Business Growth Blog

I recently received an email campaign Marketo put together to target HubSpot users such as myself. My agency is a HubSpot Gold partner and we’ve been using their technology to manage our marketing efforts for many years now. Marketo is one of HubSpot’s biggest competitors.

The purpose of the email was to let me know that Marketo is better than HubSpot (from their perspective anyway) and ask me to schedule a meeting for further discussion.

When I dissect the exchange between me and the Marketo rep and the emotions it invoked from my perspective as the prospect, it reinforced many of the things I’ve been writing about regarding buyer personas, sales messaging, and differentiating from the competition.

Read more to get a real life example of the prospecting process and see firsthand what sales strategies can engage - or disengage - a potential customer.

Most websites are set up for prospects near the end of the sales cycle. They're focused on driving prospects to "contact" the company in some way (demo, trial, consultation, etc.). But, not everyone that comes to your site is ready to jump actively into the sales process. They just want more information about their problem and possible solutions. They want to self-educate so that when they do end up talking to a salesperson, they can feel more confident about what is going on.

If you're not providing content that's aligned with all the stages prospects go through to make a purchasing decision, you're limiting your opportunities and opening the door for your competitors to snatch up good potential customers.

Read more to see an example of how to align your website content with each stage of the sales cycle.

There’s a widening gap between the way prospects buy, and companies sell. Prospects are using Internet research to self-educate through the first two-thirds of the sales process, but the majority of corporate websites and marketing strategies are entirely focused on the late stages of the sales cycle. Unfortunately, this approach puts companies at a huge disadvantage.

Read more to find out how to position your website and marketing strategies so you can engage prospects as early as possible in the sales cycle, have more influence over their buying decision, and get on their short list of potential vendors.

As salespeople, we send out a lot of sales prospecting emails. We spend an inordinate amount of time trying to find just the right words to encourage potential customers to engage with us. It's tough.

I continue to be amazed at the technology that allows us to dramatically increase our ability to engage with the right prospects at the right time in the right way.

It’s easy for business leaders to become entrenched in day-to-day operations. Time gets swallowed by constantly arising challenges and issues that need “immediate” attention.

As my Dad always tells my kids, “You have to dribble with your head up so you can see what’s happening on the court!” It’s the same in business: you have to figure out a way to juggle the day-to-day responsibilities while thinking broadly and long-term about your business.

Every company needs to create content: web pages, proposals, presentations, blog posts, ebooks, emails, etc. Without a solid process, collaborating with others to develop content can be very cumbersome and clunky. It can take much longer and be more difficult than it needs to.

Microsoft Word has some features that can help streamline the content editing process and increase efficiency.

One fall day I jumped on my bike (bicycle that is) to take a nice 15 mile ride in Northern Michigan. As I was enjoying the fall colors, I turned on my tunes to Octane on Sirius radio. The DJ was interviewing Flyleaf about their new album, Between the Stars.

As I was listening to the interview, a thought popped into my head: these songs are content, with a goal of driving a following and increasing sales.

That's the same exact thing any company needs to do: Create content that drives followers and sales.

This is a true story about how a company’s website design almost cost them a deal with a Fortune 500 company. (Names and company have been changed to protect privacy.)

Sam, a salesperson (whom we’ll call Seller Sam), had a meeting with Bill, a contact from a Fortune 500 company (whom we’ll call Buyer Bill). The meeting was going great - until Buyer Bill went to Seller Sam’s company website.

For most companies, changing their marketing strategies takes a significant investment in time and money. It’s a culture change.

With 61% of global Internet users researching products online, it seems like it would make sense to invest in developing a strong online presence (awesome website, blogging, social media, email marketing, downloadable content offers, etc.).

But is it really necessary for every company to go down that path? Perhaps not. Here are 4 reasons to NOT do inbound marketing:

Most salespeople know they need to use a CRM (a Customer Relationship Management system, or sales database), but they dread it. It can easily seem like a bunch of time consuming data entry – and if it’s not set up right, it is. HubSpot recently did a survey, and found that on average, reps spend 1 hour and 32 minutes per day doing data entry. Yuck!

On the flip side, reps do need some way to manage all of their prospects, leads, and opportunities. And sales managers need ways to efficiently track forecasting and sales. If you think CRM is a pain, try doing it without a CRM!