Phil Lauterjung

You’re a business owner sitting in your office pouring over the numbers from last month, trying to figure out how you can keep going without laying off anyone else.  The phone rings and the voice says, “Buddy, I’ve got THE answer to all of your business problems.”

You respond, “First off my name is Phil, and what in the world are you talking about.”  [I know, I know you probably would have hung up on the guy, but work with me on this scenario]

Caller:  “Listen Fred, I’m with XYZ Online Marketing and we can get your website on the FIRST PAGE of Google search results GUARANTEED!”

You:  “I told you my name is Phil.  How are you going to get my site on Google’s first page guaranteed.”

Caller:  “Look Frank, I can’t give you all the details; and you have to promise not to breathe a word of this to anyone!  But, one of my guys hacked into Google and got the algorithm they use.  I got a lot of other people that want in on this, are you interested or not?”

You:  “I told you my name is Phil…”

Caller:  “Yeah, yeah.  Whatever.  Are you in or not?”

You:  Click.

The above is obviously fictitious, but there are business owners today that are desperately looking for that Silver Bullet solution to get more sales.  And, equally desperate sales people willing to sell whatever Silver Bullet solution they think businesses will buy.

The harsh answer is – there isn’t any Silver Bullet.  Not a pretty new web site, not Search Engine Optimization (SEO), not Pay-Per-Click ads (PPC), not a Facebook Fan page, not Twitter, not a marketing automation system, not email marketing, not a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, not a Lead Generation system with all the bells and whistles.

If you’ve been reading this blog you’re probably wondering if I’ve become a stark, raving mad heretic.  What do I mean that none of those perfectly good tools listed are a Silver Bullet?

None of them by themselves can really be an effective long-term solution.  You need an Integrated Lead Generation approach.  Trying one thing at a time might get you some short-term results; but if you have tried that, you know that one Silver Bullet doesn’t get you where you want to be.

For the next few weeks I will be writing about how different elements can work together to get your business on track to growing for the long term.  Please share this post with anyone you know that is struggling with their business and could use some help.

If you have any questions or suggestions as to what you would like to see covered in this series, please let me know.  This blog is titled “Conversations” for a reason.  Interactive discussion helps us all.

You know what to do.  Don’t be shy, use the comment section.  And stay tuned.

Photo courtesy of:  LexnGer

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