Sales Engine

JANUARY 18, 2016

Specifically, are dollars best spent on sales or marketing? While we were pleased with the lead generation effort, the sales resulting from those leads were disappointingly low. While we were pleased with the lead generation effort, the sales resulting from those leads were disappointingly low. Only $22,000—ouch!) Not good.

Top of Funnel 120

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

Sales Engine

MAY 11, 2016

We all know that the buyer’s journey has changed—people are avoiding initial conversations with sales people and performing their own research online. As most B2B sales people can attest to, the problem is that prospects will most likely misdiagnose their own problems and prescribe themselves the wrong solutions.

Webinar Metrics 149

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

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

But how much of that exposure translated into leads and sales? But that’s just not enough—it has to translate into appointments with qualified prospects and sales conversations. After several months, we were able to track a significant uptick in the number of SALs (or Sales Qualified Leads) we got on a monthly basis.

Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Qualified Leads High Quality Lead Conversion Paid Search Agency 120

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 12, 2015

If you’ve been prospecting for sales recently, you may have noticed some differences in our culture—most importantly the fact that disruptive marketing and sales is out. The Internet is crushing a sales rep’s ability to get in front of prospects. So what is a sales rep to do? That means cold calls.

Cold Calling 120

Cold Calling Allocation Youtube Internet Marketing 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 2, 2017

Most marketing and sales leaders in the business-to-business world know that nurturing leads is important. The reason: it’s essential to maintain a digital connection with buyers who want to learn about a business pain, product, or service—but who are not yet interested in talking to a sales person.

Lead Ranking 168

Lead Ranking Case Studies Case Study Marketing Qualified Leads 168

Sales Engine

JANUARY 11, 2017

For most B2B companies with a complex, relationship based selling process, a demand generation program that provides actionable sales intelligence is one of the best options at their disposal. A word of caution—this process falls apart all over the place. Sounds good, right? So What Should It Look Like?

Demand Generation Agencies 136

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Budget Programs Demand 136

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 27, 2015

What’s the right way to follow up on content to turn leads into sales conversations? Remember, people at the beginning of the sales process don’t want to talk to a salesperson — and they don’t have to anymore. This of course will vary in every organization depending on your overall sales process.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Buy 120

Sales Engine

JUNE 14, 2018

In the not-so-distant past, scaling a B2B company meant hiring more sales people that were responsible for all their own business development. For example, if you had one sales rep carrying a $1 Million quota, and it cost $200K in salary and commissions for that resource, adding an additional sales rep could double the business.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Ranking Paid Search Agency Content Marketing 120

Sales Engine

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

If you’ve been in the sales game for a while, you’ve probably noticed some differences in both the ways that customers are buying and the ways that sales cycles have become less and less predictable. The sales rep could easily fill their calendar with appointments leveraging off of that branding.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Ranking Thought Leadership Demand Generation Agencies 120

Sales Engine

JUNE 20, 2016

Most marketing and sales leaders in the business-to-business world know that nurturing leads is essential to maintain a digital connection with buyers who want to learn about a business pain, product, or service—but who are not yet interested in talking to a sales person. But can the sales impact of nurturing be quantified?

Lead Ranking 174

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Nurturing Lead Scoring 174

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 2, 2015

On October 1, the sales team began Q4 and the pressure is high as reps try to make club and hit accelerators while organizations try to hit revenue goals. If the sales team has a cycle time of 90 days from opportunity create date to close, then they'd better be getting leads from marketing TODAY to impact Q1 of 2016. Not necessarily.

B2B Sales 120

B2B Sales Paper Fulfillment B2B Marketing 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 23, 2016

When it’s all over, you ship the booth and collateral boxes home and collect the leads for sales. The world has changed, and the internet is now crushing a sales rep’s ability to generate their own leads. So, marketing’s new role as lead generators for sales requires more than just project management and stellar execution.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Process B2B Thought Leadership Work Management 120

Sales Engine

JULY 13, 2016

Ah, the sales funnel. As a marketer, you’re no doubt familiar with this ubiquitous image: contacts fall into the top and by some kind of magic become leads, then qualified leads, then sales-ready leads, and eventually, (you hope) closed sales. Meanwhile, your business leaders still expect you to increase sales.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Conversion Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

JULY 13, 2016

Ah, the sales funnel. As a marketer, you’re no doubt familiar with this ubiquitous image: contacts fall into the top and by some kind of magic become leads, then qualified leads, then sales-ready leads, and eventually, (you hope) closed sales. Meanwhile, your business leaders still expect you to increase sales.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Conversion Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

JULY 7, 2016

In the not-so-distant past, scaling a B2B company meant hiring more sales people that were responsible for all their own business development. For example, if you had one sales rep carrying a $1 Million quota, and it cost $200K in salary and commissions for that resource, adding an additional sales rep could double the business.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Ranking Paid Search Agency Content Marketing 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 22, 2016

We’re uniquely positioned because of our diversity in product offerings, but we compete with large firms that have more resources available to their marketing and sales team. Once the rebrand of the website was complete, First Rate implemented their content strategy in conjunction with Sales Engine and experienced immediate positive results.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Demand Generation 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 22, 2016

We’re uniquely positioned because of our diversity in product offerings, but we compete with large firms that have more resources available to their marketing and sales team. Once the rebrand of the website was complete, First Rate implemented their content strategy in conjunction with Sales Engine and experienced immediate positive results.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Demand Generation 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 8, 2015

When it’s all over, you ship the booth and collateral boxes home and collect the leads for sales. The world has changed, and the internet is now crushing a sales rep’s ability to generate their own leads. So, marketing’s new role as lead generators for sales requires more than just project management and stellar execution.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Process B2B Thought Leadership Work Management 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 7, 2016

How many car dealerships have had to change their sales approach because people are more informed about what the car should cost before they ever take a test drive? The Internet has crushed a sales rep’s ability to get in front of enough prospects.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Features B2B Thought Leadership Digital Marketing Funnels 120

Sales Engine

JUNE 7, 2016

But if the function of content is to generate and nurture your leads through your sales funnel, how do you create content that is good enough to comply with the demands of your sales team? The creator gains increased brand awareness and (ideally) action on behalf of the consumer that will lead to a sales conversation.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Content Demand Generation Agencies Barriers 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 net result: your sales team will build trust and belief, and most importantly, increase sales.

