A while back I read 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 services. A glaring Marketing Operations disconnect for many companies is our tendency to over-focus on What and How we want to sell, when we really need [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Lead Life-cycle Management’
6 reasons why your organization might need a Marketing Automation Solution
In a world where every day hundreds of ideas, products and business solutions take shape and hundreds more make a beeline for our fleeting attention, it is essential to know which of these merit the time and resources spent in exploring their worthiness and their relevance in our organization’s scheme of priorities.
This post is an effort to put down the kind of problems the marketing automation tool is capable of addressing and the kind of organizations who should opt for this solution, if it is in alignment with their overall objectives and budget constraints.
Marketing Automation Is No Genie In A Lamp!
personally think that like, charity, good manners etc. even a good purchase decision begins at home or in this case within your company.
Apart from clarity on the problem at hand and the possible solutions that will help resolve it, it is important to understand how adaptive your company and your resources would be to a solution. This will ensure, that you will buy a solution which is least disruptive in your work environment and yet delivers all that it promises.
In this post I would like to discuss, which kinds of companies or CMOs should never opt for a marketing automation solution….because for them, it would be both a waste time and money. If you think your company identifies itself with any of the below mentioned mindset descriptions, then maybe its time you gave up on even considering buying a marketing automation solution, unless of course you decide to change your outlook.
Inbound or Outbound – When It Really Matters
I came across this interesting question on a popular forum– “Are webinars an inbound or outbound marketing technique? Or both?” The question and the corresponding responses is what triggered the idea for today’s blog post. There is a lot of literature available online, including detailed reports that talk about inbound vs. outbound marketing and why the [...]
Once Upon A Time….Converted Leads Into Customers By Telling a Story
Storytelling is a very popular concept in the B2C world. Advertisers and marketers have used storytelling effectively in their campaigns to build brand awareness and customer loyalty. In a B2C scenario it works because you have to relate to someone at an individual level, if your story appealed to this person, he will in all probability buy your product.
But can the same be replicated in a B2B scenario, where it is usually a group of individuals who decide on wether to buy that packaging machine or software subscription? Longer sales cycles also make story telling difficult, it is no mean task to grab someone’s interest and then keep entertaining them for months together.
So can this effective marketing technique be used within the B2B marketing limitations? Well the answer is yes, as long as you keep one thing in mind…
Improving Data Quality in CRM
Bad data sucks. It kills CRM adoption, it reduces campaign performance and it confuses people. Up to date, accurate data is the blood that keeps the sales organization moving. Without good data, it is hard to find prospects then turn those prospects into customers.
To improve data quality, we recommend a five step process.
Is Sales a Mere Bystander in Marketing Automation?
Is Marketing Automation solely within a marketer’s purview? Does Sales have nothing to contribute?
Today, the decision on which Marketing Automation, sales enablement or lead generation tool & platform will get used in an organization is largely a marketer’s call, but for successful implementation it requires wider participation. Especially, the Sales Department needs to weigh-in with crucial input. Let’s examine which are these inputs and collaboration opportunities.
Segmenting IT buyers in Your Marketing Automation Campaigns
For many new users of marketing automation tools, one of the biggest challenges is segmenting the CRM database in a way that drives results. We’ve assembled some simple best practices that you can use to build better campaigns.
"Is your lead Conversion Rate Unsatisfactory? Maybe it’s your Product or Service"
If you’re seeing more of your hard-earned leads failing to progress efficiently through the funnel and if the final conversion rate is dropping, too, it’s possible your product or service isn’t meeting the buyers’ needs. Keep in mind that the failure rate for new products is about 80%, and the product development process most companies follow is not ideal for identifying the real needs of the buyer. Whether your conversion rates are falling or not, it makes sense to reevaluate how your company develops market requirements for its products and services.
Inside Sales Team – Unsung Heroes?
Inside Sales teams are often just associated with ‘cold calling’ and doing the dirty work for the Sales team – passing ‘Sales Ready Leads’ on set criteria to the Sales Team to close them. Often their job is supposed to be getting ‘meetings’.
While the Sales team takes all the credit for bringing in deals…are the Inside Sales teams the unsung heroes?
