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Sales Suffer from Lack of Content

Dec 14, 2018
2 min

Sales Suffer from Lack of Content

Wait what? Nearly two-thirds of sales people can't find what they need. Anyone else find that stat alarming? This stat was a result of this survey by Kapost, and refers to content sales reps need to send to prospects. The question becomes: how many sales is the rep and company missing out on if sales doesn't have the necessary information needed for a prospect to make an educated and timely decision? Another question: is the competition giving them what they need? There are

EOY Sales Tip

Nov 9, 2018
1 min

EOY Sales Tip

End of Year (EOY) Sales Tip: Verify if your prospect's priorities align with yours. If you have prospects that you WANT to close before YE but you aren't sure you'll be able to make that happen, it may not be you, your product or your pricing. It may very well just be they aren't ready. You want to close the year strong but if the timing isn't right, they don't have all the information needed to make a confident decision or they have other priorities, it will be a HUGE chal

Out with the Old: Rebrand Sales

Oct 15, 2018
2 min

Out with the Old: Rebrand Sales

Old perceptions are creating obstacles to better solutions - and alignment. The line between Marketing and Sales is blurring more every year. There are so many marketing initiatives that drive sales that marketing and sales people are becoming one (in a sense). When you create a marketing campaign that drives online sales without a "sales person closing the deal" it's time to re-evaluate the term "sales person". In fact, I ask people what they think of when they hear the term

Back to Basics

May 18, 2018
1 min

Back to Basics

With so much focus on the fast pace of business and technology - and how we can "stay ahead" of the competition - we often lose sight of how we got to where we are. Or more importantly, why that matters in the direction we are headed. Whether you're in Marketing, Sales or a unique blend of both there's a core fundamental need to understand how your role and team cohesively exist and why the contributions you own individually impact the company overall. Back to basics is about

Marketing-Sales Calls

Apr 19, 2018
3 min

Marketing-Sales Calls

Tip 9: Get Marketing involved on Sales calls. What better way to have Marketing understand Sales than to actually have them be on/attend calls? During my longest tenure at an employer - all of which were various marketing roles - the sales team would often refer to us as being in an "ivory tower". You may have heard of this as well so what this means is we (marketing) didn't have practical knowledge or experience as to what sales really was, did or needed. Not knowing at the

"Blue Ocean" Leads

Apr 18, 2018
3 min

"Blue Ocean" Leads

Tip 8: Identify the need by asking "blue ocean" questions. Have you ever paid attention to the number of people who have their real estate license? I know a handful off the top of my head - including one new person whom I'm helping with his marketing. The reason I ask is that how does one realtor differentiate their brand from the other? Aren't all realtors building relationships with intent to win the listing opportunity and to help them find their new home? In working with

Showcase The Sales Rep

Apr 17, 2018
2 min

Showcase The Sales Rep

Tip 7: Showcase your sales rep's expertise. Sales people rely on Marketing to develop and post content - blogs and social media. However, with some effort in collaboration, the team work between these two groups can be even more powerful. Since sales people need to focus on building, managing and closing their pipeline, they shouldn't be expected to write blog posts. Marketing can help promote the sales person's expertise by drafting blog posts in the name of the sales perso

Content Creation Process

Apr 16, 2018
3 min

Content Creation Process

Image credit: Kapost and SalesForce Tip 6: Marketing AND Sales need to be involved in the content creation process. It's great to have a starting point with research and data BUT.... It would be even better to have direct prospect feedback. And sales is directly interfacing with this group and is reason it's critical to have them involved in the content creation process: they know what prospects are saying, what they like and what they don't like. Armed with this informati

Who Owns the End Result?

Apr 13, 2018
4 min

Who Owns the End Result?

