blog

In some industries, the corporate blogging and social media marketing opportunity is obvious. Especially in the consumer space, you use a corporate blog to attract, retain and engage your target market, ultimately with the goal of leading them into your sales funnel and converting on your website. For business-to-business companies, especially in the professional services sector, the case isn’t quite as clear.

Does a corporate blog become relegated to PR tool, or is it primarily a brand play?

With only soft metrics apparently available, it can be incredibly difficult to get even the slightest investment. Startup costs may be low, but content creation and traffic analysis tend to be time-consuming if done properly, making a soft-dollar employee commitment crucial … which is where the reluctance of senior management usually comes into play. To free up resources to tend to your corporate blog and manage your social media marketing environment, you need to deliver a compelling business case, showing explicitly the tangible benefits to your company.

Though B2B professional services companies are extremely likely to generate direct sales online, there is a salient ROI opportunity from this form of marketing, and it stretches well past branding and publicity. Let’s take a look at five ways you can use your B2B corporate blog to gain a competitive advantage:

Read the rest of this entry »

Sales intelligence is vital to winning new business. Without a sense of what a prospect needs and how your company can help, you’re left with nothing more than a cold call. Gain some information on your prospect, however, and you’ll have a much easier time identifying and proposing solutions.

Here are four ways you can get better sales intelligence:

1. Start with a survey: during your lead generation efforts, be sure to include a survey that aligns with the types of clients you are looking to attract. A survey is a great way to get your prospect to self-disclose the information you need to bring the sales process to a successful conclusion.

Read the rest of this entry »

A successful sales call requires preparation. You can’t just glance at your notes in the parking lot and assume the rest will take care of itself. Fortunately, you have plenty of information at your disposal, maybe even more than you realize. For your next appointment, keep the following in mind:

1. Study what you have: we give our clients detailed sales intelligence for every appointment. Read it carefully, and collaborate with colleagues for additional insights.

2. Read between the lines: is there something the prospect isn’t saying? Sometimes, a handful of pain points can suggest a greater underlying problem.

3. Hit the web: learn more about both the person and the company … Google exists for a reason! Check LinkedIn for the prospect’s background; you may learn something useful.

4. Gather materials: pull white papers, brochures and other tools that align closely with the prospect’s pain points. It’s great to have something to leave behind.

When should the handoff from marketing to sales occur? The trend has been to gather ever more intelligence about your targets before unleashing the sales force on an opportunity, in the hopes that a more refined view of the prospect will lead to a shorter and more successful sales cycle. With more metrics brought to bear on the situation, the conventional wisdom goes, the sales team will be better equipped to communicate with the prospect, understand his needs and close the deal.

There is some truth to this thinking, but it has led sales and marketing departments astray with over-analysis. Analytics and market and prospect intelligence are undoubtedly crucial to the effective progression of a sales opportunity from early marketing efforts through the sales cycle and ultimately through implementation, as well. But, data has become a crutch, preventing sales and marketing teams from moving swiftly to take advantage of clear opportunities.

IT marketers and sales forces need to regain a sense of balance.

Read the rest of this entry »