Lead generation is the lifeblood of any small business. Without leads you don't get new business. Without new business you go away. It's as simple as that.

Being the best at what you do does not counts for very much if you don't know how to consistently generate new leads. Think about it... even the best in your industry will go out of business if they can't generate a consistent supply of leads that they can convert into new clients.

The key to your small business marketing success is having a lead generation system. Notice the use of the word "system".

Do you take a systematic approach to generate a constant supply of leads for your small business? Or are you guilty of trying marketing campaign after marketing campaign looking for the one that will finally deliver the clients? This is a classics small business marketing mistake. You believe a particular marketing tactic or campaign is supposed to to result in a new client or clients. But that's not right. Your marketing should result in producing leads or prospects.

Let's establish a working definition of Marketing - the active use of strategies and tactics to generate a consistent supply of high-quality leads for your business.

You see I believe small business marketing is a system. And as long as we're defining terms, a "system" refers to an organized or established procedure. So if we put those together then your marketing system is an organized or established procedure for using strategies and tactics that generate a consistent supply of high-quality leads.

Unfortunately, many small business owners don't approach marketing this way. Instead, they're switching back and forth from one marketing idea to the next looking for the one that will finally deliver the "mother lode" of new clients.

The "Flavor of the Month" might be a great idea when you own an ice cream shop. But, for a small business marketing approach it's a terrible idea. So many small business owners are creating marketing campaigns that usually don't have anything to do with the previous campaign and won't have anything to do with the next campaign. This scatter-gun approach simply doesn't work.

Take some time to document the series of steps you'll use to create continuous lead generation. Take a look at what has worked well and not so well in the past. What can you learn from those experiences. The more systematic the approach you take to you lead generation, the more consistently you'll produce high-quality leads.