In business to business markets, I am often asked which is best to focus on, advertising or personal (relationship) selling.
Before I answer the question, let’s look at what functions each perform and then draw a conclusion.
Assuming your enterprise has a direct sales force, it performs many functions such as; relationships, promoting your company, finding customers, [...]

Like everything else in this world, there are often multiple choices that can be made. Selecting a sales channel is no different. I have listed below the more popular sales channels and a very high level advantage and disadvantage of each.
Channel                                                      Chief Advantage                        Chief Disadvantage
Direct Sales Force                                  Account Control                                   Can be expensive
     If you have complex products [...]

Recommendations for sales people on how to use LinkedIn to generate sales.

A post suggesting that Internet disintermediation will cause the traditional field sales person to be replaced by telemarketers.

A post showing how the Internet has the potential to replace the telemarketing function.

 
The most common response I hear when I ask a sales person how he or she did for the quarter or the year; is something about their quota. i.e., “I made quota” or “I’m at 70% of quota, but with two big deals hanging fire.”  While quota should always be part of a performance evaluation, [...]

Suggestions for the CMO on using April data to forecast the year, using the information derived to make mid-course corrections, if needed.

Using the decision making process of mothers to illustrate the shift in power from seller to buyer. A shift that is also occurring in the B2B world.

A guest post by Bob McKee, highlighting the Pros and Cons of selling to the Government through the GSA.

A posting that illustrates the change in marketing activities used for lead generation/sales process from a few years ago to today.