Sales Prospecting Perspectives

At AG Salesworks, we talk about aligning sales and marketing departments quite a bit. By now, most people know that in a successful business, B2B sales and marketing need to work together.

However, many people still harbor a misguided notion about what sales and marketing alignment really is. It's not just a mindset. It's a merging of actionable business processes.

Sales enablement is a hot topic for sales and marketing agencies in 2014. DemandMetric and SAVO Group recently hosted sales enablement summits. Sirius Decisions produced a sales enablement framework and model. HubSpot is hiring “Sales Enablement Stars.”

Alongside these companies, AG Salesworks is encouraging sales and marketing agencies to seriously consider their sales enablement process. Before now, sales and marketing may have had different understandings of the elusive term “sales enablement.” Our newest guide, “Sales Enablement Explained,” includes worksheets, tips, and advice for organizations to agree on what a successful sales enablement plan means to them, including its definition, role, and effectiveness.  

Businesses consciously take great measures to create and sustain a positive online identity.  They want to be found, and once they are, they want to exude a good, lasting impression.  In the B2B world, the human behavior that precedes the act of evaluating and buying has changed drastically with the rise of social media and the availability of endless online intelligence. 

Happy Friday, Sales Prospecting Perspectives readers! We've had a busy week, with clients arriving and inside sales reps ramping up for a successful Q1. Without further ado, here are our favorite articles from the sales and marketing world this week! 

Happy November 1, Sales Prospecting Perspectives readers! How was your Halloween? At AG Salesworks, we celebrated by dressing up on Tuesday and having a potluck party. You can see pictures of the fun that we had on our Instagram, and look forward to a blog post on Monday about how to plan these types of events so everyone stays productive. As most of us are Boston Red Sox fans, we also celebrated their win of the 2013 World Series! It was an excellent last week of the month for us here at AG Salesworks, and we hope it was for you, too. Here are some of our favorite posts about marketing and sales from our favorite blogs. Some of them even decided to get into the Halloween spirit!

This week marks my 9-year anniversary at AG Salesworks. It's been a great ride.  

Prior to joining AG, I spent some time working in hospitality, banking and technology. What I discovered is that the personalities I ran into within each of those industries could not get more diverse. With the experience I gained has come perspective on what­ I feel helps drive a team. It could be money for some, continuous praise for others or the challenge of what the job brings on a daily basis. One of the few consistent themes I've seen is this: You need to have your team’s back. 

It's Friday, and that means it's time for a Weekly Recap! What did you do to motivate your sales team this week? At AG, we held Extreme BDR Bingo. Inside sales reps were distributed bingo sheets with squares such as: 30 dials before 10 a.m., 3 leads in a day, 700 activities in a week, arrive before 8:15 a.m., etc. The prize for completing five squares in a row was $50, and the contest was so successful that sales enablement was rewarded extra money to keep it going throughout the rest of the month (as more and more people kept winning bingo). It was a big success. Be creative in how you inspire your sales team!