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The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Sales Thought Leaders To Follow

Sales Thought Leaders To Follow

Are you looking to stay on top of the latest trends and strategies within the sales industry?

It’s no secret that successful businesses need a strong sales department in order to be competitive. To give your team members an edge, it pays off to follow leaders in the field who have proven themselves as thought leaders: those individuals who can share insights and advice with inspiring stories, passion, and expertise.

In this article, we’ve rounded up some of the most influential sales gurus out there today – so if you want to know how to get ahead of your competition, join us as we explore our list of must-follow sales thought leaders!

Topics: thought leadership leadership development

What a Thought Leader Does

What a Thought Leader Does

We’re all guilty of throwing around the terms “thought leader” and “thought leadership.”  These days the terms are so often used that we forget what they actually mean.

In fact, Inc Magazine states that the term "thought leader" is one of the most misunderstood titles in business. Tied for first is the term "influencer." 

Is sharing content on social media considered thought leadership? Do you need 10K LinkedIn followers to reach the status of a “thought leader?”

The short answer is no. We all have the ability and opportunity to be thought leaders just by educating, improving, and adding value to our industry as a whole.

Topics: thought leadership

If You Forget About Lead Gen, You Can Forget About Growth

lead generation for sales growth

This article was originally published on Entrepreneur.com.

What’s the worst thing that can happen if you buy weak leads from a questionable source? New York City real estate broker Nathan Horne almost found out.

Like the thousands of professionals in his industry who collectively spent $10.5 billion on advertising in 2017, his employer, The Corcoran Group, focused on branding instead of strategic lead generation. So, when Horne called someone he thought was a hot lead, he got the surprise of his life. Instead of a potential buyer, the police detective who answered the phone made a veiled threat about having a gun and being willing to use it.

Topics: content strategy thought leadership Lead Generation sales and marketing alignment

Why Thought Leadership Works in Sales + How to Get Started

why thought leadership works in sales

In uncertain times, prospects and clients conduct even more online research before working with a vendor or purchasing a product. Thought leadership is vital to brand differentiation, but when done right, it greatly improves sales performance.

The thought leadership position is certainly an advantageous position to have, as it helps with generating sales, lead generation, recruitment and retention, and new business opportunities. Sometimes this thought leadership position comes completely organically, but many times it's part of an overall sales strategy.

Topics: Social Media thought leadership sales strategy

Are You a Thought Leader? 6 Ways to Tell

Are You a Thought Leader? In every industry, there are people or businesses we think of as being thought leaders. These people and organizations are the ones that you check on regularly with regard to innovation, market challenges, and new initiatives.

Being considered a thought leader in your industry is certainly an advantageous position to have, as it helps with lead generation, sales, recruitment and retention, new business opportunities, and more.

Topics: content strategy thought leadership sales strategy Inbound Marketing

Video for Sales and Thought Leadership: An Extensive Guide to Getting Comfortable on Camera

Video for Sales and Thought Leadership An Extensive Guide to Getting Comfortable on Camera

If you could start one new thing this month that increased the open rate of your sales emails by 5Xs and improved your open-to-reply rate by 8Xs, would you do it? The obvious answer is yes, but sadly, once most of you realize what it is, you’ll come up with at least one of these excuses as to why you won’t do it and still avoid it.  

Video. Yes, video! Video has the power to not only get your emails opened but replied to! Across platforms (not just email) it’s proven to help get higher response rates, inspire more action, and help sellers reach the C-Suite (source).

Topics: Video thought leadership sales strategy

Do You Have These 6 Characteristics of an Industry Thought Leader?

salesperson_at_laptop.jpgIn almost every industry, there are a few people or businesses that watch trends, see where the industry is headed, and share unique insights—thought leaders. These people and organizations are the ones that you check on regularly for innovation, market challenges, new initiatives, etc.

The thought leadership position is certainly an advantageous position to have, as it can help with generating sales, lead generation, recruitment and retention, and new business opportunities. While sometimes this thought leadership position will come about completely organically, many times it is part of an overall sales strategy and much time and consideration has been put in to developing the plan to make this happen. 

Topics: thought leadership Sales

4 Tactics to Make Sure Your B2B Content is Converting and Generating Leads

b2b content convertingCreating compelling B2B content is only half the battle when it comes to a solid lead generation strategy for your sales plan and your business. While your content must be grammatically correct, educational, formatted properly, and a good representation of your brand, it must also be strategically created following proven best practices that most inbound marketers and sales teams follow. These tactics are what help ensure your content isn’t just interesting or nice to read, but ultimately driving prospects closer to doing business with you and taking some kind of action or next step.

Topics: content strategy thought leadership Lead Generation

How to Use a LinkedIn Group to Attract New Business Prospects

networking-1.jpg

Attracting new business prospects is accomplished more easily by genuinely connecting with them and sharing your thoughts, rather than blindly spewing a product pitch. Think about it—if you were considering buying a product or service which of the following selling styles would you prefer?

  • Have a salesperson cold call you and drone on and on, spewing facts and figures about their product—and ultimately try to power close you (even if you are not ready to buy).

                                                                  OR

  • Get to know the product/service and a salesperson at your own pace—ultimately controlling when to get into a serious dialogue with a salesperson.

Providing insight into how you think—and what you stand for—is called thought leadership. It’s a great way to allow a prospect to ease into a relationship with you. Starting a LinkedIn group is an easy way to get into the thought leadership game and start a dialogue with new business prospects. Here’s how to do it:

Topics: thought leadership Inbound Marketing

Get Serious about Lead Generation

serious_about_lead_generation.jpg

If you're blogging to generate leads, developing an effective lead generation strategy is something not to be taken lightly. If you are expecting your business blog to generate leads, rank higher on Google and increase traffic to your website, you probably want to spend as much time focusing on why you are blogging as you spend on what you are blogging about.

Topics: content marketing content strategy thought leadership Inbound Marketing