Sales Prospecting Perspectives

I have always been a firm believer that there are two types of people in this world: those who have children and those who don’t. The reason I differentiate between them is that those who don’t have children tend to think they are the best parents in the world, and some insist on telling you how to raise your kids.

Now, a bit about me: I am a father of three with a boy and two girls.  I have had my share of experiences with people saying things like, “I would never do that with my kids,” or, “You’re doing that?”  I have to admit, there was a time, before I had children, that I remember saying, “Oh my, I would never feed my kids french fries.”  Friends and family fall into one of these two groups. But when or if they have children, their opinions about parenting usually change, and they start to understand how difficult a task it is and stop judging others for their choices. The same can be said regarding outsourcing lead generation for sales and marketing.

Editor's Note: This blog post is an excerpt from the eBook Marketers Making a Difference: Volume 3 about creating a comprehensive B2B marketing strategy. It was written by AG Salesworks' Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales Richard April. 

Having a detailed understanding of your ideal customer is a key starting point for a truly comprehensive marketing strategy. To gain this insight, initiate a buyer persona exercise with all the key stakeholders from sales, marketing, support, product management, operations, development, etc. Broader input will yield more detailed insight into these personas. It is important to the success of this exercise to have senior executive buy in and participation.

Editor's Note: This blog post is an excerpt from the eBook Marketers Making a Difference: Volume 3 about creating a comprehensive B2B marketing strategy. It was written by AG Salesworks' Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales Richard April. 

It's time to dive into developing a comprehensive marketing strategy. I stress “comprehensive” because I think it is important to consider every avenue that may be relevant to and most importantly get you in front of your target audience. Determine the ideal mix of every element that will yield the best results and tie as many aspects as possible together to compound the impact of each campaign or element. To achieve this you will need to not only test, measure and repeat, but pay close attention to what you learned from buyer persona exercises and how they go about making purchasing decisions.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a post from Tamara Graves, Senior Director of Demand Generation at NetProspex. 

The holidays have passed and marketers are focusing on what will make them more effective and successful in 2014. Through conversations around the office between sales and marketing, we created a list of the top five topics we believe will be on every marketer's priority list for this year.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Michael Powers, Events/Buzz Coordinator for NetProspex.

What good is data if you can’t properly use it?

You work hard to collect your marketing data. But sometimes, you collect so much data that it’s hard to make sense of all of it. In these instances, there’s a lot going on in your database, and it’s up to you to get a handle on it to ensure a good return on investment on all of that data.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Damian Davila, Content Marketing Consultant at idaconcpts.com.

While your grandpa’s idea of the ultimate account executive might be Clark Gable in the 1940s movie The Hucksters, there is little doubt that our era’s idea is more in tune with Don Draper. Partially based on the life of Draper Daniels and the track record of Rosser Reeves, the “mad man” is capable of everything: writing copy, directing visual, planning media, managing the client relationship, and getting the big accounts . As he has said more than once, “You didn’t want it until I told you you wanted it.” 

Still, this “modern” idea of the account executive (AE) or manager (AM) is outdated. Given the growth of specialization in ­­the field, the AE’s role and importance is diminishing. The rise of agencies dedicated solely to digital projects further complicates the role because the faster pace demands a higher focus on client project management.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Chris Snell, Inside Sales Manager at Care.com

Can I let you in on a little dark secret of mine?

Promise not to tell anyone?

Here it is:  I’m not that great at getting responses to my prospecting emails.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from James Hutto, co-founder of Valeo Marketing.

In an ideal world, we’d all have 100% email open rates. After all, they signed up, so they want to see what we have to say, right? If only things were that simple... Even if you’ve crafted the perfect squeeze page, written amazing content, and gently encouraged your readers to sign up via email... It’s all for nothing if they don’t read those emails. What must be done next—and arguably just as difficult, might I add—is to write subject lines that get your subscribers to actually open your emails. But don’t fret! With the right approach, you can craft email subject lines that will leave your readers hungry to discover what’s inside.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Helen Nesterenko, founder of Writtent.com.

One of the biggest reasons that companies fail is that entrepreneurs don’t ask for help. This concept is so well-known, it inspired the best-selling book The E-Myth. CEOs shouldn’t spend their days acting as a “technician,” when they need to focus on innovation and orchestration. If you’re spending your days  immersed in the nitty-gritty of deliverables it’s time to take a few steps back and learn how to ask for help:

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Erica Bell, Marketing Management writer for business resource site Business.com.

Conflicts – all offices have them and all employees will encounter at least one during their working days. Economics and cultural differences between sales and marketing departments can cause conflicts in the workplace that ultimately hinder your profits and the performance of your business. Don’t let your business become a victim to the clash of the department titans. Get your sales and marketing teams working together effectively for greater success and a boost in your bottom line.