The CRAP Report

Maybe you’re asking yourself, “Self, who should I follow on Twitter?”  Maybe you’ve asked yourself that and have made your way here, to The CRAP Report.  If so, you can check out two posts below to see who I suggested you follow two months ago.  Maybe you’ve followed all of those folks and are looking for more.

I still think the Follow Friday blog post is a good idea.

Here’s my list of B2B all-stars that I think you’ll find yourself glad to follow:

• @mvolpe – Mike Volpe, HubSpot’s VP of Inbound Marketing.  Mike’s also the co-host of HubSpot TV, and the majority of Mike’s tweets are about, what else?  Inbound marketing.  You’ll also get some good SEO knowledge, great blogging tips, marketing data, and some lead gen stuff, too.  Check out Mike’s blog Marketing with Mike for blog articles.
• @keenan – Jim Keenan, VP of Sales Strategy at 2Wire.  Jim always offers great sales advice, and does so with a personal touch through his blog, A Sales Guy.  Jim tweets about sales issues, sales management issues, and sales processes.
• @paulcastain – Paul Castain is the VP of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics.  Paul’s whole M.O. is to make people better, whether it’s a better sales rock star or a better sales Jedi.  Regardless of what you want to become, Paul wants to help, and one way he does so is through his blog Paul Castain’s Sales Playbook.
• @MackCollier – Mack Collier is a social media consultant, trainer, and speaker.  His tweets are going to be full of these, except on Sunday nights, when he runs a blog chat through Twitter.  Mack knows about building a community and it’s evident if you read through a blog chat transcript.  Mack’s blog, The Viral Garden, is one to read for thoughts on any of the topics above.
• @HolgerSchulze – Holger Schulze is a technology marketing guy from Washington, D.C.  Holger tweets really relevant articles regarding B2B Sales and Marketing, and you should read his blog, Everything Technology Marketing. Holger’s articles are typically about trends and issues surrounding, yup – you guessed it, technology marketing.
• @justinlevy – Justin Levy is the Director of Business Development, Corporate Strategy, and Client Services at New Marketing Labs.  Justin is a prolific tweeter and his tweets are often a mix between the personal and business, but they’re always good.  Justin has a blog, Justin Levy, which explores social media and its impact in the business world.  Justin is also a partner at Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse.
• @iannarino – S. Anthony Iannarino is a B2B Sales coach, and his tweets reflect that.  The majority of his tweets are ways to improve B2B sales reps/teams.  His blog, The Sales Blog, is chock full of articles on becoming a better sales person.  Check it out.

Hopefully I’ve been able to share someone new with you.  If you want, feel free to leave some more recommendations in the comments below!

Photo Credit:  Rosaura Ochoa via Flickr

In response to Chris Brogan’s tweet and subsequent blog post about turning Twitter’s Follow Friday into a more expanded blog entry, detailing why you think people should follow your recommendations, here’s my entry – The CRAP Report’s #FollowFriday list: 

• @dmscott – C’mon, you knew that David Meerman Scott was going to be on this list, didn’t you?  I mean, the guy is a marketing genius, and if you’re not following him, I’d be really curious as to why.

 

• @funnelholic – Craig Rosenberg, the Funnelholic, offers great demand generation information, and presents it in a way that I find really enjoyable to read.  Plus, he’s got GREAT taste in music.

 

• @abneedles – Adam Needles, from SilverPop, offers fantastic data and stats on B2B marketing.  The guy is all over the US running SilverPop’s B2B Marketing University.  He’s like the hardest working guy in marketing.

 

• @gerhard20 – Gerhard Gschwandtner shares great info on Sales topics, from his recent posts about using his iPad for business to Sales 2.0 discussions.

 

• @FearlessSelling – Kelley Robertson, Sales trainer, is always offering ways to be a better sales rep.

 

• @B2Bbloggers – Jeremy Victor’s fantastic website where readers can find tons of different information on marketing insights.

 

• @StephanieTilton – B2B content marketing wiz.  ‘Nuff said.

