Sales Engine

JUNE 28, 2016

The scenario is similar for any quota-driven B2B sales team. They’re not interested in engaging with prospects who are not ready to buy. In fact, according to Gleanster , 30 to 50 percent of leads in a pipeline are not ready to buy. To keep their jobs, reps need to close as many deals as they can. So what can you do about it?

Marketing Qualified Leads 136

Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads MQL 136

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Content marketing gurus all seem to be talking about the need to create experiences for marketing to engage with buyers, but what does that mean to the average B2B company? Since the days of buying lists and blasting them sales messages are mostly gone, creating experience through content is becoming more necessary than ever before.

Acquisitions 149

Acquisitions Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Automation Services 149

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Content marketing gurus all seem to be talking about the need to create experiences for marketing to engage with buyers, but what does that mean to the average B2B company? Since the days of buying lists and blasting them sales messages are mostly gone, creating experience through content is becoming more necessary than ever before.

Acquisitions 120

Acquisitions Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Automation Services 120

Sales Engine

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

Savvy B2B marketers are recognizing the limits of today’s email marketing and web analytics applications for generating qualified sales leads and are switching to a demand generation solution to ensure a continuous stream of qualified leads. Try Before you Buy Would you buy a car before taking it for a test drive? Of course not.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Marketing Budget Demand Generation Demand 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 13, 2015

Eighty-five percent of B2B phone calls go to voicemail and are never returned. Or they want the ability to control the buying journey themselves? People are 60 to 90 percent through their buying cycle before they talk to a sales rep. They don't do that anymore. So, the old tools sales reps used to leverage have dried up.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Storytelling Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 25, 2016

Most of us understand that the world of marketing has changed—B2B has gone digital. In media math, 100% of the companies in your market are either in buying mode or they’re not. Now, I assume most of you aren't considering starting a news channel, a daily paper, or writing a book, but the message is the same to B2B marketers.

Enterprise Management 120

Enterprise Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

MAY 22, 2016

As you may know, Neil is regarded by many as the father of Consultative Selling and the author of many books, including SPIN Selling, the 1988 New York Times Best Seller than many of us B2B “Sales Lifers” grew up with as our template for success. Purchasing is simply not able to add as much value to the decision making process.

Allocation 136

Allocation RFP Consulting Paid Search Agency 136

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 21, 2015

If you’re starting from ground zero, start with this simple calculation: Take the number of buyer personas you’ve identified as targets, multiply them by the number of buying stages you’ve identified, and multiply that by each unique issue or question to be addressed. Do you see it? The focus needs to be on the buyer and not YOU.

Budget Programs 120

Budget Programs Work Management Marketing Management Allocation 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 16, 2015

The answer is critical for anyone in B2B marketing today. B2B content marketing today is really about generating leads for sales by replacing the one-to-one conversations that salespeople used to be able to get more predictably. Remember when we used to buy targeted sales lists from magazines? B2B Marketing Blog RSS.

Content Marketing 120

Content Marketing Lead Ranking Content Marketing & Strategy 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 28, 2016

Demand generation requires a complete marketing program that not only attracts prospects to your website, but also converts them into leads, nurtures them over time through their own buying journey, and assists the consultative sales person to close. B2B Content Enterprise: How important are your buyer personas in your content strategy?

Marketing & Strategy 120

Marketing & Strategy A/B testing Broadcasting Content 120

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 12, 2015

For example, the average consumer can walk into a showroom knowing what they want and how much it should cost - many times, they’ve already researched it and have made a buying decision BEFORE they arrive. Give Marketing a Quota I Noticed You Read My Blog, Do You Want To Buy From Me? Demand More From Today's B2B Marketer.

Cold Calling 120

Cold Calling Allocation Youtube Internet Marketing 120

Sales Engine

SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

I predict that B2B companies that don’t embrace this new marketing direction in a big way will face serious revenue challenges in the future. Think about it in your own life—how much information are you armed with before you go to a dealership to buy a car?

