Enabling B2B Sales & Marketing

I get it.

Sales & Marketing need to align.

Naturally.

But enough already.

Every organisational division needs to align.

If Finance doesn’t align with Manufacturing – we won’t have the cash to build stuff. But if they align in the “wrong way” (ie share poor raw materials forecast, share poor cashflow forecasts) – we’ll go broke!

A recent survey revealed that less than 25% of B2B marketers view their company’s marketing as “excellent” – with the majority (41%) rating it as “fair”. Considering the time, effort and cost involved in marketing your business, a fair rating is a pretty disappointing return.

So, if you’re one of the many B2B business owners and managers who feel there is room for improvement in your marketing output, where do you start? And what should you do? Here are three top tips that will help you focus your marketing efforts and generate results that will see you become a market leader.

It’s no secret that the internet and social media have changed the way people buy.

Today’s buyers can educate themselves online about their problems, and find potential solutions, without the help of a sales pitch. So, if you want to meet your customers along the new buyer journey, you need a new approach to selling.

But what should you do? An important first step is to align your sales and marketing teams.

What exactly is "personal brand"?

I could give you the (very) long consultant version of the definition of "brand", but the best - and most succinct I've ever heard - is that brand is "promise".

Can a top salesperson create a personal brand so strong that it's actually a threat to their employer?

Our tips on the best way to write a killer LinkedIn profile are well documented, and in terms of number of downloads is our most successful piece of content ever!

The world of B2B sales is cut-throat.

Because of the large amounts of capital involved, and the fact it's often "someone else's money" (i.e. the company's, not our own) means that the B2B arena is full of highly competitive sales people who are good at what they do and who are out to win deals at any cost. 

So, for every highly successful B2B salesperson, there are several who simply can't keep up and who fall by the wayside. Or who simply "survive" rather than thrive. 

To help you avoid being one of them, here are 10 reasons your B2B sales technique might be failing...

When sales teams fall short of target – invariably it’s Marketing’s fault because the leads were no good!

Similarly - when Marketing is queried on why revenue targets have not been achieved, it's Sales' fault for not effectively following up the leads that were provided.

I've had 4 episodes this past week that have made me reflect on the power of content marketing - assuming it is done well.

I want to share them with you and add some commentary - in case they help your thought processes to move forward.  Hopefully the examples will give you some insights and tools to improve the outcomes of your content marketing program.

What this reinforced for me - you can't just "write content", and then hope.  You need a strategy, you need the best tools, and you need the best tactics.

Instead, teach them how to sell!

There's a morass of consultants lining up to teach you "how to sell via LinkedIn".  People are talking about the new world of "social selling" compared to "traditional selling" - when in reality it's all just selling, albeit now in a social world.

Social selling is a new approach to the sales process that is going to stick around for a while - it’s not just a passing fad.

Why?

Because social selling is not just a new approach to selling - it’s actually an adaptation to a new phenomenon that’s redefining how B2B customers actually purchase - it’s called social buying.