Here's a question for you: How was your performance in Q1, and what does your pipeline look like over the next two quarters? If you made your Q1 sales targets and have a robust, qualified pipeline — congratulations. If you missed your targets and have doubts about the quality and accuracy of your current pipeline, don't panic. There is still time to correct the situation.
Correcting a first-quarter revenue shortfall won't be easy and may seem controversial, but a little controversy is better than a revenue miss anytime. If you do find yourself in this situation, take a look at the following recommendations. You probably realize that many of the activities outlined below should have been phased-in earlier in the sales year, but a burst implementation can yield results nonetheless.
1. Immediately review your current marketing business plan. How much of your current marketing budget is directly impacting lead generation? From here forward, every activity within marketing needs to be focused on bringing in qualified leads. If there's no way to determine a program's impact on lead generation, consider dropping it.
Consider outsourcing some of your marketing functions. Finding external support for non-core marketing functions makes sense, especially in areas such as marketing automation and demand-generation support.
