In today’s interview with  Brandon Schaefer – CEO of a company called MyVirtualSalesForce we will be mainly talking about importance of including lead generation, sales development management techniques and successfully applying it within your business.

Brandon Schaefer is a Google small business advisor, CEO of MyVirtualSalesForce, lead generation and sales development expert, SCORE mentor and of the leading business influencer’s.

1. What excites you in your day to day role at Myvirtualsalesforce.com?

The most exciting part is talking to people, from top CEO’s to small business owners, about how they can generate more leads and close more sales. I love learning and trying new ideas, and then sharing the experiences with our clients.

2. How important is including lead generation in a SME?

Lead generation is the most important part of any business. Without leads, you won’t have any business to close, and without any business to close, the only thing you’ll be closing is your door – because you’ll have no money to pay the bills.

3. Any advice for a SME with limited budget? What would be the best way to get their leads?

Learn to do as much as you can for yourself. Test out as many different lead generation methods as you can to see which ones work best for your specific market segment. Don’t dump a lot of money into any type of lead generation until you find out what works. An easy way to get leads is to monitor keywords (hashtags) on the social channels.

4. How much money should a SME company invest in lead generation?

Spend as much as your budget will allow. It needs to be one of the biggest line items. The business needs to figure out what their cost to convert a person to a customer is, and then do the reverse math to figure out the budget.

5. What are some best practices in developing a Sales Development plan?

The most important part is actually having a plan. Winging it is not a good idea in sales development. Track all sales activities, review to see which ones work best, and then develop sales policies around the activities that drive the most results.

6. In your opinion is the lead generation market space overcrowded at the moment?

Every market is crowded, but like with anything, companies that excel – rise to the top, while the rest of them fade away. Proper lead generation is an art, not a robot-like activity. A lot of companies in the lead generation space treat everyone as a number, and it doesn’t work out very well. The more personable, the better.

7. What is your biggest sales development/lead generation challenge?

Getting the right leads in front of the right people at the right time. Timing is everything. Selling ice in the dead of winter is never going to work, but selling ice in the middle of summer works great, so it’s important to always be way out in front of market segment changes.