sales skills Archives

Five key skills every B2B digital marketer needs

Digital marketing is, by nature, a creative industry. And while people often come into the industry rearing to go with innovative ideas, but there's more to marketing than just a creative itch. Whether for those starting in B2B digital marketing, professionals who are deep in their career, or business leaders looking to hire the next best digital marketer, there are various skills and attitudes to the role that, if overlooked, may be leaving people at a disadvantage. Overlooked areas in B2B digital marketing Marketing is an industry that is constantly evolving as new tools and technology pop READ MORE ›

By Callum Youla|Skills|

Why case studies can be your most valuable assets (and how to use them)

We know that B2B has a longer and more complex buying process than B2C, and therefore a longer buying journey. The key element of B2B marketing is connecting with the customer at the point they're at in their journey. Then, moving them onto the next step (and the next, and the next…) It's a careful balancing act that's important to get right. Go too hard too soon, and you can say goodbye to that prospect. Don't make your case hard enough when they're ready, and they'll wave goodbye to you and head for your closest competitor. Usually, READ MORE ›

By Bella Newton|Tactics|

An outsourced design specialist dumbs down design: 5 tips for making your DIY design better

Let’s start by saying that design is definitely not something you want to go halves on. It’s a vital part of marketing and great design requires professional work. But we also need to be realistic. Even though professional design is ideal, we all know it’s not always possible. When it comes to a quick social post or maybe a last-minute PowerPoint presentation, if you don’t have an internal designer or outsourced design service (or time enough to find one), a DIY job can sometimes be enough. With tools like Canva at our fingertips, more and more people READ MORE ›

By Ellie Doolan|Tactics|

Ask pain funnel questions in the right order [video]

The best pain funnel questions, asked at the wrong time, will lose you a deal you might have won if you’d asked them in the right order. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-7mxhOkFgA Popular sales training company Sandler uses the term ‘pain funnel questions’ to describe the questions a sales person should ask. I’m going to show you today that their questions are good enough. If you master these good-enough questions, you'll go a long way to succeeding in sales. And if ‘good enough’ is good enough, then have a go at mastering pain funnel questions. But if you want to excel, READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|B2B marketing blog, Sales, Skills, Strategy, Tactics|

3 B2B sales trends that cannot be ignored

Forward from Brett Bonser: As a new member of our team, I am delighted to allow Claudia to share with you her findings - on key B2B sales trends that are shaping the future. Don’t let your sales be left behind. Read on, to prepare yourself for the changes ahead. As a business leader, you need to keep up with the rapidly evolving B2B selling environment. Your customers are continuing to change the way they engage and buy. To make things even harder, digitally aggressive new competitors will be entering into the market, intent on disrupting the READ MORE ›

By Claudia Ivanka|B2B marketing blog, Sales, Skills, Strategy, Tactics, Velocity|

Go to Market Strategy Example [video]

A go-to market plan needs to articulate the solution that's on offer, its price, what's unique about that solution and how you position that difference, who your target, the channels you will use to reach the market, and the tactics you will use to take that offer to the market through that channel. As I've been doing recently, I went looking for five sources of a great go to market strategy example. Truth, I only found three good ones, so after I've given you the conclusions, I'll give you two more align.me go-to market strategy examples. READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|B2B marketing blog, Sales, Skills, Strategy, Velocity|

Sales and marketing blogs [video]

Indexes of thousands marketing blogs are great for SEO. Make really sticky content. Today we're going to review five of those indexes and explain how, and why, the sites have created those indexes of thousands of marketing blogs. Let's start with I've concluded and then I'll explain why I've concluded that. Number one: find the best blogs that you personally enjoy reading. There's no point creating content that you're not personally interested in. That's inauthentic. Secondly, though edit that list with your audience in mind. Third, summarize the content and link fully. Don't steal copy. You're just READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|B2B marketing blog, Sales, Skills, Strategy, Tactics|

B2B Sales: You need to focus on the workarounds that aren’t working

In most “solution selling” methodologies, B2B sales people are encouraged to uncover their prospect’s issues, rather than leading with their products. But there’s a potential problem: any organisation, any stakeholder, always has many more issues that they would like to address than they could possibly have the have money, time, or inclination to deal with. That’s why so many issues stimulate so many apparently positive sales conversations that end up going absolutely nowhere. The prospect is interested enough to talk, but not motivated enough to act... One of the ways of dealing with this, of course, is READ MORE ›

By Bob Apollo|Evergreen, Skills|

Sales and Marketing training lifts performance where you’d least expect it

Training your marketers does little to help them generate leads that are more 'acceptable' to Sales, nor does increasing the training of your salespeople improve their ability to close. If this is the case, why bother investing in training at all? In this week's blog, Hugh explains why investing heavily in training for Sales and Marketing does deliver benefits, but not where you'd expect. Get your copy of our 2014 Sales and Marketing Alignment Report

By Hugh Macfarlane|Evergreen, Skills|

20 Best Practices all B2B Sales & Marketing Organisations Should Adopt

What separates the top-performing B2B sales and marketing organisations from their also-ran competitors? What are the winning behaviours that enable them to create repeatable, scalable and predictable businesses? After observing many of these best-in-class organisations in action, I’d like to suggest 20 best practices that all B2B focused companies ought to think about adopting… These best practices appear to be particularly relevant to B2B organisations with complex, high-value products or services that involve extended sales cycles, and where uncovering better qualified opportunities, shortening sales cycles and increasing sales win rates can have a dramatic impact on revenues, READ MORE ›

By Bob Apollo|B2B marketing blog, Sales, Skills|

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