SMB social, a/b testing, facebook fan $, and inbound marketing: This Week on Twitter

April 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Hi everyone — once again, I present to you my favorite of tweets.  These posts are my worst traffic performers, but I do enjoy putting them together.  For those that do read these posts, thank you!

Shameless plug: If you love demand generation, content marketing, social marketing, and want to learn about b2b video. Pls RSVP for my Demand Generation Summit and pass the word along.

Now, what you came for: My Tweets o’ the Week. Enjoy:

Small business is built on word of mouth and social is the ultimate word-of-mouth platform. Newspaper advertising is dead. I can’t possibly believe those dudes on street corners waving those arrow signs work well.  Great SMBs always lived of word of mouth.  Now, as more SMBs embrace social media, data is starting to show that they are seeing ROI. That number will keep rising as more SMBs get educated on how to use social media. [Read more...]

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, b2b Sales, Content Marketing, sales, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Selling, SocialCRM, Tweet of the Week

Sales training fails, the skills gap and banner ads: This week on Twitter

April 23, 2013 by 1 Comment

According to the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD), American companies spend about $20 billion a year on sales training. If I dust off my pocket calculator, that means that $15 billion a year is wasted on sales training. That’s brutal. It’s not sales training that’s the problem because training is one of the most important things you can do for your sales team. Often sales training fails because it is a one-time event with very little commitment and follow-up. Sales training works when it is implemented after a strategy is set and sales executives are bought off and committed. Then consistent coaching follows the training strategy and you win.

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, b2b Sales, Great campaigns, sales, Social Media, Social Selling, Tweet of the Week

Youtube, marketing technology investment, and email marketing – This Week on Twitter

April 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment

This week’s Tweets of the week — Enjoy:

Should I do video? I have been getting that a lot. In b2b we are still learning what works and what doesn’t work with video. I recently posted an example of b2b video I really enjoyed via Disqus. We are entering the “Competitive Content” era. The buyer is busy and deciding whether to use their value time on your content. In “competitive content” you are competing with everything – personal content (b2c guys are playing the content game too — see OKCupid for example), media vendors in your space, your competitors, and their daily lives. From the data below, it sounds like YouTube is an important channel. Just remember, there are a lot of fun ways to waste time on Youtube–How will you compete?

The stat below shouldn’t surprise you. [Read more...]

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, b2b Sales, Email Marketing, Tweet of the Week, Uncategorized, Video

Price v business value, delete buttons, Sunday emails and calling before 9AM – This week on Twitter Part II

April 5, 2013 by 4 Comments

I had too many tweets this week to do one post. Had to do another one.

Lets get into it:

A lot of my consulting gigs are to help design or optimize Inside Sales teams. One thing I have noticed is that companies are throwing young folks on the phone to sell their cloud solutions. In their mind you can be successful by getting some young-twenty-something folks on the phone, give them some technology, and teach them how to give a demo. The problem is the core foundation of sales fundamentals is not being established. I have had so many bad sales calls recently as I take calls for solutions for my clients. The phone-based sales reps I encountered focused on two things: the demo and the product. We have to train our reps to develop real business value. (PS I think I was taught that 15 years ago when my career started). [Read more...]

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, b2b Sales, Lead Qualification, Lead/Inquiry Generation, sales, Social Selling, Tweet of the Week, Uncategorized

Sharks, top ramen, Mark Hurd, and big data – This week on Twitter

March 29, 2013 by 3 Comments

Liked this tweet from Chris Selland — When people ask me what is happening in venture capital, I tell them: “Lots of kids eating top ramen and building product for 1.5 mm or less”.

I have heard this stat a lot recently and had to get it down on paper. What we do with data is the biggest opportunity for [Read more...]

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, big data, sales, Tweet of the Week, Uncategorized

You gotta love the game – Jose Canseco, big data, and Google

March 11, 2013 by 3 Comments

Welcome to my 2nd Tweets of the week post. Trying a better title to see if it can take off.

First this tweet from Steve Richard. It made me think about this story I heard about 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh. When he is evaluating players, he allegedly makes them take a test on the NFL. He just wants to know if the player LOVES football. I always think of that when hiring people especially in inside sales.  You gotta get up every morning and achieve. You just can’t do that if this is just a job. It’s cliche but true, sales is about perpetual learning and improvement. If you don’t care, it won’t happen. [Read more...]

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, b2b Sales, Tweet of the Week, Uncategorized Tagged With:

Coming straight out of Compton: The Tweet(s) of the Week

March 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

“Twitter seems to pass us all by.” – Confuciouseazy is his name

I created this new category of blog post  to immortalize my favorite tweets.  I feel like there are great tweets all the time that just scroll right by us – I plan to do my part to put them somewhere for consumption.

Now, if you are wondering what all this has to do with Compton. That answer to that is “nothing”, I just always jump at the chance to quote any of the members of NWA, Public Enemy, or other rap/hip hop folks who went big between 1986-1996.

Now, <DRUM ROLL>, my first of many:  Tweets of the Week [Read more...]

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, sales, Tweet of the Week, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,