Velocity

Marketing automation for successful B2B marketing plan

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... Every company starts out small. So what is the magic recipe that sets the not-so-successful ones apart from the oh-so-successful ones? A great b2b marketing plan. Small businesses are not just poorer versions of big businesses. They need to create new tactics and strategies to suit their size. Simply scaling down those that apply to a big business isn’t a marketing plan for success. So what is? Andy Mackensen and Clate Mask have a pretty good idea about marketing plans. As co-founder and CEO of Infusionsoft, Clate has guided the company READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics, Velocity|

DemandCon: get qualified sales-lead on Sales Funnel

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... Donna J Kent, SVP of Global Sales, Marketing and Services at Televerde, sees the top of the sales funnel as a key performance indicator. As a practitioner, Donna has some key insights into new-customer experience. So what techniques should you use to optimise your marketing-contact database and digital marketing approach? What kind of dialogue and telecommunications practices actually work? Donna’s presentation ‘Top of the Funnel’ is valuable because deals aren’t won or lost once the proposal is on the table, but way earlier – at the top of the READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Velocity|

Selling to Crazy-Busy People – DemandCon

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... Jill Konrath is the bestselling and award-winning author of SNAP Selling and a successful business strategist for companies like IBM, GE, Microsoft and more. With more than 75,000 people reading her newsletter and blog, Jill’s insights are clearly noteworthy for any business person. And her topic is all the more relevant because buyers are less willing to take risks than ever, more exposed to noisy tactics from desperate vendors than ever, and less willing to engage with sales until they are good and ready. Jill’s presentation will provide a useful READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Velocity|

DemandCon: From Lead Gen to Sales & Marketing plan

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... As a Principal Analyst at Forrester, Jeff Ernst seems to live within align.me’s world of business-to-business sales and b2b marketing. He too believes that aligning Sales and Marketing is part and parcel of an effective revenue growth strategy. At DemandCon in May, Jeff will present, ‘Level Setting – The State of Demand Generation.’ So, what can attendees expect to take away from Jeff’s presentation? Forrester Research is a highly-regarded research firm, and Jeff’s wisdom as an analyst promises to provide data-driven insights into what the best (and worst) businesses are READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Velocity|

How to get your business performing like a winning Formula One team

align.me Director, Brett Bonser, writes... Motor-enthusiasts know that March in Melbourne means cars. Really expensive, really loud, really fast cars. From my desk, I will be able to hear the sound of engines and virtually smell the petrol and rubber burning. In motorsport, the top drivers know that, “the farther you look, the faster you go.”[1] Even before the season begins, a common set of objectives are defined. Driver and support crew will have agreed how fast they want the car to go – race by race, corner by corner, straight by straight. So why is it useful READ MORE ›

By Brett Bonser|B2B marketing blog, Velocity|

How to craft the right f2f selling method for your business

I am a hapless AFL Richmond supporter. Many weekends I cannot bear to turn to the sports pages to read the obituary. When the Tigers do crack it for a win (even a draw is cause for celebration for Richmond fans), I can’t wait to rip the wrapper off the Sunday paper to digest the commentary and all the stats. In fact, I Iove reading the stats table more than the bloated summaries from the ‘editorial experts’. Do you know the sorts of tables I mean? They detail just about every sort of stat for every player. READ MORE ›

By Glenn Guilfoyle|Sales, Velocity|

CRM Acceleration: Hugh Macfarlane to present keynote

February 21st, Melbourne, VIC, AU – align.me CEO & Founder, Hugh Macfarlane, has accepted an invitation from Sugar CRM to provide a keynote presentation at CRM Acceleration in Sydney and Melbourne this March. Hugh’s keynote will address ‘How to Make Your Funnel Flow Faster with SugarCRM.' SugarCRM provides open source CRM software used by over 7,000 customers, and more than 1 million users for executing marketing and sales strategies. The two four-hour seminars will cover successful CRM strategy and implementation. Event details: 2ndMarch 2011, 2pm – 6pm, Stamford Plaza, Melbourne. 4thMarch 2011, 2pm – 6pm, Kirribili Club, READ MORE ›

By Clare Anderson|Alignment, News, Tactics, Velocity|

Why you need to protect existing client relationships

Eddie Smith, Founder of Sales Schematics Australia, writes... Increase your business with existing accounts Many companies make the mistake of concentrating too hard on winning new business instead of cultivating additional business with their existing clients. The matrix below explains the notion that selling existing products and services into existing relationships is the easiest sale to make. After all, if your client is familiar and comfortable with your offering, they’re more likely to increase their business with you. Furthermore, selling new products and services into these existing accounts is also a relatively easy sale to make. Existing products/services READ MORE ›

By Eddie Smith|Alignment, Tactics, Velocity|

Measure marketing on total cost per deal closed

New Belgian Funnel Coach Benny van Calster from Minds&More sent me a link to a Marketing Profs article today. In Sales and Marketing Best-Practices: Seven Heavenly Virtues Dan McDade paints a bleak picture of how poorly Marketing and Sales handle leads, and recommends 7 actionable steps to get on the same page. His final recommendation supports something I've been arguing for eons, and it prompted me to give a quick example in support of this simple but scary insight. Dan argues that in our enthusiasm to embrace Marketing ROI we have focused on the wrong ratios. See READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Velocity|

Record buyer progression, not seller hope

Some sales methodologies ask sales people to characterise their sales calls as an 'advance' or a 'continuance' which creates loads of 'wriggle room' for the sales person. What we should actually be recording is the stage a buyer has reached, not whether the sales person thinks this is good or not. Your buyers progress through a series of definable stages, along the way to buying (from you or somebody else). Simplistically, they move through recognition of pain, clarity about need, understanding who the possible solution providers are, having clear options, making a choice, and buying. and somewhere READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|B2B marketing blog, Velocity|