Sales Engine

AUGUST 2, 2017

The Fallacy of the Linear Buying Process Most marketing and sales leaders in the business-to-business world know that customers now direct the buying process. Expensive enterprise sales reps with high quotas can’t afford to follow up on MQLs when even the best MQLs only convert to appointments at a rate of 5 percent.

Lead Ranking 168

Lead Ranking Case Studies Case Study Marketing Qualified Leads 168

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 8, 2015

Not that there’s anything wrong with projects and project managers —they’re still a necessary function and the best marketers are always the ones who can get stuff done. In fact, Forrester says that as much as 90 percent of the buying process is complete before the prospect engages with a vendor.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Process B2B Thought Leadership Work Management 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 22, 2016

Content Marketing to the Rescue Knowing that the best course of action was to implement a content marketing strategy focusing on thought leadership, First Rate sought help from Sales Engine Media , a content marketing firm headquartered in Austin, TX. Another big change First Rate made was to their sales follow up process.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Demand Generation 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 22, 2016

Content Marketing to the Rescue Knowing that the best course of action was to implement a content marketing strategy focusing on thought leadership, First Rate sought help from Sales Engine Media , a content marketing firm headquartered in Austin, TX. Another big change First Rate made was to their sales follow up process.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Demand Generation 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 20, 2015

When we’re providing information in a business environment such as spreadsheets, a series of bullet points in a presentation or a list of facts, the two parts of our brain that are activated are for language processing, but that’s about it. The best storytellers and best journalists touch us emotionally.

Storytelling 120

Storytelling Work Management Acquisitions Marketing Management 120

Sales Engine

JUNE 20, 2016

The Fallacy of the Linear Buying Process Until the mid 2000’s, sales representatives controlled what prospects could learn, when, and from whom. But as most marketing and sales leaders in modern B2B companies know (or have figured out really fast), customers have taken a lot more ownership over their own buying process.

Lead Ranking 174

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Nurturing Lead Scoring 174

Sales Engine

MARCH 28, 2016

From your viewpoint, where are companies getting stuck with this process? The most important strategy of any content marketing program is a really smart search engine optimization process. When we started this process, we had identified over 100 categories. Ideally that’s what we’re all trying to get to. We are now very focused.

Marketing & Strategy 120

Marketing & Strategy A/B testing Broadcasting Content 120

Sales Engine

MAY 11, 2016

It’s no small task when you consider all of the technology and process changes in both sales and marketing that need to occur. Usually we do webinars to educate the market about the usefulness of content marketing and best practices for generating leads for B2B sales. How do you build explosive growth with content marketing?

Webinar Metrics 149

Webinar Metrics Sales Qualified Leads Demand Generation Agencies Marketing Automation Services 149

Sales Engine

JANUARY 18, 2016

Specifically, are dollars best spent on sales or marketing? We focused next on evaluating the sales pursuit process deeply—and identified the sales metrics that would be needed in order for them to turn this situation around. But how do you know where to invest? One of our recent clients faced a similar question.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Cost per Lead 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 24, 2015

Content is how you take back control of the sales process. Content is the best opportunity that you have to influence a buyer’s perception and behavior when they’re looking for a solution. Yes, it helps you build credibility. Yes, it helps establish you as a thought leader. Content is the new currency.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies RFP Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 7, 2016

It's not that buyers ever wanted to talk to sales reps, but it was the only way they could learn about best practices and what solutions were available in the market. And most certainly when a prospect has agreed to take a meeting, the normal sales process takes over—so go share your coffee with your marketing team.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Features B2B Thought Leadership Digital Marketing Funnels 120

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

Our marketing leader is always thinking about how to get value added content in front of our target audience and how to best get them converted into leads for sales people. That means sales conversations with a minimum level of qualification. They don’t get paid on increasing traffic, they get paid on conversion—big difference.

Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Qualified Leads High Quality Lead Conversion Paid Search Agency 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Buyers are going to diagnose their own pain, map out their own process, and create their own road map to solve their problems—and no matter how many emails you send them, they’re not going to do anything until you hit a nerve. You can completely build your own experience from the moment you step inside—there’s no set path to follow.

Acquisitions 149

Acquisitions Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Automation Services 149

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 12, 2015

We asked Jennifer Gluckow, owner of SalesInANewYorkMinute.com about how she trains salespeople to prospect for and acquire new business by blending the best of the old techniques we know and love, and how they can be incorporated into current tools, technologies and strategies. Delivering the best product or service is now a given.

Cold Calling 120

Cold Calling Allocation Youtube Internet Marketing 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Buyers are going to diagnose their own pain, map out their own process, and create their own road map to solve their problems—and no matter how many emails you send them, they’re not going to do anything until you hit a nerve. You can completely build your own experience from the moment you step inside—there’s no set path to follow.

Acquisitions 120

Acquisitions Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Automation Services 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 16, 2015

You absolutely have to trust that your content strategist has your best interests at heart, and that they are always thinking about how to better engage the readership. Publishers spend a lot of time thinking about the best placements for articles, not only to improve the reader experience but also to ensure they see the advertisements.

Content Marketing 120

Content Marketing Lead Ranking Content Marketing & Strategy 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 25, 2016

It's not that buyers ever wanted to talk to sales reps, but it was the only way they could learn about best practices and solutions available in the market. Here’s the punch-line that I hope you take away from this for part of our discussion: Content marketing for lead generation is not an event, it’s a process.

Enterprise Management 120

Enterprise Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 10, 2016

It was during that process that I realized somewhere along the way that I had unlocked the door to organic traffic in that space,” said Lemas. The blog that started out as a rant between three or four people caught on to where he was later approached by the Orange County Register for help with their Angels blog. “I

SEO 120

SEO Organization Content Marketing Agencies 1 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 14, 2016

I’m an old-school news guy in a new media content marketing world , but as a web editor, my work processes are largely the same: I work with freelance writers to produce stories, I work with designers to add graphic value to the posts, and much of my job centers around distribution of our content through social media to build audience.

Planning 120

Planning Content Marketing Best Practices Content 120

Sales Engine

APRIL 20, 2016

The B2B sales process has changed. The internet gives the buyers a lot more control as they use the Internet to learn about best practices. The important thing to remember is that this is the buyer’s process, not your sales process.

Lead Ranking 218

Lead Ranking Lead Gen Lead Scoring Leads 218

Sales Engine

JULY 5, 2016

Whether or not buyers wanted to talk to a rep, contact with reps was the only way to learn about best practices and solutions in the market. The Solution: Integrating Content Marketing into the Process The solution is shifting the old paradigm of one-to-one initial sales engagement to a digital format.

Work Management 149

Work Management Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management Budget Programs 149

Sales Engine

JUNE 23, 2016

From that number, you can work your way backwards to figure out where marketing dollars would be best spent in your situation. To make this process even easier, you can use our Revenue Growth Marketing Calculator to work the numbers backwards from your sales goal to determine how many leads you will need to achieve the growth you want.

Lead Ranking 120

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

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 4, 2017

Control Over the Sales Process Has Shifted The sales game has changed, and many companies have failed to adapt. Simply put, salespeople no longer control the sales process from start to finish. The longer-term results of this strategy were mixed, at best. Despite a vibrant U.S. And what can you do about it?

Paid Search Agency 120

Paid Search Agency Trade Show Content Urgency Marketing 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

These facts cited above speak to the fundamental changes in the customer and prospect buying process—prospects are avoiding the interaction with your professional selling team until the very end of their buying process. Today’s B2B company must adjust their selling process to coincide with this new buying paradigm.

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Lead Ranking Thought Leadership Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

These facts cited above speak to the fundamental changes in the customer and prospect buying process—prospects are avoiding the interaction with your professional selling team until the very end of their buying process. Today’s B2B company must adjust their selling process to coincide with this new buying paradigm.

