Smashmouth Marketing

AUGUST 28, 2019

Most sales people today have found that using LinkedIn as a research tool to identify specific prospects has been a fantastic way to find the needle in a haystack of potential leads. However, LinkedIn doesn't always show you all the names of the individuals your search produces: So how do you find this specific person's name? Just three more clicks according to Green Leads' BDR Mira.

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Smashmouth Marketing

SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

Ever wonder if your enterprise sales team should be on the road heading to an introductory first meeting with a prospect? I was recently in the UK for business and saw sales reps investing a half day or more traveling for 30-60 minute meetings. Do the results differ if they were to have taken those introductory meetings by phone? Many would say yes, but the data begs to differ.

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Smashmouth Marketing

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

When I was recently at the Sales 2.0 conference, I had several conversations and debates about the value of Face-to-Face meetings versus Con-calls/Web-meetings. Being that b2b introductory meetings is Green Leads ' business, we have noticed a trend over the past several years. With the advent and popularity of web conferencing and the price of travel, most executives are accepting con-call/web-meetings as a standard way of doing business - especially introductory meetings.

Marketing Management 100

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Smashmouth Marketing

OCTOBER 1, 2019

Which of the following is a good sales outcome for introductory appointments? Proposal : The prospect let you pitch him for 30 minutes, told you to send a proposal and CC his director, who handles these types of projects. 2nd Meeting : The prospect discussed her business issues with you, you asked good questions, you shared some anecdotal stories about how some of your clients have similar issues, and she asked for a second meeting.

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Smashmouth Marketing

SEPTEMBER 4, 2013

'As a business owner, I manage my tasks, take care of clients, look at my numbers, work hard, attend to quality, work with my team.you name it. Does that sound much different than a sales or marketing professional? Tasks, Clients, Quotas, Energy, Perfection, Peers. You all own your own businesses! Congrats. So now that you own your own business, where can you go for some advice and inspiration?

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Smashmouth Marketing

AUGUST 26, 2013

'Last week at Inbound, HubSpot announced a new product, Signals. In simple terms, Signals is a Chrome extension that tracks and notifies you when someone has activity on emails, LinkedIn, Salesforce and HubSpot. You get an on-screen notification, as well as a summary list of activity that you can review. In short, Signals is an app that lets you know when and how to engage your leads-- timing, intelligence, and relevance.

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Smashmouth Marketing

DECEMBER 8, 2010

Inbound Marketing is all the rage these days, and why shouldn't it be? It works, right? At least, that's what HubSpot clients are saying (and we're clients, so I can vouch for it). Inbound Marketing's goal is to pull potential customers in by all different methods, whether it's compelling content, savvy SEO execution or community interaction via social media.

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Inbound Marketing Lead Qualification Marketo Marketing & Strategy 100

Smashmouth Marketing

JULY 12, 2010

I started penning this piece about summer last week when AG Salesworks published a great article touching on some of the tactical issues of lead gen in the summer. It got me thinking that there must be some research to support a fact Green Leads is confident about: rather than slowing during the summer, lead generation activities actually heat up. For the most part, it's popular opinion that it’s harder to sell during the summer.

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Smashmouth Marketing

JULY 6, 2010

Guest post by Paul Simon , Sharper Content, @paulcontentman. We all form instant impressions when meeting someone new. Guess what? The same thing happens when we read something from someone we don't know - and the proliferation of social media puts an awful of "new" people in front of us. As Michael Damphousse says, "Good content creates value. Value creates trust.

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Smashmouth Marketing

JULY 1, 2010

Not sure I'm going to pick up the new iPhone just yet. I'm hearing about issues with the antenna, but I'm sure I'll have to make a decision when one of my daughters drops her phone into the pool this summer and I need to sacrifice my current iPhone as a replacement. It's been a tried-and-true pattern the past 3 summers. The iPhone 4 brings Apple customers a nicely improved design and several new features: the ability to make video phone calls, to record (and edit!

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Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads WOM Word of Mouth 100

Smashmouth Marketing

JUNE 28, 2010

This morning's Sales 2.0 Conference lead off speaker was Polly Sumner of Salesforce.com. Although she spoke about Tools, her real message wasn't about tools as much as it was about use, and ways of working. It Gerhard Gschwandtner , the conference host,captures it with a question to Polly, "so it's about a mindset?" Explore tools with an eye for how your team will adapt to it.

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Smashmouth Marketing

JUNE 21, 2010

You want to talk about improvements? You know what needed improvement? The Boston Celtics, that's who. If you're a fan of basketball, or maybe even a fan of rivalries, maybe you, like me, watched the Boston Celtics crumble last Thursday night (June 17th). Two storied franchises, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, both vying for the NBA Championship in a Game 7 match.

Lead Generation 100

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Smashmouth Marketing

JUNE 17, 2010

ActiveConversion is a web based solution that allows organizations to identify visitors to their website, to automatically qualify and nurture leads, to get notified when leads become "hot," and to track ROI of marketing campaigns. They are partners with Google, Jigsaw, VerticalResponse, and Salesforce.com. Upon opening up the solution, you can view your ActiveConversion dashboard.

