Sales articles by the best and brightest in the field

• Data-Driven Campaigns: Five Ways to Leverage the Customer Data You Have to Drive Conversions and Salesby Morgan Witt
  As marketers, we are all looking to reach "nirvana": targeting the right person with the right message at the right time. It's the clear path to driving conversion rates that exceed expectations. The days of blasting promotion messages to all are dead and gone. The conversation has changed. We must put ourselves in customers' shoes and target them individually as best we can through data-driven strategies. more
• Maximizing Lead-Generation Marketing ROI, Part 3: Measuring Effectivenessby Jim Lenskold
  How do you know whether your lead-generation program is working and delivering a good ROI for the company? You may be doing some lead tracking to understand conversion rates and customer profitability, which is great. But the sales team will inevitably let Marketing know that (1) Marketing was just a small step in closing the sale so the sales team deserves the credit; (2) the sales team would have found and closed those leads anyway, so there is no incremental value; or (3) the leads are fine, but there is just never enough. We need reliable measurements to both prove and improve our marketing effectiveness. more
• Boost Your Business With Seven Easy Digital Marketing Techniques for Lead Generationby Yael K. Penn
  Growing your in-house database should be at the top of every marketers list. Why? When done correctly, it will house your most-qualified and responsive prospects. Though organic list growth may take time and effort, you will love the rewards. Consider the following techniques to acquire new leads and grow your list with success. more
• Affiliate Marketing: How to Boost Sales and Minimize Riskby Kimberly Smith
  Affiliate marketing is in a growth stage, strengthened of late by an explosion in the number of bloggers and other site publishers who are recognizing its rewards. But an affiliate program can be catastrophic if they are not well-managed. more
• 25 Ways to Build Trust (and Sales!) with Customer Success Storiesby Casey Hibbard
  Capturing the experiences of your most successful customers not only boosts your credibility but also educates buyers and shows them the payoff of your solutions. Here are 25 ways to use customer success stories in your sales and marketing to increase buyers' trust. more
• Reading Your Buyers' Digital Body Language: A How-To Guideby Steve Woods
  Today's buyer is in control. This transition means that our sales teams are no longer required as a conduit of information. Industry websites, vendor sites, blogs, social media, and search all make the required information readily available and, by doing so, leave the sales representative out of the room. As a result, it's impossible for the sales rep to read a buyer's physical body language to understand what aspects of a message are of interest and determine whether the prospect wants to move forward. Marketing teams must therefore instead read a buyer's digital body language—his or her Web activities, email responses, search activities, and engagements in events and demos—to understand what messages are working. more
• Maximizing Lead-Generation Marketing ROI, Part 2: Insight, Alignment, and Actionby Jim Lenskold
  The need to better align the sales and marketing organizations is generally well known. They are connected through their shared roles in motivating customer-purchase activities and divided by different cultures that concentrate on distinct portions of the customer-purchase funnel. There's no doubt that alignment is good, but what must you ultimately accomplish to drive performance and profitability? more
• Five Ways to Maximize ROW (Return on Webinar)by Kimberly Smith
  How can your webinar receive a standing ovation? In a follow-up to last week's article, here's a guide to the technical steps for ensuring your webinar becomes a smash hit... as much within your own organization as among the intended audience. more
• Webinar Essentials: Five Must-Have Ingredients of Successby Kimberly Smith
  For cooking up new leads or positioning a company as a thought leader and trusted industry resource, webinars serve as an effective tactic. They create dialog and tempt prospects to get to know you better. In fact, webinars can become a company's best lead-generation tool; now get the scoop on what goes into planning a great online event from our own online event team. more
• Case Story: Boosting Email-Subscriber Satisfactionby Stephanie Miller
  Sometimes doing a little more for your email subscribers can make a huge difference. Tafford Uniforms of North Wales, Pa., faced a challenge to engage email subscribers because of two common but seemingly incongruent realities. more
