A Leaders guide to crossing the chasm post-Covid

Back in 2016, I wrote and shared an article that looked at how you should consider market maturity as an input to setting effective go-to-market strategy. The article was originally triggered by a conversation with the owner of a prospect (later a customer of align.me)  Justin Annesley the Managing Director of local printing company  Inkifingus. Justin was struggling with accelerating his SME print business revenue during a period where traditional printers like his needed to transition from long-run print to shorter run, digitally enabled solutions. Many of his traditional buyers were moving away from him to lower READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
Read More

Why saying “no” to an opportunity can get you 13% more sales

I want to talk to the topic of sales effectiveness and, in particular, argue why walking away from a bad deal early is a good idea. I could come at this conversation from multiple angles. I could explain why employee satisfaction would be higher if we walked away from bad deals. I could talk about why your market reputation is enhanced by walking away from bad deals. I could mount countless other legitimate arguments. But on this occasion, I want to mount my argument by looking only at the numbers - in particular, resource numbers. I'm going READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
Read More

5 tools you should be using for sales & marketing

They say a good tool improves the way you work, but a great tool improves the way you think. In the digital era, this has never been truer. Within the exciting world of sales and marketing, there is no shortage of tools, and the rate of which these tools are evolving is both intimidating and inspiring. It’s impossible to have them all and keep up – regardless of resources or budget. And it’s also completely unnecessary. If you can find the few that will have the most impact and add the most value, you’ll be setting yourself READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
Read More

Why simplification is hard [video]

I’ve always liked the idea that to get from simplistic to simple you have to wade through complex. In other words, simplification is not about dumbing something down, but rather it is about paring it back. To achieve this, you firstly need all the glorious detail to be able to hunt and find the bare essence. There's more to this, as we’ve found in one of our experiments. Let me show you a lesson we learnt about simplification from our customers. This may help you to simplify your own business. I’ll also share 6 steps to simplification READ MORE ›

By |B2B marketing blog, Tactics|
Read More

Sales funnel management – which of these mistakes hurt the most?

Which of these 10 mistakes in sales funnel management could hurt you the most? What can you do about them and how can you improve? [av_video src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lqj_aMB_CW4' format='16-9' width='16' height='9' av_uid='av-4bcezr'] The consensus view is that there are 10 common flaws in sales funnel management: Not segmenting their list of buyer and prospects properly. They often do not end their follow-up communications with potential customers with a ‘call to action’. No balance between lead generation / lead management Centering the sales funnel management on the seller instead of the buyer Involving salesperson too early in READ MORE ›

By |B2B marketing blog, Evergreen, Velocity|
Read More

What colleges should be teaching Marketing majors

Marketing, like  most things in life, is completely different than it was 10 years ago. We are moving to a more social and more personalized web, which means that customers desire a more customized, relevant experience. Unfortunately, most universities and colleges are still preaching ye olde marketing curriculum. Recently, Lauren Carlson, producer at CRMSoftware.TV, sat down with some current marketing gurus to discuss what skills are really needed for success today. Kipp Bodnar, HubSpot Eric Holmen, Silverpop Adam Steinberg, Silverpop The discussion was very interesting. One point that was brought up was in regards to success in READ MORE ›

By |B2B marketing blog, Skills, Strategy, Velocity|
Read More

Do marketers have the right stuff to be revenue marketers?

In the past few months a cool new term has appeared on my radar. That term is, “revenue marketer”. Wish I had thought of it first. It defines a new level of marketing professional. While I’m energized by the term, sadly, I’m concerned that too many B2B marketers don’t have the right perspective and skills to play in this new league. My latest exposure to the term was at an event in Austin hosted by Marketo, a marketing automation platform vendor. Speaking at the event was Debbie Qaqish , Chief Revenue Marketing Officer of  The Pedowitz Group, READ MORE ›

By |B2B marketing blog, Sales, Skills, Strategy, Velocity|
Read More

B2B marketing that reaches executives

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... Is there a failsafe way to engage executives as prospects in B2B marketing strategies? We talked about selling to crazy-busy people when we reviewed Jill Konrath’s presentation titled to that effect, but it’s definitely a topic that B2B marketing professionals are drawn too. This is why I’m confident that Adrian Ott’s presentation will be a welcome addition to the DemandCon agenda. So what will Adrian have to say about the matter? Adrian has promised to cover the “new rules for engaging today’s 24-Hour Executive”: How much time executive decision-makers READ MORE ›

By |B2B marketing blog, Strategy, Velocity|
Read More

Using a Metrics-Based Process for Generating Sales-Worthy Leads

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... Metrics for every stage of the lead-conditioning process? B2B marketing professionals will know that proving their worth to the rest of the organisation can prove painful at times. But when metrics are in place, they can serve to facilitate better planning, lead-readiness and maximise ROI. What you need is a solid set of metrics to align with your B2B marketing processes. So what are they? Laurie Beasley, President Beasley Direct, and Tom Judge, VP of Strategy at Direct Marketing Partners, will talk about creating a metrics-based B2B marketing process READ MORE ›

By |B2B marketing blog, Strategy, Velocity|
Read More

B2B marketing and phone selling experts at work

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. B2B marketing is nothing without a strong sales team to work with on the same set of goals. The crucial thing for B2B marketing teams to pre-empt, is that their sales counterparts will likely have more talk-time with prospects, and so that time needs to be spent wisely. So how can B2B marketing teams help sales develop this wisdom? B2B marketing strategies should encompass clear tactics that equip sales representatives with everything necessary to nurture prospects effectively. And at DemandCon, READ MORE ›

By |Alignment|
Read More
    Go to Top