Lead Generation Insight

  • Illuminating the Furture

  • Leading Lights: Content Marketing Strategist Ardath Albee

    • Leading Lights: Content Marketing Strategist Ardath Albee
    21 Feb, 2010
    As one of the most insightful and prolific strategists in the emerging field of content marketing, Ardath Albee deserves your attention. She is the author of the compelling new book eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale. But she also blogs...

  • What Jack Bauer Can Teach Us

    • What Jack Bauer Can Teach Us
    22 Jan, 2010
    Jack is back. With a new season of 24, Kiefer Sutherland (aka Jack Bauer) is back on TV taking out bad guys. Should you care? I think so. Here’s why: Every week, this fast-paced drama offers us insights into the...

  • Want to Build Trust? Want to be a Market Leader? Be a Thought Leader

    • Want to Build Trust? Want to be a Market Leader? Be a Thought Leader
    21 Dec, 2009
    Why is thought leadership increasingly critical to the success of professional services firms? Why do market leaders also tend to be thought leaders? As a growing number of firms across the professional services spectrum have discovered, thought leadership can strengthen...

  • Why Unify B2B Marketing? Poe Knows

    • Why Unify B2B Marketing? Poe Knows
    27 Oct, 2009
    One interesting thing about marketing is its capacity for wide pendulum swings. Sometimes, it's the right-brain creatives, those who help us re-imagine the world, who hold the power. Other times, it's the left-brain analytical types, those who claim they can...

  • Naked Emperors -- and their PR Firms

    • Naked Emperors -- and their PR Firms
    16 Oct, 2009
    PR professionals, too often, are letting their executive clients down. They are encouraging them to stroll out in the public square unclothed, unprepared and uninteresting. The result? Their clients are exposed to criticism -- or, worse, exposed as leaders without...

  • Mastering the Customer Success Cycle

    • Mastering the Customer Success Cycle
    17 Sep, 2009
    "The image of the world around us, which we carry in our head, is just a model.� -- Jay Wright Forrester We are all enabled and constrained by our mental models. They shape our thinking and influence our actions. While...

  • Confronting the Guidance Imperative

    • Confronting the Guidance Imperative
    31 Jul, 2009
    You remember the term "economic boom," don't you? Well, will the boom ever resume? We experienced extraordinary demand for new products in the post-war period of the 1950s and 1960s. We bought new cars, televisions and household appliances. Our manufacturing...

  • Who Will Fill the Vision Vacuum?

    • Who Will Fill the Vision Vacuum?
    15 Jul, 2009
    In the past, buyers might have relied on third-party sources such as the press, analysts and independent consultants for insights that would facilitate their decision-making efforts. They still do. However, there’s a growing gap between the types of research and...

  • Thought Leadership w/o Thought Leaders?

    • Thought Leadership w/o Thought Leaders?
    14 Jul, 2009
    How can we have thought leadership without thought leaders? That's the question embedded in recent research published by BlissPR that looks at thought leadership trends in the professional services industry. It seems to me they have uncovered some challenging dilemmas...

  • Creating the Content Factory

    • Creating the Content Factory
    08 Jul, 2009
    We've reached a consensus in many spheres of the B2B marketing world that relevant and compelling content is critical to success. But where's the execution? Few firms are actually pulling it off at this point. One reason firms are struggling...
  • Idea Sellers

  • Sales Performance & Compensation Relationship in a Recession

    • Sales Performance & Compensation Relationship in a Recession
    11 Mar, 2010
    There are two types of business owners: 1. Those who view their sales team as an asset. 2. Those who view their sales team as an expense. Type 2's do not understand the value and contribution of their salespeople. They...

  • Good Salespeople Are Hard to Find

    • Good Salespeople Are Hard to Find
    11 Mar, 2010
    In his latest article for Salesopedia, Mark Hunter writes about the widespread and growing need for effective salespeople and the simultaneous yet inverse policies of many employers that inhibit salesperson's growth and compensation. "I recently read a survey conducted by...

  • Sales Performance & Compensation Relationship in a Recession

    • Sales Performance & Compensation Relationship in a Recession
    10 Mar, 2010
    There are two types of business owners: 1. Those who view their sales team as an asset. 2. Those who view their sales team as an expense. Type 2's do not understand the value and contribution of their salespeople. They...

  • Words of Encouragement Go a Long Way

    • Words of Encouragement Go a Long Way
    09 Mar, 2010
    Clemson's Dabo Swinney received encouraging support for their coming ACC title effort from perhaps the most unlikely of sources, South Carolina Gamecocks' Head Coach, Steve Spurrier. The Clemson Tigers, ranked #25, face neighboring Georgia Tech, ranked #12, for the coveted...

  • Sales Performance & Compensation Relationship in a Recession

    • Sales Performance & Compensation Relationship in a Recession
    09 Mar, 2010
    There are two types of business owners: 1. Those who view their sales team as an asset. 2. Those who view their sales team as an expense. Type 2's do not understand the value and contribution of their salespeople. They...

  • Sales Performance & Compensation Relationship in a Recession

    • Sales Performance & Compensation Relationship in a Recession
    08 Mar, 2010
    There are two types of business owners: 1. Those who view their sales team as an asset. 2. Those who view their sales team as an expense. Type 2's do not understand the value and contribution of their salespeople. They...

  • Thank Heavens for This Economic Crisis!

    • Thank Heavens for This Economic Crisis!
    08 Mar, 2010
    Yes, thank heavens for this economic crisis! You heard me right. I am actually grateful for how it has impacted me. As it turns out, this horrible recession has revealed to me just how deep a sales rut I have...

  • Sales Performance & Compensation Relationship in a Recession

    • Sales Performance & Compensation Relationship in a Recession
    07 Mar, 2010
    There are two types of business owners: 1. Those who view their sales team as an asset. 2. Those who view their sales team as an expense. Type 2's do not understand the value and contribution of their salespeople. They...

  • Your Actions Impact Referrals, Directly Affecting Sales

    • Your Actions Impact Referrals, Directly Affecting Sales
    07 Mar, 2010
    We don't often directly associate our company's policies and actions with sales growth. That is a mistake. Everything your company does has an impact on sales at some level. Whether that effect has a positive or negative impact is a...

  • Sales Performance & Compensation Relationship in a Recession

    • Sales Performance & Compensation Relationship in a Recession
    06 Mar, 2010
    There are two types of business owners: 1. Those who view their sales team as an asset. 2. Those who view their sales team as an expense. Type 2's do not understand the value and contribution of their salespeople. They...
  • B2B Rainmaker / Jim Logan

  • An example of how not to market your expertise

    • An example of how not to market your expertise
    10 Mar, 2010
    I think I've mentioned this before, if not, I should have long ago: If you don't already read Tim Berry's blog, I highly recommend it.  It should be on your shortlist. Tim published a post on his blog this morning you ought to read: One Way Not to Market Your Expertise.  What makes the post a must read is perspective -- Tim shares his reaction to an email he's twice received from a would-be management consultant.  Tim highlights a few things from the email that work against the sending party: more »

  • I'm looking for a BETA customer -- This may be a shared opportunity

    • I'm looking for a BETA customer -- This may be a shared opportunity
    04 Mar, 2010
    I'm looking for a company to work with.  More specific, I'm looking for a BETA customer for a program I've developed to help sales teams retire near-term quota.  The program has been used several times by individuals with excellent results.  I'd now like to take the program to teams. The ideal company I'm looking for sells products or services in a B2B complex sales environment of multiple buyers and buying influences. The company likely has difficulty telling it's story and often is frustrate more »

  • Never give someone a quote

    • Never give someone a quote
    04 Mar, 2010
    It's tempting, but don't do it.  Under no circumstance should you ever give someone a quote. I'm not saying you shouldn't quote your product or service.  I'm saying you should never simply give a quote when asked for one.  You should present it. When you give a quote, the emphasis in on price and cost -- both are commodities.  This is the fast path to discussion on discounts, terms, and conditions.  Quoting leads to comparison shopping and raises price in the hierarchy of buying decisions. W more »

  • Question of the Week -- 030210

    • Question of the Week -- 030210
    03 Mar, 2010
    With this post, I'm starting a feature of sort on this blog -- Question of the Week.  The thought is to ask a question each week related to B2B complex sales and marketing that provokes the sharing of ideas and opinion.  Each week, I'll post a question here and on LinkedIn, leaving you the opportunity to answer that question until the following week, when I'll choose what I believe is the best answer and comment as to why I chose it.  All answers will remain published for all to read and consi more »

  • Beyond discounts - Use pricing to spur demand for your products and services

    • Beyond discounts - Use pricing to spur demand for your products and services
    03 Mar, 2010
    BusinessWeek has a nice online article about pricing -- A New Pricing Plan to Lure 'Dormant' Customers.  The key takeaway is you can and should use pricing to create new and more sales opportunities. It's a good article to read and consider. Not all people are motivated or capable of buying the same way.  Offering different buying options can spur otherwise dormant demand for your products or services.  Something to add to the article is while considering different price models -- rent, lease, more »

  • The making of Plan B

    • The making of Plan B
    02 Mar, 2010
    I was reminded this afternoon about the importance of plans -- business plans, marketing plans, and revenue plans flashed across my mind.  Each are critical to a business's success.  And each are living documents -- that's the part that hit my memory button.  The memory is working for a company years ago that fancied itself a technology juggernaut.  We had some really cool ware, but floundered and eventually failed.  There are many contributing reasons to the failure, but the shining event w more »

  • The importance of target customer profiles and personas

    • The importance of target customer profiles and personas
    02 Mar, 2010
    Any of you who have followed my writing or have worked with me know I'm a huge believer in profiling target audiences.  Even though B2B sales is about one business selling to another, it's people who make a business and make business decisions.  As such, it's people who receive, react or ignore our marketing messages.  So, it's people we communicate with and to.  People are people.  And the more we know about the person we're telling our stories and offering calls to action to, the better ou more »

  • Monday, March 1st

    • Monday, March 1st
    01 Mar, 2010
    Monday, March 1st -- the start of a new week and month.  An opportunity. There's nothing special about today or the date, other than it's psychologically a nice place to begin something new.  It's a good place to drive a stake into the ground and begin something -- a place to look back to measure progress. Ask yourself a few questions Beginning today, what can I do differently to create a more meaningful outcome a month from now? What have I been putting off that I should do this month? What d more »

  • Always -- A word I never use casually

    • Always -- A word I never use casually
    26 Feb, 2010
    Beginning March 1st, I have one opening in my coaching program. If you're not familiar with it, here's where you can learn more.  There are several things I believe interesting about my coaching program -- the biggest thing is the ROI is always great.  Notice I said always.  I don't use that word casually.  Before I wrote this post I reviewed the work I've done with every coaching client since the first time I offered the service to date.  Based on feedback, in every single case there's been more »

  • Does cold calling make you appear desperate?

    • Does cold calling make you appear desperate?
    20 Feb, 2010
    Yesterday I read a article on the evils of cold calling -- the author was giving advice not to cold call as a lead generation tactic because "nothing says I'm desperate for work more than cold calling." Huh? For the purpose of this post, I could care less if you like or dislike cold calling, it doesn't matter.  What matters is you understand cold calling doesn't make you any more desperate than posting multiple times on your blog a week, mailing a stack of postcards, updating twitter throughout more »
  • Marketing Interactions

  • Why Sales and Marketing Alignment is Like Golf

    • Why Sales and Marketing Alignment is Like Golf
    10 Mar, 2010
    Last night my husband and I watched our DVR recording of The Haney Project's new season featuring Ray Romano. In this series Ray Romano is seeking the help of golf coach Hank Haney to break through his lowest score to date of 80. I used to play a lot of golf. I was never great at it, but I love...

  • The Many Jobs of Marketing Content

    • The Many Jobs of Marketing Content
    05 Mar, 2010
    Marketing content is like an emissary for your company. In the digital world, companies rely on content to produce a variety of results. The best result is, of course, sales. However, that's only one job at the end of a long list of responsibilities. It's up to marketers to make sure the marketing content they produce is shouldering the load...

  • Does Your Content Marketing Make You Different?

    • Does Your Content Marketing Make You Different?
    03 Mar, 2010
    Being recognized as unique, different and desirable is what every company strives to achieve to stand out in their marketplace. Unfortunately, this appears to be easier said than done. Take a look at these three tag lines: Achieve Dramatic Cost Savings, Increase Operational Efficiency and Business Agility Reduce Costs, Improve Service Delivery, Enable Business Innovation Reduce IT Costs, Improve Performance,...

  • 6 Ways B2B Marketers Can "Listen" Effectively

    • 6 Ways B2B Marketers Can "Listen" Effectively
    01 Mar, 2010
    One of the things B2B marketers are being told to do is to "listen" to communities and get to really know their prospects. The best reason being because your prospects are controlling how and when they engage with vendors, so it's become very critical that our content marketing efforts are highly relevant to the needs of the audiences we seek....

  • B2B Marketers Need to Look Beyond Decision Makers

    • B2B Marketers Need to Look Beyond Decision Makers
    26 Feb, 2010
    Yesterday I attended the webinar Inside the Mind of the B2B Buyer - New Data on the Path to Purchase. The webinar was based on data collected in a survey conducted by DemandGen Report and sponsored by Genius.com. Marketers tend to describe their prospects based on the traits of the decision maker. But, what the survey found was that there...

  • Content Marketing is for Customers Too!

    • Content Marketing is for Customers Too!
    22 Feb, 2010
    Most conversations I have with marketers revolve around how to feed the top of the funnel and help prospects become sales-ready leads that their salespeople willingly pursue. It's one of the things I help them focus on doing. The problem happens when that becomes the sole focus of marketing. I was catching up on my blog reading and came across...

  • CSO Insights eBook: Sales Management 2.0

    • CSO Insights eBook: Sales Management 2.0
    19 Feb, 2010
    I'm pleased to be able to share the new CSO Insights eBook: Sales Management 2.0 - Optimizing Sales Performance Volume 2 that's hot off the presses with the conclusion of their 16th annual Sales Performance Optimization Study (SPO). It couldn't be better timed as we roll into 2010, focused on exceeding our hard-won accomplishments in 2009. In fact, the 8%...

  • Cheat Sheet for Marketing Content Consistency

    • Cheat Sheet for Marketing Content Consistency
    17 Feb, 2010
    In my last post, Issues with Corp-sourcing Marketing Content, I suggested the idea of creating an editorial style baseline to keep your content on track with solution developers, brand stewards and legal folks. I thought it might be useful to show you why you need one and how to get started building a baseline to help you better connect with...

  • Issues with Corp-sourcing Marketing Content

    • Issues with Corp-sourcing Marketing Content
    14 Feb, 2010
    As you may know, I work on a lot of B2B marketing content projects. I also work for a lot of big companies that have a lot of people working on the solutions and services I help them sell. And, let's not forget the brand and legal people. Each one of them has an investment in how the content represents...

  • Put Your Marketing Content on a Maintenance Plan

    • Put Your Marketing Content on a Maintenance Plan
    11 Feb, 2010
    Don't you just hate it when you get an email offering what looks like a juicy white paper only to discover after filling out the dang registration form that it's several years old? Do you feel duped? I do. It used to be that information was scarce, so your content lasted longer, had less competition. That's definitely no longer the...
  • Marketing Operations Partn ...

