Most sales leaders of today grew up in what is termed a “sales 1.0″ world.  Hire a bunch of salespeople, train them on a technique like Solution Sales, give them laptops, phone and brochures and turn them loose.  That used to work, till the Internet came of age.

Today we live in the world of the self-informed customer.  They can research their problem, possible solutions, reviews, spec sheets and more.  Barry Trailer, Founder of CSO Insights wrote a fascinating White Paper on this very issue — called “Run Away and Join the Circus.”  In Mr. Trailer’s parlance, the 1.0 world is the Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Circus — central control, few stars and orchestrated actions.  Contrast this with Cirque du Soleil.  Many performers, all collaborating, communicating and cooperating.

In the 2.0 world, businesses don’t find customers — customers find you.  This is why search marketing is so important today.  You must be easy to find.  But you must go well beyond search marketing alone.  Look at the customer buying process and create content to match the process.  Create landing pages and viral tools.  For a good example, look at HubSpot’s Grader.com, with Website Grader, Press Release Grader and Twitter Grader.

For companies looking for best practices in b2b lead generation who wish to improve the way they acquire new customers, Find New Customers is the place to go.  CSO Insights says companies need to improve the way they generate leads and implement processes for business to business lead generation.

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor, is a demand generation expert and sales leader, as well as the President of Find New Customers, a lead generation company, who helps businesses create lead generation campaigns and continually publishes the best lead generation ideas, so his readers can determine the best lead generation strategy to find new customers.  He can be reached at (516) 284-4930 or mailto:jogden@findnewcustomers.net.