Content Marketing 120

Content Marketing Cold Calling Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking 120

Sales Engine

SEPTEMBER 18, 2015

Buy accounting software”—okay, so now I understand this person’s intent a little more, and we start to get an idea of where the prospect might be in the buying cycle. Now what if we add “Buy SaaS-based accounting software”? Now let’s say the keyword is “Buy SaaS-based accounting software for XYZ industry.”

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel SEO Content Marketing Long Tail Marketing 120

Sales Engine

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

Even as a CEO of a content marketing agency , I still get this pressure from my board and colleagues—and they all know how buyers have more control these days, buying on their own time frames, not ours. In fact, the last few deals that we’ve won have varied from a one-month close to over 13 months.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Ranking Thought Leadership Demand Generation Agencies 120

Sales Engine

SEPTEMBER 22, 2015

It also needs to be aligned to the buying stages that they’re going to walk through—and a junior person just doesn’t understand that. But it’s not just subject matter expertise that’s involved either. Content has to be aligned to the high-probability pains of the personas of the people you’re marketing to.

Personalization 120

Personalization Content Planning Video Marketing 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Measuring content marketing’s return on investment in B2B companies can be a complex calculation, especially if your solution is expensive, requires committee-based decisions, and has long and unpredictable sales cycles. The focus is very narrow for “Buy GoPro Camera” and therefore, you might be able to compete for that term set.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Leads B2B Marketing Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 24, 2016

However, most B2B companies haven’t been able to supply enough leads through their inbound efforts to make sales quotas and hit revenue growth targets. Successful B2B marketers are combining inbound approaches with outbound methods to build long-term relationships with prospects. Use whatever works for you and helps you make money.

B2B Sales 149

B2B Sales B2B Inbound Marketing Cold Calling 149

Sales Engine

AUGUST 25, 2015

Creating compelling content must have subject matter expertise that’s aligned to the high-probability pains of the personas that you’re marketing to—as well as to whatever stage of the buying process that they happen to be in at that moment. A junior person can’t get it done.

Video Marketing 120

Video Marketing Marketing Management Copywriting PR 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 9, 2015

When it comes to B2B marketing—whether it be social media, email marketing, blogs, white papers or attending trade shows—it has to be about lead generation. If you are GoPro, you want top of mind awareness if someone is shopping for a camera and they search for places to buy it like Amazon or Best Buy).

Demand 120

Demand B2B Marketing B2B Trade Show 120

Sales Engine

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

Maybe someone linked to a tool or software program that solves that specific problem, and now that you understand what the issue is, you’re ready to buy something. After several more searches, you may then end up on a specific vendor’s website and find that you are ready to hear their sales pitch.

SEO 120

SEO Content Keywords Opinions 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 12, 2016

Sreenivasan believes that many organizations have a false notion that they can simply buy an audience by spending a few hundred dollars for tens of thousands of followers. You have to think like your audience and participate in the conversation—that’s why being social is so important.”

B2B Marketing 120

B2B Marketing Paid Search Agency B2B Storytelling 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 12, 2016

Sreenivasan believes that many organizations have a false notion that they can simply buy an audience by spending a few hundred dollars for tens of thousands of followers. You have to think like your audience and participate in the conversation—that’s why being social is so important.”

B2B Marketing 120

B2B Marketing Paid Search Agency B2B Storytelling 120

Sales Engine

JUNE 23, 2016

The buying cycle may only be three months long, but it can take much longer than that to become cash flow positive—especially if your customers don’t pay their bills on time.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Top of Funnel 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 8, 2015

For decades, the B2B marketer has been a manager of projects. Many B2B companies that are successful and experiencing rapid growth rates today have made a significant pivot in the way that their sales and marketing departments operate. Project-based marketing always has a beginning, middle, and an end.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Process B2B Thought Leadership Work Management 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 23, 2016

For decades, the B2B marketer has been a manager of projects. Many B2B companies that are successful and experiencing rapid growth rates today have made a significant pivot in the way that their sales and marketing departments operate. Project-based marketing always has a beginning, middle, and an end.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Process B2B Thought Leadership Work Management 120

Sales Engine

APRIL 20, 2016

It’s time to face some hard truths about B2B sales. The B2B sales process has changed. Because people buy on their own timeframes (and not ours), it's important for companies and sales people to stay in front of their prospects in an obstructive or unthreatening way. Digital marketing depends upon content.

