Sales Driven Marketing Hub

Social media marketing (SMM) utlizes social media sites as a marketing tool. Because social media platforms are interactive by nature, the exchanges that take place there tend to be less formal. But make no mistake: you're still building professional relationships with social media marketing.

The Internet has provided businesses with an opportunity to sell their product or service to a global audience. However, selling online encompasses a whole new set of rules than that of traditional selling. Given the importance of inbound marketing and having a digital presence nowadays, it’s essential that businesses learn the art of marketing online. After all, combining inbound marketing techniques with traditional outbound marketing methods will only increase your sales and success.

The days of having one person master and perform one specific skill in the marketing world are long gone. Nowadays, marketers must wear many different hats in order to be successful. 

With the ever-evolving digital world, inbound marketers must be the most flexible and adaptable marketers in the game. As new Google algorithms pop up and content marketing trends change, inbound marketers must be able to recalculate and reorganize strategies seamlessly.

Want to become a sales and marketing rockstar?!!! Start by catching up on the best Sales and Marketing posts, and Infographics we've recently published...

Buyers love working with salespeople that capture our attention. Last week I met with Max Wirth, a salesperson at SalesLoft. He opened our call with a fantastic question, "Why would an inbound firm like xoombi be looking at an outbound solution?" With a big smile on my face I said, "Because we believe in both." Companies who don't do outbound... lose.

That same week I met with a small business owner who is struggling to figure out how to grow his sales enablement software business. Unlike the salesperson I mentioned above, this CEO and I have known each other for quite some time. We have a connection because he is a bonafide expert in outbound sales. The problem is, nobody knows who he (or his company) is.

If you work in sales - and more importantly, if your CEO worked in sales before you - you've probably shared a conversation or two about inbound marketing and inbound sales strategy. While your CEO has a great understanding of brand marketing, prospecting, uncovering needs, and closing techniques, I bet (s)he gives you a funny look when you start talking about inbound marketing, inbound sales, and social selling. It's not necessarily a lack of understanding in what you're saying. It's more about, "I'm still waiting to see results."

Last week, I asked our readers to share opinions about Quality vs. Volume. Here's a view of the the results...

I am in the minority on this one. Here are the reasons why:

When Marketing and Sales work together to dial up the formula for success, my guess is most of us have been in the Quality vs. Volume conversation. In an age of inbound marketing, social media, and big data, are we looking at this issue the right way?

Can Sales and Marketing develop an "unoffendable" attitude? Sales and marketing people have to be thick-skinned. "There's no crying in baseball," and there's no crying in sales. I recently told a few people that I have been working on developing an unoffendable attitude. Needless to say, the most common response I'm getting is a funny look.

I'm pretty good at reading people, but in this case, I'm not quite sure what the funny look means...

Sales and Marketing teams are constantly looking for ways to generate leads that are going to close faster. Search engines and social media are the two main drivers for capturing an audience and driving traffic. Each has it's own strategy and they come from opposite ends of the spectrum. How do you succeed with both?

Ironically, a great social media strategy can get you in front of large audiences in a hurry, but the sales cycle is longer. With SEO, getting to your audience is more difficult and takes more time, but the sales cycle is shorter.