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  • B2B Lead Generation Articles

           
    • Everybody talks about measuring social media, but nobody is doing anything ab...
      The Innovative Marketer | Sep 03, 2010 | Permalink
      I'm at the CMO Club conference in San Francisco this week, and while the audience of 80 texted "Doing more with less" as the number one issue facing marketers in 2010, the real buzz around the show seems to be ROI of social media. Blake Cahill had a post over on VisInsights on the value of social media for B2B companies (he's doing a webcast with Sirius Decisions' Jonathan Block) and one of his lines stopped me:
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    • 10 Great Marketing Podcasts you Should Not Miss
      The Innovative Marketer | Sep 03, 2010 | Permalink
      Before doing some spring gardening this weekend, I loaded up the ol' iPod with a bunch of recent marketing-related Podcasts. Podcasts, you recall, were the world-changing, paradigm-shifting phenomena of four years ago, kind of like Twitter is today. My day...
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    • What is lead nurturing?
      The Innovative Marketer | Sep 03, 2010 | Permalink
      Salesforce.com’s big Dreamforce conference is over. The keynotes have been distilled down to talking points for the media. The hangovers from the after parties have been dealt with. The Black Crowes have flown away, the hangovers from the after parties...
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    • A technique to increase your online chat sales rate
      Inside Sales Tips Blog | Sep 03, 2010 | Permalink
      Many of the companies with whom we work in our inside sales training classes are making increasing use of online chat with sales prospects. Much of the time, they're not maximizing the full benefits of chat, either because they're not collecting all the data they might have, or not attempting to engage the prospect in a telephone conversation as soon as the chat session has finished. That second situation is what I'll discuss today. Although chat has the real benefit of engaging a prospect through your website, nothing works as well to increase sales as having a real conversation. During the chat session, the prospect controls the communication, and the rep is essentially in response mode. In most cases, reps give far too much information, enough that the prospect doesn't feel a need to...
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    • Taking over an industry, one Sales 2.0 step at a time
      Inside Sales Tips Blog | Sep 03, 2010 | Permalink
      This past week I delivered an inside sales training course to a client that makes devices used to diagnose electrical problems. This company makes terrific equipment, has begun to take market share away from its biggest competitor (who owns 90% of the market), and has hired me to train their inside sales team to take over and own the market in one year. In a coaching session that occurred last week, we cooked up some bright ideas that the competition probably won't be using. I'm going to tell you what they are, but I'm not going to divulge the client or the industry to protect our program. I've been teaching the techniques we're using for years now, but there are a few new twists because of some tools we're using today that fall into the Sales 2.0 realm. So read on, and use them to take...
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    • 4 great techniques for selling in a “downâ€� economy
      Inside Sales Tips Blog | Sep 03, 2010 | Permalink
      I got a call this week from a blog subscriber that desperately needed some tips for selling in a "down" economy. Now that summer's here, his prospects are ramping down in terms of their purchases. He's really feeling it at the end of the quarter, and wants to ensure he doesn't have the same situation at the end of the upcoming quarter as well. The philosophy I teach in my inside sales training courses has always been that you sell all year ‘round just the same as you would when things are tough. Great sales practices should be in place all the time. So here are four tips that are critically important right now. And once you do them consistently, you shouldn't have too many under-quota months: 1) Upsell and cross-sell to your current customers. Your customers already know you. You've d...
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    • Salesforce 101: a cautionary tale on successfully implementing a CRM
      Inside Sales Tips Blog | Sep 03, 2010 | Permalink
      Salesforce.com is a CRM database tool that's become the standard for many companies' inside sales teams, and I've seen it used many times when I coach team members during my inside sales training courses. It's powerful, but like most robust tools, it needs to be tweaked for the characteristics of the team using it, based on use cases. Generally, I encourage my clients to either have a dedicated Saleforce.com expert on staff, or utilize a consultant to assist in making the best use of the CRM. One of my blog correspondents is going nuts over how her company has implemented Salesforce, and she's made a very cogent, if impassioned, statement about how it's not working as well as it should at her company.  What triggered her correspondence to me was the ongoing discussion on the blog based ...
