The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

This week I had the pleasure of running a meeting with a group of department heads. The topic of our discussion was All About Meetings. Prior to the meeting, one of the b2b sales managers did the math to determine how much it costs (time off the streets) to have all of the salespeople on his team attend an hour long meeting. The title to this blog post doesn’t even begin to cut it – the cost was in the $60,000.00 range – for one hour. 

Facebook is taking lessons from the NFL. According to Bloomberg.com, Facebook plans to charge $1 million to $2.5 million a day for their new TV style 15 second ad units, but will users really be willing to watch?

You just had what seems like a great meeting with a b2b sales prospect. You're excited because early on in the conversation you came across a need that was clearly actionable by you and your company. Cool.

“Back to School” is a highly anticipated event for both students and parents alike, albeit for different reasons… but highly anticipated nonetheless! As a kid I remember feeling a sense of nervous excitement the night before the first day of school. I couldn’t wait to see all my friends, share summer stories, wear my new clothes, find out if my best friends were in my classes, meet my new teachers, and since I grew up in the 80’s… show off my fabulous “big hair.” 

Sales managers should be preparing for the inevitable adaptation of mobility for their b2b sales departments. CTOs of today’s companies, both large and small, believe that enterprise mobility is a must for their organization. A recent report published on MarketingProfs indicates that 94% of CTOs are embracing mobile. In addition, 65% view more mobile support for employees as a critical priority and so should you.

Consumers have long told marketers to be relevant and non-disruptive with respect to advertising. Some answers to those demands in the past have been through online creative and digital technology, such as viral video content like Jeff Gordon's Pepsi Max Used Car Salesperson scare, or behavioral targeting and retargeting.

Okay, so we’re all moving very quickly.  I get that.  You get busy, decide to cut a couple corners, and maybe skip a piece of paperwork here and there.

Those of us that work in or around the media industry know that radio, TV, and newspaper are far from becoming dead advertising vehicles. Instead, the best and most innovative media companies have learned that it’s about evolving and finding new ways to not only get the attention of readers, viewers, and listeners but to uncover new methods of attracting and retaining advertisers as well. 

The search for qualified, sales-ready leads is a challenge to almost all sales organizations and as technology continues to advance and all of our lives (and our prospects lives) become busier, the need to uncover and nurture qualified leads becomes increasingly more important.

I'll start by saying that many marketers are indeed doing digital, but even if you are or know of a business owner or marketer who is, ask yourself if they are doing the best they could be with their digital marketing efforts. Chances are you or they would say, "No." Even with the number of business and brands using digital, I still come across a number of stories where I hear about a marketer not willing to try digital, whether it be social, mobile, desktop display, or search.