Robert Lesser
Are Millennials wired but not to sell?
I was speaking with a salesperson in his 60s who regularly outsells many of his younger peers. He complained to me that the younger sales people at his company do not hustle and are lacking a work ethic. A sales manager noted to...
Right Message, Wrong Target – A Field Guide
I would like to introduce a scenario that many B2B organizations face. In a never ending pursuit of new business, a marketing team has launched both inbound and outbound marketing programs to target a new market segment. Something has gone awry. The message to this...
Marketers are smarter
It seems to me that B2B marketers are much smarter than 10 years ago. B2B marketers are much better at what they do – showing a higher level of professionalism, more knowledge & agility, better alignment with sales teams and are in tune with customer...
Marketing Velocity & Full-Stack Marketing
Would you rather be called a generalist or a jack-of-all-trades? Or would it be preferable to be called a Full-Stack Marketer? A recent post in Geekwire by Marcelo Calbucci talks about the unique skills of a Full-Stack Marketer for tech start-ups. The head of...
Don’t Think Outside a New Box
Given the dynamic nature of business, you are probably facing a dizzying array of business challenges every day. Have you faced a new business problem that you tried to solve with a legacy perspective? Maybe you found that old rules don't solve new problems. Existing...
Channel Partners don’t want to generate leads
Generating new business is the keystone for tech companies. Most large tech organizations sell primarily or completely through channel partners. In turn, the channel arm of a tech organization allocates significant resources to lead generation programs for channel partners. Unfortunately many...
Colloborative Selling in the Channel
The imperative for technology companies is to grow fast. Many technology vendors leverage the channel to power their growth and use one model or a combination of selling models for demand generation: Vendor Led Selling A small number of technology companies initiate all outbound calling…
Segmentation for the Nation
In earlier post entitled the Top Five Reasons to use Segmentation, I wrote about the importance of segmentation in B2B marketing. Segmentation requires an in-depth understanding of customers generated through analysis and research. Many large organizations either buy research from consultants and analysts...
Top 5 Reasons to use Segmentation
There are now more reasons than ever to invest in segmentation. Through segmentation a marketer identifies groups of customers that are ranked by their sales potential and can be classified based on any number of criteria. By leveraging this intelligence,...
Lead Generation: Digital Strategies to Create New Sales Opportunities
Lead generation is simply the creation of sales opportunities. Although lead generation is most often associated with acquiring net new customers, it can include developing opportunities within existing accounts in new divisions or work teams. For most organizations, digital lead generation is a scalable,...
Messaging Maximus for Lead Generation
Does your messaging speak to the lowest common denominator? I am speaking of the email blast or direct mail piece that is one-size fits all.Or the telesales call that is the same for every conversation and simply asks: are you buying? Buyers react negatively not…
The Sales Lead & the Language Police
At its simplest level, language allows one person to understand another in the course of basic communication. On a broader scale, language defines who we are, what groups we belong to and our culture. In Quebec, almost 50 years ago, the Office québécois de la langue…
The Risky Business of Exclusive Reselling
Last month, Eloqua terminated its reselling relationship with The Pedowitz Group, a marketing automation reseller. Rob Brewster, SVP Business Development at Eloqua explained in a blog post that The Pedowitz Group’s decision to partner with some of Eloqua’s competitors jeopardized Eloqua’s IP (Intellectual Property) and caused Eloqua to make the...
Selling to the Digital B2B Buyer
The digital world is bringing great change to how buyers wish to interact with B2B sales teams. Buyers who are at ease in researching, communicating, collaborating and buying on the internet are choosing to do business differently. And I am not referring to the ‘Lost Generation’:…
Savvy Buying of B2B Data
An Interview with Ruth P. Stevens and Bernice Grossman I am pleased to welcome Ruth P. Stevens and Bernice Grossman, two well recognized B2B direct marketing experts. Ruth P. Stevens consults on customer acquisition and retention, teaches marketing at Columbia Business School and blogs at HBR.org. Bernice Grossman…
Destructive B2B Sales Practices
New research from McKinsey & Company identifies destructive sales practices and prioritizes what customers want from B2B sales organizations. The research is focused on end users and is statistically significant: McKinsey interviewed 1,252 purchasing decision-makers of high tech products and services at small, medium and...