I’m a big advocate for sales and marketing alignment — far too often I see sales and marketing organizations that don’t even pay attention to each other. They both waste a lot of time on the top of the funnel. Marketing thinks they are driving sales ready leads with tradeshows, list buying, print advertising, outsourced cold calling, etc. Sales thinks they creating new sales opportunities with their cold calling efforts into prospective target accounts. Most of the time — both marketing and sales are spinning their wheels.
That presents a pretty big question?
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This is my second interview with Craig Klein, CEO of SalesNexus and thought leader in the Sales 2.0 space. In this interview Craig talks about what’s exciting him these days, the trend of social media intelligence in CRM’s, and if there is really a difference between a warm call and cold call. And for the Twitter fans out there, he also takes a stab at describing his company in 140 words or less.
Let’s hit it!
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Here is a massively interesting and alarming sales statistic.
In 2009 only 50% of sales reps achieved their quota. This number is down from 64% quota attainment in 2008 and 67% quota attainment in 2007. The data was taken from the Bridge Group’s 2010 inside sales metrics survey, and raises many questions for sales organizations. Further, the survey indicates that since 2007 quotas have risen by 33%, while less reps are hitting quota.
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Yesterday, Trish Bertuzzi and I presented a webinar entitled: What the heck happened to the sales profession I love? and we dived into three fundamental shifts shaping the direction of the New Sales Economy. I spoke a lot about herding cattle vs. herding cats and I wanted to elaborate on the analogy here because it is really, really, really, really, (clever … just kidding), important to getting where the sales and marketing professions are heading in the B2B marketplace.
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Before I jump into the New Rules of B2B Sales, I want to talk a bit about the focus of the blog moving forward.
The New Sales Economy Blog will laser in on how to use the best of sales 2.0, social media, and inbound marketing as a B2B sales strategy for the Web 2.0 world. It is going to be an exciting ride and I have some AWESOME content planned.
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In this post I interview Mike Damphouse, CEO of Green Leads, who is widely considered to be an expert on demand generation and appointment setting. In this interview Mike shares his thoughts on how inbound marketing will change the B2B sales profession, how sales reps can sell more effectively, and he sheds some light on exactly what unfied demand generation is.
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The movement towards social media being the central nervous system for everything is well underway. The social media movement may be in its infancy, but like all growing trends, there will be those that see the light before others and position themselves for success. There will be big winners and big losers.
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Last night I received an email blast from a major technology player asking me why they did not get my business, which made no sense (for starters I’m not the decision maker or even an influencer). It is a great example of exactly what NOT TO DO in your demand generation and sales process. I’ve removed the company’s name from the email to save their face.
Let’s have a look at this doozie of an email blast (SPAM) so your team does not make the same mistakes.
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Have you ever wondered what the difference is between demand generation and inbound marketing? What does each phrase mean for marketing and sales? Which approach should your company focus on? Is one more relevant or important than the other? If you find yourself scratching your head trying to hammer out the differences between demand generation and inbound marketing so you can execute, well, this post is for you.
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The awesome crew over at The Bridge Group just released their 2010 Inside Sales Compensation and Metrics Report (it is an absolute must read). The report is chock full of great data, visualizations, and commentary that really shows some interesting and surprising trends within inside sales organizations. The B2B sales battlefield is changing and the report shows you exactly where the changes are happening so you can adapt your offensive.
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Here are the slides via slideshare from the webinar: What the Heck Happened to the Sales Profession I Love, that Trish Bertuzzi and I presented. We talked about how 3 fundamental shifts are reshaping the sales profession and the effect it will have on sales organizations.
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Guest post by Darion Miller and Steve Teneriello from the Service Coach blog
Generally speaking, sales people fall into three distinct categories based on personality. Let’s talk about each one. (You’ll probably identity some of the members of your organization right away.)
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