• Ten Essentials of Software-as-a-Service Solution Marketingby Peter A. Cohen
  Here are 10 essentials of software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution marketing. more
• Achieving Relevance in Direct Digital Marketing: An Introductionby Bryce Marshall
  There are five keys to making a relevance-centered approach a reality in your direct digital marketing programs(such as email, websites, mobile, and so on). more
• Retail Survival Tips in a New Economic and Customer Environmentby Adam Boyden
  Retailers did everything possible to attract buyers over the holidays. From educational sessions to discounts and coupons, and special offers, retailers used their ingenuity and marketing smarts to make the best of a dismal season. Nonetheless, numbers were down and every indicator pointed toward an even gloomier 2009. Perhaps the very profile of the retail environment has shifted as consumers settle in for what may be a protracted economic change. Here are some smart, manageable tips on how to survive through the second half of the 2009 buying season and keep your business on track. more
• Anatomy of a Novel-Sized Landing Page, Part 2by Kim MacPherson
  In Part 1 of this article, the author talked a little bit about the necessary components to a successful landing page: You need "bones" to hold it all together; you need to keep the message on track and motivating by maintaining a consistent theme throughout; and you need to stir emotions... pique curiosity... and so on. Once a prospect's heart (and all those emotions that go along with it) gets in the game, you're pretty much home free. Well... almost. more
• 'White Swan' Marketing, or How to Focus on What Worksby Jonathan Salem Baskin
  When the latest marketing answers fail to produce the results you expect, maybe it's time to start asking different questions. You don't need me to tell you that we're in a crisis of confidence: Consumers don't believe or act on the information we give them in the ways we'd hope, so we're losing faith in the strategies and tools we use to communicate with them. We're asked questions about sales, and we reply with answers about "engagement" and conversational "buzz." Budgets are down, expectations are up, and the proliferation of new solutions for "engaging" with consumers in conversations seems inversely proportional to results that our employers and clients can value. We believe that somehow, sometime, all those efforts will coalesce—the dots will connect—and yield stunning successes, just like those celebrated in case histories and magazine articles. I have news for you: We're chasing black swans. And if we keep doing it, we're doomed. more
• Think and Act Like a Nonprofit to Deepen Connections and Build Relationshipsby Roger Sametz
  For decades, the prevailing wisdom was that nonprofits should learn from for-profit enterprises how to become "more businesslike." Many nonprofits thus embraced best practices in branding, marketing, service delivery, money management, and leadership. They have also learned how to keep different business models running simultaneously. To be successful in all these endeavors has required nonprofits to develop approaches and skills—particularly in communication and branding—that (surprise!) for-profits can now learn from. more
• How Businesses Can Use Social Media to Shorten the Sales Cycleby Barbara Bix
  How can businesses use social media to shorten the sales cycle? And how can marketers measure the ROI of their social media investments? more
• Win/Loss Analysis (Part 2)—A Process for Taking Revenue up a Notchby Laura Patterson
  Part 1 of this article series examined the purpose, definition, and metric associated with win/loss analysis. This final part discusses getting started, questions to include in the discussion, when and how to conduct the analysis, and using the findings more
• The Art and Science of Web Analytics: Going Beyond the Status Quoby Chris Golec
  Companies are realizing that in today's competitive business environment, marketers must go beyond the status quo of a Web site that acts like a brochure if they are to induce user behavior and enter the world of opportunity outside of counting visitors and click-throughs. The trick is to combine both art and science to understand your customers and maximize your marketing mix. While analytics are definitely a starting point, B2B firms need to move beyond that to turn their Web sites into a lead-generation tool. more
• Anatomy of a Novel-Sized Landing Page (Part 1)by Kim MacPherson
  A good landing page should tell a story. But filling the page with fluff isn't going to sell your product or service. There is a method to the madness behind the creation of a great splash or jump page. And it's a pretty systematic, organized, and detailed method, at that. more

