In working with business owners and entrepreneurs over the years, I’ve noticed that when it comes to acquiring new customers, most of them are hunters.  They pounce on new leads, chase the prospects, make themselves readily available to the prospect and then bend over backwards to land the new customer.

On the other hand, I’ve noticed that the most successful business owners and entrepreneurs take a different approach to customer acquisition: they are harvesters.  They gather in all their leads, work hard to prevent any from slipping through the cracks, cultivate those leads and then harvest them when the time is right for the customer.

The most interesting thing about these two styles is that the hunter usually gets tired, a bit humiliated and ends up getting small margins.  On the other hand, the harvester stays fresh, confident and usually earns higher margins.

What I’ve described here is the difference between a sales mentality (hunter) and a marketing mentality (harvester).  Every business owner or entrepreneur who experiences some level of success has hunting skills… and that’s good.  But the difference between minor success and major success is the difference between hunting and harvesting.

Oh, and just so we’re clear… I’m not saying that harvesting is an easy, non-aggressive job.  When it’s time to harvest, you swing the sickle sharp and fast.

Happy harvesting!

Every business has a sales department.  And every business has a marketing department.  Sometimes those departments are one in the same.  And sometimes those departments are one person wearing (at least) two different hats.  But the point is, we all recognize there are two hats.

Well, a recent article on InsideCRM suggests there ought to be a third hat: the lead warming department.  Why?  Because so many leads die in between the marketing department and the sales department.  As pointed out in the InsideCRM article, we recently ran a survey and found that follow-up failure is the biggest challenge business owners and entrepreneurs face in their marketing efforts.

Most of the CRM software solutions out there will help business owners get organized in their marketing efforts.  And that’s a step in the right direction.  But what business owners really need is a software solution that not only organizes the marketing, but automatically executes it for them… which is why I love what we do at Infusionsoft. 

Our customers are smart entrepreneurs.  At a show a couple months ago, one of our customers pulled me aside and gave me a suggestion.  He recommended we take Infusionsoft to our customers in major cities around the country, training them on the software and helping them revolutionize the way they grow their businesses.  I took him up on the suggestion and we launched the Marketing Revolution Tour.

I was in Dallas last week on the Tour.  Had a great visit with about 25 customers.  It’s always fun to be with customers, hear what they’re doing and see their enthusiasm for the software and the way it’s helping them grow.  I also love hearing the clever ways they’re using the software, applying it to all different aspects of their sales and marketing.  I swear our customers are way smarter than we are–it’s just plain fun to see how they’re using the software.

Anyway, the Revolution Tour has been a great success.  Third stop on the Tour is tomorrow in Houston.  I’m grateful to Andrew Lock, the customer who recommended we do the Tour.  He was spot-on in his recommendation… which is no surprise because he’s a savvy entrepreneur and marketer.  By the way, Andrew has created a cool online TV show for entrepreneurs who want to improve their marketing.  I highly recommend it.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of getting to know Anita Campbell, an expert on all things small business.  Anita runs www.smallbiztrends.com and she recently invited me to be a guest expert on her site.  I gladly accepted and I now blog on her site each month.

My first blog was posted yesterday.  I wrote about “Your On Again, Off Again Marketing Relationship” and it generated a bunch of great comments.  Check it out.

Our re-branding initiative has created quite a stir.  One of my all-time favorite bloggers, Paul Greenberg, called us out in a recent blog post.  You can see my reply on his blog.  Suffice it to say, our focus is on entrepreneurs and small businesses and what they need to efficiently GROW their businesses, regardless of what the market calls our software.

As I said in my reply to Paul, I think eMarketing software more accurately describes the marketing automation software we provide to help small businesses grow fast.  Simply put, eMarketing software is automated, integrated marketing and sales.  And I think automated, integrated marketing and sales (or eMarketing software as we say) is the future of small business.  Whatever it’s called, I think Paul and I agree on the fact that automated, integrated marketing and sales is the future of small business.

In CRM Magazine, writer Marshall Lager’s coverage of our re-branding pointed out that Aberdeen Group’s research bodes well for our focus on marketing automation.  Lager said:

Infusionsoft may be tapping into emerging market demand. According to research from Aberdeen Group, “the average small business does not have the luxury of many disparate solutions due to budget and resource constraints, but…they are aware of the benefits of these technologies.” In fact, Aberdeen says, 76 percent of small businesses — which the research firm defines as having annual revenues of less than $10 million — do not currently use marketing automation solutions, but 66 percent are planning to implement them over the next 2 years. Aberdeen also suggests that all organizations are “starting to assess the strategic value of integration between sales and marketing technologies.”

