We spend a lot of our time working very hard to get sales and marketing teams to work together. And this involves questions like the following. What is an effective way in which marketing teams can refer leads to sales teams? What do sales teams do with the leads handed to them from marketing? What happens if the leads are not fully qualified, or if, after qualification, it is deemed that the client is not ready for a company’s services but soon will be?
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At first, it seems that delivery and sales are unrelated and that salespersons have nothing in common with account managers. This is not just a question of personalities. The roles themselves are often seen as completely distinct. Indeed many account managers loath selling, and many salespersons are uninterested in delivery. But is this distinction accurate? And even if it’s accurate about the current state of affairs, should we tolerate this distinction?
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OK, it seems that about once a year the ‘next great social media tool’ emerges. This year, it seems to be Twitter. Last year, it was Facebook. A couple of years ago, LinkedIn was all the rage. That leads me to a couple of burning questions:
- At what point is it acceptable to abandon or ignore a social media tool?
- When does it make sense to include a new social media tool as part of your social marketing strategy? Read the rest of this entry »
Both missions and revivals try to attract converts, but they work in different ways. The “downtown mission” of movie lore attracts people by offering food and shelter. And, usually in unspoken exchange, they seek to convert these people. A revival directly caters only to those people who want to be converted. Which one is more like selling today?
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Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. We all use adjectives and adverbs when we write, and it doesn’t always mean we’re ignorant or lying. And of course all adjectives and adverbs aren’t bad. But clear ideas are best expressed primarily through nouns.
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We’re all familiar with the importance of marketing and its role in the enterprise. Mainly, good marketing helps increase revenue and decrease costs. But there are other uses, especially in transforming a company’s culture.
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In the current business climate, human marketing resources are under threat. They are too hard to manage and too expensive. At the same time, clients and potential clients are demanding more and more interaction with your company. If you were to nurture all these leads with human beings, it would cost too much. So, what should you do? Read the rest of this entry »
One thing that I encourage clients and agencies to do is to take advantage of all the print techniques that are available. Too many times, whether it be because they are in a rush or it just slips their minds, designers and creative directors opt for more typical printing methods: four-color process on the standard house sheet. Maybe using a spot color if the project warrants it. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s a common goal of marketers to start projects with research. (Well, most people want to, but they seldom do it. That’s a topic for another time). The idea is that, armed with some measurements of the audience’s attitudes, needs, and so on, we will have a better chance at structuring a successful solution. It’s assumed that the hard work will be in interpreting and using this data, and almost no one thinks about the data itself. You need to be sure to ask is the data is even accurate.
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I went to the Masters Golf Tournament this week in Augusta, GA. I could go on and on about the tournament itself, but I’ll just talk about branding for the purposes of this blog. We can talk golf in another blog elsewhere. Read the rest of this entry »