  • Marrying Marketing Ops and the Social Web

    • Marrying Marketing Ops and the Social Web
    04 Mar, 2010
    As I write this, I’ve just celebrated my 26th Valentine’s Day as husband to the love of my life, Melissa. A successful long-term marriage... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • What Marketing Needs from IT

    • What Marketing Needs from IT
    04 Mar, 2010
    Marketing and IT are arguably two of the most overloaded and under-resourced functions in the enterprise. As marketing complexity increases, a key aspect of a scalable marketing strategy is... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Reengineering Marketing Operations at Work

    • Reengineering Marketing Operations at Work
    03 Mar, 2010
    My avid readers (both of you? ( [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Think Like Your Customer: Aligning Selling to Buying Process

    • Think Like Your Customer: Aligning Selling to Buying Process
    03 Mar, 2010
    I'm finishing up Bill Stinnett's excellent book, Think Like Your Customer, which should be required reading for anyone in Sales and Marketing, especially if you market high-value products and... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Talking Marketing Ops at EBIG

    • Talking Marketing Ops at EBIG
    03 Mar, 2010
    In addition to our webinar, I’ll be speaking about Marketing Operations before the Sales & Marketing SIG of the East Bay IT Group (EBIG) this Thursday, November 16... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Looking back on Henry Stewart NY 2007

    • Looking back on Henry Stewart NY 2007
    03 Mar, 2010
    Well, I didn’t have any takers go out on the limb by sharing their thoughts on the Henry Stewart Conference in advance of my post, so here we go. One... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Marketing 2.0 Author in San Francisco This Week

    • Marketing 2.0 Author in San Francisco This Week
    03 Mar, 2010
    Bernie Borges of Find and Convert, author of the upcoming book, Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap Between Seller and Buyer on the Social Web, will be in San... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Marketing Operations 2.0: Podcast Interview by Bernie Borges

    • Marketing Operations 2.0: Podcast Interview by Bernie Borges
    03 Mar, 2010
    In conjunction with his new book, Bernie Borges recently interviewed me about Marketing Operations 2.0. We’ve received a lot of great feedback about the value of the conversation. Check out... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Panelists from Blue Coat, Juniper, NetApp, Polycom added for 4/16 MO Workshop

    • Panelists from Blue Coat, Juniper, NetApp, Polycom added for 4/16 MO Workshop
    03 Mar, 2010
    Marketing Operations leaders from Blue Coat Systems, Juniper Networks, NetApp and Polycom have joined the panel discussion for the April 16 Best Practices in Marketing... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Marketing Operations, Accountability and Disposability

    • Marketing Operations, Accountability and Disposability
    28 Feb, 2010
    As a tough economy and demanding CEOs call for more disciplined, streamlined, accountable marketing, what impact does this new reality have on how marketing professionals are valued and treated... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
  • My Educated Guess / TechTa ...

  • How the Right Content Can Help Drive the Sale

    • How the Right Content Can Help Drive the Sale
    05 Mar, 2010
    In today’s tough economy IT marketers want their online leads to turn into sales as soon as possible. Regardless of whether their sales cycle is six weeks or nine months, they want to see hot leads now!  And it’s not only about generating as many leads as possible, but to really focus on lead quality.  [...]

  • Social networking is here to stay!

    • Social networking is here to stay!
    22 Feb, 2010
    Social networking has become a powerful, but necessary strategy for any technology marketer to actively increase their membership base. Many IT companies are getting into the social media arena by blogging, creating fan pages on Facebook, building a Twitter following, or by creating Groups on Linkedin. But, there are no guarantees your message is heard amongst all [...]

  • Let actual CIO behavior train your technology marketing

    • Let actual CIO behavior train your technology marketing
    02 Feb, 2010
    The closest we can get you to actually standing over the shoulder of an IT buyer as they research technology business solutions, is our latest Google/TechTarget behavioral research study on the enterprise technology buying process. But on February 11 at the Google offices in NYC, we’re taking it one step further and inviting you to join [...]

  • Don’t Let Organic Search Leads Fall by the Wayside

    • Don’t Let Organic Search Leads Fall by the Wayside
    28 Jan, 2010
    As we enter 2010 and online marketing strategies are getting even more targeted, IT marketers forget about the importance of nurturing organic search leads versus their targeted leads.  Marketers are concerned with only promoting to a certain audience and utilizing leads that are from email list promotions.  Late stage leads that are further down the [...]

  • Social Media – Is it any easier to determine ROI?

    • Social Media – Is it any easier to determine ROI?
    22 Jan, 2010
    Social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter are continuing to gain traction and increasing in popularity every day.  People use these sites to keep in touch with friends, keep up to date on the latest trends and stay up to date on some of their favorite products, groups, etc.  More recently, social networking sites [...]

  • Have you considered everything in your targeting strategy?

    • Have you considered everything in your targeting strategy?
    05 Jan, 2010
    An old boss once told me that success happens when preparation and opportunity meet. This also holds true for targeting an audience with your marketing campaigns. I’ve been thinking about the evolution of targeting and how it has and, in some cases, has not progressed. As marketers, we often default to the basics of a [...]

  • Tips and tricks when launching international lead generation campaigns

    • Tips and tricks when launching international lead generation campaigns
    04 Jan, 2010
    For any business, globalization and international growth is more feasible than ever before. But with this great revenue opportunity comes challenges in generating sales leads. Subsequently, TechTarget, with the assistance of our partners and clients, has developed a set of best practices to create and launch international b2b marketing campaigns. Here’s a sneak peak… Evaluate a market’s “maturity” before [...]

  • To Ask or Not to Ask? That is the Marketing Question.

    • To Ask or Not to Ask? That is the Marketing Question.
    04 Jan, 2010
    Marketers spend a lot of time on content creation, really thinking through what they want to offer the audience to educate them on products or services. More time goes into a catchy or succinct title and promotional copy that will act as the hook to reel the leads in. Everything in place, great content, strong [...]

  • Marketers’ Request: Focus on lead gen for our next Online ROI Summit

    • Marketers’ Request: Focus on lead gen for our next Online ROI Summit
    01 Sep, 2009
    It’s that time of year again. In about 7 weeks we will be hosting about 300 marketers in Burlingame, California who want new insights on what’s working and what isn’t online. Before I plan the agenda for these conferences I make sure to check in with the marketers themselves about what they want us to [...]

  • Quality vs. Quantity of Leads: You don’t have to choose

    • Quality vs. Quantity of Leads: You don’t have to choose
    14 Aug, 2009
    A recent MarketingProfs survey, Marketing ROI & Performance Evaluation Study determined that 60% of marketers have lead quality objectives and 40% of marketers objectives are defined around lead quantity. Why do we have to think of quality and quantity as mutually exclusive?  When discussing potential media buys, some clients say “I need the lowest cost per lead and [...]
  • Revenue Journal

  • Social Media gurus reveal secrets

    • Social Media gurus reveal secrets
    25 Feb, 2010
    I spent two days last week at the Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston, put on by Chris Brogan, author of Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust. There were some great speakers, and a number of vendors specializing in the Social Media/Web2.0/Marketing2.0/Video Marketing/InboundMarketing space. I thought it might be helpful to list these resources, in case it helps you with your own current revenue-growth efforts. I'll start with a couple of "big pictur more »

  • Are You Contributing to The Big Fat Website Disconnect?

    • Are You Contributing to The Big Fat Website Disconnect?
    24 Feb, 2010
    I am your customer. I have a Problem. I am looking for the Best Solution to my Problem. You sell the Best Solution, but I don't know that yet. I go to Google. I type in a phrase describing my Problem, or perhaps a phrase describing my imagined Best Solution. I may remember hearing something specific about the Best Solution - such as a company name, a product name, or even a model number. I know that the more specific I am, the faster I will find my Best Solution, and the faster I can buy the thi more »

  • The most important question for you to answer now: "What would success look like?"

    • The most important question for you to answer now: "What would success look like?"
    13 Feb, 2010
    When it comes to running our businesses most efficiently, we are our own worst enemies. Every single entrepreneur and CEO I've worked with has an emotional blind spot, which keeps his or her company from being all it could be.

  • Is Your Name Killing Your Business?

    • Is Your Name Killing Your Business?
    12 Feb, 2010
    Is your company or product name a help - or a handicap? It is a set of running shoes, or a ball and chain? When you say your company name, do people say, "Ah, OK," and nod knowingly? Or, do they look at you quizzically, waiting for you to explain?

  • Social media etiquette - and a prediction

    • Social media etiquette - and a prediction
    11 Feb, 2010
    First, the prediction. I've been through at least a dozen high-tech media cycles, and the pattern is always the same. In fact, I'm pretty sure my husband and I invented the term "hockey stick" way back in 1995, to describe...

  • Social media: Marketing gets its party crashed - and what marketers can do about it

    • Social media: Marketing gets its party crashed - and what marketers can do about it
    10 Feb, 2010
    If the business world were a neighborhood, marketers would be the ones with the nice house and a manicured garden. They would be social, but in a well-dressed, somewhat formal kind of way. Marketers are, on the whole, somewhat reserved. Their job is to show the good sides of a company, and control the "messaging" associated with the company. The public face. It was pretty easy to control that message back in the stone age of traditional one-way marketing, before the web. It was even pretty easy more »

  • HELP! I'm Trying To Pay You!

    • HELP! I'm Trying To Pay You!
    09 Feb, 2010
    I've been a Verizon customer for years. I stayed "loyal" for a long time, partly because switching carriers is such a pain. But I also stuck around because their service was reliable and their customer service people were helpful. But, I'm not loyal anymore. I'm leaving. Why? For the stupidest reason: They won't let me pay them. Yep, that's right.

  • Do You Secretly Believe You Are Smarter Than Your Customer?

    • Do You Secretly Believe You Are Smarter Than Your Customer?
    08 Feb, 2010
    I took a book called Mastering the Complex Sale on a recent flight. In it, the author says that the complex sale consists of three main components: Determine, Design, and Deploy. No argument there. Nice way of thinking about it. But then he goes on to say that most customers of the complex sale are not equipped to make a good buying decision - that the salesperson selling to them must guide them through the process. This is a basic premise of the book. The word that sprung to my mind when I read more »

  • Marketing advice for the technical entrepreneur

    • Marketing advice for the technical entrepreneur
    26 Jan, 2010
    Most of my clients are - and always have been - technical entrepreneurs. Yes, I've done a lot of work for Fortune 500 companies, and companies in the healthcare, travel and retail industries. But my passion is helping the technologist who has started a company, created a decent product, and now needs to get to the next stage in his growth - whatever that might be. He's gotten as far as he can using the methods he's been using.

  • Want to sell more? Shut up!

    • Want to sell more? Shut up!
    25 Jan, 2010
    This article was halfway finished, with the title you see above, when I got an email with this subject line: "If you want to sell better, just shut up!" Whoa, I thought. Readers often send me emails with the article title as the subject line. But this article hadn't yet left my computer! What was going on?
  • Sales Lead Insights

  • Increasing B2B Lead Management ROI: 4 Key Performance Indicators

    • Increasing B2B Lead Management ROI: 4 Key Performance Indicators
    10 Mar, 2010
    The Forrester research study and white paper about sales lead management, commissioned by Silverpop, reports that when it comes to increasing the ROI from B2B sales lead management, there are four key performance indicators (KPIs) that pay off in more qualified leads and sales. If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

  • B2B Marketing Automation: Here’s My Definition

    • B2B Marketing Automation: Here’s My Definition
    09 Mar, 2010
    How's this for a definition of B2B marketing automation? The use of technology to generate, nurture, score and qualify leads, and drive sales, using customized, multi-touch marketing communications tailored for each contact's profile, level of interest, behavior or place in the buying process. If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

  • B2B Marketing University 2010 Kicks Off March 3 in Washington, DC

    • B2B Marketing University 2010 Kicks Off March 3 in Washington, DC
    05 Mar, 2010
    If you are a B2B marketer, or are responsible for B2B lead generation, do not miss this half-day seminar on March 3, 2010 at the Westin Grand hotel in Washington, DC. If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

  • Are inbound leads really leads? I believe the majority are not.

    • Are inbound leads really leads? I believe the majority are not.
    04 Mar, 2010
    I think some of the information being touted by companies that have a stake in inbound marketing can be misleading. What I am talking about is the categorizing of all inbound inquiries as “leads.� If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

  • The Top 10 Silly Marketing Mistakes B2B Marketers Make: Your Input Wanted (and Rewarded)!

    • The Top 10 Silly Marketing Mistakes B2B Marketers Make: Your Input Wanted (and Rewarded)!
    04 Mar, 2010
    We can't promise to make you famous, but if you share your top 10 list of silly mistakes that B2B marketers make, we'll include you in our upcoming e-book. If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

  • B2B Ads From the Past

    • B2B Ads From the Past
    04 Mar, 2010
    I always find it interesting to take a look at the work done by our predecessors in B2B marketing. In post in Jackie West’s UK Industrial Marketing Blog, she mentions Richard Stone’s Insights into PR and Online Marketing blog post where he links to The Vintage Ad Browser. Simply click on one of the categories in the [...] If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and trai more »

  • B-to-B Lead generation: What Enterprise-size Companies Should be Doing Differently in 2010

    • B-to-B Lead generation: What Enterprise-size Companies Should be Doing Differently in 2010
    03 Mar, 2010
    If you are responsible for business-to-business lead generation at a large company, don't miss B-to-B Lead Gen in 2010: Learn What is Working Best Right Now on January 27, 2010 at 11:00 am PST (2:00 pm EST) If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

  • B2B Marketing Strategies for Small Companies: An Interview with Dianna Huff

    • B2B Marketing Strategies for Small Companies: An Interview with Dianna Huff
    03 Mar, 2010
    B2B Marketing Strategies for Small Companies: My guest today is Dianna Huff of DH Communications. Dianna helps businesses with their B2B marketing communications content strategy and implementation. If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

  • B2B Lead Generation by Phone: An Interview with Michael Brown

    • B2B Lead Generation by Phone: An Interview with Michael Brown
    02 Mar, 2010
    This is one of a series of occasional interviews with top practitioners on topics of interest to business-to-business lead generation, marketing and new business development professionals. My guest today is Michael A. Brown. He is the B2B telemarketing and telesales consultant and telemarketing trainer whom I frequently recommend to our clients. Michael, first off, I know you hate [...] If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294- more »

  • Planning B2B Lead Generation for 2010? Attend this Webcast on January 27th

    • Planning B2B Lead Generation for 2010? Attend this Webcast on January 27th
    02 Mar, 2010
    Planning B2B Lead Generation for 2010? Attend this Webcast at 2:00 pm EST on January 27, 2009. If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.
  • Six Sigma Selling

  • Six Sigma Selling blog has moved!

    • Six Sigma Selling blog has moved!
    10 Jun, 2009
    We will no longer be updating the blog messages on this site. For future blog posts, and Sales Performance Improvement Forum (SPIF!) messages please visit our primary website: www.salesperformance.com You'll see the blog page in the menu, the url is...

  • Six Easy Ways to Boost Your Company’s Sales Results

    • Six Easy Ways to Boost Your Company’s Sales Results
    10 Jun, 2009
    I hope the spring weather has reached your area. We've finally had rain here in Atlanta, and the buds and blooms are vigorous. Recently, a reader asked: "What is the 20% of sales process improvement that generates 80% of the...

