Company URL  http://www.performark.com 

Who are your mentors and why? 

My father. He was an accountant but a born sales person. He taught me the value of relationships. It has shaped our model.

What is the most helpful advice you've received to improve your business? 

Cash is everything. Great ideas can only be implemented with adequate cash.
 
What is the most helpful advice you can give to help others improve their businesses? 

Build strong personal relationships with your customers and watch your cash. Profit is important but cash is king.

How do you give back to the professional community? 

I co-founded a non-profit, Social Venture Partners-Minnesota to enlist entrepreneurs and professionals into philanthropy. I've also been a guest lecturer for three colleges.

What is your favorite business book? 

I've read hundreds, many great, but two old books have had the greatest impact, Stephen Covey's 7 Habits and Peter Druckers Managing in Turbulent Times.

Which 4 basic skills or process steps do you recommend?  Lead Generation Process

1. Start with a great database - it will reduce your costs by as much as 50%. If you don't have one, build it.

2. Shoot for depth in your profiles. People buy from us, not for what they know about us, but for what we know about them.

3. Build a comprehensive nurturing program based on delivering only relevant data, at the right time in the buying process, in the prospects preferred media, and all based on the prospects profile data.

4. Measure everything. Testing and refining should grow your ROI by 10%+ per year even if your already an industry leader.
 
In your opinion, the best book on marketing is: 

Stan Rapp's first book

Your reasons for choosing this book are: 

After I read it, I realized the need for nurturing, long before we defined it as nurturing. The struggle to do it well has become easier thanks to marketing automation.

What would you say to someone who asks what to do first in managing sales leads? 

Start with your desired outcomes and build a process to support that.
Be sure you have input from all stakeholders.
 
If someone wants to nurture sales inquiries what process would you recommend? 

I don't believe there is just one right process, but the following must be included.

1. Become a trusted source of reliable data. Most buyers will not want to engage with sales until they have done thier due dilligence.

2. All content must be relative to the propects needs, which should be specifically defined in your database.

3. All interaction should be appropriate to the stage in the buying cycle for that individual prospect.

4. Measure the effectiveness of timing, message, offer, and media for each type of prospect.

5. Do not buy into the perfect process. Keep continually improving it.
 
What steps would you suggest to measure the ROI for sales inquiries? 

Everything should be measured but through the lens of revenue