Fundamental Change in Buyer Behavior and Lead Generation

If you are seeing a reduction in interest for your products and services, you are not alone. While there is a downturn in the economy, there are also structural changes at work that change how people buy that are fundamentally shifting where leads are originating. Prior to the advent of the self-service nature of the Internet, buyers who needed to become informed about how to solve a particular problem went directly to the company’s sales organization to obtain ...   More »

The Return on Increased Sales Productivity

Sales productivity has become a top priority for many companies as they look to streamline their sales force and drive greater revenues from the same or fewer resources. Companies recognize that well-trained, highly-qualified salespeople are difficult (and expensive) to attract and retain, and the more they can focus their salespeople's efforts on the high-value, core-selling activities that generate sales, the more they will be rewarded with greater revenues and a l ...   More »

Using Content Marketing to Generate Leads

Today in B2B sales, content is the new marketing currency.  Early and middle stage buyers want to be educated, not sold.  This education comes in the form of content and there is no substitute.  For your content to be effective (attract buyers) it must be relevant to the problem they are trying to solve.  Your content can come in a variety of compelling formats, including:   How Buyers Find Your Content Having great content will fe ...   More »

Converting Website Visitors to Qualified Leads

Driving traffic to your website is important, but unless you can develop leads from the traffic, it only serves to strengthen your brand.  Converting hard won web traffic to leads requires a clear understanding of the buying cycle as a buyer's needs will be different depending on the phase.  Generally, the B2B buying cycle for a complex sale looks similar to this: In the early stages, buyers are looking for information about problems or opportunities tha ...   More »

Lead Nurturing Explained

After a buyer's name and email address have been collected, they are now a lead.  In the past, prospects who showed any interest in solutions offered were automatically kicked over to sales.  This resulted in a number of problems that traditionally faced sales and marketing organizations: Sales people became frustrated in the quality of leads  being passed over to them. Marketing became frustrated that sales did not follow through on sales lea ...   More »

Lead Scoring Explained

Lead scoring considers a buyer's explicit information (what they say about themselves) and implicit behavior (what content they open) over time to determine a score.  The scores can be based on levels of relevance associated with each type of behavior.  The following shows the power of lead scoring based on a drip campaign that offered a white paper.  Clearly the first lead expressed more interest in the topic offered and advanced along the buying process. ...   More »

Advice on Improving Sales and Marketing Alignment

Lead nurturing can do an outstanding job of providing meaningful touchpoints with prospects that move them along their buying cycle.  At some point they are going to be ready to talk to someone in sales to begin moving forward. Call on them too soon and you risk having them go to a lower pressure environment to get the information they need.  Call on them too late and they may have already engaged with someone else in a sales conversation and then it's an up ...   More »

3 Tips for Improving Sales Effectiveness

Organizations struggling with longer sales cycles, lower close rates, and higher employee turnover are looking to increased sales effectiveness to help resolve many of the core underlying issues that drive these unwanted results. The following represent the areas of improvement that we have found consistently deliver the greatest performance gains vs. required investment for our clients. Programs to improve each of these areas can typically be started with a minimum ...   More »

Using Business Intelligence to Improve Sales Leadership

Leading a sales organization without clear visibility into sales performance and operations is like walking through a room with the lights off - you may get to where you want to go, but it's going to be a slow and painful process. The following video illustrates the impact well-designed reports and dashboards can have on your sales leaders' ability to make effective decisions and and execute on them:   It's immediately apparent how the level of insigh ...   More »

Selecting the Right CRM System for Your Business

Investing in a CRM system is a major decision that carries long-term strategic implications for your organization. Although CRM should be treated as a business initiative, the underlying technology is a key enabler and largely determines how much effort will be required to implement the program, so it's important to select the CRM system that will best support your current and future business objectives and needs. Understand Your Objectives The first step ...   More »