Greg Giersch, on February 3, 2016
There are many roads to reach annual billing of $1 million. It’s a milestone in many industries. Most account lists are some combination of client levels, but let’s look at three possible scenarios to reach $1 million in billing:
The reason to stop and think about your client list this way is that it ends up determining how you spend your time each day and, ultimately, your sales career.
John Henley, on February 2, 2016
I recently attended an event sponsored by Startup Grind Asheville. Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. The speaker at this particular event was Josh Dorfman, from Venture Asheville (an initiative to support high growth business ventures).
In response to a question, Josh gave the advice to look sideways. He was encouraging entrepreneurs to look sideways as they run hard straight ahead toward their goal (so they don’t miss an opportunity they were not really looking for). This is another way to express something I heard years ago from the consulting firm Innosight. A speaker I heard from Innosight said that the great majority of companies that successfully transitioned their business during an industry disruption did so by pursuing a path they didn’t see when they started to make their pivot. That struck me at the time. What Innosight had learned is that the plan you develop when you start in a new direction is almost certainly the wrong plan, but doing nothing is also a sure path to failure. What an interesting discovery.
Matt Sunshine, on February 1, 2016
We are very excited to announce that LeadG2, The Center for Sales Strategy's inbound marketing division, has acquired Vitberg, LLC, a HubSpot Gold Partner. Vitberg, LLC specializes in serving the professional services industry, and they're bringing valuable expertise to LeadG2. Here is the official press release.
This acquisition is going to help us serve our current clients better and help expand our services as well. Traditionally, LeadG2 has been known as the expert in lead generation for the media industry, but with the addition of Vitberg, LLC we will be able to focus on a new industry—professional services.
Our knowledge and work on developing the 7 Step Lead Generation process can be modified and applied to professional services marketing, and we are excited to bring this expertise to a new industry.
Loretta Lage, on January 25, 2016
Undoubtedly it’s the question mark and should be the salesperson’s best friend. Understanding how to use the question mark can unlock the keys to the kingdom for a robust dialogue.
Beth Sunshine, on January 21, 2016
Most of us spend a lot of time trying to figure out what we are supposed to be doing with our lives. We wonder whether we are on the right path and if we are using our strengths as we should.
Although some discover their passion and their purpose at a young age, for most, this is part of a life-long journey. Regardless of your age or experience, it may be easier than you think to spot the tell-tale signs of talent and figure out what your strengths are! Then, once you have pin-pointed your strengths, it’s just a matter of seeking additional opportunities to use them.
Many years ago I had the opportunity to hear Marcus Buckingham speak. He explained the difference between a strength and a weakness in a way so simple that a small child could understand—yet it was powerful enough to change how grown adults think. Don’t quote me here, but essentially what he said was that when you do something that uses a strength, you feel strong. Even after hours of practice, although you may be tired, you are left feeling energized and eager. When you do something that is a weakness for you, you feel weak. At the end, you feel depleted, disengaged, and you are ready to stop.
John Henley, on January 20, 2016
Kim Alexandre, on January 19, 2016
A co-worker of mine recently posted a fun quiz on our employee Facebook page, called “Are These Marketing Buzzwords Real or Fake?” While taking the quiz, I couldn’t help but think some of the words I correctly answered were in reality just made up for fun, so I did little digging to investigate and found lots of buzzwords worthy of defining in plain English! Digital terms went from being a bunch of illusive acronyms to being a combination of words made up to define the new digital landscape. To help clear the muddy waters of digital marketing buzzwords, here are 5 defined in plain english:
Loretta Lage, on January 18, 2016
Take a minute to think about all of the sales meetings you’ve attended or facilitated. Were you disappointed or delighted? Maybe you felt bored or even punished. Did the facilitator, AKA Sales Leader, drone on, pontificate, lecture, demean, or all of the above? Was it a one-voice meeting? What was the general engagement quotient of the participants?
John Henley, on January 13, 2016
Chris Brogan recommends an exercise at the beginning of each year that he calls “My Three Words.” He uses these three words as a way to focus his energy and effort for the coming year—a creative twist on the new year’s resolution. I have seen Chris refer to this the last few years, but this is the first year I decided to take his recommendation.
I created a first draft and set it aside a few days and then came back to put it in final form. My three words are Think, Decide, and Appreciate. Here’s what I resolve to do.
Jim Hopes, on January 11, 2016
Sales meetings are often seen as a necessary evil by both salespeople and sales managers—the salespeople often think they are a waste of time (and sometimes they are) and managers generally hate putting them together (and a are often not that good at it). So, here are five tips to help you produce a sales meeting people will want to be part of, with less work on your part to provide all the content:
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