Since then, I’ve been furious with the manager and the situation. I did the best I could to serve the company and was loyal and honest. Having never received closure, I’ve been careful because I don’t believe in burning bridges.
The company did nothing illegal, so this doesn’t call for a lawsuit. And I might need a good recommendation from my manager someday. I think some action will help me get over this, but what? Should I talk to the director or someone else? I’m still burning inside despite trying to forget about the company. Nothing works. How do you work past these nasty feelings?
This list of marketing lessons comes from the MarketingProfs B2B Forum. You’ll find tips for keywords, content, email marketing, social media, sales.
What’s one marketing lesson you’ve learned recently?
How do you present your lead generation effort? Do you sell by convincing customers they need your product or service? Or do you find out what customers need? Several companies share their successful lead generation processes and how they balance the various mediums.
What works for you in generating leads?
You have plenty of success stories you can use to show that social media really works for b2b. You may need more to convince the upper echelons to move into social media. The article provides suggestions from five people of varying backgrounds to help you get to “YES!”
What other ways can you get buy in from the top?
Some marketers think using social media means simply repackaging the company’s brochure-type content as thought leadership. This won’t work. Smart marketers have taken notice of the five shifts and applied them to increase sales. They all revolve around giving the buyer more power and control. Furthermore, social media is an integrated effort. A new client that connected with you on Twitter didn’t necessarily find you on Twitter — it’s about mixing up how you engage with others.
What do you think of the five shifts?
We have a decent team, but we can’t make things happen smoothly. My boss assigns irrelevant tasks to my team. We put in a lot of overtime because of his idiocy. The guy is a joke around the department, and everyone except the executive team seems to know that. Should we confront the executive director, go to the CEO (the director’s boss) or live with it in silence?
— Tracy, Manager
As if sales and marketing didn’t have enough to divide the two, marketing-leaning social media adds to the friction. It is possible to bring together b2b social media and b2b sales. This article lists four ways to apply what b2b sales already uses and tie it with social media.
We also posted reader advice on how to help sales with social media.
How would you bridge the gap between social media and sales?
Many of us agree that social media is a great venue for listening and interacting with customers, colleagues, experts and more. But some people in marketing remain stuck in traditional marketing and need help to integrate social media rather than look at it as dichotomy.
What can we do to help marketing become more integrated instead of siloed?
Social media marketing grew massively in a short time. Where else can you directly engage with customers and colleagues? The infographic in this article will show you the gaps that you can fill now and get ahead of your competitors. Forrester says that social media marketing is growing at double the rate of all other forms of online marketing. Should marketers ignore social media with these kind of numbers?
What does your business plan to do in terms of marketing in the next four years?
This article discusses five questions that many b2bs will ask when looking into social media. The questions cover who should manage social media, whether social media is personal or business, social media’s ROI, finding time to do social media and whether b2b customers really use social media. Even if very few of your customers use it, social media is worth exploring, discovering and understanding. Don’t wait until something happens that pushes you into it. Be ready.
What are your biggest social media questions?
We have a decent team, but we can’t make things happen smoothly. Our boss assigns irrelevant tasks to our team. We put in a lot of overtime because of his idiocy. The guy is a joke around the department, and everyone except the executive team seems to know that. Should we confront the executive director, go to the CEO (the director’s boss) or live with it in silence?– Judy, Project Manager
Effective business-to-business (B2B) social media is not just the latest “pretty face” in public relations (PR). It’s also transformational technology with potential to help company departments work better together — operating in a united yet decentralized environment. Social media provides each area of the company with the power to interact with the outside world.
My company hired me as its first marketing executive. I have a designer and a copywriter who have been here for years. We work together well.
My sales counterpart and I also got along GREAT at first, until I suggested interviewing the sales team to better understand how their customers might react to a social media initiative. Since then, she has found excuse after excuse for me not to speak with them, and our relationship is a bit strained. Is there a way to fix this relationship, or should I try another approach to reach sales?
— Flailing in sales
Article after article says social media works even for business-to-business (B2B) companies. But example after example claims to represent B2B, and is actually for business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing.
Because Dell is a technology company, it walks the talk by always using technology and the Web to support its business. Dell has generated almost $7 million in sales from Twitter alone. Convinced?
Though having similar goals, sales and marketing often compete against each other or butt heads instead of work together to reach their goals. They’re both important to the company especially when they collaborate. As a result, the business grows. Each brings a perspective the other can use.
How do you think sales and marketing should work?
According to “The CMO Survey” by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association (AMA), B2B companies are upping their social media marketing budgets in both products and services. The next five years shows that marketers will devote almost a fifth of their marketing budget to social media. These results support that B2B marketers are working to improve building relationships and boosting brands.
How will social media affect your marketing strategy?
Do you know the difference between paid and earned media? B2B marketers need to understand the difference between a paid search ad and a Twitter retweet. Or else, the decision could be costly to a company. Earned media using the web has a whole different set of benefits than traditional PR.
What are your experiences with earned and paid media?
Marketing brings in leads while sales follows up. So why would these two not in alignment? One problem could be how some define “alignment.” Crandell believes that a definition that works for all can make a difference in improving sales and marketing alignment.
How would a definition of sales and marketing align help or not?
Are you combining your sales and marketing efforts? This is not the approach to take. Each has its own function. Stein shares his definitions.
For some people, video is a better way to learn about something new to them. Videos can offer more depth than an article and express emotion. Those in B2B who want to better understand how to use social media from a B2B perspective can get all they need in these 10 diverse videos.
Stop writing job titles and advertising jobs as “sales and marketing manager” or some variation. This is WRONG. No one can do both. Each has unique roles and responsibilities. Watch the video to learn about the differences and how to succeed with both.
My company hired me as its first marketing executive. I have a designer and a copywriter that have been there for years. We work together well. My sales counterpart and I also got along GREAT at first, until I suggested interviewing the sales team to better understand how their customers might react to a social [...]
I’m pushing my sales team to add social media to its repertoire. We started with Twitter and tried to train the sales staff; however, they aren’t taking it seriously. They continue to use the hard-sell approach.