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Sales case studies, deconstructing real life examples and illustrating lessons learned

• How an Interactive Game Stimulated Product Awareness and SalesSony United
  CASE STUDY: To differentiate itself in a crowded consumer-electronics market, Sony Electronics leveraged a bond—James Bond—with sister company Sony Pictures. A Bond-themed interactive game and sweepstakes resulted in 45,000 clickthroughs to product pages—and a 12-15% increase in sales of those products. more
• Using Video to Reel in Record High Traffic and ConversionsKinaxis
  CASE STUDY: Supply-chain software provider Kinaxis needed to reel in more customers, so it created a comedy video series, which soon became its most popular online content. The videos drew record site traffic and conversions, as well as doubling RSS subscriptions to the company blog within the first month. more
• How a New-Product Launch via Facebook Resulted in Immediate Sales, Ongoing Consumer Relationships3M Canada Company
  CASE STUDY: At a fraction of the cost of traditional media, 3M Canada not only generated immediate sales and new excitement around its Scotch Tape brand but also gathered invaluable intelligence about its target market and forged long-term relationships with consumers. more
• How a Single Voice Recording Scored Immediate Ticket Sales for Boston CollegeBoston College Athletics
  CASE STUDY: Boston College had just two weeks to inspire alumni and fans to make a last-minute trip to Florida after the school's football team secured its first conference title game. An enticing voice-marketing campaign quickly generated 5,000 ticket sales, netting $200,000. more
• How a Company's Word-of-Mouth Strategies and Customer Focus Helped Grow Its User Base 150%FreshBooks
  CASE STUDY: Small businesses need all the TLC they can get. Billing and invoicing online-solution provider FreshBooks knows that better than most. Its customer-centric focus is so fresh and refreshing, word-of-mouth has spread far and wide—and helped grow its user base 150%. more
• Four Steps to Spurring B2B New-Product Awareness and Sales via TwitterCOOP Ale Works
  CASE STUDY: Twitter isn't the first tool that comes to mind in the B2B marketing toolbox. But COOP Ale Works deftly used it to generate buzz among potential consumers of its specialty brews—creating a level of demand that retail establishments, such as bars, couldn't ignore. more
• How a Targeted Lead-Development Program Earned an IT Company 34% Yearly Growth for Five Years (and Counting)CenterBeam
  CASE STUDY: For IT company CenterBeam, sales is indeed a numbers game, but not in the traditional sense. Rather than trying to engage as many leads as possible, the company's sales force instead nurtures a smaller quantity of well-qualified prospects. more
• How an Automotive Dealership Used Voice Marketing to Supplement Sales, Boost Customer RetentionMike Miller Hyundai
  CASE STUDY: While automotive dealers struggle to survive, Mike Miller Hyundai has reached out to customers via voice marketing, at a fraction of the cost of direct mail. Now: service bays are filled, and customer retention is significantly higher. more
• How a Medical Imaging Company Helped a New Sales Team Establish Client Relationships and Surpass Sales GoalsToshiba America Medical Systems, Inc.
  CASE STUDY: In tough economic times, one company set out to care for its people in a unique way. Toshiba America Medical Systems efforts to align and nurture its sales team means the team is now on track to exceed sales goals. more
• How a New Mom and Pop Pet Food Retailer Used Social Media to Achieve $2.5 Million in Sales in Under Two YearsK9 Cuisine
  CASE STUDY: K9 Cuisine helped fill a void created by the pet-food crisis of 2007. Since then, its annual sales have reached $2.5 million, and it expects to double that in the next 8-10 months. How? With the help of social media. more
• How HP Boosted Product Sales 84% by Letting the Blogosphere Run Its Online Marketing PromotionHewlett-Packard
  CASE STUDY: Hewlett-Packard simply handed over a $5,000+ computer prize package to each of 31 bloggers, asking them to give away the prizes to their readers in any way they saw fit. HP trusted the bloggers' influence over the market it wanted to reach—and had faith in their creativity. Turned out, that trust and faith were not misplaced. more
• How New Media Helped a Rural UK Mail Order Company Go Nationwide, GlobalWiggly Wigglers
  CASE STUDY: Wiggly Wigglers is a natural-gardening retail company set in the countryside between England and Wales. Its products are not high-tech, but its marketing certainly is. Here's how the company abandoned traditional marketing and instead took up a podcast, a blog, a wiki, and more... and then reaped the results. more
• How a Controversial Book Became a Bestseller via an Aggressive Web CampaignVanguard Press
  CASE STUDY: When the current POTUS is the villain of your book, it doesn't matter that you're a best-selling author... because the mainstream media will find it too hot to touch. So what do you do? You go to the Web. more
• How a Telecommunications Company Used Video to Streamline Its Sales ProcessDigium
  CASE STUDY: Digium created a Web-based video that covered all the essential points of in-person presentations, but in a format more easily accessible to all of its sales outlets. The results: a more efficient sales process and an effective press tool. more
• How a Small Internet Publisher Doubled Its Email Database & Reduced Marketing Spend With Cost-per-LeadTripmela, Inc.
  CASE STUDY: Earlier this year, when online travel publisher Tripmela was in startup mode, CEO Jared Blank determined that he needed to achieve a $1.50 cost per acquisition if he was going to lead this fledgling to profitability. Here's how he did it. more
• How Sherwin-Williams Used Digital Collateral for a Newly Launched Product to Engage Retailers and ConsumersSherwin-Williams Company, Krylon division
  You have a snazzy new product and need marketing collateral to show it off. You want to rally your sales force around it, and at the same time excite the retailers who'll carry it. Print won't do. But digital will. more
• How an Email Marketing Solution Startup Signed up 300 Customers in 7 DaysMad Mimi
  This past spring, Mad Mimi's marketing challenge was to create a big splash in the crowded pool of email marketing providers. With no ad budget, the company reached out virally to certain segments of the tech community, including bloggers. The result: a grassroots-driven awareness, positive buzz, and some 300 new customers within a week. more
• How a Video Podcast Series Garnered a Top Industry Award and 68,500 views in 12 MonthsTellabs
  Last spring, telecom player Tellabs launched its "Get Schooled" video-podcast series as both a way to communicate with customers as well as showcase the depth and breadth of its offerings. Get Schooled did that and more... generating tens of thousands of views, landing a coveted interview, and garnering an industry award. more
• A Niche E-tailer Sizes Up Glamour... One Customer at a Time, Boosting Sales with a Personalized Web Site ExperienceSydney's Closet
  Five years ago, Sydney's Closet sold only plus-size prom dresses. Since then, however, the company has significantly expanded its lines, and it sought to segment its customers to help deliver content and offers that would be specific to their interests and needs. Here's its approach. more
• How a Consumer Electronics Company Leveraged the Power of Community to Uncover Market Preferences and Build Excitement for a New Product LineEastman Kodak Company
  When it chose to enter the saturated inkjet market 20 years late, Eastman Kodak had a few surprises up its sleeve. Still, the company found it also needed a little marketing ingenuity if it was to gain market share. more

