This guest post is from Janet Spirer, Ph.D., co-founder of Sales Horizons. If your company is like most, you will launch more new products in the next five years than you did in the previous ten. These products will be expected to produce significant revenue and some may be “bet-the-company” entries to the market. Yet history tells a scary tale. Many good new products are doomed from the beginning because they are not launched successfully to the sales force – they simply escape into the marketplace. Talking about a product and selling a product are two very different things. MORE >>

We're pleased to present this guest post by Britton Manasco, who specializes in helping companies establish thought leadership and enable their sales teams to engage more prospects and close more business. Read on for his insightful thoughts on what it takes to earn the trust of prospective buyers. Trust is essential to successful selling, particularly if you are engaged in a high impact sale. But here’s the problem. Trust is now trading at a higher premium than ever. Why is that? Well, look around. Unpleasant factors that once were cyclical seem to have to have become structural. MORE >>

In these days of Web 2.0, no one wants to purchase anything without a review of some sort from the online masses. But before you start tacking voting buttons all over your website, consider revisiting a tried and true marketing tactic - the testimonial. This week the Savvy Sisters weigh in on the do's and dont's of using testimonials to sell. Be specific. Testimonials are great, but stay away from generic testimonials like "Company A's product is awesome!" " Ask customers to get specific. Did the solution increase ROI? Great - by how much? In what ways? Heather. MORE >>

We all know that sometimes, and in some circles, marketing has a bad rep. We Savvy Sisters like to think that's it's mostly due to late night infomercials, but if we are honest with ourselves, we have all seen some underhanded marketing tactics over the years. Here are our (least) favorite: Wendy. Flotsam and Jetsam. live in New Hampshire. Marketing of your political candidate is a state sport up here, it's something we have to put up with every two years for the local elections and every four years for the presidential ones. Political endorsements disguised as polls. Jamie. Spill MORE >>

As creative communicators, we naturally draw inspiration from a variety of sources. Sometimes it's a marketing campaign from a totally different industry that gives us a little creative burst. This week the Savvy Sisters share what they think are the most creative - and inspiring - marketing campaigns in recent memory. Clear, concise and creative. can't resist a clever turn of phrase. One of my favorites is "All kinds of dirty. One kind of clean." Boring as a bathroom cleaner is, this tagline has always stood out to me. What wouldn't your B2B clients love about that? MORE >>