  • Quick Sales Productivity Boosts

    • Quick Sales Productivity Boosts
    10 Jun, 2009
    If you are a salesperson, and you need a productivity boost, there are lots of possibilities, such as better meeting preparation, more practice presenting, maintaining your relationships, and working to become more organized. However, what if your entire organization needs...

  • The Last Thing a Fish Discovers is Water

    • The Last Thing a Fish Discovers is Water
    10 Jun, 2009
    Last week’s blog post “Why People Are NOT Your Most Important Asset� created some strong reaction. Here is an example: Michael, I was recently fired from my sales job, because I wasn’t on the road “cold calling� enough … Instead,...

  • Need More Traction with Prospects?

    • Need More Traction with Prospects?
    10 Jun, 2009
    Why Prospects Don't Understand Your Value - And What You Can Do About It All too often businesses launch products, promotions, and proposals that do not achieve their goals. When that happens, cost of sales goes up and confidence goes...

  • Why People are NOT Your Most Important Asset

    • Why People are NOT Your Most Important Asset
    10 Jun, 2009
    Sales executives often think that having the right people is the key to success. This article shows why this is myopic, and presents a better idea.

  • How to Make Salespeople 25% More Productive in 90 Days or Less

    • How to Make Salespeople 25% More Productive in 90 Days or Less
    10 Jun, 2009
    Michael Webb and Bill Bentley will present a remarkable approach that simultaneously increases forecast accuracy, provides powerful information about the sales process, and eliminates waste in sales and marketing.

  • How to Design Your Sales Process to Help Customers Buy Now

    • How to Design Your Sales Process to Help Customers Buy Now
    10 Jun, 2009
    Most companies haven't thoroughly considered how their sales process should be designed, much less how to make sales easier. This webinar shows how to do it.

  • Got a Technical Team? Here’s a Great Way to Help Them Sell

    • Got a Technical Team? Here’s a Great Way to Help Them Sell
    10 Jun, 2009
    Recently I spoke with Burke, the VP of Business Development for an engineering firm in the material handling industry. What he told me was a great model for how selling can be made easier - and more effective at the same time.

  • Help for improving your sales process

    • Help for improving your sales process
    10 Jun, 2009
    Sales Performance Consultants, Inc., will launch a new professional sales process education website very soon.
  • Inside Sales Tips Blog

  • 5 questions to ask before considering sales training as a solution to substandard performance

    • 5 questions to ask before considering sales training as a solution to substandard performance
    11 Mar, 2010
    First in a 3 part series on sales training theoryIn the 20 or so years we've been in the telesales training business, we've turned down a significant number of potential training situations. The main reason? We didn't think training was the solution for the client's problem, and we knew it just wouldn't work, because other things needed to be fixed first. Today's post is about saving you money if you're thinking of hiring any company to train your team, or doing it yourself with internal resource more »

  • Use KPIs during your telesales job interview to put yourself above competitive candidates.

    • Use KPIs during your telesales job interview to put yourself above competitive candidates.
    11 Mar, 2010
    We don't just create and deliver world-class telesales training courses here. We also help great telesales reps who've excelled in our classes and at work to find jobs. We know reps that have never been under quota that were laid off this year. The other day, veteran inside sales executive Alicia Assefa interviewed a candidate we sent her, and she gave the candidate some outstanding advice on how to make a presentation in the interview that would be compelling to any sales executive. It's all ab more »

  • 7 Ways to make an Underperforming Territory profitable, fast

    • 7 Ways to make an Underperforming Territory profitable, fast
    11 Mar, 2010
    It's fairly common for superior sales performers to be rewarded by being transferred to an underperforming territory. Rarely is the sales rep happy about it, and it's probably happened to a large percentage of you reading this. If it hasn't happened to you yet, get ready, for it may. In my telesales training courses, I always tell people that our world is a lot about constant change, and how well we handle it. Today's post is about how a really great rep got a lemon and made lemonade out of it. I more »

  • How to turn the executive interview from Hell into your advantage

    • How to turn the executive interview from Hell into your advantage
    11 Mar, 2010
    Today's post is for sales executives and managers and those who wish to become them. A sales executive I know just went through one of the worst interviewing experiences of his life, and asked what he could have done to change the outcome. In today's hiring market, every one of you reading this post could run into the same thing. My solution touches on a closing technique I use in my telesales training courses, too. So let me tell you the story, and what you can do to turn a similar situation tha more »

  • 6 Tips for using LinkedIn to increase sales now

    • 6 Tips for using LinkedIn to increase sales now
    11 Mar, 2010
    I'd imagine most readers of my blog have at least developed a profile on the business networking website LinkedIn. But if you're not using it as an important part of your daily sales process, you could be losing sales. If you work a territory, you'd be surprised at how many of your prospects will know customers of yours. In the past we all found this out by accident, guesswork, and careful questioning. Today, the LinkedIn tool does a lot of it for us. In my telesales training classes, I cover sev more »

  • Job interview ripoff: Here’s how you can get free consulting by making your candidates work for nothing!

    • Job interview ripoff: Here’s how you can get free consulting by making your candidates work for nothing!
    11 Mar, 2010
    Got your attention? If you're a telesales rep or manager, and you're looking for work, I want to expose a couple of scams that have the end result of putting you to work making a profit for the company that's interviewing you, while you get paid nothing. Today's blog post is the result of an email I got from Alan, a very good rep that took one of my telesales courses a while back. Alan wrote: I have a question for you. I received an e-mail from an old colleague who is looking for a job and got a more »

  • Taking the Ethical High Road: Sometimes it means “taking one for the teamâ€�

    • Taking the Ethical High Road: Sometimes it means “taking one for the teamâ€�
    11 Mar, 2010
    You know that I like to occasionally pontificate on ethical issues, like treating people the way you'd like to be treated, or doing the best thing to make our clients' lives better. But sometimes, in doing so, it takes money out of our pockets. I call that "taking one for the team." And that's what today's post is all about. Sometimes it costs us to do the right thing. I was fortunate enough to work for some really ethical companies. One of them, Atron, a company that sold hardware-based testing more »

  • Working your territory better: Are you reading your trade mags?

    • Working your territory better: Are you reading your trade mags?
    11 Mar, 2010
    One of the complaints I most often hear from inside sales reps that take my telesales courses is that they don't get enough leads. Whether you get your leads from lists, whitepaper downloads, your own lead qualification reps, or any other source, you're probably missing a significant amount of business in your territory if you're not subscribing (and reading!) at least one trade publication that addresses experts in your solution area. This is really an old-fashioned idea, and one that still work more »

  • 6 steps to becoming a better inside sales coach

    • 6 steps to becoming a better inside sales coach
    11 Mar, 2010
    Last week's post described why I feel side-by-side, at-desk coaching is a far more effective management technique than call monitoring, which is done remotely. The prime reason coaching works better than monitoring is the immediacy of behavior change.  In monitoring, discussing the call even one hour later isn't very good, because the rep has gone onto other calls, and may not remember what thought processes triggered his or her actions on the call. And "gotcha" moments aren't very much fun for more »

  • Increase sales by using your enthusiasm to get prospects motivated to want to buy from you

    • Increase sales by using your enthusiasm to get prospects motivated to want to buy from you
    10 Mar, 2010
    One of my mantras when I teach my sales training courses is that you've got to quickly determine how your solution is either going to make your prospects money, or stop them from losing money. Then tell them. That's all about ROI. But pumping up the enthusiasm is really important as well, and I witnessed this concept first hand recently when someone sold me a whole bunch of stuff I never intended to buy when I walked in the door. I was happy with my purchase too, and follow-on sales resulted. We more »
  • Build A Sales Machine

  • The 7 Fatal Mistakes CEOs and VP Sales Make

    • The 7 Fatal Mistakes CEOs and VP Sales Make
    02 Mar, 2010
    While I'm on the "Fatal Mistakes" topic, here is a presentation about seven of the main ones that executive teams make time and time again.Some of the text is small to read in this small blog-sized format. To make it easier:There is "Full Screen" button in the top right of the viewer, orYou can download the presentation.Please comment below on which one is your favorite - or if you think I'm wrong!7 Fatal Sales Mistakes CEOs and VP Sales Make -

  • The Fatal Mistake Boards & VP Sales Will Make In 2010 Planning

    • The Fatal Mistake Boards & VP Sales Will Make In 2010 Planning
    02 Mar, 2010
    Note: I first published this post exactly one year ago. Unfortunately it bears reposting again and again!. I have a feeling this same post will be relevant for another few years until the conventional wisdom evolves.If you're looking for help with growing sales, and especially in creating an amazing inside sales lead generation function, I have an overview of my sales consulting practice at www.PebbleStorm.com/cpr.-----------For companies selling products worth less than $100,000-$250,000, the more »

  • Marketo's Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing

    • Marketo's Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing
    02 Mar, 2010
    (Want expert help - based off of salesforce.com's $1 billion best practices - in building your B2B Sales Machine? See Build Your Sales Machine)I'm a big fan of Marketo, mostly because of the people there like Jon Miller, Kelly Abner and now Maria Pergolino. Marketo's application and the team's knowledge and practical experience around demand generation and lead nurturing is A+!So when they shared their new "Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing" with me, I knew it'd be something worth sharing with more »

  • [PebbleStorm] The Art Of PebbleStorm & CEOFlow (July 2009)

    • [PebbleStorm] The Art Of PebbleStorm & CEOFlow (July 2009)
    02 Mar, 2010
    Last night I spoke at a Meeting Of The Minds event in Westlake Village (SoCal). MOTMS was started by Kurt Daradics of FreedomSpeaks and Baron Miller, and is a great group of entrepreneurial people that meets monthly. I really had fun sharing with them last night. The format was casual (more of an interview) and not a presentation, and so rather than a slide deck, I put together a collection of sketches I've done over the past year, and at different times during the talk I'd call one up to share more »

  • [CEOFlow] New sketch: "Revenue, Space & Enjoyment"

    • [CEOFlow] New sketch: "Revenue, Space & Enjoyment"
    02 Mar, 2010
    As I wrote about in My original notes on frustrations with the way work, uh, works, PebbleStorm: CEOFlow is like "advanced PebbleStorm". I've been playing with my CEOFlow circles for awhile, and finally this morning they really clicked: My sales advisory/consulting service: www.CEOFlow.com/servicesSubscribe to CEOFlow by Email

  • Bessemer's Top 10 Laws for Being "SaaS-y"

    • Bessemer's Top 10 Laws for Being "SaaS-y"
    02 Mar, 2010
    Bessemer Ventures collected a great set of learnings around what it takes to build a successful SaaS ("Software-as-a-Service") company: Bessemer's Top 10 Laws for Being "SaaS-y". It's excellent! Your key monthly business metrics are: CMRR (Committed Monthly Recurring Revenue), Churn, and Cash flow - “Bookingsâ€� is for suckers Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Customer LifeTime Value (CLTV) are the best more »

  • DataSalad: "Fresh B2B Marketing Data"

    • DataSalad: "Fresh B2B Marketing Data"
    02 Mar, 2010
    Last year, Brian Mackley of Tech Advocacy and I started a business called DataSalad, to offer marketing lists based around the user and customer lists of vendors (such as lists of salesforce.com or NetSuite customers).We created DataSalad because we were sick of all the "junky" lists and data sources out there. DataSalad creates databases of contacts and companies through primary data-gathering and research, and guarantees them. Like organic food, which costs a little more but is worth it more »

  • CNN Money & Fortune articles..."Why to be wary of commission-only sales staff"

    • CNN Money & Fortune articles..."Why to be wary of commission-only sales staff"
    02 Mar, 2010
    CNN Money/Fortune interviewed me a few months ago, and some quotes turned up in a couple of their articles worth sharing:1) Fortune Small Business article: "Why to be wary of commission-only sales staff""Hiring a salesperson on commission sounds like a cost-saver, but investing in your staff usually pays off in the long run. "2) CNN Money article on "Hire picture-perfect employees""We answer three questions about how to find and keep your company's most important asset: its workers. Plus: Advice more »

  • [CEOFlow] CEO meeting in westside Los Angeles (Santa Monica), March 13th

    • [CEOFlow] CEO meeting in westside Los Angeles (Santa Monica), March 13th
    02 Mar, 2010
    Eric Golden (CEO of Equipois) & I (Aaron Ross bio) are organizing a formal, facilitated CEO group here on the westside that will meet monthly. The group will help CEOs support each other in navigating through and prospering from the economic turmoil, focusing on topics such as creating predictable revenue, and working with investors and customers in the new climate. The CEO group is afilliated with Nitro.la and CEOFlow: Nitro.la, in partnership with USC, UCLA and Caltech, is a non-profit mentorin more »

  • Phone Works 2008 Inside Sales Compensation Report

    • Phone Works 2008 Inside Sales Compensation Report
    02 Mar, 2010
    Ah, fun with compensation :) PhoneWorks just published another sales comp report worth checking out. Here's their introduction and a link to the full online report:A question on everyone’s mind these days is, “How is the slow economy affecting sales compensation and quotas?â€�. We set out to answer this question. As we do every year in the fourth quarter, Phone Works conducted an online compensation survey of inside sales professiona more »
  • Buyer Persona

  • How many buyer personas can you afford to engage with unique messaging and campaigns?

    • How many buyer personas can you afford to engage with unique messaging and campaigns?
    10 Feb, 2010
    That’s my answer when people ask me how many buyer personas they need. It probably isn’t satisfying when I answer a question with another question, especially when the expected answer is a number -- three, five, ten or whatever. But...

  • A new year, a new decade, a new chance to help buyers find answers to their problems

    • A new year, a new decade, a new chance to help buyers find answers to their problems
    04 Jan, 2010
    Judging by the current interest in buyer personas, 2010 could be the decade when companies realize the competitive advantage that belongs to those companies that have the deepest insight into their target buyers. Armed with a well-researched buyer persona, the...

  • A quick, easy way to gather info for buyer personas

    • A quick, easy way to gather info for buyer personas
    16 Nov, 2009
    For the last few weeks I've been helping a client conduct their win/loss calls, listening to recent buyers talk about how they made the decision both for and against my client's solution. Once again, I was amazed at the useful,...

  • A persona for people who create personas

    • A persona for people who create personas
    02 Sep, 2009
    Here is a frequently asked question -- who should develop our buyer personas? For years I answered the question within the questioner's expected context -- I'd say that the people in marketing or, more specifically, product marketing, should own this...

  • Bloggers miss the point of buyer personas

    • Bloggers miss the point of buyer personas
    06 Jul, 2009
    The most important component of buyer personas is missing from much of the discussion I'm seeing in whitepapers and blogs. Personas can't make a credible impact on sales and marketing strategies if their description is limited to information about demographics...

  • Two surveys nearly miss key buyer insight

    • Two surveys nearly miss key buyer insight
    10 Jun, 2009
    I just saw the results of yet another market survey that almost failed to ask what turned out to be the single most important question. Several people within the vendor's company, each with decades of experience in the target market,...

  • Read this before starting a persona project

    • Read this before starting a persona project
    10 Jun, 2009
    I'm seeing a lot of blog and email traffic that is motivating this post -- two earnest requests directed to people who are just beginning to develop buyer personas or put them to work. Request #1 - Outsource buyer persona...

