Why we plan 30 days before we spend
Many industrial firms start with ads or a bought list. Then the leads come, and sales say they are poor. The money was spent before anyone agreed who the buyer is and what a good enquiry looks like.
Industrial deals are slow. A deal can take months, and several people decide. Thirty days will not bring orders. What it can do is set the base, so that every rupee spent later is counted and nothing leaks.
Before day 1: what we ask you for
We ask for a short brief. It follows the checklist in our guide on how to choose an industrial B2B marketing agency. Where you do not know an answer, write that down. It is a useful finding.
- The exact names and specifications that buyers use for your products.
- What counts as qualified for each product line: the smallest quantity, the places you serve and the lead time you can meet.
- The job titles of the people who ask, decide and pay.
- Your last ten orders, and the days or months from first enquiry to order.
- Who answers an enquiry, and how fast.
- Enquiries from the last 12 months, by source, if you have them.
Week 1: Facts and access
The first week is for facts. We do not buy a list or start a campaign.
- Get read access to your own accounts: Search Console, Google Analytics, your website system and any enquiry sheet. Accounts stay in your name.
- Pull the last 24 months of enquiries. Sort them by source and by what happened next.
- Sit with your sales head and agree what a qualified lead is. We call a request for quotation qualified when it names a product, a quantity, a delivery place and a time, and comes from a buyer who can decide or pay.
- Name one owner for all enquiries, and set a reply time.
- List the tracking gaps: forms that do not record the source, calls nobody logs.
The question we ask first is simple: of your last ten orders, where did the first contact come from? The answer shows which channel is really working, or that nobody knows.
Week 2: Buyers and what they search
- Write one paragraph on the ideal customer: the type of firm, the size, the place, the problem and the person who decides. Start from your best customers of the last two years, not from a wish list.
- List what buyers search for: product names, specifications and the problems they want solved. We start from your Search Console and your sales team's calls. See our search engine optimisation (SEO) service for how we map this.
- Look at where buyers already find suppliers in your line, such as marketplaces, trade directories and your dealers. Note what your listings say now.
- Choose the first two or three product lines to push. A firm that pushes everything speaks to no one.
Week 3: Fix the path
Now we look at what happens when a buyer lands on your site and wants to ask. This is where many leads are lost, before any ad is run.
- Each chosen product has a page that names the specification, shows a picture and gives a clear way to ask.
- The enquiry form is short: name, phone and need. A long form loses buyers.
- A call button and a WhatsApp link sit on every product page.
- Every enquiry lands in one place, such as a shared sheet or a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, with the source filled in. See our CRM and marketing automation page.
- We test the form, the call and the WhatsApp link at phone width, on a mid-range Android phone over 4G, as buyers see it.
We test the path before the change and again after. A fix that breaks the form is worse than no fix.
Week 4: The first offer and the first review
- Make one useful offer that matches one buyer problem: a checklist, a cost-saving guide for their plant, a site visit or a sample.
- Build a small list from lawful sources: people who asked, people who met you and agreed to be contacted, and referrals. Keep a note of where each name came from.
- Do outreach by hand, with a message that repeats the buyer's problem. We do not use bulk tools.
- Plan the follow-up for each lead grade: a call, a useful message, a quote, a visit.
- Hold the first review with your sales head. Read the numbers below, and agree what changes in month 2.
The 30 days at a glance
| Week | Goal | What we decide | What you give us | What you see at the end |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Facts and access | What a qualified lead is | Brief, account access, enquiry history | One definition, one owner, a list of tracking gaps |
| 2 | Buyers and search | The ideal customer and the first product lines | Your best customers, sales calls | A one-paragraph buyer and a list of search phrases |
| 3 | Fix the path | What changes on the website and in the enquiry flow | Website access, product details | A tested path from page to quote request |
| 4 | First offer and review | The offer and the first small list | A named sales person, reply times | The first numbers and the plan for month 2 |
What we stop doing
- Buying a big list. It can carry old data, and you cannot tell how each person agreed.
- Judging by clicks or followers. We judge by qualified leads, meetings and quotes.
- Using automation tools on LinkedIn. We do outreach by hand.
- Speaking to everyone. One buyer, one problem, one offer at a time.
- Reporting a mix of enquiries as leads. Students asking for a catalogue and traders asking for the lowest rate are useful, but they are not RFQs.
These stops come from the mistakes list in our B2B lead generation guide and from our own framing of the first month.
How we count a lead
We use a simple score sheet. Each line scores 0, 1 or 2: fit, need, authority, timing, budget and engagement. A total of 7 or more is a qualified lead, as an example cut-off. You and your sales head agree the real cut-off together. The sheet is in our B2B lead generation guide.
Review the sheet every month. If sales say the leads are poor, change the sheet or the targeting. Do not argue about the leads.
What goes wrong, and how we catch it
- Sales and marketing disagree on what a lead is. Catch it: write the definition in week 1 and sign it with the sales head.
- Enquiries wait for days. Catch it: measure reply time on the sheet, from the first day.
- The form works on a laptop but not on a phone. Catch it: test at phone width before and after every change.
- Source is not recorded, so nobody knows what worked. Catch it: fix the source field in week 3.
- Nobody owns follow-up. Catch it: one named owner per lead in the sheet.
- The month ends with a report on reach. Catch it: agree in week 1 that the report starts with qualified leads.
We describe these slips from our own framing and from the guides above. Your own list may differ.
What we measure in month 1
- Enquiries, and how many were qualified.
- Reply time: how long a new lead waits for the first call.
- Meetings or site visits booked, and quotes sent.
- Tracking gaps closed.
- Cost per qualified lead, once spend starts: what you spent divided by the qualified leads that came.
Orders and time to close need more than a month. We read them at three months and later.
When to call us
Call us when leads come but sales say they are poor, when you cannot reach the right roles, or when nobody can say which channel works. Bring your buyer paragraph and your score sheet to the first talk. The first step is a free 30-minute call and a one-page plan, for projects we think we can help. Get a growth plan. See our work for industrial manufacturing and its B2B lead generation page. For fairs, read our guide on trade show marketing.