Tip 5: Results: Marketing and Sales own the end results When Steven Covey stated "Keep the end in mind" he provided various perspectives. Whether it's waking up and what to accomplish that day, a project you're starting and what you want to accomplish at the end or even a meeting and what action items or information you want to communicate by the end. Regardless of the scenario, there is one constant: to reach the end. It's a vague concept that can be applied across any sit

From MQL to SQL

Apr 12, 2018
2 min

From MQL to SQL

Tip 4: Identifying the criteria and hand-off from MQL to SQL. The above funnel should be familiar as you've probably seen multiple versions of the process from a Marketing and/or Sales perspective. I've combined both and included a definition for each step - most importantly and what this article is particularly focused on: MQL and SQL. But first, a quick review of the definitions: MQL: Marketing Qualified Leads refer to leads who have demonstrated enough interest and/or en

Setting Expectations

Apr 10, 2018
3 min

Setting Expectations

Tip 2: Setting expectations for Marketing and Sales B2B companies' inability to align marketing and sales teams around the right processes and technologies has cost them upwards of 10% or more of revenue per year, or $100 million dollars for a billion dollar company. Source: IDC I don't know about you but losing 10% of revenue per year is an alarming number. On the flip side, what would your financials, stakeholders, annual commitments look like if you GAINED that 10% back

Communication, Communication, Communication

Apr 9, 2018
2 min

Communication, Communication, Communication

Tip 1: Communication, communication, communication. As a marketer, could you sell? As someone in sales, could you be a marketer? If you answered "yes" to either or both, we definitely need to talk! If you said "no" that would be the common response and reason why there's a a need to align marketing and sales. Companies hire marketing people based on their education and experience in various capacities: design, development, research, messaging, PR, product management, marke

Introducing...

Apr 6, 2018
2 min

Introducing...

With so many opportunities to align Marketing and Sales teams, I'm creating YouTube videos dedicated to this topic. I've labeled the series "Under 3 with Vicki" which I will create videos under 3 minutes twice a week to include topics that focus on aligning Marketing and Sales and the impact it can have to the company when these two teams are in sync. As I mention in my last blog post, the three biggest areas of positive impact to a business when marketing and sales are align

Marketing & Sales Alignment: Why It's Important

Apr 2, 2018
2 min

Marketing & Sales Alignment: Why It's Important

The short answer is three reasons: revenue, customer retention and win rates. When marketing and sales are aligned, overall performance of both teams and the company are better. Check out these stats from Hubspot (July 2017): Companies with good marketing and sales practices in place generated 208% more revenue from marketing efforts. When marketing and sales teams work cohesively together, companies see 36% higher customer retention and 38% higher sales win rates. When the

8 Things Sales People Need to Know About Marketing

Jan 11, 2018
4 min

8 Things Sales People Need to Know About Marketing

I'm going to go out on a limb here and make a blanket statement that I believe to be true: People don't trust without earning the right to be trusted. ~ Vicki O'Neill And the way to trusting people is to spend time with them. Think of your spouse, your best friend, your kids....there was and continues to be a lot of time mutually invested in building, earning and keeping the trust that earned them that title. The same is true in business. Your prospects need to know you - the

Marketing 1 : Sales 1

May 31, 2017
2 min

Marketing 1 : Sales 1

A couple of weeks ago, HubSpot released their 2017 State of Inbound report. This report in particular is extremely valuable as it focuses on priorities, challenges and alignment of Marketing AND Sales - together and separately. It's a great report available to anyone to download on HubSpot's State of Inbound website.. Honing in on the Sales Challenges section, there are 13 identified by survey respondents. I'm focusing this post on the top challenge (38% of respondents): get

Which came first: Marketing or Sales?

Apr 27, 2017
3 min

Which came first: Marketing or Sales?

Marketing and sales are essential components for all business that are interested in generating revenue. Both have a lot in common - communication, messaging, pain points, understanding the buyer – and both rely on each other to be effective in their respective areas. Try to imagine your business without a marketing or sales division – how successful would it be? The scene from Tommy Boy where the model car catches fire comes to mind. With a marketing plan, he would have had

6 Email Templates for Sales Prospecting

Aug 4, 2015
1 min

6 Email Templates for Sales Prospecting

Sometimes it's just easier to not reinvent the wheel. We've been using these sales prospecting and follow-up email templates for our communication and are working well! The setup slightly different than snail mail format but the template should save you time creating your own from scratch. These were uploaded in the original Microsoft Word format for easy cut & paste then personalize & customize. If you have feedback or would like to see additional templates, let us know what

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