Life used to be so simple.
Hire a bunch of salespeople, buy a CRM, train them on a process like Solution Selling and turn them loose. These salespeople use their Rolodex, dial the phone, set appointments, uncover pains, develop proposals and close deals. What to grow sales? Just rinse and repeat.
Sorry, Mr. CEO, but those days are long gone. Prospects are busier than ever. They screen calls with voice-mail. Email boxes are overloaded. Decisions are made by committee. Besides, when they want to research an issue or problem, they have Google. No need to talk to a salesperson.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King. In this new world, Marketing is king — not Sales. Marketing is the group that initiates conversations and builds relationships. Only marketing can cut through the clutter and build relationships — particularly across an organization.
In future posts, we’ll look closely at how Marketing can do its job better, but in this post, let’s just put the emphasis where it belongs — on Marketing. The CMO position might be your most important hire.
For companies looking for best practices in b2b lead generation who wish to improve the way they acquire new customers, Find New Customers is the place to go. CSO Insights says companies need to improve the way they generate leads and implement processes for business to business lead generation.
Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor, is a demand generation expert and sales leader, as well as the President of Find New Customers, a lead generation company, who helps businesses create lead generation campaigns and continually publishes the best lead generation ideas, so his readers can determine the best lead generation strategy to find new customers. He can be reached at (516) 284-4930 or mailto:[email protected].
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Jeff Ogden