Of course, using email to follow up on these interactions is likely a very good idea to go from introduction to engagement and purchase, but you might discover in the process of talking with the prospect that they prefer to be contacted on Facebook, or, who knows, by phone!  Setting up Chat on the site, can be a great way to initially interact with prospects without having to immediately hire a sales person.  One of the hardest questions I get all the time from friends and colleagues starting a small business is “how do I get started with my sales and marketing?”  Tweet This! MORE >>

As businesses scale and become more established, customer interactions usually become more predictable.  In the “not so distant past&# (as in “still happening&# ) the customer hand-off from Marketing–>Sales–>Customer Support was too often a dropped baton, and an unhappy customer.  Thanks to usable CRM platforms like Salesforce.com and Marketing automation systems (like Genius!) the first hand-off of the prospect from Marketing to Sales has gotten a lot smoother and more productive.  What about the hand-off from Sales to Support? bad NetPromoter scores!) MORE >>

Regardless of the fact that you will be “pounding the pavement&# , you will need to keep a record of your prospective customer interactions and sales pipeline from those interactions. You can also use Facebook’s survey tool to make it a more structured interaction. If you think you will need sales people, before you go hire a bunch, try using yourself and whoever you have available to interact online with your prospects, either via Chat (e.g. Last week I gave my 5 tips for bootstrapping sales and marketing for small businesses. Tweet This! Digg this! MORE >>

Best of all, you can interactively weight features and watching the recommendations shift as you change criteria such as lead generation, campaign managmenet, reporting, ease of use, and pricing. As you are well aware, the marketing automation space has become increasingly crowded and complex over the past few years.  The number of solutions marketers have to choose from is dizzying.  Figuring out which is the best solution for your particular business is more challenging every day. This is a must-read for anyone in the market for a marketing automation solution. Tweet This! Digg this! MORE >>

Ardath Albee is a B2B Marketing Strategist and the CEO of her firm, Marketing Interactions, Inc. She applies over 20 years of business management and marketing experience to help companies eMarketing to generate more and better sales opportunities. She’s also author of the book eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale and shares her expert advice in this continuing series. Today @ardath421 (for those of you who want to follow her on Twitter) describes how lead scoring can foster stronger relationships. Tweet This! Share this on LinkedIn. Share this on Facebook. Share it on StumbleUpon. MORE >>