Sales people will be all too familiar with the methods of selling products and services and the race to hit targets. If you’re in IT services or software sales you’ll definitely understand the hard work that goes in to differentiate from competitors who are selling almost exactly the same thing (if not the exact same thing).
There are a few four letter words we could use to express the pressure this can sometimes put on us as individuals, but I think “phew!” will simply do it here (you may come up with others, but think twice before posting them in the comments section below).
Inbound marketing is pull marketing to generate inbound leads. Your inbound leads, in the most part, have searched online for answers and have come to you to ease the business pain they are experiencing, because you can offer them software solutions to their challenges.
Your sales people have committed years to honing their sharp striker skills that have enabled them to go out, push forward, and close business, and a significant proportion of their leads have traditionally come from outbound methods using cold-calling via telemarketing or face-to-face meetings.
Have you noticed recently that it’s getting harder to hit the same targets even though you are furnishing your sales people with inbound leads?
![By David Gallaher [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://www.brightfire.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/striker-203x300.jpg)
LinkedIn groups are a great way to meet new contacts and potential leads, and posting questions on a subject in a relevant LinkedIn group is a great way to engage with other group members.
You already have the group in common. If you both share interest in each other’s posts, then it’s likely there is value in you both engaging on a more regular basis. Certain LinkedIn members will stand out from the crowd and, if they look like they could be a good contact or a lead, then you should consider linking-in with each other to keep up-to-date with each other’s posts, both on an individual and company basis.
Essentially, inbound marketing is about setting and achieving your online lead generation goals and tracking this through to revenue.
A valuable component of inbound marketing is you can assess all investment and see exactly what it produces. It allows for 100% transparent reporting which means you can scale what is working for you and similarly change what could work better.
Why choose e-learning?
E-learning is catching on. If done right, it can produce great results for users and at the same time lower costs. You can reach students across the world with little or no geographical barriers. You are not restricted to training rooms or classrooms, and you can benefit from instant sharing of documents, audio-visual assets and automated testing.
How can I generate more sales?
This is a question we live and breathe in business on a daily basis – an hourly basis, even!
What we also need to ask is: How can I generate more leads?
Leads are the stuff sales are made of and without a constant and consistent stream of leads we do not have a constant and consistent stream of sales.
Let’s talk about the pros and cons of different lead generation methods.
First it may be a good idea to remind ourselves why we generate leads in the first place.
That’s obvious, isn’t it?
Well, if we care about our clients, we are looking for businesses and people who will ultimately benefit from what it is we have to offer.
In order for them to be recognised as a ‘lead’ they must first have expressed an interest in what it is we have to offer. (more…)
Each time we begin the process of change with a new software, IT services or MSP client we are faced with the same dilemma: which prospect customers to target and which messages to offer them.
The change process we are starting with them is one of moving their lead generation online.
In most cases our new clients have had ever-diminishing returns from traditional lead generation methods such as direct mail, trade shows, cold calling and even email blasts.
They have usually seen what some of our other technology clients are achieving online (thousands of new visitors every month and a 4% conversion rate to lead) and want to change how they do their marketing to get the same results. (more…)
Here is some valuable information for your Sales Department on how to gain business intelligence using marketing automation software Hubspot’s Prospect tool.
What the Prospects tool doesn’t provide you with is contact names and email addresses, but it does provide you with company IP addresses and pageview information that can seriously pay-off if you are willing to do some detective work and assimilate the intelligence to establish your leads. (more…)
As a start-up technology company on a fast-growth track, you are in a fortunate position, when it comes to using the internet to develop your business. Unlike other less fortunate sectors, your audience can be found online. They are also tech-savvy and ‘live’ digitally in online groups and social media. This means you are at a great advantage when it comes to using inbound marketing tools, like blogging or social media, to educate your market, demonstrate your thought leadership, and firmly pave the way for your prospects to come to you when they have a problem you can solve.
If you don’t already know, blogging is a great practice to make a habit from, as it works for you by increasing indexable pages on your website which is excellent for your Search Engine Optimisation, as contextual content is more visible to search engines. Did you know 75% of all people who search online never actually make it past the first page of Google? (more…)