 

• @bridgegroupinc – Trish Bertuzzi, shares tons of inside sales tips and tactics, straight from The Bridge Group’s blog, Inside Sales Experts.

 

• @damphoux – Mike Damphousse, appointment setting braniac.  You want to know about Unified Demand Gen, follow Mike.

 

• @paul_mccord – Paul McCord, Business Development Strategist and all around nice guy.  For the last couple of weeks, Paul has been on a mission to raise the value of quality sales and marketing content by suggesting people for his Twitter followers to follow, one at a time.

 

• @ardath421 – Ardath Albee, B2B marketing strategist and author of the book eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale.  You can learn TONS from Ardath. 
• @rapril – This is my boss, Richard April.  He told me that he has to go on this list.

If you read The CRAP Report, I really don’t think I’m sharing anything new with you here.  If you’re not following these folks, you should be.  This list is by no means exhaustive; there are a ton of other folks that you should follow as well.  If you have questions about others, let me know!

As a new feature here on The CRAP Report, I’m going to start posting interviews every so often.  I had the fantastic opportunity to interview marketing expert David Meerman Scott back in February, and although most interviews include short snippets of what the interviewee’s answers are, I thought it was really important that I present to you the full transcript of the interview.  I couldn’t find anything that I thought I should leave on the editing floor, so to speak.  It’s a bit long-ish, but trust me when I tell you, it’s worth the read. 

I was very honored that David was willing to spend an hour with me and answer some questions about his the second edition of his book, The New Rules of PR and Marketing, as well as some questions about marketing and blogging.  The guy is fantastic – he’s really cool and down to earth and says what he thinks.  I like that. 

So, without further adieu, here’s my interview with David Meerman Scott: Read more… »

HubSpot’s blog featured a guest entry yesterday from Sales 2.0 CEO Nigel Edelshain, entitled “What the Heck is Sales 2.0 (& Why Should I Care)?”  Nigel, as I found out in the article, is the man who coined the term “Sales 2.0:”

Sales 2.0 is about sales people using Web 2.0 tools and social media to sell more effectively

In the entry, Nigel goes on to make the analogy that inbound marketing and Sales 2.0 are like children who size each other up before playing together; slow to get along at first, but when playtime is over, nobody wants to leave one another.  The article is great, but of particular interest to me was this, when talking about businesses that sell something very expensive and have a small prospecting pool from which to generate leads from:

“I always imagine a sales rep in this scenario whose boss comes to him and says ‘how are we getting on penetrating GE’ and the rep who loves inbound marketing too much says ‘we’re waiting for them to hit our website and download a white paper.’”

Inbound marketing certainly makes it easier for an organization to be found, but I believe there is still a need for teleprospecting teams to find qualified sales opportunities.  As marketing and sales teams become more synchronous, I think that teleprospecting can play a great part in helping to bridge the current gap, and then be a part of the grease that makes the unified team run smoother.  Go and check it out, then let me know what you think!

*Photo Credit:  ralphbijker via Flickr

On Tuesday I shared with you a link to lead generation expert The Funnelholic’s The Marketing Hipster Dictionary, Part I.  Today, he posted part two with some help of folks like The Lord of The Leads Tom Scearce (on Twitter @TLOTL) and Chris Jablonski (on Twitter @cjablonski).  The Funnelholic certainly more than gets by with a little help from his friends, adding words like “Return on Contribution” and “Buyer Engagement.” 

My favorite: 

49.  Trapping the chicken in the courtyard:  A semi-obscure “Rocky II” reference/metaphor describing the relentless and often frustrating pursuit of repeatable marketing and sales success. “I feel like a Kentucky Fried idiot.” — Rocky Balboa (@TLOTL)

You can check out The Marketing Hipster Dictionary, Part II here.

Nice work guys!

Hey everybody!

Been real busy today, so unfortunately I have nothing original to share with you. 

Do not fret, though! 

