Metrics have fostered a lot of discussion with marketers in the last year or two. Those who have adopted marketing automation software have discovered the difference of using data to drive decisions that help them to realize higher returns on marketing investment as well as customer acquisition. recent report by Aberdeen Group, Marketing Automation: A Strategic Guide for Optimizing End-to-End Marketing Activities, found that 67% of best in class companies report increases to annual revenues and 65% claim year-over-year increases to return on marketing investment. Sales Pursuit. MORE >>

So while the conversations I am hearing at conferences and online center around marketers being judged by closed business, I stand firm that marketers should provide and be judged by opportunities, whereas sales should be judged on closing those opportunities.  ROI: Yes, I began by ranting against ROI — but I also know that we can’t avoid the closed business metrics.  For me, ROI is defined as “how much closed business was created from the campaign.”  Formula:  Closed business generated from leads from the campaign. I answered this question in the past on Focus.com. MORE >>

The B2B buyer does this with calls to other customers and those that have done business with his potential vendors.  B2B Marketing b2b b2b buyer b2b marketing business to business marketing strategies buying process customer path the bachelorOne of my guilty pleasures is to watch ‘The Bachelor’ on Monday nights with my wife.  While it is true that this show may actually decrease your IQ as you watch it, I firmly believe that you can offset the loss of brain cells by making snarky comments about the participants, thus improving your quick wit and comedic timing.  MORE >>

To help you gain some insight on what it enables you to do and how to use it effectively, I've invited BtoB Sales Lead Expert Mac McIntosh to answer a few questions about the value marketing automation can bring to your business. Research on the cost of sales calls by Reed Business found that the average cost of a business-to-business in-person sales call was $392 in 2001. This works out to be approximately one day of every business week. When you consider vacations and other time off, that works out to less than 50 days of new business development a year! MORE >>

Jill has also offered up some free resources for you that complement her new book, SNAP Selling: Speed Up Sales and Win More Business with Today’s Frazzled Customers. encourage you to go download Jill’s Buyer’s Matrix, her Value Proposition Generator, 9 Tips to Get Prospects to Call You Back, as well as listen to her audio on selling to crazy-busy people. Sellers may only want a small amount of their time, but today's crazy-busy buyers are stingy with it. If only companies were that brave. JK: Write good content. Most of what marketing produces today sucks. Make it simple. MORE >>