healthy sales cycle, one that is well aligned with prospects’ buying cycles, will enable sales professionals to find out very early if their solutions fit their customers’ needs, and if there’s a strong enough business case to get the purchase approved. What are the business challenges that are driving them to put together teams to look for solutions? Something I read in a book entitled ‘Funky Business’ got my attention. Tweet CSO Insights , which interviews thousands of chief sales officers to benchmark B2B sales best practices, has tracked an alarming trend. MORE >>

Obviously SEO and social have their place and are effective marketing tools, but it’s about finding mediums that work for you rather than finding a way your business can use a medium,” Daniel said. And, I’ll give the final word to Debra Kline, President, Business Wise : “Thanks to MarketingSherpa for reality-based metrics rather than hype. Tweet In the MarketingSherpa 2012 Lead Generation Benchmark Report , we asked 1,915 marketers about traffic volume and traffic that converts. Here’s what the data revealed …. Click to enlarge. Start with SEO and Email Marketing. Great data. MORE >>

Here are the details of that case study: The Background: The company in the case study was a B2B company (anonymized for its protection) selling data and mailing lists to other businesses. Tweet I just arrived at the Pre- Optimization Summit workshop in Denver and caught the end of Dr. Flint McGlaughlin’s Value Proposition Session. In this Landing Page Optimization Workshop , Dr. McGlaughlin, Managing Director, MECLABS, taught the live audience here at the Denver Marriott Tech Center about a simple case study drawn from the MarketingExperiments research library. Click to enlarge. MORE >>

This means everything that works for consumer marketers online can also work to optimize business purchases.”. A small marketing department can drive more business from the current Web traffic by looking at clickthrough reports, understanding the content that is getting traction and doing more of that.”. 'Tweet Regardless of whether you’re selling to people who are purchasing something for their workplace or themselves, you’re still selling to people – especially when it comes to digital marketing. We’re dealing with people, and all people behave the same. MORE >>

Fortunately, finding that out is surprisingly easy, says Kristin Zhivago, President, Zhivago Management Partners , a business-growth consultancy. Tweet You could be racing the finest Formula One car, but if you’re always steering in the wrong direction, even a horse and buggy will beat you to the finish line. So it is with marketing. Too many marketers think they can lead the pack by leveraging the hottest channels, software and platforms. But these tools, like race cars, are only effective when they’re steered in the right direction. Steer Toward Your Customers. Are our prices fair? MORE >>