How can I find a marketing and lead generation coach for a SMB I.T. support firm?

Why a coach? You'll probably have an easier time finding a hire or someone outside to help. There's no shame in bringing on skills in another person instead of building them in yourself.

If a venture backed startup founder told you that they've lost tens of thousands in revenue from server downtime, would you recommend that they hire a coach and learn it themselves?

It would likely be cheaper, faster and more effective to get an outside IT service provider, and at some point it would make sense to build a team internally.

Maintaining a competitive skill set is tough enough in one discipline. There is a big opportunity cost to trying to chase two.

If you are looking fr quality resource and willing to spend, go for a specialist lead generation company like DataCusp who can allot a dedicated resource, with guaranteed results.
If not, go for superior marketplace like expert360, Skillbridge, etc. They have quality consultants.
For lower budget, look at zursh, odesk, guru, etc.
Hope it works.

I'd be happy to help.

Feel free to check out my website, www.nevermindmarketing.com -- especially the blog -- where I write about just such topics.

I also have a sample content marketing strategy that I can send you.

The process is of generating leads is not hard, but it is hard work.

Your ideal client has problems, you can solve them. Your job is to establish the trust in their eyes that 1) you know and understand their problem, 2) you can solve it.

Your product is ripe for content marketing and automated lead nurturing.

I hope to hear from you,
-Shaun

"Losing tens of thousands of dollars on sales and marketing."

1. Do you mean that you had a negative ROI from this branding/acquisition spend, or it failed to meet your expectations? In other words, you didn't see the sales return you expected. ie. you thought you'd see a CTR of 3.5% and it was only 1.75%.

2. Did you spend this money on consultants or other things like technology, lead databases, etc. and they clearly didn't deliver (meaning it was more clear fraud/failing to fulfill the contact then just not seeing the expected ROI)?

Every company who has ever invested >$100K has "lost" tens of thousands of dollars as described in #1. It’s inevitable that some areas of your spend will be lower than others, but this “loss” perception can be due to faulty marketing spend attribution. (Attribution is way beyond this response).

>>>>>First, I’d be happy to talk to you about filling this role.

Alternately, this is what I'd do if you just wanted a demand generation person:

1. Research your target markets at the buyer level. What other services/technologies does this cohort purchase or has purchased in the last 1-5 years. (Purchase can mean subscribe if you're talking SaaS).
2. What are the top 4-5 vendors of these services?
3. Identify the ones that started their traction rise 4-5 years ago.
4. Go to LinkedIn and do a keyword search for those companies. Within the company results, use keywords like acquisition marketing, go to market, and demand generation to find former employees.
5. Create a list of those individuals. Eliminate those with titles below Manager.
6. See where they are now. If they're out freelancing, that's whom I'd contact first.

What you're trying to do is find someone with recent domain experience who made a meaningful contribution (lead velocity from among your target audience) to his/her former employer.

As I said, I’d be happy to talk with you about the bigger picture because demand gen is a subset of an integrated marketing and sales strategy. In particular, I would emphasize getting really granular with your awareness-conversion funnel, from confirming benefit-centric messaging and reviewing your landing page and site metrics, to your product trial experience and retention activities.

I'm happy to talk with you about specifics.

I was born, raised and currently live in Armenia. Half of my business contacts are from San Francisco Bay Area who need strong lead gen game plans and I have been into this game since the age of 16, so I think I am qualified to answer to your question.

At the age of 23 I manage now Incredo which is Hubspot Silver Partner agency working with SAAS and healthcare tech pre-revenue Fortune 500 clients and has full time 14 employees who work on our client campaigns.

-----> Website----> http://www.incredo.co/

I work also Silicon Valley's biggest IT solution providers, so I am very confident that 5-10 minute quick investment in your time would be a great start of a long term and ongoing relationships.

My Linkedin and references are also available for your convenience :)

If you are searching for best resource for a expert lead generation then you go for a good lead generation firm like TOPS Technologies who has experienced and dedicated resource, with best results.

Hope it works.

Revenue. Loyalty. Market share. Market intelligence. Lead generation is about the result of revenue. So, to find a best coach for the purpose you need to understand whether your coach understands marketing and Lead generation as you do. You see, lead generation is the process and approach by which an organization goes to market, talks with prospects and customers, and ultimately gains market intelligence, prospects, first-time customers, and long-time customers. Ask him these following questions and see if you are getting satisfying answers or not about your marketing and lead generation:
1. Whose responsibility is it?
2. How do I start?
3. What does good look like?
4. How do I maintain it?
If you get satisfying answers for these questions, you got your coach.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath