I often get asked by executives who are seeking to grow their business, “Should I be deploying inbound or outbound marketing tactics?’ My answer almost every time is, “Yes.”

Advancements in technology have provided businesses the opportunity to dramatically improve the efficiency and productivity of their marketing and sales organizations. Marketing automation software helps marketing teams design and execute marketing campaigns that attract and nurture more qualified leads with fewer resources. CRM software helps salespeople manage their day-to-day sales activities; enables an efficient sales process that accelerates leads through the sales funnel; and gives management improved visibility into the pipeline and more accurate forecasting. 

“Sales enablement” is a term that seems to get thrown around quite a lot. I’ve found, however, that many sales and marketing professionals really don’t understand what “sales enablement” is or why it’s important. My definition is pretty simple. Sales enablement is any tool or process that supports the sales function—helping salespeople guide their prospects through their buying journey—from exploration to evaluation to final decision making and close.  

The objective of every inbound marketing program is to generate leads and build a consistent sales pipeline. It would be ideal if every lead that was generated was highly qualified and highly motivated. That’s what the sales team is craving, right? If that was the case, then it would make sense that every lead should be handed off to the sales team right away. Unfortunately, the real world is not that straightforward.

While inbound marketing will generate qualified/motivated leads, it will also produce “not-ready-to-buy-yet” leads (Not Ready) and “not-sure-if-this-is-an-opportunity-or-not” leads (Not Sure).  So how should these leads be handled?  Should they be passed to sales too?

If you rely on your salespeople to generate new leads for you, this time of year can be a little scary.  The Halloween masks may have been put away, but we’re entering the time of year that’s probably the least productive for salespeople. The holiday season can also mean vacation season, and your sales team can only prospect for new business when they’re actually working. Typically, very little prospecting occurs when visiting relatives or skiing down a slope. 

Lead generation takes place when a person's need and your brand intersect in an environment of trust.

One of the hottest forms of B2B marketing over the last couple of years has been inbound marketing. Inbound is where your organization expertise creates content that entices prospects to self-identify as a prospect. It is truly wonderful when you have leads come to you vs having to go out and find them. 

However, the lead generation game isn't as easy as just create some content and watch people flock to your website.

There are many elements of lead generation and new business development for organizations, but there are four key steps to the process: 

It seems that just about every sales organization has implemented a CRM software to help their sales team become more productive and more efficient. But according to Merkle Group, Inc, 63% of CRM implementations fail. They don’t fail because it’s bad software. No, it’s usually because the sales team simply doesn’t use the software.

Salespeople can be a finicky bunch—especially experienced, successful ones. They’ve spent years refining their sales approach, and they don’t want to rock the boat. The common refrain that can be heard from conference rooms across the country is, "If it ain’t broke, why fix it?" Maybe their process "ain’t broke," but it’s rare to find a sales process that can’t be improved or enhanced in some way. Often that’s what a CRM offers—the ability to take your sales process to the next level. The challenge then becomes getting the sales team to actually use the CRM on a consistent basis. Here are a few ideas.

A recent discussion with a few colleagues about the differences between the way sales used to be done versus the new way that sales superstars do business today led me to write this blog post.

Over the years, I’ve worked with many organizations who had a very well-defined target market. Examples of these markets include: 

• Educational institutions, foundations or other non-profits with at least $1B endowments.
• New car dealers in the continental United States.
• U.S.- based discrete manufacturing firms with at least $100M in annual revenue 

These organizations knew where their solution fit best. They had established a record of success within their universe and built custom solutions for the companies that met those stringent parameters. The target market universe for these companies is finite. It’s possible to know who all their prospects are. In fact, it’s even possible to know who all the potential decision-makers and decision-influencers are. These companies are ideally suited for account-based marketing (ABM).  

This time of year, many organizations start turning their attention to 2018. Why don't they wait until January? What’s the rush? These organizations understand that setting goals isn’t enough. Growing their business and meeting revenue targets requires planning. Goals without a plan are just wishes. If you wait until January to start planning, then you’ll already be behind. Now is the time to put your sales and marketing strategy under the bright lights and give it a thorough assessment.

But what’s that assessment look like? What should you be reviewing? What questions should you be asking? Every organization is different, but here are a few topics you should cover and a few questions that will get your discussion started.