Tune into HubSpotTV on November 19th at 4:00pm to see the Fearless Competitor as special guest. (Note in this recent episode, MC Hammer “You Can’t Touch This.” was special guest.)

In reading the book, Groundswell - Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, I learned of the POST methodology.

Kirsten Watson, Director of Corporate Marketing at Kinaxis - one of the savviest marketing companies on Earth, recommended the book to me.

What struck me was how most companies use a different process when faced with the age-old problem of a lack of qualified Sales Leads. They start with technology. Bad idea. As you will see below, technology is the last step and not the first.

The POST methodology works like this:

People

What are your customers ready for? This is the buyer persona step. A deep understanding of prospective buyers helps you craft a personalized marketing approach.

Objectives

What are your goals? Are you engaging on social networks to generate sales or energize your best customers? Perhaps you want your internal employees to work together better.

Strategy

How do you want relationships with your customers to change? Do you want customers to help carry your messages to other in your market? Do you want them to engage more deeply with your company?

Technology

Once the other three steps are complete, choosing technology will be easy.

So if you are looking for software, STOP. Ask yourself if you have done the People, Objectives, and Strategy step. Are your responses simple and specific? Are they based on deep research? (Hint - invest in professional research!)

If the answer is no, then stop and call companies like Find New Customers, Tenton Marketing, NuSpark Marketing or Avitage.

What do you think? We love comments and people who share our content.

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor, is President of Fun and Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple” Check out the online show every Friday at 11am ET, “Laugh and Learn with the Fearless Competitor.”

Find New Customers helps businesses develop and implement demand generation programs to improve the way they find and acquire sales leads using best practices in lead generation.

“Find New Customers, can certainly help your business dramatically improve the flow of sales-ready leads to salespeople.” Paul Dunay, Buzz Marketing for Technology.