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    • A brutal sales territory: as challenging as yours is, this one’s probably w...
      Inside Sales Tips Blog | Sep 03, 2010 | Permalink
      Today I'm flying over the Kamchatka Peninsula. It's completely covered in snow, with huge Mt. Fuji-shaped volcanic peaks thrusting out of the landscape. Relatively few extol the beauty of Kamchatka because it's not exactly a tourist destination, remote and uncompromising. It looks cold down there, and it reminds me that no matter how bad a grim sales day can be, there are many jobs that are worse than sales. Just ask those miners working 30,000 feet below me. But then again there are a few really bad sales jobs, too. The story I'm going to tell you is one I sometimes tell in my telesales training classes, to illustrate how good the people I'm training really have it. They say every bad sales territory is salvageable. I'm not sure about this one. You tell me: My dad's great with people,...
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    • How to Prepare for a Sales Job Interview – Not exactly like a date, but close!
      Inside Sales Tips Blog | Sep 03, 2010 | Permalink
      Today's post wasn't written by me. It was written by an individual that has just landed herself an outstanding six-figure inside sales job. I know her, because she took one of my inside sales training courses.' target='_self'>inside sales training courses. More than one company was bidding for her, so she was able to choose from among several. How was she able to accomplish this? She gave outstanding employment interviews, and I know, because I got feedback from more than one company. She "wowed" everyone, so I asked her what the heck she did to gain all this traction. She told me, and I asked her to put it in writing for the blog. She wants to remain anonymous, but we'll call her Allison for the record. What she says below should be adopted by everyone looking for an inside sales or qu...
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    • More on Age Bias and Texting
      Inside Sales Tips Blog | Sep 03, 2010 | Permalink
      One of my blog correspondents has been raving enthusiastically about the diversity of employees at her new inside sales job, where the manager of the department has loaded the team with people of a myriad of ages and ethnicities. These differences of backgrounds and cultures has created a very strong team that seems to be energizing everyone, and she says it’s elevating the concepts of Best Practices and team communication to a high level, as the inside reps bring their diverse experiences into the dialogue as to how best present and sell the solutions the company offers. Some of the most effective and efficient teams that have gone through our inside sales training courses have had this type of diversity, too.  A while back, I blogged about concerns over age bias in inside sales teams,...
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    • Don’t encourage receptionists to be gatekeepers by being too verbose in you...
      Inside Sales Tips Blog | Sep 03, 2010 | Permalink
      This past week, I was working with an inside sales rep on some coaching calls. He was having a real challenge, because receptionists were refusing to connect him with his target prospects. Upon listening to one of his calls, it was easy to see why. He was over-introducing himself, using way too many words when he didn’t have to. I've never liked the word “gatekeeper,” because I’ve gotten so much help from the people at my prospect companies whose job it is to field incoming phone calls. They’ve got often demanding jobs, and I like to make it easy for me by making it easy for them. In my sales training courses, we discuss the differences between receptionists, who answer a company’s main telephone line, and Executive Administrators (EAs), who are essentially executive-level people that h...
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    • 6 Tips for finding a great Inside Sales Job
      Inside Sales Tips Blog | Sep 03, 2010 | Permalink
      April, one of my blog correspondents, wrote this week that she’s moving to another geographical location, and she’ll be looking for a new inside sales job in the tech industry. We always try to help match up people that have taken our inside sales training courses with new companies when appropriate, but April is located far from us, in a locality that we’re not serving right now. She’s starting from scratch, and wanted a few tips on finding a new company. Many of you reading this blog post have been, or are in the same position.  Finding a great new job takes planning and foresight, so here are 6 great things to build upon as you identify and go after an inside sales position at a new company: 1) Update your LinkedIn profile. Ensure that your LinkedIn profile has been completely update...
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