B2B lead generation

Define Social Selling

Tweet I’m struggling to come up with a definition of social selling that makes sense to me.  It’s not an easy thing to do, and if you think it is – go ahead – give me your best shot. I found these definitions online: Gerhard Gschwandtner, CEO of Selling Power magazine and Sales 2.0 Conferences …

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How Sales People Will Help With Discovery

Inbound marketing is a wonderful tool that serves many companies well, but there are a lot of companies who are not in a position to benefit from it, yet.  An exclusive focus on inbound marketing  is a lousy option for small businesses with very small budgets, limited marketing technology or marketing expertise. It’s particularly poorly …

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An Overview of Guided Voicemail

What is Guided Voicemail? Guided voicemail is a fast and effective way to reach your contacts with a perfectly delivered voicemail message. By having a trained call center agent guide the voicemail through receptionists, directories, and other typical roadblocks, you can be sure that your message will always reach your customer. Below is a quick video …

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Why Sales is Like Baseball

My first presentation of these test results was a total flop and it was very frustrating. The results showed the impact of adding a regular cold call voicemail program in support of a sales rep (who was also cold calling).  I was excited about the findings that showed- among other things a 50% improvement in …

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Told You So

Is there possibly any question in marketing or sales that has been and will likely continue to be so thoroughly beaten to death as the perennial favorite – Is cold calling dead? First of, I’d like to mention that I saw a survey on LinkedIn today in the group discussions for Inside Sales Experts and …

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Declining Response Rates – Stop Shooting the Messenger

The most visible and important measure of success delivered to any company by any B2B marketing campaign is the direct response.  It blows awareness out of the water.  A direct response is more valuable than any measure of brand preference or image because it opens a dialogue for more marketing, it opens a door to …

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The Voicemail Opportunity

Tweet In spite of the incredible advances made in email marketing, social media and marketing automation, the telephone is still one of the most powerful sales and marketing tools at the disposal of any company.  True, we often don’t use it well, leaving messages that ramble and don’t speak to the interests of our customers …

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Fighting a Change? Measure the Impact

What should be the first words out of your mouth when leaving a voicemail message? Much of my recent research is pointing in a direction I’m just not buying, but is that just another example of a stubborn old dinosaur resisting change?  What I’m seeing more and more of,  in reports and on discussion groups …

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The Best Way to Qualify a Lead

What is the best way to determine the current value of a lead? Well, you can review the information that they have elected to download over a period of time and determine whether or not they are moving in a pattern that has been predetermined to indicate growing interest. You could check into how many …

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Follow up Your Email Click-throughs

My favorite responses come over the phone.  They come from people who we’ve reached out to, sometimes recently and sometimes quite a while ago.  They start the conversation with some statement like, “I want to know more about what your company does because I have a need and I want to see if you can …

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