Sales Prospecting Perspectives

It's that time again - time for this month's #ProspectingChat! Over at AG Saleswork's Twitter account, we'll be discussing how to align sales and content marketing, with strategies for encouraging your reps to share content and strategies for creating content that will actually further the sale. We're excited to announce that this month's guest is Brian Hansford, who will share a lot of wisdom on this topic as the Director of Client Services and Marketing Automation Practice Leader at HeinzMarketing. Here are some details about today's Twitter Chat:

What marketing trends are you implementing in the New Year?

Last week, we spoke with 5 B2B sales thought leaders who shared their 2014 trends and 2015 predictions. Their curated insights pointed towards the future of inside sales and sales development: sales tools, data, sales process improvements, sales enablement technologies, target account marketing and selling, and more.

We would be remiss, however, if we did not interview marketing leaders as well, for there will be some big changes to marketing in the future. We asked them this question:

What were the major trends in B2B marketing in 2014, and how do these trends influence your predictions for 2015? 

Marketing execs and coordinators, stay up to date on the latest trends and predictions from these marketing thought leaders.

Happy December 31, everyone! Before we count down the ball drop, we want to share with you our top 10 blog posts on Sales Prospecting Perspectives in 2014. What drives our company culture at AG Salesworks is transparency - with employees, customers, and readers - so we want to show you what’s been performing well this year on our blog. It’s been a busy year, with many bloggers moving on, many new bloggers joining the team, and many guest blogging partnerships formed. This list will help you understand what our readers found most important and effective in the sales and marketing world this year, as well as our audience’s preference for receiving information as lists, how to’s, inforgraphics and more!

Here are three trends I see in the sales world, paired with predictions on where those trends will take us. I welcome any feedback in the comments, or via Twitter at @davemacboston.

TREND #1: Content Fatigue / Focus

We’ve learned our lesson that so-called snackable content does not create any value, and all those empty content calories are killing the platforms that previously served as places to identify compelling new ideas. Twitter used to be rich with rewarding content, but now I have to scroll for several minutes before I find anything worth dipping into. And LinkedIn blogging went from sharp and provocative to “look at me” noisy in less than a year.

B2B sales and marketing leaders will need to decide whether they’re going to invest in content creation as a way to make noise or as a way to add value for customers.

In terms of the social activity of sales reps, it’s worth noting that being good and thoughtful curators of content allows individual reps to help advance their organization’s content marketing goals.

I follow a few key topics on Quora, and I try to answer a question over there at least once a week. My inclination is to answer B2B inside sales and sales topics, since AG Salesworks has such an arsenal of resources for everyone. But every so often, I also foray into the B2B marketing topics, such as content marketing, SEO, and blogging. This question piqued my interest, and I thought I’d share with our readers my response:

What are blogging best practices for a B2B SaaS start-up wishing to generate industry visibility?

As the coordinator for Sales Prospecting Perspectives, a B2B blog that also strives for industry visibility, I thought I’d share a few pieces of advice I’ve learned after a year of doing this.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest blog post from Andrew Moravick, Content Marketing Manager at Aberdeen. 

As marketing or sales professionals, we’re often very deliberate in what we do. If I’m creating marketing content, I should be sure to position the brand well, deliver relevant value, and drive toward a measurable conversion. Many sellers I’ve encountered also feel the very literal pressure to always be closing. Sometimes, however, the most direct or obvious path isn’t always the most effective…

In cases where a buyer or prospect doesn’t want to be marketed to or sold to, overtly communicating in marketing or sales speak isn’t going to pay off. In these cases, you need to leverage the art of marketing without marketing, or the art of selling without selling.