Storytelling 120

Storytelling Work Management Acquisitions Marketing Management 120

Sales Engine

SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

It’s all about driving revenue , and to do that effectively, our marketing efforts much create actionable sales intelligence. They won’t help your sales people meet quota. They won’t help you track where your prospects entered into the sales cycle and became customers. Sales can’t control this whole process anymore.

Content Marketing 120

Content Marketing Cold Calling Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 24, 2015

Sales people wanted “air cover” - just a foot in the door so they could give their presentation. Then they would invite those vendors in and the sales cycles would begin. Content is how you take back control of the sales process. More Relevant Posts from Sales Engine: What's Your Strategy for Content Development?

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies RFP Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 5, 2016

Since it’s become more difficult for sales people to get in front of prospects, many B2B companies are relying heavily on content marketing to supply top-of-the-funnel leads that can be converted into closed business. In fact, the strongest close rates occurred when marketing accompanied the sales pursuit process.

Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking MQL Top of Funnel 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 5, 2016

Since it’s become more difficult for sales people to get in front of prospects, many B2B companies are relying heavily on content marketing to supply top-of-the-funnel leads that can be converted into closed business. In fact, the strongest close rates occurred when marketing accompanied the sales pursuit process.

Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking MQL Top of Funnel 120

Sales Engine

JUNE 13, 2016

To create a productive and sustainable content operation, the sales and marketing departments must be on board. Resources must be allocated to build the processes, teams, and strategies that will be the foundation of the content department. The sales process was not developed overnight; content won’t be either.

Allocation 120

Allocation Content Demand Generation Agencies Work Management 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 10, 2016

In our process at Sales Engine Media , once we’ve identified those topics through phone interviews and journalistic style video interviews, we can now use all of that information to identify the ongoing narrative for thought-leadership content and create source material using internet research to fill in the gaps—just like the editor of a magazine.

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Content B2B Sales 120

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 21, 2015

In the B2B space, the number-one goal of most content marketers is to generate leads for their sales team. It’s a continuous process of finding, engaging, and building an audience that you can then monetize with calls to action that convert that audience into leads for your sales team. Do you see it?

Budget Programs 120

Budget Programs Work Management Marketing Management Allocation 120

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 30, 2015

In our process at Sales Engine Media , once we’ve identified those topics through phone interviews and journalistic style video interviews, we can now use all of that information to identify the ongoing narrative for thought-leadership content and create source material using internet research to fill in the gaps—just like the editor of a magazine.

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Content B2B Sales 120

Sales Engine

JULY 29, 2016

You’ve seen the Internet decimate industries such as record labels, newspapers, and cable TV—and in case you haven’t noticed, it’s crushing the B2B sales rep’s ability to get in front of qualified prospects. (If Sales reps need leads, and it’s marketing’s job to get at least some of them—a majority would be nice. Who are they?

Buyer Personas 120

Buyer Personas Sales Qualified Leads Top of Funnel Leads 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Since the days of buying lists and blasting them sales messages are mostly gone, creating experience through content is becoming more necessary than ever before. But if you’re not in a position to be constantly talking to prospects as a marketer, your sales people are the next best thing.

Acquisitions 149

Acquisitions Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Automation Services 149

Sales Engine

MARCH 28, 2016

Demand generation requires a complete marketing program that not only attracts prospects to your website, but also converts them into leads, nurtures them over time through their own buying journey, and assists the consultative sales person to close. We have no sales people (other than myself and my partner) to take calls, qualify and close.

Marketing & Strategy 120

Marketing & Strategy A/B testing Broadcasting Content 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 5, 2016

You’ve seen the Internet decimate industries such as record labels, newspapers, and cable TV—and in case you haven’t noticed, it’s crushing the B2B sales rep’s ability to get in front of qualified prospects. (If Sales reps need leads, and it’s marketing’s job to get at least some of them—a majority would be nice. Who are they?

Buyer Personas 120

Buyer Personas Sales Qualified Leads Top of Funnel Leads 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 25, 2015

In most companies, the expertise comes from an executive, such as the CEO or President, senior level sales and product managers, and customer service. More Relevant Posts from Sales Engine: What's Your Content Development Strategy? These are the people who are talking to clients on a regular basis and learning about their issues.

Video Marketing 120

Video Marketing Marketing Management Copywriting PR 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 25, 2016

Most of us remember a day when sales reps used to be able to generate their own leads. 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. But, the world changed and the internet crushed sales ability to generate their own leads.

Enterprise Management 120

Enterprise Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Since the days of buying lists and blasting them sales messages are mostly gone, creating experience through content is becoming more necessary than ever before. But if you’re not in a position to be constantly talking to prospects as a marketer, your sales people are the next best thing.

Acquisitions 120

Acquisitions Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Automation Services 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 16, 2015

B2B content marketing today is really about generating leads for sales by replacing the one-to-one conversations that salespeople used to be able to get more predictably. You can’t edit the crap out of everything they produce, shifting their tone and injecting your “sales speak.” Go back and review point number 1.

Content Marketing 120

Content Marketing Lead Ranking Content Marketing & Strategy 120