  • Trigger Your Own World Wide Rave

    • Trigger Your Own World Wide Rave
    10 Jun, 2009
    My friend David Meerman Scott has done it again -- he's written another book that is perfectly aligned with the needs of his buyer persona. The new book is "World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to...

  • Survey reveals reasons buyers say no

    • Survey reveals reasons buyers say no
    10 Jun, 2009
    I'm currently analyzing the results of an unusually effective web survey. The survey provides surprising insights into the reasons why people don't want to buy my client's solution online, or why they don't see any value in it whatsoever, irrespective...

  • CIO buyer persona needs new messaging

    • CIO buyer persona needs new messaging
    10 Jun, 2009
    Just about everyone I know is working feverishly to update their messaging strategies. The abrupt downturn in the economy has caused most prospects to rethink their priorities and "buying criteria"-- the capabilities that a buyer ranks highest during the purchase...
  • The Customer Collective

  • The Wrong Elevator Speech: Disaster and Recovery

    • The Wrong Elevator Speech: Disaster and Recovery
    11 Mar, 2010
    This is week three for me of a four-week road trip. I’m getting a little loopy, but am collecting some wonderful client experiences, lessons and stories. Here’s one from a British account executiv...

  • Social Selling... Listen to the Answers if You Ask Questions To The Social Customer

    • Social Selling... Listen to the Answers if You Ask Questions To The Social Customer
    11 Mar, 2010
    The cold call started pretty well.  Someone called, he had a good premise for the sales call, he had done his homework, he asked a question……. That’s where it went terribly off course.  I had bar...

  • Sales 2.0 Conference Reflections

    • Sales 2.0 Conference Reflections
    11 Mar, 2010
    I had a great time at the Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco earlier this week.  In a lot of ways it reminded me of my high school friend’s father, he was a nice enough guy, but he had a thing ...

  • Trust Quotes #3: Dr. Eric Uslaner on the Nature of Trust

    • Trust Quotes #3: Dr. Eric Uslaner on the Nature of Trust
    10 Mar, 2010
    My guess is not many TrustMatters blog readers recognize the name Eric Uslaner. Nevertheless, it would be hard to overstate his importance in the field of trust. Dr. Deborah Nixon, a trust academi...

  • 5 Tips to Successfully Managing Gen Y

    • 5 Tips to Successfully Managing Gen Y
    10 Mar, 2010
    I put this video together on the fly for Sydney Owen and the rest of theSX Gen Y team who will be presenting their panel discussion on “Why Gen Y Wants to Work ‘With’ You, Not ‘For’ You,� at South b...

  • Edelman Digital: When Is Your Website A Community?

    • Edelman Digital: When Is Your Website A Community?
    10 Mar, 2010
      One of the pet projects I've taken on since joining Edelman has been taking over the responsibilities of the "website", a project that as many professional services firms can relate to began to head...

  • 'Sales Process' Is In The Air

    • 'Sales Process' Is In The Air
    10 Mar, 2010
    There is a lot written about the sales process these days: Dave Brock has written several pieces on the sales process recently. He now has launched an initiative to get some new thinking on the ...

  • Doubling Sales Productivity — Be Prepared!

    • Doubling Sales Productivity — Be Prepared!
    10 Mar, 2010
    Improving sales productivity is the Holy Grail of all sales professionals, executives, Sale 2.0 solution providers and every sales consultant.  We look for all sorts of tools and mechanisms to impro...

  • You Can't Save Your Way Into More Sales

    • You Can't Save Your Way Into More Sales
    09 Mar, 2010
    In response to the tough economic challenges of 2009, most sales organizations ruthlessly slashed all unnecessary expenses from their budgets. Annual sales meetings were cancelled, training was de...

  • Twitter and Politics: Friends or Foes?

    • Twitter and Politics: Friends or Foes?
    09 Mar, 2010
    If you can believe it, we are rapidly approaching the 1 ½ year “anniversary� of the election of Barack Obama as the President of the United States. This event was historic and monumental on many dif...
  • Sales X Marketing

  • Lead Scoring Made Easy

    • Lead Scoring Made Easy
    24 Feb, 2010
    I am at the Online Marketing Summit in San Diego, and I spoke on the Demand Generation & Sales 2.0 Panel yesterday. It was a great conversation, with great questions from the room -- people are definitely engaged in how...

  • Emails, Offers, and What Makes Buyers Click

    • Emails, Offers, and What Makes Buyers Click
    18 Feb, 2010
    I'm reading new research from Marketing Sherpa about how buyers rank the most valuable content and offer types, and it's very interesting. As marketers, we're all so used to hearing it's about educating your buyers, providing relevant content -- so...

  • Create Leverage and Engage Your Leads

    • Create Leverage and Engage Your Leads
    19 Jan, 2010
    Getting valuable content to your target market is important. It helps you build relationship and regard. But putting together compelling content takes more than just providing information to your leads. It’s also taking into account and triggering four Key Engagers....

  • Agitation Can Make The Difference In Your Messaging

    • Agitation Can Make The Difference In Your Messaging
    05 Jan, 2010
    I recently listened to an interview between Perry Marshall, a marketing expert that I follow and Joshua Russell a Professor of Screenwriting and Film Aesthetics at DePaul University. It was a fun and interesting conversation where they explored the power...

  • The 6 Influencers of Human Behavior

    • The 6 Influencers of Human Behavior
    29 Dec, 2009
    I was listening to an audio that came with a subscription to a series of panel discussions called "The League of Extraordinary Minds". it was a conversation that the organizers of The League had with Tony Robbins. In this conversation,...

  • LinkedIn Doesn't Get The Social Media World

    • LinkedIn Doesn't Get The Social Media World
    25 Dec, 2009
    LinkedIn has experienced HUGE growth -- particularly in the business/professional sector of the social media space. But recent experiences with LinkedIn have led me to believe that they are accidental recipients of that growth, and don't really get (nor are...

  • Use Social Media to Gain PR Traction

    • Use Social Media to Gain PR Traction
    24 Dec, 2009
    I was at a coffee gathering for the local Business Marketing Association as a follow-up to a social media panel presentation that I was unable to attend the previous week. It was a great conversation -- but there was this...

  • Does Your Messaging Distinguish You From Your Competitors?

    • Does Your Messaging Distinguish You From Your Competitors?
    23 Dec, 2009
    What is your Unique Selling Proposition? Is it unique? Does it distinguish you from your competitors? Next question: Does your messaging do the same? In your industry where your competitors offer essentially the same thing that you do, how do...

  • Are We Really Marketing and Selling Happiness?

    • Are We Really Marketing and Selling Happiness?
    22 Dec, 2009
    As we work to figure out and put together content that is not only engaging, but also compelling, we've got to get very clear about what our Unique Selling Proposition is. Without that, what will guide the messaging that we...

  • Jumpstart Your Lead Nurturing Campaigns

    • Jumpstart Your Lead Nurturing Campaigns
    02 Nov, 2009
    The tools are available, and the companies who are using them are reaping the benefits of more qualified leads in their pipeline. But many of the folks I talk with every day, are not sure how to get started or...
  • Buzz Marketing for Technol ...

  • Social Media Listening for B2B Marketing

    • Social Media Listening for B2B Marketing
    11 Mar, 2010
    One of the biggest challenges for organizations today is managing the flow of information about their brands, products, and services that occurs in social media channels, including microblogs (such as Twitter), social networking sites (such as Facebook), blogs, and online forums. More than ever, customers are using social media to spread the word about the brands [...] Related posts:Social Media Budget Ratio in B2B Marketing In my new advisory role for the members of MENG... What’s your more »

  • Social Media Budget Ratio in B2B Marketing

    • Social Media Budget Ratio in B2B Marketing
    09 Mar, 2010
    In my new advisory role for the members of MENG I have been getting a bunch of questions from the members that are making great fodder for blog posts. One question has popped up a few times to I thought it was worthy of some research and comparative analysis to give you a very clear [...] Related posts:The 4 P’s to Social Media Marketing Ok ok – based on the great response I got... Sharing is how you build a Brand In a recent BusinessWeek article featuring Tony Hsieh from Zappos... Whatâ more »

  • Will Facebook replace your B2B Marketing email system?

    • Will Facebook replace your B2B Marketing email system?
    04 Mar, 2010
    I want to roll the clock back a few weeks to the announcement of an initiative by Facebook called – Project Titan. At the time that I saw it and tweeted about it (of course) it really hadn’t hit me just how important this could be to any business.  What seemed like a pretty basic message [...] Related posts:5 Tips for Optimizing your Facebook Marketing One of the great things about the Facebook platform is... Time to Replace your Online News Room with Facebook! Back in October of 2007 at more »

  • Creating Engagement in B2B Marketing

    • Creating Engagement in B2B Marketing
    02 Mar, 2010
    A recent Cone Inc.’s Social Media in Business study found that 60 percent of consumers believe they are already interacting with companies on the social Web. Nearly all participants — 93 percent — believe all companies should have a presence in social media. And 85 percent believe companies should not just present information via social [...] Related posts:B2B Marketing Content: Lure or Lasso? I picked this saying up from Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book... The 4 P’s to Socia more »

  • Going Mobile with B2B Marketing – Part II

    • Going Mobile with B2B Marketing – Part II
    25 Feb, 2010
    So in my last blog post – Going Mobile with B2B Marketing we discussed the basics of the mobile market and where to focus our attention as a B2B Marketers. Now we want to move into the content. I would say that if  “Content is King” on the internet “Context is Queen” on mobile.  With only [...] Related posts:Going Mobile with B2B Marketing As I mentioned in my Top 10 predictions for 2010... Why is Google Scared and What it means for B2B Marketing! At a recent dinner with a buddy more »

  • Going Mobile with B2B Marketing

    • Going Mobile with B2B Marketing
    23 Feb, 2010
    As I mentioned in my Top 10 predictions for 2010 – I think the Mobile Marketing in 2010 will become more mainstream. As a marketer I always like to play the “odds not the lottery” and to me when you have a market of 3.3 Billion Handsets worldwide (half the population) versus only 1 Billion PC’s [...] Related posts:Why is Google Scared and What it means for B2B Marketing! At a recent dinner with a buddy of mine from... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plug more »

  • What’s your Social Media diet?

    • What’s your Social Media diet?
    18 Feb, 2010
    I often get asked the question – how do you keep up with it all? And if there is one thing I pride myself on is being organized. As anyone on my team can tell you from having been in my office is that it is very organized which I feel spills over into my digital [...] Related posts:Social Search could it be a Google Killer? This morning I typed into Google the search term: VoIP... Avaya makes Business Communications more Social It’s a very exciting day for me here at... Social Media speeds more »

  • In B2B Marketing: Content is Media

    • In B2B Marketing: Content is Media
    16 Feb, 2010
    For some reason there is a lot of confusion about the word Content lately. Back in the late 90s when the internet was just heating up we all heard alot about how “Content is King”. But these days for B2B Marketers I think we need to take it a step further and say that “Content [...] Related posts:The 4 P’s to Social Media Marketing Ok ok – based on the great response I got... B2B Marketing Content: Lure or Lasso? I picked this saying up from Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book... Social Medi more »

  • Does Bit.ly convert for B2B Marketing – a case study

    • Does Bit.ly convert for B2B Marketing – a case study
    11 Feb, 2010
    The short answer – heck yeah! On December 19, 2009 Avaya completed the acquisition of Nortel Enterprise Services. We announced on that day we would hold a virtual event that would introduce our new roadmap for the combined enterprise in exactly 30 days. This would prove to be a seminal event for Avaya and on January [...] Related posts:Influencers vs Advocates in B2B Marketing According to Wikipedia – Influencer Marketing is a form of... B2B Marketing Content: Lure or Lasso? I picked this more »

  • B2B Marketing: Trust + Community = ROI

    • B2B Marketing: Trust + Community = ROI
    09 Feb, 2010
    Trust is not a new thing when it comes to marketing and communications as evidenced by one of the most awaited studies in the communications world is always the annual Edelman Public Relations Trust Barometer. Trust is not a new thing in the world of sales either – its a fact that people enjoy buying from [...] Related posts:Influencers vs Advocates in B2B Marketing According to Wikipedia – Influencer Marketing is a form of... The 4 P’s to Social Media Marketing Ok ok – based on the gre more »
  • B2Blog

  • If it clicks like a blind mole … it must be click fraud

    • If it clicks like a blind mole … it must be click fraud
    11 Mar, 2010
    Penny-wise, pound-foolish. Sucker born every minute. Hindsight is 20/20. Whatever cliche you want to use, I shouldn't have said yes. Yep, a bargain 'per click' offer sucked me in from a low-performing, but reputable, B2B directory. At less than a quarter per click, I didn't fear much. And for months I was right.

  • B2B SAAS puts pricing on website, salespeople gasp

    • B2B SAAS puts pricing on website, salespeople gasp
    04 Mar, 2010
    Us industrial marketers have lots of logistical excuses reasons that we don’t post prices on our websites. I’ve made a valiant effort to discuss it here at B2Blog in the past. Software is a borderless, virtual product, so the bar is a bit lower. And if you are in a very new marketplace, there’s no [...]

  • Five nails in the Trade Pub coffin

    • Five nails in the Trade Pub coffin
    18 Feb, 2010
    Here is another voice putting to words the paradigm shifts we have been witnessing in the last few years. But the important point is noting that things HAVE changed, and that we need to act accordingly. Tom Pick at WebMarketCentral Blog asks rhetorically Will Content Marketing Kill Trade Publications?: “The challenges faced by trade publications go far [...]

  • Proof it’s not about the benefits, but your product

    • Proof it’s not about the benefits, but your product
    17 Feb, 2010
    Go look at Anne Holland’s Which Test Won. Sorry to bypass the quiz screen, but my post’s title already gives away the answer. “Version A, with its main visual of the printer itself, enticed 37.2% more visitors to complete the online call-back form, thus generating more sales leads for the industrial printers.” While an awareness of the [...]

  • BlackBerry check FAIL

    • BlackBerry check FAIL
    17 Feb, 2010
    What is this man doing? Stepping out of the booth to check his phone? Can’t make the long walk to the restroom? moar funny pictures This was right across from our show booth, and this guy was like this for ten minutes. Since men don’t take that long to water the bushes, we decided he must have been checking [...]

  • Random thoughts while waiting for my crate

    • Random thoughts while waiting for my crate
    05 Feb, 2010
    Written last Monday at 3:30pm while waiting for my show-crate to arrive at our booth at Moscone Center: Trade show setup is unnatural combination of union guys and marketers. Marketing managers who want large flat-panels in the booth, probably also want flat panels for their house. Coincidence? What’s worse: missing your flight, losing your luggage, or you show crate [...]

  • Terrorist customers: How should we react?

    • Terrorist customers: How should we react?
    02 Jan, 2010
    It happened again. Some nutty passenger attempts blowing up a plane, and suddenly other fliers have to endure stricter screening and flying rules. And as news of the revised policy spread, the jokes about Homeland Security followed. It happened again. Some nutty customer attempts to rip the company off, and suddenly other customers have endure stricter [...]

  • Keep tweaking your website

    • Keep tweaking your website
    18 Dec, 2009
    Its way to easy to ’set it and forget it’ when it comes to your website. But constantly tweaking it can make for sizable gains in effectiveness. Here are two tools to help you: 1. Browser size visualization tool Google just released a screen overlay tool that shows you what percentage of average users can see what [...]