Hmmm… “The strategic value of integration between sales and marketing technologies” ???  Sounds like eMarketing to me. 

I’ve spent some time recently with John Jantsch, a great guy who really knows his stuff when it comes to small business marketing. He’s written one of my favorite books on the subject, Duct Tape Marketing, and we recently did a podcast together where we talked about the real engine of business growth - marketing automation. Check it out. I think you’ll be glad you listened.

I’ve got the reading bug. It started about 2-3 years ago. My wife thinks I’m nuts for reading so many books that have to do with entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, & business success. As she puts it, “why don’t you read something fun?!”. Well, to me, these books ARE fun, interesting, insightful, and have really propelled me. So, which are my favorites for entrepreneurs and small businesses?

• The E-Myth, Michael Gerber
• Duct Tape Marketing, John Jantsch
• Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. Series (Ultimate Sales Letter, Ultimate Marketing Plan, Time Management, etc.)
• The New Rules of Marketing & PR, David Scott Meerman

I recently came across a blog post by Mike Michalowicz on CNBC.com with his list that looked pretty solid.

I’d love to know what books you’ve read that you think should be on the list…

Entrepreneurs are usually pretty passionate about their mission.  But as the organization grows, it can be tough to add talented people who share the passion. Should the entrepreneur REQUIRE everyone to share the passion?  Or, should the entrepreneur settle for adding talented people who view his passion as an obsession?

I’ve thought a lot about this subject over the years. I was in an entrepreneurial venture during the dot com days when my passion gradually parted ways with the company’s passion. At InfusionSoft, as our company has gone through growth stages, it’s been interesting and challenging to keep every employee fired up about our mission.  There have definitely been times when an employee or two has viewed my passion as an obsession, not to be shared or appreciated.

So, the other day, when I read a couple of great blogs about the issue, I perked up.  The best place to go for a summary on the topic is Tim Berry’s post in Anita Campbell’s Small Business Trends. Tim’s the founder of Palo Alto Software and co-founder of Borland International. He’s a seasoned entrepreneur who knows his stuff.

So, where do I stand on the issue? I absolutely do require all of our employees to share the passion for revolutionizing dthe way small businesses drive and manage their growth.  Our mission is too important to me to have a bunch of people on board who don’t get it.  But I also want our employees to have a life outside of InfusionSoft.  For the most part, I think we’re getting it right… and it’s one of the things I love most about what we’re doing at InfusionSoft.

A few weeks ago we had the 2008 Infusion User’s Conference held in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was AWESOME! This is the third year we have held the conference and it was great to reconnect with old friends/customers and meet so many new members of the Infusion family.  Small business and entrepreneur uber-guru Michael Gerber was the keynote speaker on the second day. It was great to be inspired by Michael again. He was a keynote speaker last year too. I have also had the great personal benefit and pleasure of having attended an In the Dreaming Room session with Michael early last year held in Napa Valley, California. Listening to Michael again at the conference reminded me of many of the things I learned in the Dreaming Room.

The experience literally changed my life.

I attended the Dreaming Room with Scott Martineau, the founder of Infusion and our Vice President of Product Management and David William Lee, our Vice President of Marketing.  Michael introduced us to the concept of “intentional dreaming” and he startled me out of my state of relative sleep to see things completely diferently.  I actually “woke up” from my day-to-day state of “waking sleep” to really, intentionally dream and discover the meaning of what I am doing personally, and what we are doing at Infusion.

Michael’s Dreaming Room changed Infusion also.  Scott, Dave and I came back from the Dreaming Room with our minds blown.  We felt like we were in a different universe with regard to thinking bigger and with more meaning than we ever had before.  We returned to the office with a new sense of purpose.  A few months after the three of us went to the Dreaming Room, our President Clate Mask and Sam Blackham our Director of Finance attended an In the Dreaming Room session with Michael.  Same result!

As the leaders of Infusion we all put our heads together and re-tooled our company, particurally with regard to the meaning of why were building Infusion to serve small businesses.  Clate later created our Dream, Vision, Purpose and Mission as follows:

Dream:
Revolutionize the way small businesses drive and manage their growth.

Vision:
Infusion will be THE sales and marketing software program small businesses use to grow their companies quickly and profitably.

Purpose:
Liberate and empower small businesses and their employees so they can enjoy doing business, wow their customers and better serve their families and communities

Mission:
To create the leading sales and marketing software program for small business that is easy to use and powerful enough to turn small businesses into big businesses.

It is not hard to see our focus and commitment to small business. We sometimes say that we are “stubbornly small business.” Michael taught us how to intentionally dream and it has made a tremendous difference, both for me personally and for Infusion. I can’t recommend the Dreaming Room highly enough.  Thanks, Michael.

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