B2B Marketing and Sales – Avoid the 7 Deadly Sins (by Christopher Ryan)
November 30, 2009
Deadly Sin 1: Lack of Self-Awareness. Acknowledge where your competitors are better at certain things than you are, and vice versa. If you do this in a spirit of openness and truth seeking, I guarantee it will be time well-spent.
Deadly Sin 2: Perfectionism. The need to be perfect can be counterproductive and the struggle for perfection can freeze you into inaction. Consistency and quantity of output are important characteristics of productive marketing, and a needless search for perfection can be a detriment to your success.
Deadly Sin 3: Living in the Past. Past success can lead to future failure. Some of what worked for you just two to three years ago may now be obsolete, let alone what you did ten or twenty years ago. One of the best ways to prevent living in the past is to watch how companies are marketing and selling to you and emulate the best practices. Read more
The “Ideal” Prospect – by John Leavy
November 20, 2009
“I think I was the best baseball player I ever saw.” – Willie Mays
Wouldn’t it be good to know who the “ideal” prospect or prospects are before sending out email blasts, newsletters, Twitters, facebook fan page invites or webinar invitations? Assuming what most of us naturally assumes and that is, of course everyone wants to hear what we have to say or desperately want to purchase the service or product we’re selling. Found that to be true lately – be honest?
The Internet landscape is mapped with watering holes that attract all sorts of prospects. Some prospects gather around iTunes and YouTube while others congregate at blogs and community web sites. It is each business owner’s challenge to figure out where their “ideal” prospects gather. Read more
The Power of Commitment in B2B Marketing and Sales (by Chris Ryan)
November 18, 2009
I just read an interesting post by Perry Marshall (the PPC guru) at www.perrymarshall.com. Perry received an email from copywriter John Fancher talking about how Bob Dylan received so many great ideas for the hundreds of songs he wrote. Being a Dylan fan myself, this peaked my interest. Also, since I write a fair amount of copy for my clients, I am always on the hunt for great ideas. Apparently, up until the time he wrote his first song, Bob Dylan had serious doubts about his ability to be a songwriter. How did he overcome his doubt and start producing? It’s simple, he wrote his first song. This was hard but he pushed through to completion, then he wrote his second song. Before long he had more ideas than he had time to write. Read more
News
November 16, 2009
Fusion Marketing Press Launches Unstoppable B2B Marketing and Sales Book
New marketing book introduces Fusion Marketing concepts and next level lead generation techniques.
Colorado Springs, CO, November 17, 2009 – CEOs, marketing managers, PR practitioners, sales departments and business owners who need to jumpstart their marketing and sales efforts benefit from How to Create an Unstoppable Marketing and Sales Machine. The fourth book written by Christopher Ryan, a widely known expert in business-to-business marketing, outlines strategies and tactics that help any organization decisively impact their sales and profitability.
“With this book, I share what I’ve learned over 25 years in the B2B marketing world,” said Christopher Ryan, Founder and Managing Director of Fusion Marketing Partners. “Any professional who puts the Fusion Marketing concepts into action creates a strong connection between the marketing and sales departments and transform the lead generation and sales process.” Ryan formerly held senior marketing positions at Stellent, PeopleSoft, Sybase, SpringCM and Group 1 Software.
How to Create an Unstoppable Marketing and Sales Machine enables marketing professionals to identify what’s working and not working in their processes, produce massive awareness, effectively employ social networking techniques and generate qualified leads on a tight budget. “When it comes to generating more revenue for your business, it’s about having the right marketing and sales model,” notes Ryan. “And these models must be aligned and based on what is working today.”
How to Create an Unstoppable Marketing and Sales Machine is available for $19.95 Softcover and $13.95 eBook at www.FusionMarketingPartners.com. It is also available at Amazon.com. For a review copy, call Laura Ettinger at +1 719-231-7202 or email info@FusionMarketingPartners.com.
Follow Christopher Ryan and the Fusion Marketing Partners Team:
Blog: FusionMarketingPartners.com/blog
Twitter @CRyanFusionMkt
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrisryanfusionmarketing
A Strong Web Front Demands: Obvious Decision-making Paths – by John Leavy
November 12, 2009
“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind
up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra
Many of the web sites being launched today show no evidence of “decision-making” paths and companies have little knowledge of how they help increase the visitor conversion rate and the company’s bottom line.
Web sites seemed to be designed for visitors to wander aimlessly.
Think about a trip to the zoo. Everyone who enters the front gate receives a map and each family member wants to head off in a different direction to see their favorite animals.
They might be the lions, tigers or bears.
Many web sites create the same situation. A person landing at a web site’s main page might browse to see what Products, Services, or Resources are available. Or they may decide to check out the Leadership or Company History pages.
No order, no thought process. Guess what? No conversion. No boost to the bottom line.
Few sites have a visitor conversion strategy in place. Those companies must believe the visitor gathers all the information they need by themselves and then place their orders.
Ever been to a car lot and NOT immediately approached, or assaulted, by a car salesperson? Not likely. Only about 3-4% of visitors coming to a web site are ready to purchase, join or subscribe. That means a lot of education needs to take place before those masses are ready to buy or give personal information.
If it has been determined that three types of visitors are coming to a particular site; then three very distinct decision-making paths need to be developed to guide and educate those visitors until they are ready to make a decision.
If there are all kinds of hyper links and arrows pointing in different directions on the main page of the site guess what happens? Visitors head off in those directions and never hear the most important message, do not sign up and do not purchase. They make their own decision without the seller.
Build a Great B2B Marketing Team by Christopher Ryan
November 11, 2009
In my new book, How to Create an Unstoppable Marketing and Sales Machine (available at http://bit.ly/4zTeAs), I devoted four chapters to the subject of how to find, motivate and manage marketing and sales personnel. I gave this subjet valuable book space because it is not just the budget, programs, and technology that generate the results, but also (and more important) the people who build the strategy and execute the marketing and sales initiatives. Read more
A Strong Web Front Demands: A Strong call-to-action- John Leavy
November 10, 2009
“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you
want done because he wants to do it.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
A call-to-action tells the web site visitor to take some immediate action; “Call Now!”, “Download Now!” or “Sign-up Today!”
Calls-to-action must include strong, compelling action verbs such as, download, buy, shop now, call, and watch.
Do not use motion in the call-to-action it only becomes a distraction to the visitor.
The call-to-action can be words, a picture or a combination of both. A picture of a call center operator standing by for the call with a description on the image that says “Call 877-555-1212 Today!” is compelling.
This technique serves a company better than putting their toll free telephone number in 6 pt. text at the bottom of every web page.
The call-to-action may be in the form of a pop-up. Some people like them others don’t. The call-to-action might be asking visitors to subscribe to a free, monthly newsletter or to receive a free white paper.
Pop-ups drive some web site visitors crazy and some pop-ups drive visitors to take action. Everyone has to make their own decision.
The next topic to cover in this section is creating obvious decision-making paths.
These paths help to direct web site visitors to the right pages on the web site whether they are looking to become educated or are purchasing products or services.
A Strong Web Front Demands: An Eye-catching Tag Line – by John Leavy
November 6, 2009
We can use the web page examples above for a lesson in web design – eye-catching tag lines. Visitors need to be drawn in quickly or they are on their way to a competitor’s web site. “Creating Picture Perfect Homes!” is just what people want their homes to look like – picture perfect. This home remodeling web site grabs the visitor’s imagination as to what the home remodel looks like once it is finished. Read more