Craig Rosenberg, marketing and lead generation expert also known as the Funnelholic, has come to the rescue!  Today, Craig posted a great blog article over at his site, where he is creating The Marketing Hipster Dictionary.  What a great idea!  Basically, what he’s doing over the course of a couple of different entries (today and next Thursday), is compiling a list of terms that are used not only on his site, but throughout the sales and marketing space.  From defining the term “Marketing Hipster” to “Maven Marketing,” Craig covers it all and offers up some great examples of folks to follow (on Twitter) in appropriate categories.  If you’re not, you can follow Craig on Twitter at @funnelholic.

You can check out The Marketing Hipster Dictionary here.  One thing is for sure:  someday, when I grow up, I want to make it on the list and be a Marketing Hipster myself.

Great job, Craig!

So you’re thinking about building an in-house teleprospecting team, huh? I mean, someone has to follow up on all of those inbound leads you’re getting, right? Maybe you’re hosting webinars and need those attendees followed up on, right? The most logical thing to do would be to build some sort of qualification machine to follow up on all the contacts you’ve got from all of the marketing programs/events/campaigns you’ve run (and more than likely never got around to getting in touch with). You could give them to your sales guys, no doubt. Trish Bertuzzi, President and Chief Strategist over at the inside sales consulting firm, The Bridge Group, blogged about this with some help from Kirko Papjanis over at her blog, Inside Sales Experts Blog, where Kirko urges folks to put their sales reps in front of prospects sooner. While I agree with him, it’s been my experience that not all sales reps are willing to be put in front of prospects without having them fully qualified, nor are they as effective. So, if you’re thinking about building an in-house teleprospecting team to generate sales qualified leads, there are some things you need to think of. Read more… »

Do you know the definition of what a “vicious circle” is?  According to dictionary.com it’s, “a situation in which effort to solve a given problem results in aggravation of the problem or the creation of a worse problem.”  Maybe you’ve seen it comically played out in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.  Spoiler alert for those of you who’ve never seen it in the last ten years, but there was a character in it named Fat Bastard, a Scottish hit man, played by Mike Meyers.  Per his name, he really is a fat guy under the employ of the movie’s main antagonist, Dr. Evil.  Near the end of the film, Fat Bastard tries to kill Austin Powers and his co-spy in the movie, Felicity Shagwell, by pretending to be a UPS delivery guy.  Fat Bastard crashes through their front door and tries to kill them, and eventually breaks down in tears and admits that, “I eat because I’m unhappy, and I’m unhappy because I eat. It’s a vicious cycle. Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s someone I need to get in touch with and forgive: meself.”  If you find yourself thinking that you don’t have any budget to put towards teleprospecting in 2010, I think you’re going to find yourself falling into the same vicious circle that got you to that point in the first place. Read more… »

I’m sure around the holidays that you, like me, will have a good number of parties to attend.  Now, some may be family affairs while others may be for work, but for the most part those holiday parties typically have the same thing in common – food.  Wherever you go, I’m sure that there’ll be plenty of food to eat.  Folks will have spent time preparing and cooking great appetizers and main dishes, and desserts, too.  One of the things that may run through your mind while you’re at an event, and probably while you’re eating, is “how can I make this at home?” For a lot of you, though, the better question will be, “how can I make this better at home?”  That’s what cooks, do, right?  They find something they like and then they make it better.  The same thing can be said for your teleprospecting efforts, you know?  You’re sales prospecting machine may be great, but there’s always a way to make it better right?  Of course there is! Read more… »

I’m not too young that I can’t remember Lee Majors as Steve Austin, The Six Million Dollar Man.  Sure, it came out in 1974 and ran until 1978, when I turned five years old, but I know I watched it on reruns.  I even had the really cool Bionic Man action figure; you know, the one where you look through his eye for bionic vision?  That show (and action figure) was awesome!  Here’s this astronaut who is badly injured during a crash and the government comes along and gives him cybernetic parts, and basically turns him into a superhero.  The opening to the show was so cool, too.  “We can make him better than he was before.  Better, stronger, faster.”  How can you do that with your teleprospecting campaigns?  How can you take a sales prospecting effort that’s crashed and burned and rebuild it? Read more… »