by authentically promoting your value rather than trying to sell your product’s features. Focus on relaying how the product solves the prospect’s problems and, therefore, adds value, rather than trying to sell something.

• Drive conversion by cultivating a relationship with prospective customers. Studies show that it takes greater than 12 interactions with a brand before a prospect makes a purchase. You can increase the number of interactions by cultivating these relationships. Some effective techniques include:
  • Giving away something of value,
  • Preparing useful content that highlights your ideas and values, and
  • Willingly share this information with prospects through insightful DRIP campaigns.

Stop selling. Start generating demand.

Is your company experiencing stagnant growth? Do prospects recognize your brand and the value it provides compared to the competition? Do they know how your products and services solve their problems? If the answer to any of these questions is no, it’s time to reevaluate the efficacy of your demand generation strategy and we can help.