Have you seen the strange gap separating sales from marketing in the business-to-business (B2B) world? I have, and it’s not pretty. On one side lives an authentic and resonant sales call; on the other side lives flat marketing copy.
Why does this happen?
Some companies insist that trade shows are hit or miss — but they don’t have to be.
Modern companies often strive to be more customer-centric. The more aware you are of customer needs and the more empathy you have toward their motivations, the easier it is to build a great product.
Have you been receiving the more-than-usual LinkedIn requests from people who seem to be worth knowing until they instantly slam you with a sales pitch? My instant reaction is to want to school them all on business etiquette. But more importantly, I want to teach them the power of true relationship-based selling. These poor souls are ruining the initial opportunity they were able to create — the first “yes” from you or me when we accepted their LinkedIn request to connect.
Today’s consumers value their time more than ever. With the proliferation of on-demand apps, there is virtually no need to wait in lines or even to leave your house if you’re that much of a homebody.
Making a sale is all about how you frame your offer. The customer is not interested in what you have to sell, but in what he has to gain. The easiest way to make a sale is to continually put yourself in his shoes and discuss your product or service in terms of what effect it will have on your customer’s life or business. And when it comes time to ask for the actual sale, the same thing holds true. Skip the tired “do you want to buy one?”, and use one of these more meaningful phrases instead.
Goals are important in sales. Group sales goals help the team understand the big-picture vision for the company’s future, while individual goals help inspire each team member to do what they must to be a productive part of the team.
When you think about the fastest way to grow your small business, there are a couple paths that probably come to mind: hire for sales and explore acquisition opportunities. If acquisition isn’t in the cards, then maybe you’re just relying sales.
by Ken Krogue Republished from Forbes, February 15, 2018 In January, I talked about the Time Management study we did that shows how little of salespeople’s time is spent in actual selling. Today, with the help of my colleague Gabe Larsen, I’d like to examine this study a little bit further. Here is the bottom…
Aligning sales and marketing has become common practice as a business strategy, improving the dialogue between two separate departments of a business for improved results all around. But I often have clients approach me with the same problem: regardless of a seamless relationship between their sales and marketing strategies, they still find that there are not enough successful sales being generated from their leads.
