The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

What a great week! There are some great gems from our writers here, and wonderful news from around the web. Read on!

The Center for Sales Strategy Weekly Wrap-Up

• Monday, Steve Marx told us about the trap in focusing on a slow-selling line. It's always, always, always about their needs, not your products.

• Tuesday, Kimberly Alexandre talked about Starbucks, and how they're letting ideas drive campaigns. Notice the trend this week?

You started an inbound marketing program a few months ago. You followed all the advice. You even read about what to expect in your first year of inbound marketing. Now... it seems to be working!  People are exchanging their information (email address, title, phone number) for your premium content, just like you heard they would!

Visitors to your website are becoming inbound leads!

Now what do you do?

Here are five things to consider with every inbound lead that comes in.

What a great week in the blog world! There are some great gems from our writers here, and wonderful news from around the web. Read on!

The Center for Sales Strategy Weekly Wrap-Up

• Monday, Mindy Murphy asked if it was possible to have too much work intensity, and gave us reasons why she thinks it is.

• Tuesday, John Henley gave us a great lesson in perspective by writing about outhouses, of all places.

What a great week for reading! From dealing with the lone wolf salesperson to landing bigger deals, we have some great reads for you this week.

The Center for Sales Strategy Weekly Wrap-Up

• Monday, Dana Bojcic taught us how to work with the opposite of the warm and fuzzy salesperson.

• Tuesday, John Henley gave us the key to selling bigger deals.

Here at The Center for Sales Strategy, we are always looking for smart ways to drive and improve sales performance. As you know, we are a Platinum Partner of HubSpot, the all-in-one marketing software that allows you to do everything from website creation and blogging to emailing newsletters and scheduling social media posts, has taken things a step further with the launch of their CRM!

Happy September! We're fully embracing back-to-school season by brushing up on our sales skills! If you missed any of our great sales strategy posts this week, this wrap-up is for you.

The Center for Sales Strategy Weekly Wrap-Up

• Monday, John Henley told us not to obsess about the decision maker in sales, and what to focus on instead.

• Tuesday, Kurt Sima told sales managers to ask themselves five tough questions when one of their salespeople is underperforming.

The air is starting to cool, or at least we think it might soon, the leaves are changing, it's football season, and the kids are back to school. That's right, it's the unofficial start of fall! We talked about what to track, how to add tracking to stories, and the second round of how to spot sales talent without asking questions.

The Center for Sales Strategy Weekly Wrap-Up

• On Tuesday, Matt Sunshine told us that if we only had to track four metrics for our salespeople, these are the four he suggests.

This week, we talked about talent trumping desire, how to increase referrals, how winning is everything, and what's changed (and what hasn't!) in sales this century.

The Center for Sales Strategy Weekly Wrap-Up

• On Monday, Kurt Sima taught us how to build a referral machine in five steps.

• Tuesday, Dana Bojcic told a story about taking up tennis with her husband, and how she learned that talent trumps desire, every time.

This week, we wrote about nonprofits, and how they're not so different from us. We focused on individual focus meetings, discussed where vs. what, and we broke inbound marketing into pieces that even a five-year-old could understand.

The Center for Sales Strategy Weekly Wrap-Up

• On Monday, Jim Hopes told us that when you're looking for a nonprofit fundraiser, there are eight talents to look for, and it takes more than a good heart to succeed.

• Tuesday, Matt Sunshine gave us three things to add to our individual focus meetings to make them better.

I think Albert Einstein was onto something with that statement.

If you’ve ever found yourself trying to explain something technical or complex to someone who isn’t familiar with the topic, you know what I mean. Perhaps you work in finance or real estate and are all too familiar with the puzzled looks from your clients when you try to explain mortgages, stocks, or investments. (This is where all those “______ for Dummies” books come in handy, right?)

As an inbound marketing consultant, I get the confused look pretty often. It’s easy for me to assume everyone knows what inbound is. After all it’s a big “buzzword” in the digital marketing world. But the reality is it’s still a relatively new topic and those in other industries don’t always understand. Sure, maybe they’ve heard the term, but they don’t really have a good grasp of what it is or what it looks like. In fact, I have friends in sales, management, and even some working in traditional (outbound) marketing that are still giving me that quizzical look even after I provide them with the general definition—and these are people that should know. They’re the ones who can really benefit from it.

It’s at this point where I typically recall (and laugh about) the scene from The Office, where Steve Carrel’s character is trying to understand an explanation of their budget but doesn’t get it. After briefly pretending to understand, he finally asks his coworker to, “Explain it to me like I’m 5.” And, ever since then, I’ve found myself thinking this same thought when someone is trying to explain something complex or technical that I’m not familiar with, or when I need to explain something of similar nature to someone else.

Here’s our official definition of inbound marketing:

The process of attracting the attention of prospects, through content, before they are even ready to buy; the best and most cost-effective way to convert strangers into customers and promoters of your business.

But, again, what does it really entail? What does it look like? Complexities and technical jargon aside, of
course.