Sales | PrairieSkyGroup

Step 1: Admit You Have a Problem – Presentations Don’t Work

Many companies still rely on the “presentation” as a sales tool. But a couple recent studies may indicate a major problem with this approach.

CEOs: Call Your Company – Access to Experts Part II

The other day I needed to get a quote on a service costing tens of thousands of dollars. I visited a website of a well known vendor, spent five minutes trying to find the information I needed, then looked for the contact us page. The “Contact Us” page had no phone number, only an email form. Looking further, I finally found a number and called. VPs of Marketing, what will your CEO find when he calls his own company?

Trend Spotting: Access to Experts

Recently I wanted a piece of information from a web company for a service in which I was interested. This time I really didn’t want to “read the whitepaper,” so I called for a “demo.” The resistance I had was that this would begin a sales cycle, yet all I wanted was information.

Resistance is Futile

Like drug resistance for pathogens in evolutionary biology, resistance is evolving and increasing to the ways we market and sell. What if we just provided easy to find, valuable information, for free when our prospects wanted it? Would that be giving into the Borg?

Help Wanted! Looking for a DARC Person.

A while ago, Hubspot wrote an interesting e-book called, “Hiring in the DARC Ages… Are the Right People on Your Marketing Team? I recommend the e-book, and you can download it here.

The essence of the article is that the characteristics of successful inbound marketers are represented by the categories: Digital, Analytic, Reach and Content. In other words, D= Hire Digital Citizens, A= Hire for Analytical Chops, R= Hire for Web Reach and C= Hire Content Creators. My current client is looking for such a marketing person.

You Can’t Tweet a Whitepaper- Part 1 of Content Strategy and Tactics

I heard someone say, “Marketing is just publishing.” And if this is true, then the saying “Content is king,” should also be true. The question is… does your king have clothes? And is he dressed appropriately?

In thinking about content I’ve come up with four key elements and a set of questions you can ask yourself about each to see how well-dressed your king is.

The four elements are: 1) Creation, 2) Quality, 3) Focus and 4) Media. Marketing’s job is not content creation…

Thirty Things to Do Before, During and After Your Webinar – Part III

Share Part III: After the Webinar Congratulations, you just completed a major webinar event. You had reasonable attendance, there were no technical glitches and the audience was engaged. You should be able to relax, but here are a few other things you may want to consider: 1. Tell your audience about upcoming webinars. Before you […]

Thirty Things to Do Before, During, and After Your Webinar- Part II

There are hundreds of people on standby waiting for your webinar to start. Are you really ready? Will you forget some critical detail? This is the point at which something could go wrong and most likely will. Here are some things to think about.

30 Things To Do Before, During, and After Your Webinar – Part I

Webinars or web clinics are ubiquitous. Their growth is a result of automation, the need for cost effectiveness, and our limited bandwidth. I think they also are a way for prospects to get information without having to face a sales person. As effective as they are, I’ve been an attendee at many webinars that just don’t cut it. Either there were technical issues, or the subject matter was too dull, or they had some other issue. Putting on a good webinar takes skill. Here are a few tips to help.

Marketing Automation: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I am a big believer in automating. Whenever I am faced with some arduous task, I ask myself, how can I automate it so I don’t have to do this again? I hate doing stupid manual work. And I don’t like it when my clients or employees do stupid manual work either. The interesting thing is that it’s almost always easier to do what you need manually. Or does it?