sales and marketing strategy

Why top sales people focus on priorities – not needs

When I started my sales career, I was taught that I should focus on identifying my prospect’s needs. Later, when I started to work for companies that were selling into early-stage markets, I was taught that I should invest in creating needs that the prospect had not previously recognised they had. But I’ve learned that simply identifying or creating needs isn’t enough. Here’s why… You see, no matter how good you are at identifying needs that your prospects already have, or no matter how good you are at creating needs your prospects didn’t previously know they had, READ MORE ›

By Bob Apollo|Sales, Strategy, Velocity|

How your B2B Marketing Strategy MUST change in 2013

So the annual marketing offsite has drawn to a close and the newly minted 2013 marketing strategy is being given its final polish before being released to an expectant management team back at HQ. ...and yet you have a growing sense of deja vu; you have been here before. You have a nasty feeling that when the team get back to the office after the holidays to the tsunami of emails, meetings and deadlines, that despite your best intentions, the alignment of your tactics to your strategy seems sadly absent. It's just more of the same tactics READ MORE ›

By Chris Fell|Strategy|

How to make your strategy more buyer-centric

All businesses strive to recognise the needs of buyers when developing strategies for sales success. Well, at least you should. You research met and unmet needs, teach your salespeople to understand business requirements and take pride in meeting those customer demands. How, though, can you more fully acknowledge buyers when shaping your strategy? Remember that businesses buy products and services, in essence, to solve problems. They may have too much of something that is undesirable, or too little of something that is good. The problem is the gap between where they are now and where they want READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Sales, Strategy|

Is marketing automation a powerful tool in B2B arenas?

The Pedowitz Group and The Lenskold Group recently set out to test how much marketing automation contributes to the effectiveness of marketing operations in the B2B arena. After surveying nearly 350 B2B marketing organizations, the study found that marketing automation, combined with ROI metrics such as lead acceptance rate and revenue per sale, made top-performing organizations more efficient and effective. According to the survey, the top segment of companies – 11% of all marketers surveyed – demonstrated distinct advantages in outgrowing competitors by adopting integrated marketing automation and using ROI metrics. Beyond that, the report found that, after deploying a marketing automation READ MORE ›

By Derek Singleton|Strategy, Tactics|

Define a B2B marketing strategy the team understands

In business, there is endless debate about 'strategy'. Yet the term is often confusing or misunderstood. In many businesses, strategy refers to anything ranging from business goals and target markets to specifics such as website management. A scattergun approach often ensues. There are broad business strategy considerations for any business before it develops a go-to-market strategy. Will you be a cost leader, will you gain an edge through differentiating yourself from rivals, or will you take a highly targeted line? Whatever you do, don't try to have a bet each way. Bring into play a consistent strategy READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy|

How to play right

Strategy is about deciding what to do and what not to do. In the same vein, choosing how to play is inextricably linked with choosing where to play. For a business, it comes down to choice - that is, assessing which markets are attractive and which the business is best placed to target. Managers must then select the right strategies. In essence, this requires answers to just three questions: what are you going to sell? to whom are you going to sell it? through whom are you going to reach that market? How do you choose the READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy|

How to ask for an appointment in an email cold call

I loved this blog so much I wanted to share it with you. Thanks to Jill Konrath for letting us share her insights. When I got the message below from Daniel McLellan, I had to share it with you. The way he "closes" his emails is much better than what I recommended in my new Ultimate Guide to Email Prospecting. Why is it better? The person on the other end feels like they're talking to a human being, not a salesperson. It reduces their defensive responses and opens them to actually talking with you - just like READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy|

How can sales people prevent premature elaboration?

It’s not a very edifying sight, but it happens way, way too often. A prospect gives the faintest acknowledgement of a potential issue, and the impatient (not to say desperate) sales person simply can’t wait to respond by presenting the features, advantages and benefits of their proposed solution in glorious detail. They may even offer to follow up with a costed proposal. All this before the poor bewildered prospect has even come to terms with whether they need to do anything at all. The sales person has pitched their product way too early. This uncomfortable condition is READ MORE ›

By Bob Apollo|Sales, Strategy|

Are you trying to solve too many problems?

I don’t know about you, but I’m always uneasy when a CEO describes his or her strategy and somewhere along the way you hear a variation on the “after all, how hard can it be to grab a small share of a big market” argument? Well, the answer is always “a lot harder than you think”. The only thing aiming for an overlarge target market does for you is to dilute your efforts to the point where even those modest ambitions are unlikely to ever be achieved. Actually, that’s wrong - that strategy brings with it a READ MORE ›

By Bob Apollo|Strategy|

Four steps to winning new business

Winning complex new business requires a disciplined strategy. By using a systematic approach, business developers can increase the flow of opportunities and identify which specific actions will close the deal. Long-term high-level performance in business development is not just about posting the easy wins. In complex situations, a disciplined, systematic approach is crucial to winning business, and to delivering ongoing success. Easy wins are usually the result of silver bullets like a market-beating competitive advantage or a very strong personal relationship with a powerful buying influencer. Of course, these are great strengths to have on your side READ MORE ›

By Eddie Smith|Strategy|