Sales: See all 63 case studies

Sales online seminar broadcasts from the best minds in marketing

• Seven Fast-Acting Methods to Drive B2B Revenue NowAttendee rating:  - May 14, 2009
• Behind the Online Curtain: Secrets for Building a Successful Webinar ProgramAttendee rating:  - Apr 23, 2009
• Extreme PowerPoint Makeover: Transform Your Data-Driven Presentation Beyond Bullet PointsAttendee rating:  - Apr 9, 2009
• How to Make Your B-to-B Website a Lead Generation MachineAttendee rating:  - Feb 26, 2009
• How to Motivate Online Action: Compelling Incentives for B2B Lead GenerationAttendee rating:  - Nov 6, 2008
• Dialing Isn't Dead: How B2B Marketers Can Pick Up the Phone and Pick Up BusinessAttendee rating:  - Oct 2, 2008
• Seven Secrets to Inspiring PresentationsAttendee rating:  - Jul 17, 2008
• Beyond Trade Show Metrics: Improving Your Event Marketing ROIAttendee rating:  - Jul 10, 2008
• Telling a Story that Sells: Case Studies with HeartAttendee rating:  - Feb 14, 2008
• Generating Leads With Compelling White PapersAttendee rating:  - Feb 8, 2008
• How to Make Marketing Indispensable to SalesAttendee rating:  - Feb 7, 2008
• Buyer Personas: A Smart Way to Align B2B Sales and MarketingAttendee rating:  - Jan 17, 2008
• How to Develop a B2B Lead Nurturing Program that Really WorksAttendee rating:  - Dec 20, 2007
• Promotions: Instant Gratification for Small Business MarketersAttendee rating:  - Dec 14, 2007
• Get More Customer Mindshare: Developing a Rock-Solid Value PropositionAttendee rating:  - Nov 29, 2007
• How To Build a Consistent Pipeline of Customer ReferralsAttendee rating:  - Oct 18, 2007
• Small Business Series: How to Set Prices the Smart WayAttendee rating:  - Aug 17, 2007
• Arm Your Sales Team with Collateral That B2B Prospects Really WantAttendee rating:  - Jul 19, 2007
• Customer Message Management 1: Four Steps to Improving the Sales-to-Customer ConversationAttendee rating:  - Jun 7, 2007
• Delivering Presentations That Make the SaleAttendee rating:  - May 3, 2007

