Sales Productivity Blog

You've probably heard the term 'positioning statement', but you may not be sure of the exact definition. When you ask the question, "what is a positioning statement?", do you have an answer? If not, read on.

Typically we see a vision, values, mission statements, strategy, and value proposition. The written positioning statement is rare but extremely powerful. If your firm does happen to have a formal positioning statement, is each and every employee able to articulate that statement?

Who is responsible for developing the positioning statement and who is responsible for ensuring that every person in the firm is able to articulate it? The answer is you, especially if you are in a senior director, VP or C-suite position. If your firm has one, then I applaud you and place you at the top of the heap of manufacturing firms and marketers.

It's not easy to convert content to revenue. It is safe to assume that revenue generation influences whether or not the content conversion strategy is effective.  In the B2B world of marketing, if our content and associated content marketing efforts are not generating revenue, then we should fix it or stop the effort altogether so budget and resources can be diverted to those tactics that are generating revenue.

If you're going to prosper in the coming years, your sales team needs customers, prospects, vendors, and peers to say "yes" more often than "no." Getting to "yes" requires a substantial degree of persuasion and influence skills. Contrary to popular belief, persuasion and influence take much more than just a ready smile, a big handshake, and an outgoing personality.

Robert Cialdini published a book in 1993 called, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, which discusses, investigates, and proves how influence works. This book is a must-read for your entire revenue team in sales, marketing, or general business development.

Leads are the driving force of any business. And without converting leads to paying customers who eventually become loyal to your brand, your company cannot thrive. For this reason, most companies need to be methodical and organized in the way they manage their leads. Maintaining a lead database is essential for any business that wants to maximize the benefits of marketing automation.

"All the leads I get from Marketing are crap. I don't bother with them anymore," said the salesperson. "We deliver a lot of high-quality leads to Sales and those lazy bastards never follow up," said the marketing person. If these or similar phrases sound familiar, then you most likely suffer from a lack of Sales and Marketing Alignment.

Some statistics to consider:

• Companies that have achieved alignment between sales and marketing teams see 24% faster revenue growth and 27% faster profit growth.
• 61% of marketing teams send all leads directly to sales without further review and only 27% of those leads are actually qualified.
• 46% of marketers who understand sales lead qualification requirements work with sales teams that follow up on more than 75% of those leads.

Customer relationship management software enables companies to quickly find the necessary information required to make important business decisions. Sales and Marketing are more efficient and more effective with up-to-date CRM software and proper sales processes in place.

Similar to content, images also impact the ranking of your web page within the SERPs. In the US alone, 20% of searches happen in Google Image. However, simply adding any random picture to your webpage will ruin your existing content marketing strategy. Ultimately, you will miss out on a significant percentage of potential visitors.

Doing everything needed to keep your business afloat is tough. Acquiring more customers to grow your business is altogether another challenge. Most people will tell you, ‘You just need to market your business better.’ Even if that advice sounds too general or uninformed, it’s true. Winning more business requires targeted, specific and personalized marketing campaigns that are executed with an intimate understanding of your audience.

In order to achieve this for your business, continue reading.

Even in the most saturated and competitive markets, there’s a lot of pressure on sales departments and managers to perform at top levels. You need a sales department that can crush quotas and smash target goals year after year. When evaluating the most capable candidates in your stack of resumes, look for a balance between the following technical aptitudes and character qualities to find the next perfect fit for your organization.

Selling products or services is at the core of any business. A projection of the sales revenue you expect to generate over a given period provides the basis for planning and strategizing for success. Sales projections have a rippling effect on every functional area of a company. These are some of the business areas that benefit from an accurate sales revenue prediction.