Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Hello kashif!

First of all, I think you are wise in your thinking thus far; by recognizing and identifying a gap in your process and realizing a specialist can fill that gap.

I will answer your questions in order, in a very simple, straight-forward manner:

1. You want to select a firm who can show you they possess the skills, experience, and contacts necessary to achieve your goals. Now this may sound absurdly obvious...because it IS. There are many marketing professionals who can handle a variety of business specialties. You just have to reach out (like you are now) and see what you can dig up.

Make sure the firm ASKS for plenty of information about YOU and YOUR CUSTOMERS. Every business is different, even if they exist within the same vertical. The right marketing consultant should be able to show you they are custom tailoring the strategies, plans, and tactics specifically for your company, rather than claiming to be "IT experts" and instantly producing suggestions without much consultation.

Now, I think it is fair to say some firms have more experience in one field than another, but usually it is a specialty in a particular form of marketing (i.e. Strategy, branding, interactive, metrics, advertising, etc).

2. See above.

It would be unfair of me to just leave it here without a suggestion or two. You can check out the following sites, where you pay to list your needs (usually a few hundred to a few thousand dollars in addtion to a "finders fee") and companies either bid on your services or someone from the hosting site searches for people for you. Keep in mind while these sites are popular and can be very effective, you pay for their service, THEN you have to pay the constulant. Anyway, here they are:

www.talentzoo.com

www.elance.com

Now, With regards to ROI...it depends on your needs, goals, and what it takes to get there. I know, it is yet another broad answer but there is not a rock solid figure. Especially with lead generation. One way is to acquire analytics of other companies within your vertical. Self reporting isn't as reliable as third party analysis. Not because of dishonesty, but rather the possibility of improper measuring.

Lead generation ROI should be derived from a segmentation of your conversion rates. This means not only measuring simple conversion, but applying the various other scenarios in order to find out what situations need the most attention. You would want to measure and segment the conversion from every tactic you employ...i.e. Let's say you are measuring website conversion. You don't want to just compare visitors to sales, you need to measure every point at which the visitor decided to convert - from landing straight on the order form from a search engine to visitors who browse around first, to visitors who start to fill out a form and stop and so on. The different scenarios can give you a much more accurate picture of what is happening and what needs to be done.

I will end my response with an invitation to contact me via email (just click my name) in order to inquire about our services and decide if we can suit your needs.

Thank you and Good Luck!

-- Jett Enterprises

It seems you are addressing two issues, finding an excellent firm to help you, and maximizing ROI. I'd like to address the second issue.

In his book, "Up the organization" by Robert Townsend tells a story about ROI and advertising. As President of Avis, Mr. Townsend met with a prospective advertising agency and said, "Our major competitor, Hertz, has two dollars to spend on advertising for every dollar we have to spend. How can we get two dollars worth of advertising for every dollar?"

One agency said, "Hmm, let us think about that and get back to you". They visited again and said, "If you want to get two dollars worth of advertising for every dollar you spend, then let us come into your firm, learn about your business, and once we develop a campaign, DON'T CHANGE IT". Mr. Townsend agreed.

Later on, the agency was in his office again, saying, "The only thing we can truly say about your company is that you are the number two car rental company in the world, and you seem to try harder". No one liked the campaign. But Mr. Townsend had made a committment to go with what the firm had suggested, and so they ran the campaign. And the result was one of the most successful campaigns in advertising history.

And so I would say to you that if you want maximum ROI, it is not enough to make a committment to find people who are expert in your field.

You must also implement their reccomendations.