The Funnelholic

“Sales is from Mars and Marketing is from Venus” has been used on a number of occasions when describing the gap between sales and marketing.  The marketing automation, lead generation, and lead nurturing industry and their gurus have spent the past two years talking about “sales alignment” and how we can bridge the gap between the two sides.  Obviously I am one of those people.  I have sat in both seats and have felt both side’s pain.  And I do believe marketers have made big strides. There is so much information (including from me) on how we can fix this divide that I truly believe we are in a better place than we have been in the past.

On the other hand, there is one thing you can’t solve: the fact that you can align all you want, but sales is still born and raised on Venus, and marketing is born and raised on Mars.  You are different people and your relationship will always have its ups and downs (and in some cases, all downs).  So I decided to have some fun and help everyone understand each other’s differences:

*My buddy at HP was telling me how a sales optimization consultancy had done a study where the best sales guys got Cs in school.  The rationale being that school is NOT good training for sales guys whose key skill is convincing people verbally and school is better-suited for reading and writing.  Technically a C average is a 2.0, but I couldn’t do that.

I had an interesting conversation the other day with a guy who wanted to blog. After telling him the level of effort necessary to have an effective blog, I could hear him deflate. If you can’t produce a good blog, you probably shouldn’t do one at all. I can tell you firsthand that blogging takes effort and time that not everyone has.

There are some really simple things you can do, however, to essentially “blog without blogging.”

1. Have a professional Web site: This is obvious. But in case it needs spelling out, it’s ok not to have a blog but it’s not ok to not have a Web site.
2. Do the social networking thing: Create and update a LinkedIn profile, first and foremost. By update, I don’t just mean your work history, but treating the profile like a Web site and marketing yourself with the critical keywords in your industry. In addition, strongly consider joining Facebook. Both of them offer the opportunity for extra exposure by joining groups and networking with like-minded professionals. The microblogging sites (twitter, plurk) won’t be as effective for you if you don’t have original content to point to.
3. Answer questions on LinkedIn Answers: I can’t speak to this firsthand, but I know a number of friends in the business who get leads and referrals because they are presenting themselves as thought leaders or experts by answering questions relevant to your industry. Don’t waste your time answering dumb general questions such as “Who in your mind is the best CEO?” unless you have time to burn – in which case you probably should be writing a blog in the first place.
4. Comment blogging: Bloggers love when you comment, so don’t feel like you are intruding. The play here is to get on high traffic sites relevant to your expertise. So if you are a marketing guy, blogs such as MarketingSherpa, The Funnelholic, Modern Marketing, and so on will be your targets. There is unwritten etiquette here. Don’t be the dork who writes shameless plugs your products – especially if they’re bad. The key to entrance and acceptance to the blogosphere is to add value. It’s fine to add a backlink, you can include a link back, that is fine, but your comments should be insightful and relevant to the post you are commenting on. Your goal is to come off as an expert and increase visibility for your own name and brand.

So, the answer is yes, you can achieve the goals of blogging without starting and maintaining a blog.

That does not diminish the fact that I think we took a really exciting, creative angle on the hottest term in marketing: “Lead Nurturing.”  The webinar will talk about why you have to nurture leads, but from the perspective of buyers vs. us marketers.

Come on, this is a great idea.  Scott will present first with data on buyer perspective and then Stefan Torquist, one of the wisemen at MarketingSherpa, will give marketers practical tips to achieve your lead nurturing goals.

Continue Reading »

At Sherpa last week, I met one of my readers. She said in essence: “I love your blog, but lately you have been bumming me out.”  She’s probably right. I am trying to make the blog reflect what I feel and am thinking at a given time.  Looking over my posts, you can see I’ve gone from irreverent, cocky, and sometimes funny to gloomy, dark, and fear-inducing in a fairly short span of time.  For me, the most important thing is that, as sales and marketers, we deal with REALITY and be as proactive in our adjustments as we can. If I write about sunshine and roses, how is that going to help us get through this?

Speaking of getting through this, when times get tough you have two choices; Lay down or fight.  I have seen a couple marketing departments “lay down” recently and I am really disappointed.  Yes, the world is going to hell, but guess what, your job is to survive and advance.  I look forward to watching which organizations make the adjustments necessary to come out on top in the next couple years.  I especially like those organizations that view negative times as opportunity.  Organizations see blood on the street, and go for the jugular.

Continue Reading »