Lead Ranking 218

Lead Ranking Lead Gen Lead Scoring Leads 218

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

Today, however, demand generation begins online, and the buying process is directed by the buyer. DemandGen Report found that 90% of B2B buyers prefer to seek out a sales rep when they're ready to buy, rather than being approached by one before that point.1

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Generation Demand Generation Agencies 120

Sales Engine

APRIL 24, 2018

3 Reasons to add pay-per-lead white paper syndication to your digital marketing plan There are three challenges every B2B marketer faces as they try to build a lead generating engine to feed their sales team: 1. Content marketing can be a long, expensive, and uncertain journey. On the surface PPC campaigns seem simple.

Paper 159

Paper Planning Marketing Plans Marketing Automation Services 159

Sales Engine

JANUARY 28, 2016

Even though this article talks mostly about media companies, the same can be applied to B2B content marketers : We’re simply putting out too much content for our prospects to consume—and the more we produce, the less engagement we actually have. In media math, 100% of the companies in your market are either in buying mode or they’re not.

Webinar Metrics 120

Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Content Paper 120

Sales Engine

APRIL 7, 2016

Sales and marketing alignment has been overused because many B2B companies are still operating with an outdated model where marketing builds branding and awareness and sales books appointments. You also need to determine what happens to a lead as it moves through the buying cycle: If an MQL is rejected by sales, what happens to it?

Lead Ranking 136

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads MQL 136

Sales Engine

AUGUST 12, 2016

Now with the rise of content marketing , we’re wondering if salespeople will be replaced—or, in other words, will we be able to automate marketing processes to the point where we can lead people all the way through their buying journey, eliminating the need for sales reps? So what do they do?

Top of Funnel 136

Top of Funnel Content Marketing Cold Calling Sales Qualified Leads 136

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Consider this: 85% of B2B phone calls places by Sales Professionals go to Voice Mail and are never returned. According to Marketing Sherpa, B2B Buyers find the Sellers 80% of the time, usually online, and most often through their marketing content. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)!

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Lead Ranking Thought Leadership Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Consider this: 85% of B2B phone calls places by Sales Professionals go to Voice Mail and are never returned. According to Marketing Sherpa, B2B Buyers find the Sellers 80% of the time, usually online, and most often through their marketing content. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)!

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Lead Ranking Thought Leadership Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

APRIL 13, 2016

Just because B2B companies are investing heavily in content marketing doesn’t mean that they’re successful at generating the leads they need for business growth. B2B Sales cannot live on inbound alone , and without a thorough conversion strategy and process for lead nurturing, it’s all just branding and awareness.

Top of Funnel 136

Top of Funnel Content Marketing Lead Ranking Digital Marketing Funnels 136

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 7, 2015

Now with the rise of content marketing , we’re wondering if salespeople will be replaced—or, in other words, will we be able to automate marketing processes to the point where we can lead people all the way through their buying journey, eliminating the need for sales reps? So what do they do?

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Content Marketing Cold Calling Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 4, 2017

This isn’t meant to imply that salespeople are no longer valuable—quite the opposite is true, in fact—but they are no longer the gatekeepers of information and conductors of the buying process. It turned out that social media wasn’t the panacea many hoped it would be to drive B2B sales.

Paid Search Agency 120

Paid Search Agency Trade Show Content Urgency Marketing 120

Sales Engine

APRIL 27, 2016

That’s not enough for today’s B2B company. At the bottom of the funnel they’re actually narrowing down their buying decisions and much of your content at this stage may be based on case study results or client testimonials. It’s unlikely that prospect is going to instantly want to buy from you. But not so fast.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Webinar Metrics Paid Search Agency Companies 120