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One of the inevitable effects of democratizing tools for sales and marketing is the increase in the amount of noise. Because everyone can sign up for a Twitter account or send an email, we see a much larger amount of web spam. The thirst for trying to sell has turned
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I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. - Bill Cosby Selling today is not about broad coverage and bombing every known venue with your sales pitch. That is a surefire way to come across as noise, especially since
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You may have heard much about software out there for marketing automation or inbound marketing. We are often asked about the differences between our services and the software and companies that provide software. We wanted to help our clients understand the differences simply: 1. Software is a separate expense. Buying
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If you sell something simple buyers don't need much education. We have a built-in shorthand to understand the offer. Furniture, cars and dental exams fall into this category. You know what these products and services are. The decision of whether to buy luxury or cheap may become a
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What happens to your funnel if you stop creating and distributing valuable content via inbound marketing? You may not have thought being in the publishing business was important, but the lack of engagement and commitment can create problems for your brand and business. Consider the following: * Your SEO will decline.
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One of the challenges of interrupting people to get attention is that a new event has to be created each time. You have to increase the glamour, noise and novelty each time. It is tiring and relentless. Your efforts are only as good as the last good ad, image or
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When someone is ready to do business with you, it's because they were a fan first. This is true for businesses that depend on relationship, more than transactions, which is increasingly the case today. Marketing is about building relationships. Inbound marketing is a system, approach and rigorous work
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When we work through inbound marketing strategy with our clients, much of our focus is on the persistent assets we will build. Persistence is of extreme importance today. It is different than the fleeting craze of social media junkies that want to stream real-time events. While the latter is important
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Whether you care or not it shows in how you set up your inbound marketing to the world. We all have too many options available to us to feel like a number or without any feeling of connection. One of the secrets of business is to find that place where
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If you called a stranger right now and asked them to lunch, the odds that they would accept is very low. This is especially true if you lack a platform or any prior access to the person. Furthermore, even if you did receive a referral, it is likely too forward
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If you are managing your sales process effectively, then you should have a grasp on your numbers. The typical sales process has low numbers for conversion - 10% lead conversion or 5% deal conversion. That means 90%+ failure. The failure is a real number. Most salespeople do not like to
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"Human beings are storytelling machines. Not only do we love to experience stories, our cognition is an amazing mix of stories we tell ourselves." - Brian Clark There's a great read over at Brian Clark's article, The Jedi Master Approach to Content Marketing that