  • Snail-mail blows away email for lead-gen

    • Snail-mail blows away email for lead-gen
    08 Dec, 2009
    Would you email to a mailing list for lead-gen, or snail-mail it? We marketers of limited means (time and staff, as much as money) love the email tools out there. Fire up SurveyMonkey and/or MailChimp, and bam!–leads and responses. But we should reconsider our actions based on split-testing reported at B2BMarketingSmarts: Email lead generation — perception vs. [...]

  • Salespeople don’t listen to your emails?

    • Salespeople don’t listen to your emails?
    30 Nov, 2009
    As B2B marketers, our primary audience really is our salespeople, right? You’d think every email we sent to them would be treated as a precious treasure to aid them in their success. Of course we are humbled–or more likely irate–when we find out that they aren’t even reading the emails. I thought making friendly sales-info videos was [...]
  • B2B Marketing Confidential ...

  • What the iPad Teaches us About New Product Marketing

    • What the iPad Teaches us About New Product Marketing
    11 Mar, 2010
    When launching a new product, we have to overcome two barriers.  First, we have to make people know that the problem or the solution exists and why it's relevant to them.  We’ll call this “category awarenessâ€�. In pharmaceutical marketing, for example, this is critical. Recently, a drug was created to address “restless leg syndrome.â€� The problem the drug companies had was that no one knew that restless leg syndrome even existed. Before selling the drug, the firm more »

  • A novel approach to solving healthcare?

    • A novel approach to solving healthcare?
    11 Mar, 2010
    In honor of MLK day, I'm not writing about my livelihood, marketing, but rather about a slightly larger and more relevant topic, health care.  Don't worry, faithful readers, you'll get more abstruse marketing ideas soon. I started thinking about this problem in detail because I've recently switched employers, which has meant switching health insurance companies.  This has led to the typical bewildering array of changes.  Some Doctors take one insurance plan (the old one) but not the new one. more »

  • Boiling the Leno Thing Down

    • Boiling the Leno Thing Down
    11 Mar, 2010
    Every once in a while, you see a picture that takes a news story and basically explains it better than any interview or analysis can.  As my friend John Shomaker said as a preface to his email, "Money chart. Ridiculous discounts to other shows. Did you ever see it - horrible. Not funny at all, and yet Leno thought it was a different format. Same show, just earlier, but with horrible writers." I guess that about covers it for Jay Leno.  Sorry man.  You're just not that funny.

  • Are Marketing Data Expanding Faster than the Universe?

    • Are Marketing Data Expanding Faster than the Universe?
    11 Mar, 2010
    I'll start by making a statement that I think I can back up: the amount of data available to marketers is growing geometrically, not linearly. Linear growth of marketing data would mean something like the following: An individual starts a new company on January 1, 2010. He buys a list of 1000 names to market to. A year later, he has added 100 names to this list, for 10% growth. A year later, he buys 110 names to market to, for a further 10% growth, and so on, and so on. Exponential growth is d more »

  • Part 2 of Latent Pipeline: Digital Topography

    • Part 2 of Latent Pipeline: Digital Topography
    11 Mar, 2010
    The latent pipeline concept that I layed out last week is one that sounds good on its surface, but as a German colleague of mine would say, "where is the detail?" The key to operationalizing latent pipeline is having a really good grasp of marketing from the customer's perspective, that is, online. What I call this (and this is my term) is online topography. I call it this because it reminds me a lot of a topographical map. You have features on the map (mountains, streams, trails) and you also ha more »

  • Customer Insight Three Ways

    • Customer Insight Three Ways
    11 Mar, 2010
    Customer insight is important to marketers for many reasons. Understanding your customers helps you in formulating market strategy. It helps in campaign design. It helps the sales force understand how to approach acquisition targets or retain existing customers. It is the raw material out of which great marketing happens. In the B2C space, customer insight is well understood, and whole industries and many great companies have made it their business. Segmentation schemes that provide predictive li more »

  • Looking Forward to the Snarky Ad Backlash

    • Looking Forward to the Snarky Ad Backlash
    11 Mar, 2010
    I have had it with snarky ads.Snarky: Rudely sarcastic or disrespectful; snide (Dictionary.com)I'd add this definition: The sarcastic, know-it-all, snotty sense of humor that has become the lingua franca of the late 00's among a certain class of too-cool young adults.The front-line of the snarky cultural revolution seems to be advertising. It's driving me nuts, and I'm hoping I'm a leading indicator for the rest of the world. The sooner we're rid of the snarky ad revolution, the better. Here are more »

  • Measuring the Value of Relationship Marketing

    • Measuring the Value of Relationship Marketing
    11 Mar, 2010
    Relationship marketing, unlike direct marketing, is about cultivating a customer (in the case of B2B, this could mean many different audiences inside one company) over the long-term, and ultimately driving loyalty. Customers’ attitudes change in a positive direction; they become satisfied with the brand; they ultimately perceive the brand to be high-quality, caring, etc. and will stay a customer for life. At least, that’s the idea. The problem with relationship marketing is that you more »

  • Mobile Codes and B2B

    • Mobile Codes and B2B
    11 Mar, 2010
    Over the past decade, I’ve been involved with many projects to “de-tangleâ€� digital marketing for big companies. Big companies want to know what’s out there in the digital landscape, and how it all fits together. Most importantly, they want to know why the latest trend is important to them. Take Twitter, for example. Is it a real, honest-to-goodness life changer that will be used addictively by a whole generation of digital influentials? Or, will it be the Segway scooter more »

  • Segmenting Segmentation

    • Segmenting Segmentation
    10 Mar, 2010
    The problem with the word "segmentation" is that it has lost its meaning. Like "analytics", a marketer saying "segmentation" can mean virtually anything. This isn't necessarily a problem, if we are simply using "segmentation" to mean "the parsing of customers in some way", but often people mean something very specific when they say the word, while the people listening interpret something very specific as well, but something specifically totally different.I've often tried to come up with ways to s more »
  • ReadyContacts

  • ReadyContacts – Business Marketing And Sales Bestsellers Quiz

    • ReadyContacts – Business Marketing And Sales Bestsellers Quiz
    28 Aug, 2009
    If you’re an avid reader of marketing and sales bestsellers, you’re bound to enjoy this one. Have fun! Don’t forget to tweet this to your followers if you enoyed it: RT @neil_s Check out our new quick “Business Marketing And Sales Bestsellers Quiz” warning: this one is not a piece of cake – http://bit.ly/kQD9r

  • Inside Sales Tips – How To Improve Your Connect Rate Through Good Data

    • Inside Sales Tips – How To Improve Your Connect Rate Through Good Data
    28 Aug, 2009
    “My connect rates are great! I connect with someone 80% of the time when I dial any number off my list!” … Aren’t we missing the point here? How many of those dials end up connecting with the real decision maker at that account? Not as many in several cases. Typical scenarios of an inside [...]

  • Our Top 5 Most Challenging B2B Business Contacts To Locate – Can You Beat This?

    • Our Top 5 Most Challenging B2B Business Contacts To Locate – Can You Beat This?
    28 Aug, 2009
    We’ve been building very specific role based business contact lists for our customers very specific campaign requirements for what seems to be a very long time now. Over this time we have worked with such a range of B2B companies it’s difficult to recall every project undertaken especially for those who had a smaller, one [...]

  • The Lean Mean Sales And Marketing Machine – Page1

    • The Lean Mean Sales And Marketing Machine – Page1
    28 Aug, 2009
    Every company works towards improving their sales and marketing effectiveness. It’s a never-ending process in quest for how to generate better results and in today’s perspective, how to do this more efficiently without exponentially increasing resources to get those better results. The “Lean Mean Marketing And Sales Machine” is going to be a series of [...]

  • Garbage In Garbage Out: Why Focus Is Critical In Marketing Campaigns

    • Garbage In Garbage Out: Why Focus Is Critical In Marketing Campaigns
    09 Jul, 2009
    Marketing’s objective is to reach out to prospects and nurture them to build a pipeline of warm contacts who can be further developed into opportunities. Outbound marketing including email marketing, direct mail and telemarketing form the foundation of marketing’s reach out program and the urge, rightly so, is to reach out to as many contacts [...]

  • 2000+ Virtual Iron Customers Are Waiting For Help. Do You Know Them?

    • 2000+ Virtual Iron Customers Are Waiting For Help. Do You Know Them?
    09 Jul, 2009
    A common outcome of mergers and acquisitions is that the customers and partners of the acquired company face a lot of uncertainties about product evolution, product support and their own technology roadmap considering this uncertainty. Its also a golden opportunity for competitors of the acquired company to launch an aggressive sales effort of win over [...]

  • Conversations Start The Process Of Sales

    • Conversations Start The Process Of Sales
    10 Jun, 2009
      I have been tracking Sales 2.0 conference updates from @greenleads and @damphoux this morning and came across this tweet that that RT’d on @readycontacts just now. For the first time in a long time I heard someone say something “real” about the challenge of generating sales. While all the discussions on social media, marketing automation and [...]

  • ReadyContacts - Business Marketing And Sales Bestsellers Quiz

    • ReadyContacts - Business Marketing And Sales Bestsellers Quiz
    10 Jun, 2009
    If you’re an avid reader of marketing and sales bestsellers, you’re bound to enjoy this one. Have fun! Don’t forget to tweet this to your followers if you enoyed it: RT @neil_s Check out our new quick “Business Marketing And Sales Bestsellers Quiz” warning: this one is not a piece of cake - http://bit.ly/kQD9r

  • How Good Data Turbo Charges Lead Generation: An Interview With Ardath Albee CEO of Marketing Interactions

    • How Good Data Turbo Charges Lead Generation: An Interview With Ardath Albee CEO of Marketing Interactions
    10 Jun, 2009
    Our interview series on “How Good Data Turbo Charges Lead Generation” is turning out more exciting with each passing weak and uncovering some really good insights from experts in the B2B marketing and lead generation space. This week we speak to Ardath Albee, CEO of Marketing Interactions and author of the upcoming book E-Marketing Strategies for [...]

  • Inside Sales Tips - How To Improve Your Connect Rate Through Good Data

    • Inside Sales Tips - How To Improve Your Connect Rate Through Good Data
    10 Jun, 2009
    “My connect rates are great! I connect with someone 80% of the time when I dial any number off my list!” … Aren’t we missing the point here? How many of those dials end up connecting with the real decision maker at that account? Not as many in several cases. Typical scenarios of an inside [...]
  • Marketo

  • Sales 2.0: Sell Faster, Better, and Smarter

    • Sales 2.0: Sell Faster, Better, and Smarter
    09 Mar, 2010
    The Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco has kicked off with quite a big start. The event is bringing together sales and marketing leaders to leverage sales-oriented SaaS technologies so their teams can sell faster, better, and smarter.

  • Is Your B2B Company REALLY Ready for Social Media?

    • Is Your B2B Company REALLY Ready for Social Media?
    24 Feb, 2010
    Here’s a checklist designed to help you determine if your organization is ready for Social Media Marketing and, if so, how to make your efforts successful.

  • Marketing Automation: Simple Ways to Get Started

    • Marketing Automation: Simple Ways to Get Started
    09 Feb, 2010
    For B2B organizations looking to shorten sales cycles, increase revenue and achieve better marketing ROI, marketing automation is the natural answer. This post lists out ways for marketers to get started with marketing automation.

  • Marketing Automation Maintenance Checklist

    • Marketing Automation Maintenance Checklist
    05 Feb, 2010
    By following this quick checklist, you will make sure your marketing automation campaigns continue to help leads move through your pipeline and that you keep your sales team happy.

  • You Don’t Know Jack About Online Marketing – More than Just the Coolest Marketing Game Ever

    • You Don’t Know Jack About Online Marketing – More than Just the Coolest Marketing Game Ever
    05 Feb, 2010
    You Don’t Know Jack About Online Marketing – This post explains why this is more than just the Coolest Marketing Game Ever!

  • Marketing PSA: Beware of the “Evergreen Renewal"

    • Marketing PSA: Beware of the “Evergreen Renewal"
    29 Jan, 2010
    Marketers beware: An Evergreen Renewal (AKA auto-renewal) is a clause often hidden deep in the back of contracts to automatically renew, usually 30 days before the expiration of the original agreement.

  • Introducing Seed Nurturing

    • Introducing Seed Nurturing
    28 Jan, 2010
    What happens when qualified prospects visit your site or social media sites anonymously where you don't necessarily have their names or e-mails? Seed nurturing is the process of building relationships with qualified prospects before you have their contact information.

  • Making Sense of the Chaos: Social CRM with Bill Odell

    • Making Sense of the Chaos: Social CRM with Bill Odell
    26 Jan, 2010
    Another great post in our B2B marketing thought leadership interview series, Bill Odell sets things straight on Social CRM and how it can impact your business.

  • Turn Inbound Leads into Customers

    • Turn Inbound Leads into Customers
    21 Jan, 2010
    Marketers have changed the way they handle online demand generation by using thought leadership like white papers, surveys and videos to drive interest in their industry or solution. But for many companies, leads from these inbound methods don’t necessarily mean an increase in potential sales opportunities. Here are some tips to help you convert these inbound leads into customers.

  • Sales and Marketing Alignment to Drive Success with Carlos Vidal

    • Sales and Marketing Alignment to Drive Success with Carlos Vidal
    19 Jan, 2010
    Sales and Marketing alignment is key to driving success in an organization. This post shares insight from Carlos Vidal about how to achieve this alignment to sell successfully to the C-Suite.
  • Hubspot

  • 4 Ways to Get Your Business Found by Local Searchers

    • 4 Ways to Get Your Business Found by Local Searchers
    11 Mar, 2010
    If you are like most small businesses, the success of your company is dependent on attracting local customers, whether they are in your region, state, county or even town. While it's great to see that your website is pulling in visitors from around the country and maybe even around the world, you don't want to waste the time or resources worrying about leads and inquiries that you can't possibly follow up with. So, how do you ensure you are doing everything in your power to pull in those valuab more »

  • What Do Coke, Pepsi, Pampers, Dominos, Google and Facebook Have in Common?

    • What Do Coke, Pepsi, Pampers, Dominos, Google and Facebook Have in Common?
    11 Mar, 2010
    Are audiences more interested in understanding what the big brands are doing?  Do we look up to Coke and Pepsi and other great brands for inspiration?At HubSpot, we love to measure everything, and recently we completed a short study on how the use of brand names (including Coke, Pepsi, Dominos, Google, Pampers, Facebook,etc.) in article titles had an impact on blog article performance. The results were astounding.  Out of the approximately 100 articles published over a period of 50 days, just o more »

  • Stop Delivering Mail: Build USPS 2.0

    • Stop Delivering Mail: Build USPS 2.0
    10 Mar, 2010
    Last week the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) announced it is considering cutting Saturday delivery. It's about time. In fact, the mail doesn't need to stop being delivered on Saturday, it needs to stop being delivered completely.In a recent TechCrunch article, entrepreneur Marc Andreessen suggested that traditional media outlets "burn the boats," meaning they should stop publishing print versions of their publications.  We need to do the same thing when it comes to sending mail.The Problems with Mai more »

  • Going to SXSW? Rate Speakers and Win an iPad!

