The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

As we head into mid-February, it makes sense to take a look back and review some of the top blog postings of 2012.

Sales managers have an endless list of tasks they could attend to every day.  Am I right?  Of course I am.  A large client demands your attention, your top rep needs you to look at a deal they are going to propose, you have more than a hundred emails that you should do something with, and oh yeah—you have piles stacking up on your desk and floor! (Read our other Sales Management Secrets here!)

Referrals are like gold, it takes hard work to acquire them and they are extremely valuable! Most salespeople aspire to get them however, it seems as if this is the one area most would say they could greatly improve on…even high performing b2b sales reps.   

As a sales professional, you are accustomed to what it feels like from the seller’s experience juggling prospects, customers, details, and priorities.  But, have you ever stopped to think what life feels like from the prospect’s point of view assuming they stay with you through the sales process?  Do you sometimes disappear from the sales process only to reappear when you get back on track with your schedule? 

While you can easily measure site traffic, Twitter followers, and how you rank for keywords on Google, it’s a little more challenging to measure what I contend is one of the most important benefits of inbound marketing – thought leadership.

When I discuss inbound marketing with new clients and prospects they tend to focus on tangible items such as search engine optimization (SEO), keyword rankings and the effect that blogging has on generating leads and building their contact database. This is natural considering that inbound marketing projects sometimes get funded from monies reallocated from SEO consultants, email marketers and social media firms. These tangible results (or promise of results) make it easier for a CFO or Controller to sign off on, rather than the possibility of intangibles such as thought leadership.

For example, today’s issue explains how some insurance companies are beginning to target consumers, rather than employers. Of course that means you could be selling to healthcare providers who would now like to establish a relationship directly with consumers.  

As a sales manager, you have no doubt had this experience. You just returned from making a sales call with one of your people and they begin to describe to someone else how the call went, who said what, and what got accomplished. As you listen, you are wondering if you were even on the same call, because what you saw and what you experienced was quite different.  So, what’s going on here?  Is your salesperson just obtuse, or perhaps trying to spin the story to make himself look good? Chances are, neither.

In Part 1 of this blog series, the question was asked: How do businesses use local media sites to effectively market their business? This is a digital marketing strategy question that is heard frequently and it is for that reason we set out to find an answer.

With everyone's time at such a premium these days, many of us have come to rely too much on our phones. Perhaps it would be healthy to step back and consider what the telephone can and cannot do for your sales strategy: