Comments for Sales-Marketing-Strategy

Comment on Qualified Lead: What’s it mean? by John Fox

John Fox — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:52:25 +0000

Hi Ben, no insult intended…just purely for educational benefit for B2B marketers who may not yet have the field experience that you’ve had. So often these days, the marketing director (and team) are responsible for lead qualification and nurturing but yet may not know what they’re aiming for. Providing an acronym like BANT (which is a term coined by John Coe) is merely a worthwhile teaching aid.

Comment on Qualified Lead: What’s it mean? by Ben

Ben — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:21:28 +0000

Yes, leads that want what you’re selling are better than ones that don’t. This is not information that warrants an acronym and a graphic. Your audience is adult professionals in the B2B marketing industry…Do you assume that a single member of your target audience needed an acronym to wrap their head around this elusive concept? Seriously, self evident posts like this are insulting.

Comment on List-Building Strategy: Free Download vs. Paid Debate – Part 1 by Muneeb

Muneeb — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:44:48 +0000

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hey i found your site today and I have read some great information over here.

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Comment on Word-of-Mouth Marketing FAILS – Successful Entrepreneur Laments (mp3) by Business Plan

Business Plan — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:53:41 +0000

This is such a fantastic wealth of information and ready-to-use tips! Thank you . Congratulations!!

Comment on Word-of-Mouth Marketing FAILS – Successful Entrepreneur Laments (mp3) by John Fox

John Fox — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:05:42 +0000

Great points, Kneale. I’d also add this: If you’re co-opting your friends, relatives, colleagues and other business contacts as your sales force, for goodness sake, make it easy for them to refer the RIGHT customers to you.

Real-life story for me: After doing the same thing for the last 20+ years, you’d think my family would know what it is that I do. But no.

My sister (God love her) asked if she could introduce me to people she knows. And then she says, “So remind me again, what is it that you do? What are the kinds of people you’d like me to introduce you to?”

To help her (and me), I sent her the following profile of the person/business I do my best work for:

. CEO/owner
. Business-to-Business (B2B)… No consumer, retail, or professionals like Dentists, Doctors
. In business at least 3 years… not a start-up
. At least 3 outside sales reps. Extra points if they sell through distributors, resellers, VARs
. Consider themselves to be “a best kept secret” or a subject-matter expert
. Dissatisfied with their marketing (their sales reps are screaming for leads) and want to invest
. Probably have a stale website that’s doing little to generate leads for them
. Most likely sell some kind of technology OR they want to reposition their product in a new way to take advantage of technology.

Do you have a profile like this to provide to your referral network?

Comment on Word-of-Mouth Marketing FAILS – Successful Entrepreneur Laments (mp3) by Kneale Mann

Kneale Mann — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:04:50 +0000

Hey John,

We discussed this on our call this week. Colleagues, clients and prospects all seem to default to the same response when we ask the simple question about building their sales pipeline. They say clients/customers comes from referrals and word-of-mouth. Two issues are going on – they may not trust you and/or they don’t actually know how they are building their business.

I have a client who says “the mind reading machine was stolen and authorities have no leads” which is a great reminder that we cannot hope others know what we offer or how to work with us.

I consulted a large real estate firm for 18 months and reminded the team often that there are three main events that happen when you become a real estate agent – you get your licence, get your office and get your clients. And what is unique in this industry is that every year, they start with zero clients. The pipeline is people buying and selling homes which means each client will do it (on average) every 3-5 years so you know A LOT of relationships to stay in business.

Sales is a numbers game but simply asking a lot of people isn’t enough if you’re asking the wrong people for business. I can say that with great certainty as I see over 250 meetings in 18 months with many prospects who weren’t going to hire me. It’s a tough lesson to learn.

The process begins with you and as Frank points out – and far too many seem to do this – people are not clairvoyant when they are looking for your services.

We need to be clear on what we offer, ask the right people, ask those we work with and have worked with for referrals and be on the front lines as you pointed out in the interview. Great reminders.

Comment on Is it fair to write proposals (RFPs) for your customers? by Dale Bates

Dale Bates — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:06:13 +0000

I’m in agreement. Good article…

Comment on Sales Lead: What’s it mean? by Sales Genie - my take | Mitsu Fisher

Sales Genie - my take | Mitsu Fisher — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:20:05 +0000

[...] Sales Lead: What’s it mean? [...]

Comment on Sales Lead: What’s it mean? by Mitsu Fisher

Mitsu Fisher — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:23:08 +0000

Great post. Thank you for addressing a thorny issue in such a constructive and helpful way. Your definition of a lead is right on the money, as is your explanation of how sales and marketing interpret the term quite differently.

Comment on Google’s bid for Groupon – could Intuit be their White Knight? by Groupon script

Groupon script — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:01:50 +0000

If Groupon wants to succeed upto its potential, then it needs co-operation with Google adwords. Google advertising platform would be a best choice for Groupon deals to make high amount of profit. With only E-mail advertisement, it cannot prioritize the daily deals.