    • Going to SXSW? Rate Speakers and Win an iPad!
    10 Mar, 2010
    Boring presentations suck. Don't you hate it when you attend an event and feel like the speaker is completely wasting your time? Conferences are expensive and networking time is too valuable to waste by sitting down and listening to a bad speaker. With South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW) coming up, our team wanted to solve this problem.  Introducing Speaker Grader!Speaker Grader is the newest free tool to join the Grader family.  It rates speakers at conferences via votes gathered from Twitte more »

  • Chart of the Week: Marketing Budgets Shifting to Digital Tactics

    • Chart of the Week: Marketing Budgets Shifting to Digital Tactics
    10 Mar, 2010
    Marketers are shifting their budgets away from traditional marketing channels and toward digital marketing channels. Econsultancy, in association with ExactTarget, surveyed more than 265 B2B marketers -- in companies of all sizes -- asking if they plan to spend more or less of their marketing budgets in 2010 on 14 different marketing tactics. While 46% of companies plan to increase their overall marketing budgets in 2010, 66% will increase their investments in digital marketing. Digital channel more »

  • What Star Wars Can Teach You about Inbound Marketing

    • What Star Wars Can Teach You about Inbound Marketing
    10 Mar, 2010
    In our busy, time-constrained world, it is harder and harder to generate a large amount of content in a short amount of time. One solution to this problem is what I like to call Storybook Marketing. The general idea is to use age-old archetypes and paradigms to do an end run around the requirement to process everything. One of the best known examples of using these storytelling methods is a little film you may have heard of -- Star Wars. George Lucas was greatly affected by the Joseph Campb more »

  • 8 Common Mistakes in B2B Social Media Marketing

    • 8 Common Mistakes in B2B Social Media Marketing
    09 Mar, 2010
    About the author: Tom Pick is an online marketing executive with KC Associates, a marketing and PR firm in Minneapolis, Minnesota, focused on B2B technology clients. He's also the award-winning writer of the Webbiquity blog, which focuses on B2B lead generation and Web presence optimization -- the fusion of SEO, search marketing, social media, content marketing and interactive PR. You've seen the statistics. Over 90% of B2B decision makers use social media somewhere in their buying process. Two- more »

  • 3 Ways Location Will Change SEO

    • 3 Ways Location Will Change SEO
    09 Mar, 2010
    As South By South West Interactive approaches, social media applications across the web are revving up their development and marketing. This is the event that only a few years ago helped to propel Twitter into mass adoption. Leading up to this year's conference, location-based social networks seem to be generating the most buzz. Applications like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz, Yelp and Gowalla all have the goal of connecting people who are online to offline locations where they can meet old more »

  • Restaurant Owner Increases Sales by 110% with Foursquare Swarm Badge Party

    • Restaurant Owner Increases Sales by 110% with Foursquare Swarm Badge Party
    09 Mar, 2010
    How do you attract a flash mob of 150+ people to your restaurant?  Offer the possibility of a Foursquare Swarm Badge, of course!Last week, restaurant owner Joe Sorge attracted 161 Foursquare users at the same time to his burger joint in Milwaukee, AJ Bombers (pretty impressive considering there are approximately only 300-400 total Foursquare users in the area).  Even more impressive is the fact that the restaurant more than doubled its typical Sunday sales, with an increase of 110% that day. more »

  • Study Shows That Facebook Fans Become Valuable Customers

    • Study Shows That Facebook Fans Become Valuable Customers
    08 Mar, 2010
    How effective are Facebook Fan Pages? Are they actually generating customers and leads for your business?Dessert Gallery, a popular Houston-based bakery and café chain, experimented with a Facebook Fan Page to measure how helpful the popular social media site really is. They set up a "sweet" Fan Page and updated it regularly with pictures, contests, reviews and other items designed to interact with their customers. Three months later, they surveyed over 13,000 customers on shopping behavior more »
  • Demandbase

  • 8 Questions You Need To Ask When Buying a Marketing List

    • 8 Questions You Need To Ask When Buying a Marketing List
    09 Mar, 2010
    Buying a marketing list can be a stressful process. With so many vendors out there, it is important to ask the right questions when you are making a decision. Here are 8 questions you should always ask when you are in the market for business contact data...

  • Needy Sales People

    • Needy Sales People
    05 Mar, 2010
    I was talking to an experienced marketing executive yesterday about the relationship between sales and marketing, and I noticed that most of the best salespeople I have worked with in the past have shared a common characteristic. They were all a little bit needy.

  • Competitive Marketing Intelligence

    • Competitive Marketing Intelligence
    02 Feb, 2010
    Have you ever wanted to be alerted when there are changes to a web page, but there is no RSS feed on the page?

  • B2B Marketing Content From Dreamforce

    • B2B Marketing Content From Dreamforce
    12 Dec, 2009
    A friend alerted me to the fact that all of the breakout sessions from Salesforce.com's Dreamforce event are now up for viewing on Youtube. Haven't heard much about through "official" SFDC channels, so thought I would share.

  • The Irony of Using Social Media to Monitor Social Media

    • The Irony of Using Social Media to Monitor Social Media
    11 Dec, 2009
    Is social network marketing really the hottest topic in BtoB marketing right now? Is it really what people want to learn more about? Or does it just seem that way because that's what the people who are on Twitter want us to believe?

  • 10 B2B Demand Generation Strategies for 2010

    • 10 B2B Demand Generation Strategies for 2010
    02 Dec, 2009
    I did a dry run of our Wednesday (12/2/2009) webinar with Howard Sewell from Connect Direct this morning, and I have to tell you that he has put together some outstanding recommendations and tips for BtoB companies in 2010. A recording will be made available if you can't join us live, but as the Q&A at the end of the webinar could be the best part of the discussion you should join us if you can..

  • Dreamforce 2009: Thoughts From the Keynote

    • Dreamforce 2009: Thoughts From the Keynote
    20 Nov, 2009
    Just a very quick report, from the "trenches" as it were, about the announcements revealed yesterday morning at the Dreamforce 2009 keynote speech, delivered to 10,000 people in Moscone center. Seriously, there were a lot of people there. Biggest Dreamforce ever, highlighted with some very well received improvements that will have significant impact on how the power users are doing their jobs every day.

  • Top 5 Takeaways From the Marketing Sherpa B2B Lead Generation Summit

    • Top 5 Takeaways From the Marketing Sherpa B2B Lead Generation Summit
    18 Nov, 2009
    Social Media: While the topic still fills a room, it's a lot easier to find seats at the back than it was at this time last year. There does seem to be a growing backlash as there has been a shortage of fresh content out there for a while. As a matter of fact, we got a bump in traffic in the exhibit hall during the social media sessions with visitors citing "burnout" on the topic. And the top questions about of social network marketing still focus on ROI. Social media does tie in very nicely with more »

  • A Busy Week in the B2B Marketing Cloud

    • A Busy Week in the B2B Marketing Cloud
    17 Nov, 2009
    Dreamforce, Salesforce.com's annual "global gathering" starts tomorrow - and Demandbase is going to be there. Complete details about how to find us, including some great B2B Marketing breakout sessions, can be found here: http://www.demandbase.com/enewsletter/demandbasedreamforce2009.html

  • The Top Lead Scoring Tip from the Marketo User Summit

    • The Top Lead Scoring Tip from the Marketo User Summit
    16 Nov, 2009
    I gave a presentation on lead scoring last week at the Marketo User Summit in San Mateo. Aside from some general background on the differences between demographic scoring (based on things that can be gleaned from a web form like title, department, company size, etc.) and behavioral scoring (based on actions a prospect takes that could raise or lower their score such as clicking on a link in an email or visiting a series of web pages) I gave a few examples of one-off or periodic lead scoring activ more »
  • B2B Lead Generation Blog / ...

  • Lead Generation tips for Tradeshows Conferences

    • Lead Generation tips for Tradeshows Conferences
    11 Mar, 2010
    Tradeshows and events are still being used consistently by B2B marketers for lead generation. With that in mind, Roger Lewis has some useful tips on how to improve your lead management strategy with from tradeshows. Lewis emphasizes how vital lead...

  • Lead re-engagement is lead nurturing to rejuvenate old leads

    • Lead re-engagement is lead nurturing to rejuvenate old leads
    11 Mar, 2010
    The January sales push well on it's way and most B2B marketers I know are looking more ways to generate leads faster. But here's a question to ponder... Do you have a process have a process for handing leads (from...

  • Best Books of the Decade for Marketing and Selling Services

    • Best Books of the Decade for Marketing and Selling Services
    11 Mar, 2010
    Rain Today, a great resource for those who market and sell services, selected their Best Book s of the Decade for marketing and selling professional services. I was humbled to see that they picked my book, Lead Generation for the...

  • Lead Generation Check list – Part 7: Effective lead management

    • Lead Generation Check list – Part 7: Effective lead management
    11 Mar, 2010
    My checklist for optimizing the lead generation process so far has included six steps: the mindset of not pushing; repairing the rift between sales and marketing; creating the ideal customer profile (and the un-ideal customer profile as well); agreeing upon...

  • Thoughts on how to follow-up on website leads when you use marketing automation

    • Thoughts on how to follow-up on website leads when you use marketing automation
    11 Mar, 2010
    A few months ago, at the MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing summit in Boston, I was asked on how best to follow-up on leads generated via the web by Richard Hill. Richard writes over at the Idea Exchange blog on marketing automation...

  • How to Get the Twitter Username You've Always Wanted (even if it's taken)

    • How to Get the Twitter Username You've Always Wanted (even if it's taken)
    11 Mar, 2010
    Don't forget to secure your Twitter name! I signed up for twitter a year an half ago but that wasn’t soon enough to get my hands on my company's Twitter name of choice of @intouch. So if you were late...

  • How to Design Lead Nurturing Programs that Drive Sales webinar with Ardath Albee

    • How to Design Lead Nurturing Programs that Drive Sales webinar with Ardath Albee
    11 Mar, 2010
    You’ve probably seen a lot of discussions regarding lead nurturing lately. People want to know: How can I create enough content with my organization’s limited resources? How can we develop a nurturing program that actually builds our pipeline? What measurements...

  • 50 Most Influential People in Lead Management

    • 50 Most Influential People in Lead Management
    11 Mar, 2010
    The Sales Lead Management Association posted their list of the 50 most influential people in lead management. I was humbled to see that I was included on the list along with a lot of of people I really like and...

  • Lead Generation Check list – Part 6: A Multi-modal lead generation approach

    • Lead Generation Check list – Part 6: A Multi-modal lead generation approach
    11 Mar, 2010
    This is the sixth in an eight-part series I’m calling the ‘Lead Generation Checklist.' I wanted to provide a checklist that helps organizations optimize their lead generation process. My first post was on the mindset we should have – one...

  • Podcast: Unconventional strategies to reach more clients

    • Podcast: Unconventional strategies to reach more clients
    11 Mar, 2010
    So, you've put a lot of effort into your lead generation process, and you have a great lead in your hand. Now, what can you do to improve your probability of making a profitable sale from it? Michael McLaughlin, addresses...
  • Pacifica Group

  • Handling Conflicts...the Abe Lincoln Way

    • Handling Conflicts...the Abe Lincoln Way
    19 Feb, 2010
    We hung up the phone thinking “whewâ€� that call sure got hot. An irate customer? A demanding boss? A frustrated sales rep? Nope. It was an internal planning meeting between sales and marketing for fiscal year 2010. Not all such meetings, of course, are this animated but this one sure was. And that’s not always a bad thing but in this case people left with some hurt feelings and damaged relationships. I’m sure you’ve seen your share of heated conflict in more »

  • Aventi Group and Huthwaite Form Partnership to Offer SPINops

    • Aventi Group and Huthwaite Form Partnership to Offer SPINops
    18 Feb, 2010
    We are very pleased to announce Aventi Group's new partnership with Huthwaite, a leading sales performance improvement organization. The best way to explain this to you is to share with you a client quote: "We're excited about the results that Aventi Group is delivering with SPINops," said Raju Chekuri, CEO of NetEnrich, a leader in remote infrastructure management (RIM) solutions. "We can now forecast revenue with much higher accuracy, track lead values and marketing ROI based on closed opport more »

  • What's the most effective demand gen approach?

    • What's the most effective demand gen approach?
    17 Feb, 2010
    I recently posted some discussions on LinkedIn that asked the question: what’s the most effective telemarketing and lead generation approach for technology companies? This triggered some excellent responses and lively discussions, as well as a few questions. To follow is a brief overview of the discussions, and a few answers to the questions posed.

  • Announcing Aventi’s Vector for Channels

    • Announcing Aventi’s Vector for Channels
    06 Feb, 2010
    I’m very pleased to announce a new Aventi Group’s offering masterminded by our very own Bill Reed. Aventi’s Vector for Channels is a deliverable made up of methods, tools, templates and even a bit of software aimed at helping technology clients optimize channel sales. Specifically, Vector for Channels is intended to help the VP of Sales/Marketing drive higher response rates from demand generation programs for the channel, increase channel sales rep effectiveness with sharp more »

  • It's that Target Market again...

    • It's that Target Market again...
    05 Feb, 2010
    Lately I've been advising a couple of different companies who are either introducing a new product or contemplating a new market. Invariably the question comes up how should we think about which markets to enter. Simple answer: wherever you can maximize your opportunity! Well not so simple really, when you start thinking about it.

  • CIO Tells Us How to Sell to CIOs

    • CIO Tells Us How to Sell to CIOs
    04 Feb, 2010
    I had a great conversation with my dear friend and neighbor, Walt Thinfen. He’s the Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Visioneer, a high tech company here in Pleasanton, California. I took the opportunity to get his thoughts on how our clients and other technology vendors could do a better job of selling to the CIO. Listen in on this conversation for some great gold nuggets some of which might really surprise you.

  • Time for that Annual Partner Satisfaction Survey?

    • Time for that Annual Partner Satisfaction Survey?
    03 Feb, 2010
    Thinking about surveying your partners to assess your channel program and prioritize objectives for the coming year? We recently conducted such a survey for a global software organization, and despite current challenges in the economy, we heard channel partners asking for some fairly common resources.

  • Partners Revisited – Seven watch-outs

    • Partners Revisited – Seven watch-outs
    29 Jan, 2010
    Jeff Thompson, my partner here at Aventi Group, and I recently worked on a project where we helped an important client revisit and optimize their channel strategy. The problem was that our client who sells directly and indirectly to the SMB segment, had partnerships agreements in place with over 9000 partners. But what they did not have is a clear picture of which partners were performing or even active. Note that this is a client for whom the SMB segment (yes I know it is not one monolithic se more »

  • The Aventi Group Network -- Check It Out!

    • The Aventi Group Network -- Check It Out!
    28 Jan, 2010
    Here's an invitation to all of you independent consultants who might consider joining the tight network of executive consultants in the Aventi Group extended team. Please join me and fellow founders, Bill Reed and Jeff Thompson, on a webinar for a discussion on how we leverage our flexible network of experts/executives to add unique value to our clients...and see how you can benefit from this for your own practice. Click here to register for the webinar on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 8:00 AM more »

  • Leading Globally Distributed Teams

    • Leading Globally Distributed Teams
    27 Jan, 2010
    If you’re like most executives you manage a global team. But what’s the secret of running a team that cuts across time zones, cultures, and languages? How do you create a strong culture that balances centralized control with distributed authority? What metrics drive the right behaviors and business outcomes when you can’t see your team on a daily basis? I had a great lunch with my friend, Suresh Balasubramanian, who is a director in charge of a sales/field marketing te more »
  • Selling to Big Companies / ...

