Posts by Admin:
Five Challenges for Sales and Marketing Alignment
September 7th, 2010The challenge in getting the two to paddle in the same direction
by Joseph Zuccaro – alinio
Five Challenges for Sales and Marketing
Yet another article showing the importance of aligning marketing and sales. “A brand is merely the promise of an experience. In order to experience the brand, one must generally purchase the product or service of the brand. In order to purchase the product or service of the brand, you need to provide a selling channel.”
Marketing is about branding. Sales is about revenue. Putting both in the same boat and paddling in the same direction will make those a reality. But of course, there are challenges in getting them in the same boat going in the same direction.
What other challenges do you see in aligning marketing and sales?
Sales and Marketing Alignment: A How to Guide
September 6th, 2010Nail your messaging and build a strong sales and marketing machine
by Chad Levitt – New Sales Economy Blog
Sales and Marketing Alignment
Download the free 20-page guide on how to create a marketing plan that incorporates personas, builds a team and uses different demand generation approaches. The guide also includes tips for building a sales and marketing machine, staffing, timeline and budgets.
What do you think of the advice given in the blueprint?
The Case for Social Media in B2B
September 5th, 2010Experts share why and how B2B companies benefit
by Valeria Maltoni – ConversationAgent
Business and Social Media
The article reports that Forbes and Google conducted a survey of 354 executives and found that over 50 percent of the under 40 have a work-related blog, show on up Twitter and visit social networks often.
Valeria connected with experts to ask them for their thoughts on why and how B2B companies benefit from including social media in their marketing strategies.
What’s your experience with B2B social media?
30 Awesome B2B Social Media Resources
September 3rd, 2010Resources for those in all phases of the social media process
by Kipp Bodnar – Hubspot
Social Media Resources
This great list sorts the resources into categories including how-to, case studies, networking and presentations. What are your favorite go to resources for B2B social media?
Current Dilemma:
Am I too strict with our Internet policy?
August 4th, 2010
Am I too strict with our Internet policy?
At our company, most employees have Internet access at their workstations. Ordinarily, I don’t mind a few minutes of web browsing here and there for a break or even a little personal business. It’s the same as a quick water cooler conversation.
Yet as social media has grown and become a business necessity, more employees have started to hang out on these sites — and not always for work. Am I going overboard in wanting to control the amount of time employees spend online for personal surfing? How can I trust them to get the work done without curtailing this personal web browsing? Or does it really save productivity since they get the mental break they need?
— Nathan
The Biggest B2B Marketing Mistake
July 16th, 2010What it means to social media
by Liz Strauss – Successful and Outstanding Blog
B2B Mistake
Naturally, when thinking about our target market, we think of our customers’ problems and try to solve them. But what if you changed your thinking to focusing on solving your customer’s customer’s problems? No, that’s not a typo.
Let’s say Jim sells XYZ services. Jim is your customer. Imagine the impact you have on Jim if you help him solve HIS customers’ problems. Read Liz Strauss’ article to see how this impacts social media.
What do you use social media for in your B2B business?
Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Your Social Media Marketing
July 15th, 2010And how to overcome the cons
by Kristi Hines – Vertical Measures Blog
Pros and Cons of Outsourcing
The best person to do social media for a business is the people who work for the business. Social media is about connecting with people and putting a face on a company. However, outsourcing some tasks can help you and your staff learn from experienced users. After all, you need a strategy for social media before getting into it.
How do you feel about outsourcing social media marketing activities?
Five Ways to Integrate Sales and Marketing
July 14th, 2010Nine out 10 who try to integrate fail
by Jeff Ogden – Fearless Competitor
5 Ways to Integrate
This article touts the importance of integrating sales and marketing. Many of us agree on this, but many of us don’t know how to make that happen or we tried and failed. Author Jeff Ogden goes so far to give real-life examples and how the companies went about solving problems. Ogden closes with five tips for integrating sales and marketing.
Here are the five tips:
1. Put your most respected executives on it along with outside help like Find New Customers.
2. Give them the full and vocal support of top leadership.
3. Provide them with time to uncover existing processes and challenges.
4. Support them to implement new processes.
5. Measure and test. Make sure the culture really changed.
How do you think applying the five tips will affect an organization?
Current Dilemma:
Help! I need more time!
July 13th, 2010
I Need More Time
Since it’s impossible to add another hour to the 24-hour day, I need an alternative. How can I find time to do all the things I need to complete at work? No doubt, many managers/supervisors deal with this challenge. How have you overcome the “I can’t get everything done” syndrome?
— Ed, Manager
Integrating Marketing and Sales
July 13th, 2010How aligning sales and marketing affects results
by Mac McIntosh – Sales Lead Insights
Integrate Marketing and Sales
Mac McIntosh interviews Elizabeth Vanneste, CMO of Miller Heiman, with a focus on aligning sales and marketing. What does it mean to align sales and marketing? Vanneste clearly defines what it means to align the two and references a study that shows the effectiveness of aligning the two.
I’ve always believe in the importance of sales and marketing collaboration. What are some ways you can get the two to collaborate for the good of the company?
Current Dilemma:
Burning inside instead of burning bridges
June 24th, 2010
Burning on the Inside
After over five years of service, I recently “retired” from a company to manage my own business full-time. I gave the standard two-week notice and started preparing to help with the transition. The company cut my two weeks short, and my manager was disrespectful to me during the process.
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?
— Gone, but not forgotten
27 Marketing Lessons B2B Marketers Should Know
June 3rd, 2010
Listen to your Sales Team
Listen to your sales team
by Kipp Bodnar – Hubspot
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? [ Read original article ]
Making Sure You Profit from Lead Generation
June 2nd, 2010
Profiting from Lead Generation
Combining lead generation and marketing to drive performance
by Marie Griffin – BtoB Media Business
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? [ Read original article ]
Five Tips for Getting Execs on Board
June 1st, 2010
Getting Execs on Board
Not engaging is riskier than diving in
by Jennifer Van Grove – Mashable
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? [ Read original article ]
Five Big Shifts in Social Media Marketing
May 31st, 2010
Shifts in Social Media Marketing
Capitalize on these shifts to boost sales
by Tom Pick – Webbiquity
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? [ Read original article ]
Current Dilemma:
How can I make a difference with my performance reviews?
April 19th, 2010
Work Performance Evaluations
In my 20 years in the workforce, it’s surprising that performance reviews haven’t made a difference for my staff. I’m trying to turn this around, so I’ve read up on how to make the most of performance reviews. Yet, I struggle with finding an effective process that benefits the employee, employer and manager.
Do you use the performance review tool, or do you do your own thing? What’s the best way to do a constructive performance review that benefits both employees and management?
— Perplexed about performance
Current Dilemma:
How do you deal with a blockhead boss?
April 14th, 2010
Blockhead Boss
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
B2B Social Media Digest Coming Soon
January 10th, 2010COMING SOON
B2B Social Media Digest helps its 30,000 subscribers, B2B marketing and sales executives, understand how social media can be integrated into their existing emarketing programs.
The blog encourages the audience to use social media for branding, PR, lead generation and new ways to establish and maintain conversations directly with their target market.
In addition, B2B Social Media Digest also provides insights to better manage the readers’ relationships between marketing and sales organizations. The sales team just want qualified leads generated from the marketing campaigns and may feel that marketing takes credit for increased sales. The marketing people want to control all messages that come from the company and at times believe that the sales team can’t be trusted to keep the marketing messages clean, honest and complete.
We help them find common ground.
