Heating Up Sales Turning cold leads into hot prospects.

Do you fit this description? You have so much work to do, youtell yourself you have little or no time for marketing. A fewmonths go by and there's less work in-house, or maybeyou've completed a project. So you begin marketing heavily,doing everything you can think of for a few more months until thework starts coming in. Then you repeat the cycle all over again.You work for a while . . . market for a while . . .work for awhile, then market. By now you realize you've put yourself onan economic roller coaster. It's always feast or famine.

As I travel around the country, speaking to small- andhomebased-business owners at conferences and expos, I listencarefully to the challenges and problems they face. The question Ihear most often concerns an area that's vital to everysmall-business owner's success: "How do I create anoverall marketing strategy for my business?"

To develop an effective marketing strategy that will increaseyour income, you must do two things: First, begin a proactive andconsistent sales and marketing program, and second, create awell-rounded program that reaches the full range of qualifiedprospects for your business. But what constitutes a proactive andconsistent marketing program? Consider that, in the fastest-growingcompanies in the United States with annual sales of less than $1million, the company presidents spend an average of 40 percent oftheir time each week on sales and marketing. If you're startinga new business, you should expect to spend 60 percent or more.