Generating Opportunities Archives

Cost accounting has something interesting in common with the prisoner’s dilemma.

The optimal strategy for the prisoner’s dilemma depends on whether you play the game once (defect) or multiple times (cooperate). When it comes to management decisions, cost allocation makes sense if used for a single decision, but it dramatically reduces the organization’s profitability when used across multiple decisions. This is because the impact of a… “Cost accounting has something interesting in common with the prisoner’s dilemma.”

How to sell when no one picks up the phone

(And why you need to stop pretending that your sales team is driving growth.) Here’s a choice that you don’t want to make. Do you want a happy sales team or a fast-growing business? I’m sure you’d like to say “both” and reject my implication that these options are mutually exclusive. But they are: so… “How to sell when no one picks up the phone”

The pursuit of efficiency is making your organization slow, fragile, and less profitable than it otherwise could be.

Investors talk about capital-efficient businesses. That kind of efficiency is good. But, when managers use the word efficiency, they’re referring to components of the larger business. And that’s bad. If you optimize the efficiency of each component of your business, you strip protective capacity out of your organization, causing it to become both slow and… “The pursuit of efficiency is making your organization slow, fragile, and less profitable than it otherwise could be.”

Why you probably want fewer than 30% of your leads to be “inbound”

A number of Marketing folks would have you believe that inbound leads (or sales opportunities) are superior to outbound. (They generally are.) And that inbound (or content) marketing is virtuous and outbound is primitive and disreputable. (This position is pretty much as silly as it sounds!) I’ve pointed to problems with the definition of “inbound”… “Why you probably want fewer than 30% of your leads to be “inbound””

Marketing: Inbound vs Outbound is a False Alternative

I criticized the religion of Inbound Marketing in a previous post. Inbound Marketing: Retards Growth and Turns Marketing Folk into Zombies. I complained that marketing folk were swallowing the dogma and failing to recognize the practical limitations of inbound (or content) marketing. But what I didn’t address are two deeper points: False distinction Inbound Marketing… “Marketing: Inbound vs Outbound is a False Alternative”

If you really like wasting money and annoying prospects then, go ahead, hire a team of Sales Development Reps for your Industrial Sales Company

It’s all the rage nowadays. Build a team of Sales Development Reps (or SDRs) to multiply the productivity of your salespeople. Thing is, as anyone who’s watched Boiler Room knows, this is not exactly a new idea. Boiler Room features a New York bucket shop that uses a call center and high-pressure sales techniques to… “If you really like wasting money and annoying prospects then, go ahead, hire a team of Sales Development Reps for your Industrial Sales Company”

Inbound Marketing: Retards Growth and Turns Marketing Folks into Zombies

I’m getting tired of battling marketing departments over their irrational devotion to Inbound (and Content) Marketing. It seems that marketing folks can’t help but fall violently in love with these concepts, rendering them useless to the rest of the organization. Here’s my beef. I know, from personal experience, that the content marketing thing works, in… “Inbound Marketing: Retards Growth and Turns Marketing Folks into Zombies”

The wonder of webinars (our stats revealed)

I love webinars and, increasingly, our clients are learning to love them too! In this post I’ll share some of our experiences with webinars over the last 7 months and show you why we’re so enthusiastic about them. The results In a previous post, I told you how we build our list (generate new relationships). … “The wonder of webinars (our stats revealed)”

The Machine > Part 2 > Chapter 9: How to generate sales opportunities

If you’re not in the fortunate situation where promotion is easy, then the odds are that it’s really difficult. If you’re in the latter category, this chapter will introduce you to the magnitude of the promotional challenge ahead and explain why (fortunately) moderate success is probably more than sufficient in the early stages of your… “The Machine > Part 2 > Chapter 9: How to generate sales opportunities”

Social Media: update

My last post discussing the results of our initial experiments with Social Media elicited a great response, including an invitation to present a webinar for TOCICO. I’ve just created my slide-deck for that webinar and I’m happy to share it below. If you’re interested in attending the Webinar (there is a charge for non-TOCICO members),… “Social Media: update”

Category Archives: Generating Opportunities