I consider myself a fairly traditional Sales Manager – in that I generally don’t think “new” equates to “better.”
I consider myself a fairly traditional Sales Manager – in that I generally don’t think “new” equates to “better.”
Topics: inside sales strategy, target marketing, executive interview
The following is a guest post by Peter Cohen, Managing Partner of SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors.
----
Lots of companies offer a free trial of their SaaS offerings. For some, it works well - cost-effectively bringing in new, paying customers. Emphasis here is on "paying."
For others, it's an unproductive drain on company resources that doesn't bring in nearly enough customers to justify the expense.
Why do free trials work for some SaaS companies and not for others?
Topics: target marketing, saas
The Angry Birds phenomenon continues to grow. Not content with being the most downloaded app in 2011, the game is headed to Facebook. For those of you unfamiliar, here's the game's trailer. (In short, Angry Birdsplayers control a flock of birds attempting to rescue eggs that have been stolen by a group of evil pigs.)
Sounds crazy, but I can tell you that - it is addicting! So, how does this relate to Sales?
1. Be prepared – focus on your target
To win in Angry Birds, you can't waste birds by just flinging them out there and hoping to knock something down. Instead, you want to isolate a single part of the structure and strategically fire at it until you destroy it. In Sales, it is equally important to understand the structure or sweet spot you want to “attack”. In other words, knowing your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
Many times, CEOs & VPs of Sales will tell me, "Our ICP is the Fortune 500." My internal response is to hope they get hit in the head with a flying bird. The F500 is not a sweet spot - it is a huge target that can swallow up your resources without gaining any traction.
Give some thought to the commonality where you've already had sucess. Is there a revenue size or # of employees where your message resonates best? Must other technologies to be in place for you to succeed? What functional areas must you target to launch the sales process?
Before you deploy your team, be sure you have identified your ICP.
2. Launching - hire the right people for the job
Now that you know where to aim, determine the right bird for the job. Since each bird has a different talent, you must deploy the correct one against certain obstacles. For example, launching a big red bird at a straw hut would be overkill; while launching a blue bird at a concrete structure would be like trying to use a feather to knock down a steel-reinforced door.
What skills must your Reps have in order to succeed? Strong time management skills to handle lots of transactions? Great message-tailoring skills to work deals with multiple stakeholders? Great detective skills to profile accounts and find the right contacts?
Topics: sales process, inside sales management, target marketing
I recently participated in a conversation over at Focus.com: How can you create a culture where your employees feel comfortable creating content? The idea being, that the creation of content is now an organizational responsibility as opposed to just being Marketing’s.
At one point in the dialogue, I was sick of hearing what all the pundits think (myself included) so I threw down the glove and asked a Sales Exec to chime in. Well, Alex Shootman the Chief Revenue Officer of Eloqua did. His excellent response follows:
Three interesting words in this exchange; culture, sales & content. In a vacuum these words do not seem like they should go together but let's break this down.
1) Culture is the external manifestation of the shared values of a group.
2) Sales is connecting what you have or know with what someone else hopes for.
3) Content is useful information or tools that people find helpful.
So the question of creating a culture of content management for sales to me might need to be re-framed. What parts of the sales culture are already in place that result in content being created and shared? What values always exist in great sales organizations? Since the beginning of time great sales people need to go hang out where their customers hang out and be interesting. What we need to help sales people understand is that their customers are hanging out on-line and they get interested in interesting content....
Topics: inside sales management, target marketing, executive interview