In his new book To Sell is Human , Daniel Pink talks about information asymmetry in the sales process. In fact the asymmetry has become so significant that the ability of the sales rep to do their job is greatly at risk. am talking about arming the sales rep with the same or better information than the buyer. And I contend that the responsibility of arming the sales rep falls in marketing’s lap. It’s the CMO that owns the responsibility for providing the sales reps with better information than the buyer. Thus the term caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). . MORE >>

Step 5: Score leads and hand them off to Sales. We recently ran across this Marketing Profs article outlining steps for optimizing your marketing campaigns to meet the needs of  today’s buyers.  The 6 steps from content to lead handoff are: Step 1: Create valuable content. Step 2: Set up tracking mechanisms. Step 3: Launch an integrated distribution strategy. Step 4: Automate follow-up. Step 6: Monitor and adjust. Are there any steps you take that aren’t listed here? Other Interesting Topics MORE >>

In today’s ‘do more with less’ environments, it just makes sense to insure your sales and marketing intelligence comes together.  We Work together to eliminate Sales and Marketing waste. Sales intelligence drives sales enablement. Map the content for Sales. Closed-loop Sales and Marketing. Have you aligned your marketing plans with your sales goals for a competitive edge? We found an interesting article outling these 7 Steps to Right-Time Revenue Optimization: Bring together personas and buyer profiles. MORE >>

How geographic differences are significant to product planning, marketing and sales I recently sat down with Raghu, VP of Product Management and Marketing for Cloud Solutions, at one of our clients. This oversight significantly impedes the expansion of products internationally and reduces global sales opportunities. Do this not just from a sales perspective, but with you local marketing as well. We discussed some problems he is having gaining widespread acceptance of his solution. The feedback is quite different, depending on where they are. Vive la différence. MORE >>

Engaging buyers is key. Interesting techniques based on findings from a collection of psychologists and neuroscientists who study ways to stimulate the brain.  Adding ‘engagement energy’ may be the secret sauce to creating more compelling custom content and communications.    These 10 engagement energy boosters are worth looking at. Are you using any of these psychological principles when crafting marketing campaigns? Interactive Lead Management Other Interesting Topics MORE >>