- 11 Tips for Challenging Government-Marketing Myths and Reaching Buyers by Becky Sheetz-Runkle
Just as selling to government is different from selling to any other industry, marketing to government requires a distinct approach. Although there is no shortage of ways to reach government buyers, some ways are better than others. To help shatter ...
- Online Lead Generation: A Good Way to Sell a Lead—but No Way to Sell a Car by Scott Painter
The Internet was expected to dramatically change the way we buy and sell new cars by offering consumers better information and the opportunity to be in control of the process, and, by extension, giving dealers a more effective, targeted channel ...
- Software Sales: How to Do More With Less by Tim Keyes
"Do more with less." That is the challenge for software marketers today: to get better results from their marketing programs on increasingly smaller budgets.
It's important for software marketers to analyze the effectiveness of their programs and determine their return on ...
- Maximizing Lead-Generation Marketing ROI, Part 3: Measuring Effectiveness by 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 ...
- Anatomy of a Novel-Sized Landing Page, Part 2 by 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 ...
- Reading Your Buyers' Digital Body Language: A How-To Guide by 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 ...
- How Businesses Can Use Social Media to Shorten the Sales Cycle
by Barbara BixHow can businesses use social media to shorten the sales cycle? And how can marketers measure the ROI of their social media investments?
- Knowing What Matters—Your Success Criteria—Is a Guiding Light in the Dark by Nilofer Merchant
Here's a scenario many of us have experienced: The CEO sets the revenue goals in the annual business plan; the plan is handed down; and the business units scramble to make the numbers.
Only one thing is wrong: We don't know ...
- Maximizing Lead-Generation Marketing ROI, Part 2: Insight, Alignment, and Action by 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 ...
- To Sell During a Recession, Shop a Mile in Their Shoes by Jenny Schade
Harnessing the power of customer insights throughout your organization produces a powerful, ongoing interactive connection with key constituents that competitors can't duplicate. Beyond the clever words and attention-getting visuals, the connection with the customer truly engages. When the product has ...
- How You Lose Sales With Bad Search Marketing Decisions Based on 'Best-Practice' Web Analytics by Todd Miechiels
One of the most dangerous trends emerging is that B2B marketers, and their extended search-marketing resources, are regularly making bad decisions based on "solid analytics data."
All too often, marketers are deciding to spend either more or less money based solely ...
- GM's Biggest Strategic Blunder by David A. Aaker
GM's CEO, Rick Wagoner, has opined that the automaker's biggest blunder was to walk away from the electric car.
But GM's biggest strategic blunder might have been its failure to view Saturn strategically—and as a consequence not allowing it to fulfill ...
- Four Steps to Marketing Smarter (and for Less) in Today's Economy
by Kimberly SmithThe economy is sour, consumers aren't buying, and the competitive landscape is mutating. What's a marketer to do? Well, you can start by following advice from the likes of Tim Berry, Seth Godin, David Meerman Scott, Bryan Eisenberg, and Jonathan ...
- Thinking Like a Realtor: Five Steps to Enhance Sales at Your Web Site
by David PolleyCould your Web site could do a better job of engaging, converting, and retaining customers?
Look at how another industry—in this case, real estate—preps their product for market. Here's how you can apply their strategies to your own situation.
- Incentives: 5 Cardinal Rules, 10 Great Ideas by Kristin Zhivago
When the economy gets tight, customers can take forever to reach a buying decision. So, managers think up incentives that will encourage the customer to buy. Whatever lure you use should inspire the prospective customer to edge a little closer ...
- Beyond YouTube: Getting Started With Video for Marketing and Sales by Gary Anderson
Do you want to record a video message for on-demand access? Do you want to do live video from a conference? Or do you have completely different objectives?
For marketers who want to put video communication to good use, the key ...
- Getting in the Front Door of Prospects: Five Creative Marketing Ideas That Work
by Elaine FogelHow can you build and steward a long-term customer relationship if you can't access your prospect in the first place? To reach those big fish takes creativity, perseverance, ingenuity, chutzpah, and, sometimes, just plain dumb luck. Here are five creative ...
- How to Size and Build a Sales Territory
by Bob HowardCompanies should (and can!) implement a sustainable, consistent telephone prospecting program to develop a "sales territory" using an approach that sales reps will actually adopt.
If telephone prospecting controls the destiny of your business, you should investigate a better way to ...
- Fueling the Engine of Sales Success: Five Keys to Sustainable Self-Motivation by David McNally
Beaten down by a constant stream of customer "No's," some salespeople find it difficult to pick themselves up and jump back in the game. But there are other salespeople whose motivation and resilience enable them to make every customer call ...
- Selling Professional Services? It's All About Leverage by Barbara Bix
Attracting—and ultimately closing—deals with new clients can take professional service providers anywhere between several months and several years. Since most firms rely on their partners and principals to bring in new work, client acquisition ends up consuming a lot of ...