The event, co-sponsored by sales intelligence firm InsideView, marketing automation provider Marketo, and hosted by the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals, was three hours of fairly solid ideas and a decent buffet. My thanks to InsideView, Marketo, Scott Albro, Bob Perkins, and all of the speakers. In the spirit of everything I heard there, I offer the following Top 13 nuggets about communicating with BtoB prospects of today:
- Make lists (like this one….people love lists…Top 10…Best Five…whatever)
- Vendors have not adapted well to a customer-driven marketplace
- Vendors had better adapt to #2 (so said Sales 2.0 CEO, Nigel Edelshain)
- Stop thinking in terms of the “Sales Cycle.” Now we’re in the “Buyer’s Cycle.”
- 3 Phases of the Buyer’s Cycle are 1) Awareness; 2) Consideration; 3) Purchase
- There is a battle raging between sellers and buyers over information. For many decades sellers were in charge; now buyers are in charge. Deal with it.
- Over 50% of Buyers think Peers are the best source of information. Conversely, sellers are the least trusted information source. How can vendors deal with this?
- Always Be Helping (I loved Glengarry Glen Ross, but “always be closing” died).
- Always be helping with relevant, contextual information.
- Create value with remarkable content
- Reach customers with long-term nurturing campaigns.
- The biggest challenge today is attention scarcity. What can you do? (see 8 – 11).
Sales and marketing need to help each other.
