New Website -Our 2nd Step to Sales Optimization

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Sat, Apr 16, 2011

describe the imageAs a Professor of Marketing at Tufts, (and just maybe someone who think that he knows something about sales effectiveness and optimization),I've felt like the Cobbler's Kid for about a year now. 

Never enough time to think through a new website, and certainly zippo time to learn a new platform.  But beginning last December, put a stake in the ground to move ahead.

Launched yesterday with new site built on a HubSpot platform.  Very excited about the look & feel, and even more about the flexibility.  Prior site was fine...back in the day when a site was little else than a billboard in the desert, but a couple of things that I've learned especially this past year about sales & marketing continue to drive me forward on all of this:

1.  The world of Marketing changes by the minute.  No textbooks anymore.  Five years ago when I became a professor at Tufts, my Chair sent me a text book talking about the 4 P's which referred to the Internet as a new thing.  First problem that I had is that I've never been able to remember all 4 P's.  The second was the I know that Marketing & Sales today need to be totally focused about driving One Simple Thing (credits to Chris Colbert, CEO of Holland Mark), and that's Value.  If your salespeak and market positioning don't answer the question of "So, what value are you going to give me?", then it's all just stories and mindless chatter.

Have never thought about a textbook since then.  This semester's content is 40% outdated by the end of May.

2.  The world of Sales changes by the hour.  Relationships are "ok" and "nice", but meaningless both to the prospect and your salespeople, if there is no formal process with integrated CRM, drop-down tools, metrics which help rather than whip, and everything on mobile apps.

3.  Marketing today is a timed experiment.  With hundreds of choices of how to spend my even more limited money, campaigns ned to be short, lead-driven, and flexible.

4.  And last, today in Sales & Marketing, you have two choices:  get on board and adapt, change and experiment or fall dramatically behind and whine about "life used to be so simple".  Yep, it was simple...and boring and certainly not very effective for our salespeople.

Let me know what you think at jack@derbymanagement.com.

Keep Selling !

Jack
Head Coach
jack@derbymanagement.com

 

 

 

 

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, marketing effectiveness, marketing productivity, Sales quota, sales training, business planning, marketing management