  • Using White Papers to Attract Customers

    • Using White Papers to Attract Customers
    28 Feb, 2010
    Did you know that one of the best ways to generate leads today is by leveraging white papers? If you're not currently using this strategy, check out the upcoming White Paper Success Summit - a virtual online learning event that kicks off in February. (If you register by Thursday, Jan. 7th, you get 50% off.) I'm giving a session called...

  • #11 Reaches His Unreachable Goal—and Scores!

    • #11 Reaches His Unreachable Goal—and Scores!
    27 Feb, 2010
    My son, Ryan Konrath, in his final year at the University of North Dakota where he is majoring in commercial aviation. He's also #11 on the football team. Ryan did not get a scholarship to play football. He "walked on," meaning that he might get financial help some day, but no guarantees. He had to prove himself first. He started...

  • Inspiration for 2010: 12 Videos That Set the Right Tone for the Year Ahead

    • Inspiration for 2010: 12 Videos That Set the Right Tone for the Year Ahead
    23 Feb, 2010
    If you need a break from football today, I encourage you to take a look at these 12 inspirational, motivational and moving videos that were compiled by Ed Gandia on The Wealthy Freelancer. I know at least ONE of them is just what you need to get yourself off to a great start in the upcoming year. Entrepreneurs Can Change...

  • BOLD Prediction #2: Sellers Need to be Better Marketers

    • BOLD Prediction #2: Sellers Need to be Better Marketers
    22 Feb, 2010
    Hey Sellers! It's time for a wake-up call. You're dealing with crazy-busy buyers who don't act like they're supposed to anymore. That means you need to do things differently. Today I interview Chad Levitt, the New Sales Economy blogger and a practicing salesperson. I think you'll be real interested in what he has to say! Jill: Why do you think...

  • BOLD Prediction: GREEN is the New GR$$N

    • BOLD Prediction: GREEN is the New GR$$N
    22 Feb, 2010
    In my recent In 2010, I Predict Salespeople Will ... post, 24 sales experts shared their #1 prediction for the upcoming year. But only one sent me a "I can't believe no one has mentioned this yet" email and that was Mary Clare Hunt. Her focus? Green value, sustainable attributes and life cycle assessments. She's running a 16-part series on...

  • Book Watch: What I've Been Reading Lately

    • Book Watch: What I've Been Reading Lately
    21 Feb, 2010
    The New Rules of Marketing & PR By David Meerman Scott The 2010 edition of The New Rules of Marketing and PR is now available – and it's definitely worth reading. It's really a wake-up call to anyone who wants to propel their company to a thought leadership position in their market and drive sales – all without a huge...

  • How to Reach Your Unreachable Goal — Quickly!

    • How to Reach Your Unreachable Goal — Quickly!
    21 Feb, 2010
    When I hung up the phone, I was in a state of shock. I'd just agreed to do something that was vital to my business growth, yet totally unreasonable to accomplish in only 90 days. To top it off - I had no extra time in my already over-flowing schedule. It all started when leadership coach Caitlin Miller invited me...

  • Getting Up Close and Personal with Corporate Bigwigs

    • Getting Up Close and Personal with Corporate Bigwigs
    21 Feb, 2010
    I recently spoke with Sharon Gillenwater, Founder of Boardroom Insiders, a company that creates executive profiles, relationship maps and custom research to help you develop an engagement strategy that'll get you in the door. (Click here to see a sample profile.) The key to getting their attention she says, is establishing relevance by referencing their specific "careabouts." While it sounds...

  • What to Do When Prospects Don't Call You Back - Besides Pulling Your Hair Out!

    • What to Do When Prospects Don't Call You Back - Besides Pulling Your Hair Out!
    20 Feb, 2010
    One of the biggest challenges facing sellers today is when their prospects disappear into the proverbial black hole. Where did they go? And, how do you get them out again? If you're looking for answers to those questions, you'll like the insights that sales expert Eric Slife shares today. . Getting prospects to return your calls is one of the...

  • FREE Telesummit for Overcoming Sales Sabotage: February 8-12th

    • FREE Telesummit for Overcoming Sales Sabotage: February 8-12th
    20 Feb, 2010
    Many sellers struggle with self-sabotaging behaviors that literally keep them from achieving their goals. It's hard to believe that we would do this to ourselves, but many of us do. So let me ask you this .... Are you uncomfortable in your role as a "salesperson"? Do you hate to bother people or be pushy? Do you promise yourself you'll...
  • Accelerating IT Sales

  • Explore the Web with Alternative Browsers

    • Explore the Web with Alternative Browsers
    10 Jun, 2009
    Web browsers are integral to everyday life for anyone who spends any time on the Internet. Whether you work for an online company, spend your days blogging and tweeting, buy everything from clothes to airline tickets online or connect to friends, music, and your community on the Internet, you do so within the confines of a browser. Most people use the same few browsers, and probably don't think much about what their particular browser choice offers (or doesn't offer) when compared to other browse more »

  • How B2B Marketers Can Monetize Social Media

    • How B2B Marketers Can Monetize Social Media
    10 Jun, 2009
    If you've been trying to introduce social media and networking tools and create an online community centered around your company, products or services, there's a good chance that you've hit walls when it comes to explaining how exactly these new products can be monetized. While B2C has leveraged the power of social media and social networking with great success, B2B is still struggling to justify the investments required to develop, host, and manage social tools and communities on their websites. more »

  • Using Social Media to Shorten Sales Cycles

    • Using Social Media to Shorten Sales Cycles
    10 Jun, 2009
    Social media and online communities have exploded over the past few years, but most B2B marketers still haven't figured out how social media can be implemented and monetized as part of their overall marketing strategies. With stable revenue sources already in place, insignificant budgets for developing and building new (and untested) marketing tools, and little data on the ROI of social media, B2B marketers are sticking with traditional online models (including lead generation and banner advertis more »

  • The Basics of Content Jacking

    • The Basics of Content Jacking
    10 Jun, 2009
    There's a new criminal in town, and it's out to get your content! As the web expands, and content creators face increasing pressure to develop new, unique, interesting and accessible content for the masses, content theft increases too. Content jacking is the unauthorized, unattributed redistribution of content from its original website to another site, and content thieves will sometimes post articles without permission, or even scrape entire websites and steal all of the content contained therei more »

  • The Role of Social Media in B2B Marketing

    • The Role of Social Media in B2B Marketing
    10 Jun, 2009
    For those of us who keep an eye on trends in social media, it seems as if EVERYONE is jumping on the social media bandwagon. From Barack Obama and John McCain's use of the technologies in their campaigns, to major IT companies like IBM and SAP's social efforts, one might easily get the impression that social media is everywhere. Social media isn't really everywhere - only 35% of B2B marketers participating in a Forrester Research teleconference currently use social media in their marketing effor more »

  • Search and Google Aren't Synonymous

    • Search and Google Aren't Synonymous
    10 Jun, 2009
    There has been quite a bit of disappointment over Google, Yahoo and Microsoft searches, and their agreement in censoring search results as part of China's Golden Shield Project. According to Wikipedia the Golden Shield Policy is the censorship and surveillance project operated by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) of the People's Republic of China. Because of this policy, some people have ceased their use of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft searches, and are looking for alternative search engines t more »

  • Scrub Your Leads For Job Security

    • Scrub Your Leads For Job Security
    10 Jun, 2009
    Email list hygiene - and the specific practice of scrubbing out bad email addresses - should be of the utmost concern for any of you out there who actively distribute marketing materials via email messages or enewsletters. When sending your marketing materials to huge lists that have not been scrubbed for junk, you run the risk of destroying your company's reputation and losing business along the way. And while it would be easy to sit here and cite statistics about email bounce rates, blacklistin more »

  • BtoB Online Goes Interactive with the Lead Generation Guide 2008

    • BtoB Online Goes Interactive with the Lead Generation Guide 2008
    10 Jun, 2009
    The recently released the BtoB Online Lead Generation Guide 2008 provides a comprehensive overview of the B2B lead generation industry's recent innovations and upcoming trends, and is published in an interactive format that puts their own suggestions regarding content usage into action. The interactive guide has a range of features that allow users to search, bookmark, customize, and generally manipulate their experience with the content within. To explain all of the features, the guide contain more »

  • Keywords, content and tag clouds

    • Keywords, content and tag clouds
    10 Jun, 2009
    Have you seen or heard of tag clouds, yet never been too sure what they are or why they're on so many sites? Have you ever want to see what your website or blog would look like with a tag cloud? I was curious about tag clouds myself - so I did a little research and created a few tag clouds to share on this site. According to Wikipedia, tag clouds are "...visual depictions of user-generated tags, or simply the word content of a site, used typically to describe the content of web sites." Flikr, t more »

  • Pushing Prospects through the Pipeline

    • Pushing Prospects through the Pipeline
    10 Jun, 2009
    A recent Marketing Sherpa report addresses lead nurturing best practices, and is a helpful update on how to best reach prospects once they've engaged with your content, but not independently returned to your site. By applying the practices outlined in Lead Nurturing Best Practices: New Data, Charts, Tips to Put More Punch in Your Cultivation Tactics, you can align your lead nurturing program with what's shown to be working industry-wide. In compiling this report, Marketing Sherpa partnered with more »
  • Anything Goes Marketing

  • 5 Marketing Automation Email Tips

    • 5 Marketing Automation Email Tips
    11 Mar, 2010
    I have the pleasure of welcoming a new bunch of Eloqua team members who we start off with a boot camp here in Toronto so they get to know each other and the rest of the company. I’m going to outline some of the cool things our customers do but I’ll also provide a short intro on what I do in my day to day. To make it easy for everybody, I like to describe my role as a sherpa for our customers. Not a marketing sherpa (that name is already taken) but a marketing automation sherpa as my more »

  • B2B Marketing Trends From Eloqua Experience 09 Via Twitter

    • B2B Marketing Trends From Eloqua Experience 09 Via Twitter
    11 Mar, 2010
    Earlier this month I left my newborn and poor wife at home for an unforgettable week at Eloqua Experience in San Francisco. This sold out event brought together some of smartest marketers from all over the world. While there were a few keynote speakers, the conference focused on having the Eloqua community share their experiences so we could all learn from each other.The main difference this year from last year was that we not only shared our knowledge and insights with each other but with the po more »

  • Social Media Success Stories

    • Social Media Success Stories
    11 Mar, 2010
    I get a few blank stares at times when I talk about social media technologies with friends and colleagues but I’m starting to win people over day by day. How am I doing this? With real stories! Today, I want to share these stories with you to help you better understand the power of social media and to hopefully inspire you to continue on your social media efforts or to jump in for the first time. LinkedIn: Starting an Alumni Group When Linkedin started a groups feature (like Facebook more »

  • Email Marketing Gone Wrong - It's not the 1990s Anymore

    • Email Marketing Gone Wrong - It's not the 1990s Anymore
    11 Mar, 2010
    I've just got off the treadmill and getting ready to turn in and received an email from a Canada's largest retail drug store - Shoppers Drug Mart or "Shoppers" for short. The email broke most of the essential email best practice rules and I want to ensure that you are aware of these and that Shoppers takes these into consideration for future campaigns. This email may have cut it 1999 but will be deleted or never make the inbox in 2009.1. Subject Line Contains the Word "Free"The email subject was more »

  • Twitter and Customer Service - Potential PR Nightmare

    • Twitter and Customer Service - Potential PR Nightmare
    11 Mar, 2010
    Your company may have just started down the path of using Twitter as another communication channel. (If you're not there yet, that's cool but keep reading because there are some items to be aware of. Now back to our story). You may use it to highlight upcoming events, press releases and product/service updates. Using it for this purpose is fairly straightforward. It's mostly a marketing function and is controlled typically by the marketing team.The question that you may be grappling with is this: more »

  • 10 Tips for Using Twitter And Email Marketing for B2B

    • 10 Tips for Using Twitter And Email Marketing for B2B
    11 Mar, 2010
    I was told that every blog needs a "top 10 post" and I thought today would be a good day to write one on a topic that is growing in popularity. That topic is Twitter and how best to use this tool for your B2B marketing efforts. I thought I would take a stab at providing tips on blending a tried and true tool like email with Twitter. Let me know what you think and if you have additional tips (let's see if Darren Rowse from Twitip is listening)10 Tips for Using Twitter And Email Marketing for B2B1. more »

  • Is your Company Being Blogged About?

    • Is your Company Being Blogged About?
    11 Mar, 2010
    Last week I mentioned how you can track your company's brand on twitter. Incidentally I did predict Obama winning the election and also the Dolphins beating the Seahawks today so I'm on a roll!This week I found a new site that you can use to compare how you're company is doing on the blogosphere versus your competition. The tools is called www.trendpedia.com. I liked this site because it graphically represented the trends on a timeline and allows you to drill into them to see the actual blog post more »

  • How to Prevent List Attrition yet Drive Event Attendance

    • How to Prevent List Attrition yet Drive Event Attendance
    11 Mar, 2010
    This week's blog post was inspired by an idea by Yaro Starak over at Entrepreneurs-journey.com who suggested to look for blog ideas by scanning Facebook groups. I decided to do a quick scan on Linkedin instead and found a great topic on email marketing. Here is the question that was asked:How does your company email customers about events and web seminars without sending too many emails to the same customer that may share several products within a product line?How often do you email your customer more »

  • The Recession is Here - Time to Become an Eco-Marketer

    • The Recession is Here - Time to Become an Eco-Marketer
    11 Mar, 2010
    When I say that you should become an eco-marketer, I don't mean that you should add some corny green recycle image to your website (who would do that?) or support a "Save the Whales" campaign. Although I'm a big supporter of environmental issues and started my career running an environmental organization, I would like to focus on eco-marketing in terms of demand creation.I focused my research this week on how I can help my customers build out a demand waterfall as defined by the smart people over more »

  • Latest B2B Marketing Trends From SiriusDecisions Summit 09

    • Latest B2B Marketing Trends From SiriusDecisions Summit 09
    10 Mar, 2010
    If you’re looking for an eloquently written post on how B2B marketing has changed and recommendations on what you should do, you’ve come to the wrong page. What I have done is reviewed the tweets from the latest SiriusDecisions Summit 2009 and captured points that I thought were interesting and categorized them. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to go (not without trying!) but as you’ll see from the comments below, some great stats and thoughts have been captured by a more »
  • Ask Justin Hitt

  • Do I Need a Copywriter Specializing in My Field

    • Do I Need a Copywriter Specializing in My Field
    21 Feb, 2010
    I'm wondering if I need to hire a copywriter with advertising experience in the Construction industry. I'm a building contractor that would like to start advertising to the contractor market and am looking for some useful tag lines. If you are an expert in what you do, then you don't need a copywriter who specializes in your specific field. They don't need to have sold in you field, nor have written for your industry before. However, they must ...

  • Increasing Direct Mail Response Rates

    • Increasing Direct Mail Response Rates
    20 Feb, 2010
    I started sending out the following letter (attached.) I have been getting about a 1/2 percent response. Anyone have any suggestions on increasing my response rate? Perhaps the best advice anyone can give you it to tweak and test one thing at a time until you know what works. Only through testing will you know what works. But, don't make this common mistakes ...

