James Obermayer, Executive Director and CEO of the Sales Lead Management Association and President of Sales Leakage Consulting is a regular guest blogger with ViewPoint.

As we plan for the New Year, it’s time to stop following and start leading. Time to step out from behind the lead cow, scrape the mess off your shoes, and start setting your own course.

My advice for marketing and sales CMO and CSO managers:

1. Marketing Management: If you don’t have one, it is never too late to create a plan with a revenue goal. Include goals, objectives, strategies, tactics, a lead generation spreadsheet, and a forecast for the number of inquiries and leads you need to make the revenue forecast.
2. Sales Management: Create a 100% sales lead follow-up policy for the salespeople. Want to increase sales 30% or more? Initiate a locked-down, rock-solid, no-exceptions lead follow-up policy.
3. Marketing Management: Teach your staff that it’s results that count. Nothing else matters. Creative can be charming, but only results matter. Sales leads that turn into sales are all that matter.
4. Sales Management: If you can’t execute a 100% sales lead follow-up policy by your own sales channel, hire someone to do it.
5. Marketing Management: Walk the talk. Agree to a sales lead quota. Forecast the number of sales inquiries and leads Sales needs to make quota. Create a plan to make “your quota” and measure what you manage.
6. Sales Management: Use the CRM system yourself. Be an expert. It is your best friend.
7. Marketing Management: Get a marketing automation program in place with full-on sales lead nurturing. This is, and continues to be, the best investment you can make in getting a jump on your competitors who lag on this discipline.
8. Sales and Marketing Management: Meet every two weeks on results; weekly when quota by either party is not being met.

Get out from behind the cow. Be your own man or woman; stop following and start leading.