This article from Terry Stanfield, outlines the basics of creating relationship via the telephone. It’s an interesting aspect of sales and generating leads that’s often over looked. While email makes communication fast, it is also very impersonal. Face to face meetings are always best but fuel costs can make some think twice before crossing the country…or even crossing town.

The good old fashioned telephone however, is intimate, cheap and very personal. The focus of the article on creating relationship is key. Afterall, most of our experiences with unsolicited phone calls is negative. Like all sales, the rejection rate must be horrific, yet the investment in time does build relationships with prospects that could lead to a sale. Depending on your product that could be either a phone call away or a meeting set up during the call. Read the full story

I hear it all the time: Tradeshows are a waste of time and money. We stand around, selling our hearts out, and what do we have to show at the end of the day? Nothing. Read the full story

Microsoft offers some good advice from a decidedly informed perspective on email marketing. The piece can be a bit of a downer if you’re thinking that email blasting will bring quick rates of returns. If you think about it, the Internet is no differet from real life when it comes to marketing: there’s no easy way out. Only through focus, consistency, and follow-through will email marketing succeed — the same could be applied to just about every form of marketing out there including tradeshows.Still, the article points out that making information easy to share is key. Social networking has made sharing information easier than ever. Here are the tips and a link to the full article: Read the full story

So while we’re not sure entirely how this works, it’s darned cool. It’s the closest thing to fully interactive holograms bridging the gap between the online world and the cyber realm.
The applications seem endless. There’s definitely a “Wow!” factor here but after the dust settle, it seems like there could be some very practical applications at trade shows as well as in sales.

7 is kind of an arbitrary number and the use of the word “top” seems a little dubious. Is there an 8th reason that just didn’t make the cut. In any case, the site is called top7business.com and I suppose it focuses the discussion. This list cites consumers but we think that it applies to BtoB as well. The fact of the matter is that email campaigns are the same as any kind of advertising: you have to grab attention and hold it and not focus on price. Read the full story

Technology is no doubt a huge boon to the sales process. Everything from smart phones to CRM program help people become more efficient and effective at generating more leads and closing more quickly. Right?

Well, getting the true benefits out of all of these tools can be tricky and there doesn’t seem to be one quick fix out there. So we collected an overview of some opinions bouncing around the web here. A healthy number of experts out there seem to take technology as a mixed blessing and something to cautiously integrate with more personal selling techniques. Read the full story