Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from James Hutto, co-founder of Valeo Marketing.

In an ideal world, we’d all have 100% email open rates. After all, they signed up, so they want to see what we have to say, right? If only things were that simple... Even if you’ve crafted the perfect squeeze page, written amazing content, and gently encouraged your readers to sign up via email... It’s all for nothing if they don’t read those emails. What must be done next—and arguably just as difficult, might I add—is to write subject lines that get your subscribers to actually open your emails. But don’t fret! With the right approach, you can craft email subject lines that will leave your readers hungry to discover what’s inside.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Helen Nesterenko, founder of Writtent.com.

One of the biggest reasons that companies fail is that entrepreneurs don’t ask for help. This concept is so well-known, it inspired the best-selling book The E-Myth. CEOs shouldn’t spend their days acting as a “technician,” when they need to focus on innovation and orchestration. If you’re spending your days  immersed in the nitty-gritty of deliverables it’s time to take a few steps back and learn how to ask for help:

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Erica Bell, Marketing Management writer for business resource site Business.com.

Conflicts – all offices have them and all employees will encounter at least one during their working days. Economics and cultural differences between sales and marketing departments can cause conflicts in the workplace that ultimately hinder your profits and the performance of your business. Don’t let your business become a victim to the clash of the department titans. Get your sales and marketing teams working together effectively for greater success and a boost in your bottom line.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a guest post from Dan Vuksanovich, the Website Traffic Increaser Guy. 

We all want leads. Better yet, we all want qualified leads. A sales rep’s first duty is usually to ask some probing questions of a new lead in order to determine if the prospect’s interests are aligned with whatever that sales rep has to sell. Wouldn’t it be great, though, if leads would pre-qualify themselves? With Integrated Marketing Communications, they can and will.

In leiu of recent events here in Boston, I think it makes sense to skip this week's share post and instead focus on the victims of this week's tragedy. Our CEO, Paul Alves, posted earlier this week about the struggle between good and evil and we mentioned a local organization, TUGG (Technology Underwriting Greater Good) who had begun a fundraiser supporting the local victims and families. I wanted to take this opportunity to mention again this great cause as well as invite any of our readers who want to donate to do so. There has been overwhelming support generated and a great sense of community established in this wonderful city many of us call home. Though our community has been rocked by the events that have unfolded, we have created an even stronger bond and sense of resilience that two men alone can not and will not break.

Sales 2.0 or social selling are the hottest topics at this years conferences and trade shows. Organizations of all sizes are finally realizing they need to have a social presence and some form of social strategy in place. The problem is, most organizations don't know where to start or what sort of process to have in place to best utilize the social intelligence these channels provide.

I have learned over the years that having a well thought out plan to reaching any goal makes all the difference. Building a pipeline is no different. When I was a rookie sales guy I was not much for business plans. Give me a list and a phone, and I'll make it happen was my motto. Guess what, it worked, I did make it happen. What I learned several years later is that I could have made more happen with less work, if I had only took the time to plan.

Sales Prospecting Perspective is pleased to bring you a guest post from Jon Ferrara, CEO of Nimble, a social CRM solution. 

People born at the turn of the 20th century saw a lot of change over their lifetimes. They went from horse to automobile, from oil lamps to electricity...saw the transformation of medical care, science, and society. Huge changes -- but those changes seem as slow as Ice Age glacier movement compared to what happens now.

March Madness has descended upon us and my bracket has already been busted! Let's hope your sales pipeline isn't experiencing the same thing!  

We usually reserve this portion of the recap to share an interesting article from the week. Today, I wanted to help our friends at Insidesales.com and Software Advice in promoting their 2013 Inside Sales Market Size Study. In 2010, Insidesales.com discovered that inside sales jobs were growing at a rate 15 times greater than outside sales jobs. They attributed the disproportionate growth to three key factors: The Great Recession made the lower average cost of employing an inside rep more enticing, Cloud-based CRM and online lead generation tools made remote selling more feasible, and a younger generation is increasingly comfortable doing business over the Web and phone.

I've often written about the chasm that can exist between sales and marketing. Everyone aspires in some way to attempt to build that theoretical bridge, but as most of us know, it ain't easy.