Fire Your Customer | Good Advice for Small Firms

Posted by Jeff Ogden on April 28, 2011

B2B Lead Generation: Fire Your Customer

Update: Check out this list of top B2B sales blogs. http://www.invesp.com/blog-rank/Sales Note that the b2b sales blog we used to write is nowhere to be found here.

And when I tried to run it through Hubspot’s BlogGrader.com, it does not even have an RSS feed. (We do not mention the customer by name as we do not wish ill upon them.) By the way, since they took the blog in-house 60 days ago, they have publishes a whopping total of 3 blog posts! That is pathetic!

Update: This customer, whose blog used to post daily with quality content, has not updated in almost 3 weeks! Conclusion: You really do get what you pay for.

If your business is young and small, choose your customers carefully. Find New Customers had a customer we should have fired long ago. They sucked up limited resources and limited our ability to deliver the services of lead generation companies to other clients.

Perhaps you can learn from our mistake.

We wrote their blog - 5 days a week without fail for months. But the warning signs were everywhere.

They would be no-shows on the weekly status calls they requested. (We need feedback from our clients.)
They were unable/unwilling to provide keywords. (Search engine optimization is a key advantage of blogs - if done properly)
They never created useful content - ebooks, white papers, videos, etc. (What can we write about?)
They did not provide objectives and plans, so we never had any metric on how well or poorly we were doing. (This was the biggest problem. No plan. No metrics. No way of measuring performance.)

But like most business owners, I loved those monthly checks. But writing a daily blog is a LOT of work and consumes many, many hours. It was not worth it. I

should have fired that customer.

A small business has limited resources. Don’t waste them on problem customers.

P.S. They brought the blog in-house and the blog that used to post 5 days a week, 20 times a month now publishes just twice a month. Pathetic.

What do you think? Do you have customers you should fire?

Please note that our wonderful free “cheat sheet” on lead nurturing “The 7 Keys to Lead Nurturing Success” is a small taste of what you get in our terrific white paper, How to Find New Customers.

Jeff Ogden is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers. We help companies with between 150 and 5,000 employees who sell complex products to businesses to implement world-class lead generation programs. As companies struggle to create quality sales opportunities, they turn to lead generation companies like Find New Customers.

Want to learn B2B lead generation? Got $49?

Posted by Jeff Ogden on April 28, 2011

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How to Find New Customers - the highly acclaimed white paper

Posted by Jeff Ogden on April 28, 2011

Lead Generation Companies | How to Find New Customers

This classic white paper, originally penned many months ago, has won broad acclaim, like this CEO. “I think this white paper is excellent.” The Funnelholic called it a “must read.” And another CMO wrote “It’s a great read. I printed it and gave it to my entire marketing team.”

I discuss this white paper in the video clip below.

I share one more review below. But since it’s widely acknowledged to be the simple guide to B2B lead generation and it’s free, why not download it now?

(Valid email address required. Your information will be shared with the sponsor of the white paper, Marketo, but you can easily opt out.)

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Kevin Temple of Enterprise Selling read it and said

“I reached out to Find New Customers to ascertain if I should introduce (them) to my sales effectiveness clients. The short answer was yes! Find New Customers has not only distilled the science of lead nurturing into a work of art, but they are a walking, talking billboard for the process. If your sales people need more qualified leads, get Find New Customers onto your team asap!”

Kevin Temple, President and CEO, The Enterprise Selling Group (916)939-1939 [email protected]

Do your sales teams need more qualified sales opportunities? Then click on the image below to download this free white paper on B2B lead generation.

(Please note that we share your contact info with the sponsor, Marketo, but you can easily opt out if you wish.)

How to Find New Customers

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