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Smashmouth Marketing

JUNE 14, 2010

Today at Enterprise 2.0 in Boston, Jive Software is rolling out a new agenda for social business that is worth a close look. We all wake up on Mondays to a mountain of data, feeds, and emails. It's great to know that our best buddies "like" your latest blog article and left a comment that they miss you while they are surfing or mountain biking through your facebook fan page , or that the company we are following on LinkedIn just hired a VP of Demand Gen (nice lead for me), and that Chris Brogan

B2B Sales 100

B2B Sales Enterprise Management Demand B2B Marketing 100

Smashmouth Marketing

JUNE 11, 2010

The Catcher in the Rye. Moby Dick. Pride and Prejudice. The Grapes of Wrath. A Tale of Two Cities. If there's one thing those books have in common for me, it's that they were part of my high school summer reading lists. Remember those? You'd receive a list of books before the end of your school year that you'd have to read in preparation for the next school year.

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B2B Sales B2B Marketing Emarketing B2B 100

Smashmouth Marketing

APRIL 6, 2010

Someone asked me recently where the Green in Green Leads came from? It originally was a name that sounded great for a demand gen company, and "green" had lots of connotations: Money, greenfield opportunities and of course living green, which my wife Linda and I believe in and do our best to do our part. Last week's blog post sparked another discussion at a client meeting.

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Smashmouth Marketing

APRIL 1, 2010

Measuring the effectiveness of lead gen programs is always at the top of a demand gen expert's list of priorities. One of the gating factors happens to be out of their control -- what does the sales team do with a lead once they start working it? In a previous blog article, I shared poll results showing C Level prospects being more than willing to take their first introductory appointment by phone.

Lead Gen 100

Lead Gen Leads Lead Marketing Qualified Leads 100

Smashmouth Marketing

MARCH 29, 2010

Over the past four months Green Leads has been starting new reps on the first Monday of each month. Inside sales seems to be like that, growth and replenishment. In our case, we have pretty stringent criteria for success since we are a performance-based appointment setting company. We have to have our reps deliver. So here is what typically happens if we hire four reps, train them, get them on the floor and keep coaching them.

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Training Demand Generation Demand B2B Sales 100

Smashmouth Marketing

AUGUST 26, 2009

There was a LinkedIn Question today that I answered. It is such a valuable tip, I thought I would cross post it here. Question : If the goal of a call is lead generation and appointment setting for my sales engineer, how should I handle a prospect when they ask a tough technical question I can't answer? Answer : First, don't let the question drag you into a black hole or throw you off your game.

Lead Generation 100

Lead Generation Tips Generation Leads 100

Smashmouth Marketing

AUGUST 24, 2009

Recently we conducted a poll on LinkedIn where we asked: Inbound Marketing & Outbound Marketing - What is your mix for lead gen? Mostly Inbound Mostly Outbound Both Equally Inbound Only Outbound Only The target audience was Sales & Marketing job functions, from the industries of Computer Hardware & Software, Internet, IT and Tech Services, Marketing & Advertising.

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Smashmouth Marketing

AUGUST 19, 2009

Tony Soprano : "Every decision you make affects every facet of every other #?%!% thing." ok, the Tony Soprano thing was just a late addition after I read some hilarious quotes from the show on IMDB last night, and realized they had some.ahem. relevancy -- just a little fun ;) For years the world of b2b marketing has used outbound marketing as a source of lead generation.

Inbound Marketing 100

Inbound Marketing Marketing Automation Services Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 100

Smashmouth Marketing

AUGUST 6, 2009

Just a quick post to point readers to an interview of me on Marketo 's blog, Demand Generation and Social Media: Thought Leadership with Mike Damphousse of Green Leads. Questions discussed: What is B2B appointment setting ? And why is it important to marketers? When it comes to leads, quality or quantity ? You specialize in reaching CXOs and VPs. Can you give marketers three tips to connect with these hard to reach decision makers?

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Smashmouth Marketing

AUGUST 4, 2009

I just reviewed Marketo 's recently released Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing. Don't let the vendor logo fool you, this is a document that is a must read for all demand generation professionals. It's filled with useful information, starting with the basics and then working to the advanced. Excerpt: "the process of building relationships with qualified prospects regardless of their timing to buy, with the goal of arning their business when they are ready.

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Lead Nurturing Marketo Sales Qualified Leads Lead Generation 100

Smashmouth Marketing

AUGUST 3, 2009

The topic of Quality vs. Quantity in demand gen has been a constant debate. Whether it's inbound marketing or outbound marketing there are costs associated with a lead, there are costs associated with the time and effort needed to convert that lead to an opportunity, and there are costs tied to the quality of those leads and how that impacts conversion rates.

