It is Monday

It is Monday. Salespeople are dragging into the office for another week of smiling and dialing. I say this often but sales has changed. It is mainly inbound and mainly through search. So if you don’t have a content marketing strategy, you are not even in the conversation. Buyers are informed via the Internet and social networks. Prices are transparent too. By the time a customer reaches out to you, they are almost done with the purchasing process.

One thing to keep in mind is that the transition from server to cloud is one that is triggered. Rarely are businesses waking up and saying let’s transition to cloud today. There has to be a trigger – something breaks or a move or some event (new investor, invigorated owner, something). At that time, your company, your brand, your service or at least your salesperson better be top of mind – salient.

Marketing has many parts: branding, PR, advertising, et al. The big ones today are website/online marketing, content, social, email and drip marketing. That is a lot to handle. And you are saying: Pffft, he’s crazy. It’s fine. We are still growing. Okay. Maybe you don’t need it YET.

Salespeople should be learning too. Training of some kind — or at the least reading. Here are a couple of good reads:

Gitomer’s Sales Caffeine
Seth Godin’s blog
40 THINGS TO DO WHEN BUSINESS IS SLOW (TO HELP GROW YOUR BUSINESS)

Tom Peters’ book list.

Books to boost your Creativity, an ingredient in sales and innovation.