Sales: See all 28 seminars

Sales mini articles distilling bite-sized advice (from our Get to the Point newsletters)

• The Times They Are A-Changin'—Better PrepareHigh-Tech Mktg & Sales
  There's something in the air. There are small and (dare we say) consistent signs that that the economic crisis has begun to level off. Many companies, while still implementing cost-cutting ...
• Is This My Fairest URL of All?Interactive Marketing
  As of June 13, Facebook has made it possible for users to secure a URL for both their profiles and any Facebook Pages they administer. Why this matters: Facebook is ...
• I Feel Your Pain—Here's an AspirinSmall Business
  "When your visitor arrives at your site," says Pete Caputa in a post at HubSpot, "they're most likely looking to solve a problem. In order to grab their attention and ...
• You Have Much to Learn, GrasshopperMarketing in a Downturn
  In a post at the Marketing Minute, blogger Drew McLellan admits he gets some rather strange mail. "But I have to say," he notes, "chocolate-covered grasshoppers might just top the ...
• Tips for That Pivotal Sales PresentationHigh-Tech Mktg & Sales
  Closing an IT sale is a complex process. But in most cases there is usually one pivotal sales presentation that can firmly seal the deal. Darrin Mourer, in a post ...
• Nobody Likes a Wild-Goose ChaseEmail Marketing
  Chad White of the Retail Email blog was impressed when he recently received an email from Lands' End with this subject line: Free Shipping + 20-50% off summer! Swim, shorts, ...
• Yes You Can: Bridge That Sales & Marketing DivideHigh-Tech Mktg & Sales
  Squabbling or lack of coordination between sales and marketing teams can lead to longer sales cycles and increased costs—or it can scuttle deals. With so much at risk, why can't ...
• Do It Now: Get WhitelistedEmail Marketing
  Mailer Alert: A new Yahoo Mail feature—the "contacts button"—should make whitelisting even more important for email marketers. "You get a lot of emails, some good (from friends, family, even favorite ...
• Be a Pocket MillionaireInteractive Marketing
  Right in time for the much-anticipated iPhone OS 3.0 Software Update debut on June 17, AdMob has introduced a slew of ad units that will help enterprising advertisers make the most ...
• Walk a Few Steps in Their ShoesB2B Marketing
  "Value, desire, and price rule our lives as salespeople," says Mike Sigers in a recent post at the Simplenomics blog. When a prospect considers a purchase, Sigers explains, the product's ...
• Look to Your Own DNAMarketing in a Downturn
  Different people have had different reactions to our hobbled economy. Some are heartsick over tough choices made to keep a company solvent; others might thrill to the thought of newly ...
• Think of It as Scaling DownCustomer Insight
  "It's not all doom and gloom in the U.S. economy," Deb Riechmann says in a recent AP article. "Some products are bucking the recession and flying off store shelves." Folks ...
• Latest List-Growing StrategiesEmail Marketing
  In cooperation with Ball State University and the Email Marketers Club, ExactTarget studied 18 methods used by marketers to build an email list. Among the results published in its 2009 ...
• Short, Sweet and Clicked-ThroughEmail Marketing
  In a post at the DIRECT website, Ken Magill discusses the results of a survey conducted by MailerMailer. Among its more interesting findings: Subject lines containing up to 35 characters ...
• You Talkin' to Me?Interactive Marketing
  Once in a while, a digital ad grabs you just like that. And one thing that really boosts its impact is if the person featured in it is—you. Read on:  Last year, to sell tickets ...
• Subject: Rock On!Email Marketing
  "A subject line … invites others into your email marketing open house," says Josh Nason in an article at MarketingProfs. "If you have something to sell or a message you ...
• Meet the SEO Royal FamilySearch Engine Marketing
  We all know that content is king in search engine optimization, but in a recent Search Engine Land post, Daniel Waisberg reminds us that "usability is queen." According to Waisberg, ...
• Lights! Camera! Take Action!Email Marketing
  It's a simple fact: We love watching online videos. In a post at the Digital Marketing blog, Eydie Cubarrubia cites Nielsen Online research that found 119 billion unique viewers watched 7 ...
• Seeing the Light on ConversionsHigh-Tech Mktg & Sales
  Getting the most out of your website? As a B2B marketer in the IT world, you likely have a key objective for your site: generating leads and moving prospects to ...
• Wow! Look Who Just Stopped by!B2B Marketing
  Careful: You just missed out on a great lead when you analyzed that B2B conversion rate. That's what Todd Michiels says, anyway, in a recent article at Miechiels.com. All too often, ...