Marketing Management 100

Marketing Management Leads Lead Marketing Qualified Leads 100

Smashmouth Marketing

JULY 30, 2009

Jill is going back to the Outbound Marketers when it comes to dating. Who do you date? Inbound or Outbound? Tags: cartoons outbound inbound marketing b2b sales2.0 inside sales.

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Inbound Marketing B2B Sales Tagging B2B Marketing 100

Smashmouth Marketing

JULY 28, 2009

Last week we conducted a poll on LinkedIn where we asked: Inbound Marketing & Outbound Marketing - what is your mix for lead gen? Mostly Inbound Mostly Outbound Both Equally Inbound Only Outbound Only The complete results were published today on the DemandGen Reports site. The short version excerpted from the article: The experts balance Inbound Marketing with Outbound Marketing.

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Marketing Mix Cold Calling SEM Lead Gen 100

Smashmouth Marketing

JULY 27, 2009

My vacation read was The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova - an incredibly told story of Dracula from both an historical perspective, a thriller, and a biographical twist. It was a great book and I recommend it highly, but after a couple hours per day, some rain and relaxation, my mind still wandered back to work. Not much, mind you, but enough so that I wondered if I should pay attention to it.

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Smashmouth Marketing

JULY 16, 2009

When I was on my conference road trip this spring, I heard publicly, from speakers and audience alike the same comment, "Leads Suck". I was suprised that I heard such a jarring statement at multiple venues, but I did. Is it a common trend across the b2b industry? What if you could get your sales team to NEVER say "Leads Suck"? I've asked our clients, I've asked my colleagues, and I've come to some conclusions.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring 100

Smashmouth Marketing

MARCH 12, 2004

Could you imagine that the power, or vibration, or harmonic of sound on a simple bubble in an acetone liquid could cause the bubble to go through the same fission reaction that happens in the sun? Well somebody has. Science Magazine: Evidence of Nuclear Emissions During Acoustic Cavitation presents a report by R. P. Taleyarkhan et al. of observations of tritium decay and neutron emissions associated with the collapse of tiny bubbles in deuterated acetone -- and the possibility that those observa

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Smashmouth Marketing

MARCH 12, 2004

Never underestimate our youth. I stumbled upon Ryan Patterson. At 18, he won a $100k scholarship from Intel for developing a glove that translates American sign language into text. Loving the ingenuity of this kid, I kept searching and stumbled upon an article at Forms.com listing their top ten ASAP High Tech Teenage All-American Team with Ryan leading the pack.

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Smashmouth Marketing

MARCH 14, 2004

A couple years ago, I went to hear Thich Nhat Hanh (known as Thây) speak at Hynes Auditorium in Boston, and always wanted to mention it in the blog. Thây is a Buddhist monk who has a very large following in the west, and is a prolific writer. The first hour was incredibly spiritual, almost a meditation while he spoke. He spent some time talking about 9-11, and his message of compassion and peace was quite intriguing -- albeit hard to believe Osama bin Laden would even listen.

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Smashmouth Marketing

MARCH 15, 2004

Inflation is NOT a guaranteed thing -- at least where human slavery is concerned. While going through some old issues of Scientific American while cleaning out my cellar. I came accross this artical The Social Psychology of Modern Slavery: April 2002 which states: In 1850 an agricultural slave cost $1,500 in Alabama (around $30,000 in today's dollars).

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Smashmouth Marketing

MARCH 16, 2004

Today was Rebecca's 16th birthday. Karen and I take each of the girls out - just the three of us - on their birthdays. They get to pick the venue, we get to pay :-) Now we can worry about car insurance.

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Smashmouth Marketing

MARCH 18, 2004

I was reading an article about a teen who wanted to build a water well for a small village in Africa. For the life of me I can't find reference to it online at all (if you know of the article could you forward it to me please?). While searching though, I uncovered various sites focused on the issue of water. According to UNICEF , more than one billion people in developing countries lack access to safe drinking water, and almost three billion people do not have sanitation facilities.

Paper 100

Paper Studies Purchase Google 100

Smashmouth Marketing

MARCH 28, 2004

Different lights for different likes. Remember the lighting of the "Tribute in Light" memorial at ground zero in NY in 2002? I decided to try and find photos and articles on them. Not to take away from the emptiness and hope that is inspired when I see photos of the lights, the following articles offer some varied opinions: - KtB - Unbearable Lightness - Worldtradecenter.

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Smashmouth Marketing

MARCH 20, 2004

Exploring new hosting services for my websites, my friend Joshua recommended a service that actually looks like a good deal. But when I was reading their Terms of Service , and saw that they take no responsibility for " injury that results from inaccurate, unsuitable or offensive Internet communications. " Does this mean that Hal 9000 is not responsible for murder?

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Paper Service Marketing Websites 100

Smashmouth Marketing

MARCH 24, 2004

Where vocational schools filled a gap during the later half of the 20'th century -- training students in a trade -- traditional schools are now the vocational school. Web programmers, graphics designers, networking skills, these are the vocations of today. These vocations provide opportunity. They aren't simply taught by a teacher who requires a student to use a computer to type a paper.

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