Smash The Funnel - The Secrets To Massive Revenue Growth

The latest buzzword in the sales and marketing world is conversational marketing. Unless you’re living off the grid, you are likely seeing the term on your LinkedIn feed, in your favorite blogs and anywhere else you get your sales and marketing content fix.

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This Little-Known Stage Might Be Why You’re Not Closing More New Customers

I talk about it a lot with clients, but most of the so-called marketing and sales experts tend to skip right over this important point. People make their purchase decisions emotionally and then rationalize those decisions.

This means you have to quickly and effectively connect with your prospects emotionally, and this is not about facts, figures, features and benefits. It’s more about know, like and trust.

Once you do this, you’ll still have to help them rationalize their decision before they’ll sign your paperwork, which means you have to identify this stage in the buyer journey and plan for it proactively.

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It’s Down To Three: You’re In The Running, And It’s Up To Sales To Keep Them Moving

Your marketing performed as well as expected. You interrupted your prospect’s status quo, you got them to be aware of new solutions, you helped them consider all of their options and they agreed to do something different.

Now, after careful consideration, they have decided to go with you or one of your two biggest competitors. 

Welcome to the Evaluation Stage!

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How You Handle These Two Strategic Decisions Will Decide Whether You Miss Or Make Your 2019 Revenue Goals

This is an interesting time of year for CEOs and for marketing and sales pros. We’re in the fourth quarter and everyone is trying to finish the year strong, but at the same time, savvy business leaders are starting to think about getting ready for 2019.

Because of those competing objectives, businesses make the same mistakes over and over again this time of year. The good news is you still have time to make different decisions this year so that 2019 becomes your best year ever.

Here are the two monster mistakes you’re probably making right now and how to fix them in the next two weeks.

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Leading HubSpot Partner Agencies Merge To Attack Canadian Market And Offer More Integrated Marketing And Sales Services

Conshohocken, PA – Square 2 Marketing, one of HubSpot’s largest and most successful partner agencies, is proud to announce it is merging with Platinum-level HubSpot partner agency SalesHub, located in Toronto, Canada.

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You’re Still In The Early-Stage Buyer Journey; What You Do In This Stage Will Make Or Break Deal Flow

A lot of funnel models have the Consideration Stage identified, but do people really know what to do with prospects in this stage or do they simply consider them nurture candidates?

By understanding exactly what prospects are thinking in the Consideration Stage, you can dramatically change what tactics you use to move them along in their buyer journey.

Prospects in the Consideration Stage are still looking at options, and these options might not include your company.

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It’s Easy For Prospects To Get Stuck In This Stage; Learn How To Move Them Along And Closer To Close

When we created the Cyclonic Buyer Journey™, it was with this Education Stage in mind. Just think back to the last time you were doing some proactive research on the web. How did that feel?

Article after article, videos, podcasts, opinions, best practices, e-books, infographics, self-proclaimed experts, small companies that look big, big companies that look small — it’s impossible to know what is going to be helpful and what is going to be hurtful.

Who has the answer? Who do you believe? What advice is relevant to your company, your industry and your services? What best practices are going to help you drive up numbers? You are trapped in a cyclone of information and content.

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Now That Prospects Are Aware Your Products Or Services Might Represent A Better Way, How Do You Respond?

You did it — you successfully disrupted your prospect’s status quo and they’re aware that you and your company exist. They are aware there might be different ways of doing what they do and that solutions like yours should be at least investigated. Your prospect has moved from Pre-Awareness to Awareness. Now what?

While “now what” is a good place to start, you should be aware that some prospects are already in the Awareness Stage. They’re already looking for companies like yours, so while moving along those who came from Pre-Awareness, we’re also going to talk about getting your company on the radar for those already looking.

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If You Know Your Top Prospects Or You Have A List Of Targeted High-Value Prospects, This Is Where Their Buyer Journey Will Begin

For years, people practicing inbound marketing thought they had to wait for prospects to find them. Then they realized that takes time and being more proactive than reactive might produce better results.

Paid advertising, account-based marketing, events, email marketing and social media are some of the tactics that get deployed when you know who you want to do business with.

However, today more people are messing this up than executing it effectively. So in the first of our 10-article series on the Cyclonic Buyer Journey™, we’re going to look at the Pre-Awareness Stage of the buyer journey, and unpack the tactics, analytics and technology required to execute effectively and drive leads, sales opportunities and new customers.

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Updated based on original post from January 13, 2017

What Is Demand Generation? How Is It Different From Inbound Marketing? And Why Should You Care?

Wikipedia defines demand generation as "the focus of targeted marketing programs to drive awareness and interest in a company’s products and/or services."

HubSpot defines demand generation as programs to "help your organization reach new markets, promote new product features, build consumer buzz, generate PR and re-engage existing customers."

The company notes that demand generation "is more than just a branding concept or early buyer journey marketing tactic. Demand generation programs are touch points throughout the conversion optimization and sales cycles."

HubSpot's website goes on to say that "the goal of demand generation is to build and nurture key prospect and customer relationships for the long term. To do this effectively, marketers need to do things like respond to customer questions on Twitter, promote blog posts through Facebook, host webinars and run email marketing campaigns."

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