The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

The most successful sales and marketing organizations are ones that set their sales teams up for success. They give them the tools and resources they need to get the job done as efficiently and profitably as possible. The best ones actually solicit input from their salespeople, asking what they need in order to be more successful. 

If you’re a part of such an organization (and even if you’re not), you should insist that your company design and deploy an inbound marketing strategy. If they ask why, no problem! Here are a dozen reasons you can share:

This was another great week in terms of content. We found a lot to love.

Here are the five articles that piqued our interest:

1. The Healthiest Typeface {The Atlantic}

I grew up as the only girl with three brothers in the house—and a lot of laundry! That machine ran non-stop and I was always enlisted to help.

It was simple enough: Load the clothes, add some soap, turn and pull the big knob, and presto!—the clothes are getting washed. Sure, once in a while I put something red in with the whites and had a problem, but, for the most part, is was simple enough.

Well, I recently bought a new washer and dryer… and oh, how times have changed! That big knob you turn and pull? Gone. These new appliances look like space machines loaded with the latest technology. Aquajet! Sensors! Steam! A bedding setting! There’s even a function called “waterproof.” Whoa. It’s complicated.

This was another great week in terms of content. We found a lot to love.

Here are the five articles that piqued our interest:

1. Should Journalism Worry About Content Marketing? {CJR}

We've talked a lot about thought leadership, and what it means for you and your business. Positioning yourself as a thought leader will not only bring more people to your website, but it'll present you with new business opportunities, invitations to speak at conferences, and more.

Can you have too much emphasis on new business?

I submit that’s not a crazy question. There’s a scenario, more common than you think, where an excessive emphasis on finding new clients can mask a significant problem growing inside your organization. Ask yourself: What role is that new business playing? Is it fueling your sharp growth curve? If so, congratulations.

Too often, the answer is that new business is playing a very different role—that new clients are coming in the front door just fast enough to replace those who are leaving by the back door. The emphasis on new business development in your organization might be coming at a high cost—not placing sufficient emphasis on satisfying, retaining, and growing your existing accounts.

Or you might not even be breaking even: You could be working harder than ever to find new revenue that is failing even to cover the losses you’re experiencing due to attrition. It reminds me of the classic line from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.”

Great leaders don’t spend all their time-solving problems, but they’re smart about how to find problems and how to fix them. I see the best managers position themselves to hear problems and to see problems.

Hearing Problems

Hearing problems means being open to the problems your people bring you. If your people aren’t bringing you problems, that’s your meta- problem, or should I say your mega-problem! There are two explanations, and they’re both ugly: They think you can’t help or you don’t care. The can’t help scenario isn’t easily remedied, but the don’t care explanation is fixable. 

This was another great week in terms of content. We found a lot to love.

Here are the five articles that piqued our interest:

1. The Best Tech Tools for Growing a Smart Business in 2015 {Inc.}

Arjun Basu writes (very) short stories on Twitter. He calls them “Twisters.” You should follow him at @arjunbasu. Here’s one: 

The road narrowed. I said, I’m too fat for this road. My wife laughed, but I was serious. I was not happy with my weight. Or the road itself. 

The road keeps changing, doesn’t it? In business, it seems as if at least half our roads are under construction or subject to detours—all at the same time. Has your road to success narrowed? Or are you just too fat to fit? Those are entirely different questions. Or should I say, those are entirely different ways of defining the problem or even of looking at the world. If you see the road as the problem, you let yourself off the hook—but you also condemn yourself to whatever the road has in store for travelers who are too fat for the new road. If you see yourself as the problem, even grudgingly (because you don’t have to love that new road to recognize it, acknowledge it, and deal with it), then success opens up for you.

Leadership Lessons from This Quote