Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Let's start off by saying that the B in "B2B" does not stand for boring. B2B companies often have a stigma of being boring and a bit drab compared to B2C businesses. Newsflash: it doesn't have to be that way! 

There are a many, many key reasons why I believe that B2B companies can greatly benefit from having a company Facebook page. I'll highlight just a few main points.

Good afternoon, Sales Prospecting Perspectives readers. How was your week? Were you able to build your pipeline for 2014? Were you able to prioritize your marketing initiatives for the first and second quarter? Are your inside sales reps' progressing in the field of teleprospecting? This week, we've compiled articles to help you increase the value of your business and inside sales team.

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.

With only one full week left before the holidays are upon us, it's important to ramp up your sales efforts to meet quotas for quarter 4. This week, we've curated articles about how sales and marketing can succeed in this final quarter. The reward? Spending time at home with the family during the holiday season. 

Here are some of our favorite articles from this week. Remember, we share around 10 articles a day on our Twitter as well. 

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Jamie Shanks, Social Selling Expert at Sales for Life.

We are about to close out an incredible year.  Whether my understanding of Social Selling’s capabilities has hit Dali Lama levels, or the buyer has changed that much… Social is now a force!

As a sales professional, you can’t deny the changes.  Whether or not you’ve embraced Social for sales, the world interacted at a staggering pace online in 2013.  What I want to share with you are tips, tidbits and insights I’ve learned from training thousands of sales reps around the world this year.

One of the first things we train new hires on is how to navigate a list in Salesforce. The reasoning behind doing this in the beginning of training is because Salesforce is something inside sales reps use every day. Knowing how to work a list will help you pass qualified leads easier than calling straight down a list of hundreds of names.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Craig Rosenberg, the Funnelholic and a co-founder of TOPO. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter.

Whenever we think of sales and marketing efficiency, we typically focus on what we can do internally. Don’t get me wrong, you have to optimize your sales and marketing processes for efficiency. However, it is absolutely critical that you optimize the buying experience you are delivering so it is as efficient and easy for your buyer as possible. At my day job with TOPO, I have interviewed hundreds of buyers. They typically mention efficiency and ease of use as the top requirements for their preferred buying experience with a vendor. If you don’t believe me, then here's Homayoun Hatami, co-leader of the Sales Growth practice at McKinsey: “Sophisticated customers are not interested in traditional sales models. They demand faster, more seamless, and even enjoyable sales experiences.” Time is the enemy for everyone in today’s crazy-busy world. Your goal should be to make every interaction with your buyers easy and quick.

Happy Thanksgiving Sales Prospecting Perspectives readers! We thought it would be fitting to highlight what inside sales reps here are thankful for:

Good afternoon Sales Prospecting Perspectives Readers! We hope you had a great Friday. With the holidays just around the corner, sales reps are calling prospects left and right hoping to reserve a place in their prospect's 2014 budget. We’re excited about Thanksgiving and Christmas, as evident by this Instagram picture. Starbucks holidays cups are here! It’s been a festive few days in the office, and we even celebrated the Red Sox win, a little late, with some cupcakes via Liberty Mutual Insurance. Today we’re rearing for another successful call day!