Sales: See all 124 quick reads

Sales marketing downloads for the busy professional

• Twitter Success Stories: How 11 Companies are Achieving Their Marketing Objectives—140 Characters at a Time
  Twitter’s brief tweets let you communicate with friends and family. But did you know that those 140 characters can also build your business? Read Twitter Success Stories: How 11 companies are achieving their marketing objectives, 140 characters at a time.
• Small Biz How-To Guide: Avoiding Key Pitfalls
  Let's face it, more small businesses fail than succeed. Make sure yours is one of the winners with this guide to getting your small business off the ground and solidly on the road to success.
• Lead Generation How-To Guide
  Great product, great sales team, great marketing collateral - now what? People to sell to, of course. Put your lead generation tactics under the microscope with this enlightening how-to guide. Get more and better qualified leads, faster today.
• B2B Direct Marketing How-To Guide
  Direct marketing is one of the fastest changing disciplines within marketing today. What worked 10 years ago, isn't working today. Heck, what worked last week sometimes doesn't even work today, so keep your skills sharp with his How-To guide, focusing on the B2B market.
• Trade Show Marketing Template
  Trade show marketing is a high-risk, high-reward endeavor. This Template provides a sytematic look at trade show marketing. It walks you through selection and promotion, to follow-up and measurement. This step-by-step guide will insure your trade show marketing is effective, efficient, measurable, and successful.
• Marketing ROI and the Sales Funnel
  In this guide, you will learn how to structure, motivate and measure the marketing and sales functions to maximize profit. Topics include: 1) a high-level self-assessment to determine potential sources of profit leakage; 2) how to map out and improve strategies related to the buying cycle; 3) how to apply marketing ROI principles to create strategies to reduce and recycle leakage from the buying cycle; and 4) how to leverage insight on your key profit drivers and customer-level analysis to improve profitability.

Sales: See all 6 downloads

Sales Daily Chirp for the busy professional

• 'Mainstream' Is Not a Target Market
  Mainstream is not a target market. In fact, by trying to blandly appeal to everyone, you wind up not really appealing to anyone in particular. Yet, in many companies, "niche" is a dirty word, right up there with "polarizing." more
• How Much Has Apple Really Made from iPhone Apps?
  It was just a month ago that Apple reached the prestigious mark of 1 billion downloads from its iPhone App Store—a huge milestone. The enormous number of downloaded apps elicits the question: How much money has Apple really made from paid apps? more