If you really want to help a prospective customer and you promise them something on your website, make sure you deliver on that promise before engaging them and even then you should probably use an email, not a call. We have gathered broad requirements from many customers and put them into a bulleted list. It’s understandable how skeptical potential customers are these days about requesting anything on a website. Have you ever had a person fill out a contact form on your B2B site and put in the comments “DO NOT CALL ME!&# ? But why so angry ? Guess what? MORE >>

After all, who understands the potential solution set better than a company that spends 100% of their time dedicated to solving the customer’s problem? If Sales is not involved before the prospect begins the option selection process, then Marketing runs the risk of experiencing the most tragic failure of modern marketing ; a customer who contacted you a year ago buys your competition’s product when yours was a better fit. Whitepapers, sales presentations (called Webinars) and customer references (called Case Studies) are all published directly to the web. MORE >>

The customers need information. I just finished a short paper on how B2B marketing has put itself in the position of being responsible for just about everything marketing and sales related. Here is an excerpt from: “How B2B Marketing Became Responsible for EVERYTHING (and how to reverse it)&#. “B2B Marketers are killing themselves trying to make everyone happy. The CEO needs revenue. The sales team needs qualified leads. Everyone is looking at marketing to make it happen. So, how did B2B Marketing become responsible for EVERYTHING? First, some background…&#. MORE >>

quick but incomplete response to a customer’s question is the same as no response at all (eg. complete but slow response to a customer is marginally better than no response. The customer gets the exact content they want faster than they ever imagined. I just finished reading Zero Time Selling by Andy Paul, which was selected as one of the top 3 sales and marketing books in 2011. The book details 10 essential steps that can accelerate sales for companies large and small. There’s nothing that will increase your sales faster and we all want faster sales. MORE >>

Whether a potential customer uses Google, Bing, YouTube or even social media for initial research, those vendors with fresh, pertinent content get the first shot. In the closing credits, George (the customer) is going to take Astro (the Marketer) for a walk. In seconds, George the Customer is trampled under foot and completely forgotten. There is no doubt content drives sales interactions. When a prospect encounters a business issue and starts researching a solution, the content prepared by vendors is critical. Warning: Watch Speaker Volume! Remember this scene? MORE >>