  • Most Sales People are Unprepared

    • Most Sales People are Unprepared
    19 Feb, 2010
    John finally get an appointment to sit down with purchasing and a long sought decision maker, yet is already wrong on two issues of the prospects experience, you'd think he'd be more prepared. According to a recent study, executives say 82% of sales representatives are unprepared for meetings.

  • Your logo has no selling power

    • Your logo has no selling power
    18 Feb, 2010
    Before your company changes its logo, read this very important message! On a live chat for Inside Strategic Relations subscribers, a reader asks:If one's company is chaging Logo, doesn't that affect level of sales? And, how can one overcome this handle? -- Unknown (via Chat)

  • Discovering Demographics and Psychographics

    • Discovering Demographics and Psychographics
    18 Feb, 2010
    I am currently having trouble trying to find the demographics and the psychographics of my target market (mid level, top level, and, ceo executives). I wanted to know is there any information that you could possibly give me or point me in the correct direction? -- Chris Momon, The BOSS Group Having a clear and understandable profile of your best customers is a valuable influencer of selling results. Knowing your customers helps you take the right actions, rather than just educated guesses. Ge more »

  • Speaking In Front of a Trade Group

    • Speaking In Front of a Trade Group
    17 Feb, 2010
    What would be a good presentation to do for a dinner meeting for a group of Purchasing professionals? -- Ted Kosiek, Kerneos Inc You're in luck, my wife is a purchasing professional with a Fortune 500, and member of the local chapter of one a large purchasing associations. When speaking in front of any trade group, there are three things to consider:

  • Do Special Reports Still Work

    • Do Special Reports Still Work
    16 Feb, 2010
    Many less informed marketers say special reports are over-done and most of the time lacking value, especially in lead generation. Do special reports as part of lead generation still work?

  • Get Better Results Using Content from Real Experience

    • Get Better Results Using Content from Real Experience
    15 Feb, 2010
    I had some sales letters and articles written on {Freelance Site Here}, they don't bring in the response I was expecting. How are your clients writing articles to connect with prospects and for newsletters? -- Terry G. One thing, I pride myself on is providing visitors real unique value from real life experiences. Visitors of this site expect a unique prospective that advances their interests, and so do your customers. Here's why that statement so important.

  • Bad Advice on B2B Lead Generation

    • Bad Advice on B2B Lead Generation
    14 Feb, 2010
    My newsreader brought to my attention B2B lead generation advice from a popular publication, an expert proclaiming that cold calls followed up by email works. It seemed simple enough until he missed one critical point.

  • How to Get Organic Traffic Quickly

    • How to Get Organic Traffic Quickly
    13 Feb, 2010
    My company recently launched a business blog. It's getting traffic from social bookmark sites, but I want more traffic from Google and Yahoo!. Any ideas? Most people will recommend labor intensive message board posts with signature, exchanging links with other websites, and more marketing with social networking sites. That might work for someone promoting a consumer product, however, for technology marketers very few sites our available with our buyers.
  • Marketing & Strategy Innov ...

  • ChatRoulette by Sarita Yardi

    • ChatRoulette by Sarita Yardi
    11 Mar, 2010
    Sarita Yardi has been doing a lot of thinking about ChatRoulette these days and I wanted to share a short essay she wrote to explain ChatRoulette to the uninitiated. I think that this is a fantastic introduction for those who aren’t familiar with the site. (And I’ll follow up with my own thoughts in the next post.)

  • Your Brain on Soup

    • Your Brain on Soup
    11 Mar, 2010
    Soup is a product you probably don’t lust for. Sure, a hot bowl of soup is nice after a chilly job of shoveling snow out of the driveway, but rarely is it more than an afterthought, or a quick prelude to a more interesting main course. If you are Campbell Soup Co., though, you DO spend a lot of time thinking about soup. And, as detailed by the Wall Street Journal, they want to understand YOUR hidden feelings about soup to improve their packaging:

  • Can the USA Regain Its Love of Speed?

    • Can the USA Regain Its Love of Speed?
    11 Mar, 2010
    We used to love being the nation of the leading edge: the fastest and tallest of everything: fastest computers, tallest buildings, fastest cars, and so on. Below is a picture from Wikipedia of the Stanley Steamer in 1903 setting the world wide speed record for the mile at the Daytona Beach Road Course. I have a particular fondness for the Stanley Steamer because my house, and the house next door, were built in 1896 by the twin Stanley brothers who invented the Stanley Steamer car and the founded more »

  • A Look Forward, Some Predictions for 2010

    • A Look Forward, Some Predictions for 2010
    11 Mar, 2010
    I've gotten some excellent feedback on my 2010 predictions and thought that I would keep a brief excerpt up from here for a little while. You can find the full post by clicking on the link below and I’ve included the list here. Please let me know what you think.  

  • Social Media Strategy for Small Businesses

    • Social Media Strategy for Small Businesses
    11 Mar, 2010
    This week we have been looking at social media for small businesses. Ways in which they can use the social media tools that exist to build their brand, engage their customers and learn about their brand, market and competitors. It is as important for small businesses as it is for large brands to build a social media strategy. And there are many different ways that you can start to use social media to get these benefits.

  • Less Networks. More Meaning.

    • Less Networks. More Meaning.
    11 Mar, 2010
    Here's what I observed this past week after scanning the reactions of people in my own networks in relation to Google Buzz. People in my own ecosystem seem utterly exhausted by the plethora of networks they manage and the number of people within those networks. E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Yammer, Instant Messenger... just how many platforms can we participate in?

  • My First Slidecast: Added Audio to Employing Your Customers for Fun and Profit or Design for Co-Creation

    • My First Slidecast: Added Audio to Employing Your Customers for Fun and Profit or Design for Co-Creation
    11 Mar, 2010
    After the video of my presentation at Inverge 2 years ago has failed show up I have finally put an audio track on this presentation to provide a bit more context around my thinking and ideas. Amazingly, 2 years later the majority of the presentation still rings true and i believe the better companies can engage with customers in co-creation the more competitive they will be and the more meaning customers will derive out of these relationships.

  • iPad a Stroke of Genius or Just a Stroke?

    • iPad a Stroke of Genius or Just a Stroke?
    11 Mar, 2010
    Unless you have been living under a rock recently, I’m sure you would have heard of the Apple iPad. Pretty much everyone has. So much so that there has been a lot said about this product, both good and bad. Do a search on Google and you get 23 Million plus hits. Crazily enough, some people even claimed that it was hotter than the tablets Moses brought down from Mount Sinai.

  • How Much Money Are Apple and Amazon Making from Selling the iPad and the Kindle?

    • How Much Money Are Apple and Amazon Making from Selling the iPad and the Kindle?
    11 Mar, 2010
    Getting ready for the iPod coming to an Apple store near you, iTunes TV show downloads is about to happen. Apple will be offering US TV shows for $1 each, as reported by the Financial Times. This coincides with the scheduled release of the iPad sometime in April in an attempt to pull adoption. TV episodes are normally $1.99 for standard-definition and $2.99 for high-definition through iTunes.

  • Painful Games Companies Play

    • Painful Games Companies Play
    11 Mar, 2010
    Does your company play painful games with your customers? I’m not talking about physical pain, but brain pain. More specifically, what has been termed buying pain or the pain of paying. According to research conducted by George Loewenstein of CMU and others, this pain is triggered when we are presented with a product and price that seem like a bad deal. Now, if you sell luxury items, it’s quite possible that a pain response is part of every sale, but the buyers rationalize the premium price more »
  • B2B Sales & Marketing Know ...

  • Financial Services B2B, Are You Listening?

    • Financial Services B2B, Are You Listening?
    11 Mar, 2010
    IT won’t let you outside the firewall.   Legal won’t let you say want you want…or in some cases, anything at all.   Senior management doesn’t get it, and you’re not sure you do either. So what do you do with Social Media?  Well, you could ignore it, but it doesn’t look like it’s going away. You could try learning best practices from other industries, but which ones?  Who else sells complex, intangible economic models with long sales cycles, thr more »

  • Growth in 2010...It's Back to the Future

    • Growth in 2010...It's Back to the Future
    11 Mar, 2010
    After speaking with a number of companies and I'm starting to notice an interesting trend.  Customers are making their way back to companies and they’re coming after “coreâ€� offerings (even those offerings may have been passed over by newer and “sexierâ€� services). In the boom, companies found themselves venturing into new markets, creating new services , etc. that came with the rising tide, especially in the Financial Services industry. In many industries, these s more »

  • The Price/Value Equation and The $1 Razor

    • The Price/Value Equation and The $1 Razor
    11 Mar, 2010
    A few weeks ago, my wife and I got a chance to get away for the weekend. On our way to the hotel I realized that I had forgotten to pack a razor. We were passing a shopping center at the time so we pulled in and spotted a Dollar General store.  I went in and bought a $1 pack of razors. A commodity product, down economy, it was necessity, so I figured it was a good decision until…I used it.The only way I can describe the experience is to say that I couldn’t tell if the razor had a bl more »

  • Insights and Epiphanies from a recent B2B Social Communication Event

    • Insights and Epiphanies from a recent B2B Social Communication Event
    11 Mar, 2010
    I attended the B2B Social Communications Case Studies and Roundtable event in New York last week, my first live event since the downturn. Got to admit, I was impressed by the attendance (probably close to 250 folks) and list of companies presenting included; Microsoft, Amex, Intuit, Dupont, IBM, Deliotte, Pitney Bowes, and others. I came away with some great new insights, not only of social media in a B2B world, but also regarding the structure of the event itself. Get In, Then Get Out - In my l more »

  • How to get an Organizational TRansformation Right

    • How to get an Organizational TRansformation Right
    11 Mar, 2010
    Now that companies have finished cutting, closing, "right sizing", etc., it’s time to figure out what to do with what’s left. Executives are now trying to figure out how to get their new, leaner organizations focused on driving performance again. In their haste to reduce costs quickly companies now find themselves with “lumpyâ€� or “overtaxedâ€� resources and/or essential areas completely gone.Where to start? Here’s what I’ve learned on where to s more »

  • 5 Key Questions for Creating a Compelling Value Proposition & an Integrated Communication Plan

    • 5 Key Questions for Creating a Compelling Value Proposition & an Integrated Communication Plan
    11 Mar, 2010
    I’m about to share with you the secret formula for; 1) creating a rock solid, compelling value proposition (for products, services, solutions, etc.) and, 2) aligning (enterprise wide) your corporate communications. It will seem like a very simple approach, and it is, but once you try to get consistent answers from the organization to the following questions (in order) you will understand why this is so challenging...and why so many companies fail.Keep this in mind, effective communication more »

  • Data Driven Action

    • Data Driven Action
    11 Mar, 2010
    Tell me if you’ve seen this movie before. After spending months debating about the right type of segmentation to do, you finally agree, do the research and…it never gets used. Or how about this one, you get a request from sales for information you’ve already sent to them…multiple times.It’s a horror movie and it gets play out every day in organizations all across the country. Why? Why is it that we want “the dataâ€� but then we don’t end up using more »

  • VODcast: Measuring Marketing Effectiveness

    • VODcast: Measuring Marketing Effectiveness
    11 Mar, 2010
    I recently sat down with Andy Hasselwander, the head of our Marketing Science group, to discuss how companies can improve the effectiveness of their marketing measurement efforts. In the video Andy lays out a simple 5 step plan that I think most companies can implement. Also, check out Andy's Blog for more informaton on Marketing Measurement and Analytics.

  • The Social Experiment

    • The Social Experiment
    11 Mar, 2010
    The answer to the question I asked in my last blog post is 3 hours and 48 minutes.Tuesday’s blog post was an interesting experience/experiment in watching Social Media at work. After posting the blog at 10:12 am and ending the post with this challenge; “Now, let’s see if they are as good as I think they are…how long before they pick this up and respond?â€� Richard Hammer (the author of the blogpost on Allstate & Twitter) posted a comment at 2:04 pm. The question is more »

  • Digital Enablement - Part II

    • Digital Enablement - Part II
    11 Mar, 2010
  • The Innovative Marketer

  • Everybody talks about measuring social media, but nobody is doing anything about it ... are they?

    • Everybody talks about measuring social media, but nobody is doing anything about it ... are they?
    11 Mar, 2010
    I'm at the CMO Club conference in San Francisco this week, and while the audience of 80 texted "Doing more with less" as the number one issue facing marketers in 2010, the real buzz around the show seems to be ROI of social media. Blake Cahill had a post over on VisInsights on the value of social media for B2B companies (he's doing a webcast with Sirius Decisions' Jonathan Block) and one of his lines stopped me:

  • Not a blogfader, I

    • Not a blogfader, I
    11 Mar, 2010
    Well, it's been a while since I've made an appearance in this space. Been a busy time. As you can see from the right-hand nav, I've changed jobs, moving to TOA Technologies, an on-demand mobile workforce management company. If none...

  • A click is not currency

    • A click is not currency
    11 Mar, 2010
    Oh, the coveted click. It’s traditionally been considered the Holy Grail of the Internet, and marketers have spent millions in search of clicks. Google made billions by providing them. The legendary dot-com bubble was fueled by an ever ballooning belief...

  • Q&A from the B2B Magazine Social Media Webinar with David Meerman Scott

    • Q&A from the B2B Magazine Social Media Webinar with David Meerman Scott
    11 Mar, 2010
    David Meerman Scott and I went over time on our B2B Magazine Webinar on social media and agreed that we'd handle Q&A on this blog (and perhaps over on David's as well). I consolidated some of the 50+ questions we...

  • Question #1: Old-time Thinking of Print vs. Online

    • Question #1: Old-time Thinking of Print vs. Online
    11 Mar, 2010
    Stephanie writes: Hi You hit it right on: Must Unlearn what you Learned. My struggle is old time thinking. 'How come we aren't in print magazine and our competitor is.' How do you convience old time thinking of Print versus...

  • Question #7: Blog Comment Strategy

    • Question #7: Blog Comment Strategy
    11 Mar, 2010
    Donna asked: How do you comment into existing blogs without sounding self serving sales pitch? Suggestions would be greatly appreciated on strategy around this? Donna, what a great question. Look, buyers aren't stupid. If you post something that is bright,...

  • A primer on Social Media ROI

    • A primer on Social Media ROI
    10 Mar, 2010
    Olivier Blanchard Basics Of Social Media Roi View more presentations from Olivier Blanchard.

  • Liveblogging at the Eloqua Experience Conference

    • Liveblogging at the Eloqua Experience Conference
    10 Mar, 2010
    In a room filled with 600 marketers from companies large and small. Last night at the welcome reception, I met one-person marketing departments and reps from some of the largest multi-national corporations in the world for both service and products...

  • 10 Great Marketing Podcasts you Should Not Miss

    • 10 Great Marketing Podcasts you Should Not Miss
    10 Mar, 2010
    Before doing some spring gardening this weekend, I loaded up the ol' iPod with a bunch of recent marketing-related Podcasts. Podcasts, you recall, were the world-changing, paradigm-shifting phenomena of four years ago, kind of like Twitter is today. My day...

  • An open letter to PR agencies ...

    • An open letter to PR agencies ...
    10 Mar, 2010
    Hello, my friends in PR. Some of you have seen that I'm looking for a new agency, and a few of you have submitted responses to the RFI we sent out. I even met with some of you these past...