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Lead Ranking Thought Leadership Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 15, 2016

Therefore, sales prospecting with content requires a more complex process than it did even five years ago, largely because the buyer has a lot more control and salespeople are no longer the sole gatekeepers to the information they need. An understanding of the sales process. Enter the lead nurturer.

Lead Nurturing 120

Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads Leads Lead 120

Sales Engine

MAY 31, 2016

Feeding Sales is a Process , Not a Series of Projects Every department within a company has ongoing projects they try to maintain, but the challenges and emergencies that pop up every day require immediate response, and it can be very easy to divert all of your time and resources to addressing them.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Resources Demand 120

Sales Engine

JULY 20, 2016

Control Over the Sales Process Has Shifted The sales game has changed, and many companies have failed to adapt. Simply put, salespeople no longer control the sales process from start to finish. The longer-term results of this strategy were mixed, at best. Despite a vibrant U.S. And what can you do about it?

Paid Search Agency 120

Paid Search Agency Trade Show Content Urgency Marketing 120

Sales Engine

JULY 20, 2016

Control Over the Sales Process Has Shifted The sales game has changed, and many companies have failed to adapt. Simply put, salespeople no longer control the sales process from start to finish. The longer-term results of this strategy were mixed, at best. Despite a vibrant U.S. And what can you do about it?

Paid Search Agency 120

Paid Search Agency Trade Show Content Urgency Marketing 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 22, 2016

Because of the complexities of today’s buyer’s journey, and the ever-changing role of sales in this process, marketing must be involved more than ever before: More than branding and awareness More than demand generation More than just lead conversion Because each sales process has become unique. An understanding of the sales process.

Lead Nurturing 120

Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads Leads Lead 120

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 16, 2015

Feeding the content marketing machine is an endless process, because once you stop publishing, your conversations start drying up. If you’re in the 68%, however, and you plan to go outside your company for help in putting together a strategy, the outside firm must go through a strategic process before any content development can begin.

Advertising Agencies 120

Advertising Agencies Budget Programs High Quality Lead Content 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 16, 2016

What does a perfect world B2B sales process look like? Unfortunately, it rarely looks like that, but that's always the goal when we establish demand generation systems--keeping sales people busy doing what they do best--consulting and closing. Again, the process is the same, but the tools change.

Sales Management 120

Sales Management Top of Funnel Cold Calling Content 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 15, 2017

There’s nothing wrong with using fractional resources, as long as people are assigned to the jobs they are best suited to do, and no one is stretched too thin. You may find that a single person can take on multiple roles—managing copywriting and execution for email campaigns, for example.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Resources Demand 120

Sales Engine

JULY 21, 2016

A demand generation strategy must map directly to the sales funnel to be effective, which is why most B2B content marketing initiatives miss the mark—they don’t understand sales process. If you don’t have a sales process (because you rely solely on referrals), start there. The next step is nurturing. How do I evaluate vendors?

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Top of Funnel Generation Ad Building 120

Sales Engine

JULY 21, 2016

A demand generation strategy must map directly to the sales funnel to be effective, which is why most B2B content marketing initiatives miss the mark—they don’t understand sales process. If you don’t have a sales process (because you rely solely on referrals), start there. The next step is nurturing. How do I evaluate vendors?

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Top of Funnel Generation Ad Building 120

Sales Engine

SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

I live in St Louis which is home to one of the best zoos in the country. (If Now, a lot has been said in this space about creating content for different phases of the buying process (the Y axis in this chart), but a lot of marketers suggest producing content for each of these stages based on persona. Let’s talk about your map.

Marketing & Strategy 120

Marketing & Strategy Demand Generation Agencies Content Marketing Agencies 1 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 17, 2016

Because content marketing done properly is a process and not a series of projects , here’s a 5-step process that will more easily help you develop multi-media content at once that can be plugged into your editorial calendar: 1. Moz has an excellent, step-by-step content audit process outlined here. Start with a content audit.

Thought Leadership 120

Thought Leadership Top of Funnel Ad Building Buyer Personas 120