Recent Articles From EvanCarmichael.com http://www.evancarmichael.com/ http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Solving-the-Six-Biggest-Problems-with-BtoB-Sales-Training.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Solving-the-Six-Biggest-Problems-with-BtoB-Sales-Training.html Companies both large and small realize the absolute necessity of having a top-notch, high-functioning sales force and spend a great deal of time and money in training and motivating their sales teams. It stands to reason that those companies’ sales training regimens should be every bit as good as they want their salespeople to be, yet way too many fall short. Identify and solve the six biggest problems with sales training to enable Sales to win more deals, faster. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Twisted-But-True-HighQuality-B2B-Marketing-Messaging-Dramatically-Reduces-Sales-and-Marketing-Effectiveness--Assess-Your-Messaging-with-This-FivePoint-Checklist.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Twisted-But-True-HighQuality-B2B-Marketing-Messaging-Dramatically-Reduces-Sales-and-Marketing-Effectiveness--Assess-Your-Messaging-with-This-FivePoint-Checklist.html Does this sound familiar? Your company has spared no expense in training its sales force and providing it with a slew of slick, detailed marketing materials. Yet your highly motivated sales team keeps missing its revenue, profit and market share targets. Well-conceived and -executed marketing messaging can actually reduce sales and marketing effectiveness. Many companies fail to meet their objectives because their marketing initiatives are lacking one essential element: persuasive sales messaging. When giving their brand, company, and product messaging an analytical look, companies often quickly discover that their messaging to customers is mostly descriptive, rather than persuasive — a vital ingredient in closing sales. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Predictions-What-Lies-Ahead-for-Sales-and-Marketing.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Predictions-What-Lies-Ahead-for-Sales-and-Marketing.html Over the last several decades, corporations have implemented sets of best practices and software automation tools for some of their key departments - Manufacturing, Finance, Operations - to allow those departments to measure their efforts and attain maximum effectiveness in helping their firm keep its competitive edge and grow revenues, profits and market share. But what about two other critical groups: Sales and Marketing? This article examines the current push by many boards and CEOs to create a more formal set of best practices and software solutions for their Sales and Marketing departments and then outlines the steps many companies are taking to develop and automate a set of best practices for Sales and Marketing. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Gold-and-Silver-Bullets-Critical-Messaging-for-Successful-InvestorFunded-Firms.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Gold-and-Silver-Bullets-Critical-Messaging-for-Successful-InvestorFunded-Firms.html Too often, companies use the same set of words and ideas in their attempts to win buyers as they use to win investors. But this approach fails to address key questions — and can cause firms to flounder. There is an efficient and effective way to increase profitability and avoid dissolution — through the use of Gold and Silver Bullets. The Gold-and-Silver-Bullet methodology demands clear, separate, and fully articulated answers to different types of stakeholder-questions. This helps companies gain secure footing with investors and customers alike, increasing valuations and accelerating sales cycles. Cannon offers groundbreaking advice and practical solutions that help firms evaluate and adjust blurred me http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Five-Ways-to-Test-Your-Sales-Messaging-for-Greatness.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Five-Ways-to-Test-Your-Sales-Messaging-for-Greatness.html What grade would you give yourself on the quality and effectiveness of the sales support messaging and materials you prepare for your staff? Not an “A+”? Don’t feel bad, you’re hardly alone. According to a recent poll that appeared in BtoB magazine, some 70% of the marketeers polled gave themselves “D’s” and “F’s”. This article gives sales and marketing executives and their staff a sure-fire way to doublecheck that their sales messaging is working to maximum effect, and, if not, ways to improve it. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Fire-Hire-and-Repeat-Is-There-a-Better-Way-to-Improve-Sales-Performance.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Fire-Hire-and-Repeat-Is-There-a-Better-Way-to-Improve-Sales-Performance.html Fire-hire-repeat is a classic management tactic and a major drain on productivity and profits. The time and money spent seeking out, interviewing, and training new hires alone should be enough to dissuade anyone from this tactic as their primary route to improve sales effectiveness – but the “body wars” are all too frequently considered the best way to improve sales. There is a better alternative. It is the sales and marketing system, not the sales team, that is most often responsible for the disconnect between sales goals and sales results. And addressing the breakdowns in the underlying system is a more cost-effective, less risky way to improve results and break the vicious cycle of fire, hire, and repeat. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Face-Off-Value-Propositions-vs-Sales-Messaging--Why-Your-Value-Prop-Is-Losing-and-What-to-Do-About-It.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Face-Off-Value-Propositions-vs-Sales-Messaging--Why-Your-Value-Prop-Is-Losing-and-What-to-Do-About-It.html This article debunks the myth of the value proposition as a magic bullet for sales. You'll learn why most value propositions are more like blank or copper bullets and how to provide your sales team with the silver bullets they need to grow your sales pipeline and win more business. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Does-Sales-Messaging-Fuel-Your-Product-Life-Cycle-It-Should.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Does-Sales-Messaging-Fuel-Your-Product-Life-Cycle-It-Should.html Business-to-business marketing professionals who create sales messaging for each stage in their product’s life cycle reap great rewards – consistently attaining 5% more market share, 5-10% better margins, and the bonuses and promotions that come with these numbers. However, many marketing professionals fail to optimize messaging for each phase of the cycle – rendering their sales tools and promotions ineffective. This leads to underproduction in Sales, as Sales must re-create marketing materials in order to sell. Closing the gap between Marketing’s offerings and Sales’ needs is easy if Marketing uses proper sales messaging. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Answer-Your-Buyers-Key-Questions--Make-Your-Sales-Messaging-Great.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Answer-Your-Buyers-Key-Questions--Make-Your-Sales-Messaging-Great.html In this article, you'll learn what buying questions are and why they're the secret ingredient in the creation of crisp, effective sales messaging. If your messaging is, well, mushy, like that of so many other companies, take three minutes now to learn how to create great sales messaging and start increasing your win rates. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Why-B2B-Messaging-Quality-Is-So-Abysmally-Low--Marketers-Need-a-Better-Way-to-Be-More-Relevant-to-Customers-Sales--and-the-Growth-of-Profitable-Revenue-and-Market-Share.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Sales/4012/Why-B2B-Messaging-Quality-Is-So-Abysmally-Low--Marketers-Need-a-Better-Way-to-Be-More-Relevant-to-Customers-Sales--and-the-Growth-of-Profitable-Revenue-and-Market-Share.html It’s a curious thing. Among B2B companies, there’s general agreement on the definition of high-quality messaging, yet the actual quality of most B2B messaging remains quite low. Why is this? It’s a critical question that needs to be asked and then addressed — i.e., marketers need to develop an effective, optimum way to be more relevant to their companies’ sales teams and customers to insure targeted growth in revenue, profits, and market share.