Sales Archives - Argentum Strategy

So You Have a Positioning Statement – Now What? Elevator Pitches.

For fledgling marketers, it’s not always clear how to use a positioning statement beyond on-boarding and grounding creative partners. The good news is that it’s actually a tool that can be used to enhance all of your sales and marketing efforts, not just the classic creative ones like ads and collateral. A great example is using your...

It’s Okay to be Needy – Identifying Your B2B Customers’ Unmet Needs

Defining your customers’ unmet need can be one of the trickiest parts of developing a strong positioning statement, especially since it has to be a need your customers know they have. It hurts me every time I hear someone say “we just need to educate our customers,” because that’s a pretty good indication that the speaker...

B2B Content Marketing: Digital vs. Face-to-Face

There’s exciting new research out from my alma mater, the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, about how B2B marketing teams can help drive more quality leads to sales through digital content marketing. The research, conducted by professor Bobby Calder and his team at the Medill School’s Speigel Research Center, explored which...

B2B Featured Tactic: VITO-esque Campaign

Way back when I was working with one of my very first B2B clients, the CEO’s agency introduced me to the concept of a VITO (Very Important Top Officer) campaign. It was a great addition to my marketing arsenal, and I pull it out when I have a client who is targeting a manageable number of senior-level individuals. VITO is a direct...

Give Your Sales Force Marketing Flexibility

Many of our clients come to us to help them become more strategic in the way they approach their marketing spending. One of our middle market clients was in the midst of a major geographic expansion when we first began working together to build a comprehensive marketing plan. The plan we developed together included two key tools to facilitate...

Blowing Up the B2B Sales Funnel

Last night I read an article from the Harvard Business Review called What Salespeople Need to Know About the New B2B Landscape. The authors talk about the implications of the latest B2B research from Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. The research offers up a new way of looking at the...

How Marketing and Sales Evolve at Companies

I often mention Phil Kotler’s Harvard Business Review article Ending The War Between Sales and Marketing when talking to clients and potential clients. It’s a great piece about the evolution and co-existence of sales and marketing in an organization. Most importantly to me, it lays out the key responsibilities of each function and how...