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• Lead-Generation Case Study: How Multiple Touches Can Lead to Profit MultiplesPaul McKeon
  Salespeople are notoriously poor in following up on qualified leads. In fact, experts say, sales does not follow up on more than 70% of leads. Why? Field salespeople in most ...
  Collaboration, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Lead Quality, Marketing Tips, Sales
• Loving Your Way to Loyalty in a B2B WorldJill Griffin
  Much has been written about how business-to-consumer firms show their "love" to customers and win loyalty in return. But how about business-to-business customers? How do savvy firms love these buyers and ...
  B2B Marketing, Collaboration, Customer Engagement, Customer Relationships, Marketing Inspiration, Sales
• Not Just Sweet Nothings: Writing Words of Love to Your CustomersJonathan Kranz
  It may be awkward to openly acknowledge it, but every sale is a kind of seduction. As marketers, we make introductions, pursue courtships and hope for consummation—the sale. Here ...
  Customer Engagement, Sales, Web Copy, Websites, Writing
• How to Make Your CEO Swoon Over MarketingRoy Young
  Does your CEO love marketing? Does he or she recognize that marketing is the engine of the enterprise? And does he or she empower marketing to improve performance? Just ...
  Creativity, Metrics, Sales, Segmentation, Targeting
• Does Your Company Suffer From Short-Visit Syndrome?Todd Miechiels
  Imagine if half the people that called your sales team hung up within 10 seconds. There are not prospects they were cold-calling either, but interested people calling them. Heads would ...
  Collaboration, Sales, Web Analytics, Websites
• Marketing Challenge: How to Sell ServicesHank Stroll
  How would you sell computer repair services? Fast, friendly, and reliable? That kind of language speaks to the company's opinion of itself, not necessarily what it can do for its ...
  Creativity, Customer Service, Marketing Challenges, Product Marketing, Sales, Services Marketing
• Truce! Ending the War Between Sales and MarketingBill Babcock, Bill Koss, Bill Rozier
  Most companies have a serious problem: Sales hates marketing, and marketing despises sales. Marketing is having great success generating leads and uncovering opportunity. But sales has no respect for what ...
  Collaboration, Lead Generation, Lead Quality, Marketing Inspiration, Sales
• What Your Worst Customers Teach You About LoyaltyJill Griffin
  Customers—even bad ones—are our best loyalty teachers. In fact, the lessons gleaned from "problem" customers are often rich and long-lasting. Consider the following less-than-ideal customer types and some of the ...
  Collaboration, CRM, Customer Acquisition, Customer Behavior, Customer Retention, Sales
• Is Your Purchasing Department Stripping Value Along With Reducing Costs?Jeff Thull
  There are two big problems with today's purchasing departments. Most obviously, purchasing is incented to save dollars of cost, a mandate that too often means dollars of value are lost. ...
  Collaboration, Management, Sales
• Marketing Challenge: Warming Up Cold CallsHank Stroll
  In most of the US, the winter weather outside is frightful, but that's no reason for cold calls to feel the same way. Small business personnel typically do multiple jobs, ...
  Customer Engagement, Marketing Challenges, Sales
• Three Strategies (and How to Use Them) to Make Your Sales Funnel Flow FasterMichael Webb
  When your company is well synchronized with market needs, prospects buy and money flows. Unfortunately, few companies can maintain a constant flow. Salespeople churn out demonstrations, samples and proposals. Marketing ...
  Collaboration, Lead Nurturing, Sales, Targeting
• Seven Common Sales Challenges That Prevent Executive Buy-InJeff Thull
  Gaining access and connecting to executive decision makers is a challenge of most sales professionals. Here are seven common challenges that sales professionals need to resolve in order to effectively ...
  Collaboration, Management, Marketing Tips, Sales
• Webinars Aren't Just for SellingBob Hanson
  While a marketing webinar is the most common use of one-to-many Web collaboration services, it is by no means the only way of leveraging Web events. Webinars, which offer a ...
  Positioning, Sales, Targeting, Thought Leadership, Webinars
• Is It Time to Revamp Your Communications Plan?Barbara Bix
  If your sales cycles seem to be dragging, it may be time to revamp your communications plan. Done well, your communications programs can generate demand for your solutions, create ...
  Copywriting, Customer Engagement, Lead Nurturing, Sales
• Do You Really Understand the 80/20 Rule?Matthew Syrett
  Few rules are more widely quoted in marketing today than the 80/20 Rule, which states that 80 percent of your sales come from just 20 percent of your customer base. Intuitively, ...
  Marketing Tips, Relationship Marketing, Sales
• How Web Content Can Shorten a Complex SaleDavid Meerman Scott
  Savvy marketing professionals understand that sales and marketing must work together to move prospects through the sales pipeline. This is especially important in the complex sale with long decision making ...
  Collaboration, Lead Generation, Personas, Sales, Thought Leadership, Web Content, Web Copy, Webinars, White Papers
• What Makes a Successful Salesperson?Nido Qubein
  What makes a successful salesperson? Is it the right product? The right attitude? A certain mastery of a skill set? All those things help. But they don't go far enough to ...
  Customer Experience, Customer Service, Direct Marketing, E-Commerce, Marketing Tips, Positioning, Sales
• Have You Filled Your Marketing Funnel?Michael Perla
  At its essence, the marketing funnel is an effective tool to use in evaluating what activities you are successfully executing along your closed loop marketing process—branding, targeting, closing deals, and ...
  Advertising, B2B Marketing, Brand Awareness, Branding, Lead Generation, Sales, Targeting, Word-of-Mouth
• The End of Solution-Based SellingJeff Thull
  The way most companies are selling solutions just doesn't work in today's business world. Things have gotten so complex that most customers can't even comprehend what their problems are, let ...
  Collaboration, Customer Experience, Marketing Tips, Sales
• How Marketing Should Communicate (So Sales Will Listen)Alison Chandless
  Let's face it, sales people are notoriously hard to impress—even when you can get their attention. They tend to be very opportunistic learners; they want information when they need it, ...
  Collaboration, Creativity, Customer Engagement, Podcasting, Print Collateral, Sales, Social Media