Few topics are more contentious in the Marketing/Sales relationship than lead generation. We write about forming common goals and understandings
Among the AA-ISP members we often discuss topics around cold calling scripts for inside sales, or digital sales professionals as we now like to call them. Since I live in Southern California and am a dedicated foodie, my analogy instantly went to food. Sales cold calling scripts are like salsa! Cold call scripts are dead, […]
It’s the end of Q1 and your annual event marketing strategy just went out the window as tradeshows and conferences are being cancelled right and left. Normally your event marketing plan involved several live events such as big industry tradeshows, as well as perhaps some regional seminars, conferences, and workshops. Face it, those tradeshows and […]
The CCPA is one of several state-led privacy regulations going into effect. Beginning January 1, the California Consumer Privacy Act will give consumers new power over their data and hold organizations more accountable. These changes will require some new thinking and adjusted processes for B2B as well as B2C sales and marketing. California has long […]
The recent acquisition of analytics powerhouse Tableau by Salesforce.com put hope in the hearts of small and medium enterprise users that they might be able to glean comprehensive business intelligence from their own customer data at the push of a button, with no programming or development expense. Tableau has a strong reputation as the business […]
Sales and marketing alignment is important, but you can go even deeper with alignment by having inside sales report to marketing. Since 2012, most Inside Sales or SDR teams have reported to sales. According to a 2018 study by Bridge Group and AA-ISP, 65% of SDR groups report to the sales organization. However, inbound only […]
I hear quite a bit of grumbling these days from my sales coach colleagues about the dreaded LinkedIn “Pitch and Pounce” (thanks Mike Kunkle for that memorable term!). What’s driving this trend we wonder? I certainly hope this isn’t an approach that’s being taught by sales or social selling or so-called “LinkedIn experts” because it […]
I’ll cut right to the chase on this for you. I am not going to tell you paid traffic is “bad” or not do paid search. You should use both paid and organic search in an integrated digital marketing strategy. Paid search is also called Pay per Click, PPC or Adwords, and though there are […]
I thought updating my annual B2B marketing budget blog would be a snap. Just update a few data points and done! What I have realized is that marketing is in upheaval and budget planning for 2019 will take some thought. While Gartner is predicting contraction in marketing budgets, looking more closely, I see the situation […]
When B2B companies are looking to boost revenue, they need to look not just to sales (more deals!) OR to marketing (more leads!), but sales and marketing alignment. When numbers are not being hit, it’s seldom rooted in one or the other, but stems from a lack of holistic alignment between them. In other words, […]
Intent Data is a term you will be hearing more about if you in B2B sales or marketing. There are two types of Intent Data, internal and external. Internal is the information we collect about buyers on our own online web sites such as what pages they read, what blogs they looked at, what content […]
How do you know what’s going to work best to help prospects evaluate and buy your SaaS solution: Trial, Demo, or Tour? Let’s start with some definitions. Free Trial – Opt-in and Opt-out In thinking about offering a free trial, the first question you need to ask yourself is – do you want or expect […]
Whether you are just starting a business or taking your business growth to the next stage, an inside sales team can be your most valuable resource. But before you set up your inside sales team in San Diego, whether you are based here or decided it gives you a good outpost on the west coast […]
I started using LinkedIn Sales Navigator again because they’ve finally been adding features that make it more useful for prospecting. Admittedly, some of these were features that LinkedIn had in the basic platform, then removed. Now advanced search and tagging are in Sales Navigator and better than before. Navigator has added a lot of new […]
The AA-ISP Inside Sales Leadership Summit is in its seventh year, bringing together over one thousand individuals dedicated to the inside sales profession. The two and a half day event is chock full of sessions dedicated to this growing field. There are so many options that it’s impossible to attend them all. Here are some of my […]
You are probably using LinkedIn for B2B Sales and Inside Sales prospecting, but have you tried out the power of Twitter for B2B Selling? I recently met with a group of Inside Sales professionals and a lot of them felt that Twitter “wasn’t right for their industry” or they weren’t really sure where to start. […]
This week’s post is by guest blogger, Jen Greene. Before rushing off to sign up for Twitter and add it to your social selling journey, there’s definitely some key things you’ll want to do before spending a ton of time tweeting. Twitter can really become a deep time sink, sucking up hours of time and […]
In Marketo’s recent survey, “State of Marketing Automation Trends”, we see that 91% of respondents were evaluating marketing automation for the first time and their top reason was to “nurture leads”. But what the heck is lead nurturing and why does anyone need it? Have you ever experienced this scenario as a marketer? You came […]
Recently I attended a marketing seminar run by a Director from a well-known marketing automation company. During his speech, he asked how many of us had read Seth Godin’s book “Permission Marketing” (check out Seth’s blog and his most recent book THIS IS MARKETING, released November 2018). I was surprised that I was the only […]
Seth Godin called it “permission marketing”. Today it has been named “inbound marketing” by HubSpot. It means earning the attention of the prospect rather than buying it. Telling compelling stories and having a conversation through social media and educational content are the key drivers in: Attracting traffic Converting visitors to leads Converting leads to sales Turning […]