So now I’m a sales-qualified lead they can work over. 'The problem with hamsters, gerbils and other things that scurry is that right about the time you finish paying for the 4 km of plastic tubing and the special organic food, they drop dead. Likely of exhaustion. Then you get to spend Sunday night having the Circle-of-Life talk with an inconsolable five-year-old, instead of watching Downton Abbey and eating the Hallowe’en candy you found under the chesterfield. think we’re clear regarding my position on captive rodents. “Hi, Elizabeth, it’s Carol at reception. to mail. MORE >>

Not entering leads and contact information into the lead and contact management system- 4%. Rejecting perfectly good leads because they came from the website- 3%. Waiting for leads they can use from, you guessed it,  marketing. also know that there is a vigourous debate in most companies around what constitutes a lead. Awesome Ideas Getting & Losing Business Sales vs. Marketing B2B marketing bizmarketer Elizabeth Williams getting the business Hand-Wringers Keebler Elves leads linkedin PowerPoint sales squirrels sales support MORE >>

They’re digging in the flower beds trying to remember where the heck they left that really hot lead you gave them. And they’re asking for more leads, more content, more campaigns, more programs. Last week I gave you a small song to sing at the end of the quarter as the inevitable fingers seek to assign the inevitable blame. hope that saw you through to this, the first full week of the shiny new quarter. So full of promise, so full of hope, so full of time.  Uh oh. Here come the Sales Squirrels. They’re shaking all the bird seed out of the funnel. Recycle Some Content. MORE >>

They are often product managers, lead developers, QA people, logistics experts or actuaries. When my friend the sales director blew me off for lunch the other day, I wasn’t surprised. I’m really sorry but someone just spotted a product manager on the fourth floor,” she gushed like a drunk birder. I need to corner that slippery little *^#@?%, brush the Cheetos dust off his shirt and get him in front of my customer’s IT director this week or they won’t buy the upgrade”. m not talking about sales engineers or solutions consultants or product marketing managers here. Wind-up Evangelists. MORE >>

know, I know, it takes days or even weeks for a lead to get from the tradeshow or the WebGeekLords to the thing that sends email, but you need to fix that. Last rant on email, I promise (well, at least until someone sends me something stupid again).  On our journey to become the Sally Field of Email Marketing, this week I want to revisit the notion of the Sacred Inbox. My assertion then, as now, is that an Inbox is hallowed ground, and if you want something to get in there and stay in there and have some result, you need to keep that in mind before you let the agency wonks click Send. MORE >>