This blog post is about three things:

1. Smarketing Strategy #7
2. Applying the ZMOT to B2B Sales
3. How to Make Webinars Your #1 LEAD SOURCE

In my last blog post I shared Smarketing Strategy #6 : How to nurture prospects, score opportunities, and notify sales at EXACTLY the right time.  If you did not have time to read it, below is a short video (3:00) that explains it.

Smarketing Strategy #7 – using the Situation, Target, Plan (STP) framework - is to analyze your best wins so you can improve your content, where you place it and your scoring system. Your best wins are the ones where three or more of the following happened:

1. The sales cycle was shorter than normal
2. The sale was relatively easy to make
3. There was little or no price objection
4. The customer is willing to be a reference or to give you a testimonial

Odds are these best wins happened because the decision maker was in the Window of Dissatisfaction™ when you got to them and these are the wins you want to find a lot more of. You can learn more about identifying these wins by downloading the Window of Dissatisfaction™ worksheet and instructions on how to use it.

Recently Google has described the activities that prospects engage in while in the Window of Dissatisfaction™ as the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT).

When 73% of CEOs think Marketers lack business credibility it’s great to see the Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) of organizations like General Electric, Johnson & Johnson,  and General Foods embracing ZMOT.

Listen to Beth Comstock the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of General Electric (GE) and VPs at FedEx & Grainger talk about how ZMOT applies to both Business-To-Business (B2B) & Business-To-Consumer (B2C) selling.

This video includes a segment where she goes on to give an example of what they are doing to apply the ZMOT to sell IT solutions to hospitals.

In all of their models Google talks about a stimulus that comes before the ZMOT.

From a Trigger Event Selling™ perspective this stimulus is the first Trigger Event – The one makes a decision maker want to change - Shifts them out of Status Quo and into the Window of Dissatisfaction™.

Once you know the events that trigger the ZMOT you can implement a strategy to turn prospects that are in the ZMOT into customers.

Here is an example of how you can apply a ZMOT strategy to B2B Selling.

What are the best strategies to apply the ZMOT to B2B selling?

Since learning about Google’s Zero Moment of Truth I have searched for strategies and tactics that B2B sales and marketing teams can use but so far I have found almost nothing.

So rather than wait for this kind of content to be delivered I decided to put together a team of Tier 1 thought leaders that could create and deliver unique, compelling and relevant content on how to benefit from the ZMOT.

So far the following people are part of this team:

• Christine Crandell: The creator of the Buyers Journey
• Patrick Cahill: An expert resource on how to make webinars pay
• Tony Zambito:  The originator of the Buyer Persona methodology
• Carlos Hidalgo: The Executive Director of the Marketing Automation Institute
• Doug Kessler: Runs a brilliant B2B Marketing company in the UK called Velocity

I’m currently looking for a Tier 1 thought leader on B2B Social Media and Search Engine Optimization to be part of the team. Please call/text me (+1.403.874.2998) if you know someone you think should be considered for the group.

In the new year I’ll be working with this team to deliver a 7-part series on the 7 Best Ways to Apply ZMOT to B2B Selling.

How to Make Webinars Your #1 LEAD GENERATION METHOD

In the world of B2B Selling, webinars are one of the best ways to attract the attention of those who are in the ZMOT.

To help B2B sales organizations harness the Zero Moment of Truth I am also working with Citrix’s Goto Meeting and GoTo Webinar teams to put together an insightful 3-part series on that will show you the end to end process (Webinar planning to closing the sale) of how to make webinars your #1 LEAD GENERATION METHOD.

The first one is on Tuesday, January 10, 9 AM (PST) / 12 PM (EST).

When done right, webinars can be the best way to generate a large number of interested prospects for your sales team.

Using the right mindset, strategies, and tools you’ll be amazed at what a webinar can deliver.

Hear Craig Elias and Patrick Cahill share important steps to improve the quality AND quantity of webinar generated leads.

Join this live webinar to learn:

• Which content gets the highest number of registrations
• Which activities drive a higher than average attendance rate
• What gets the best prospects to identify themselves during the webinar
• How to re-purpose webinars to generate an ongoing flow of sales-ready leads

Register even if you can’t make the live event because all registrants receive links to the recording and handout from the event.

Click the button below to sign up now!

http://bit.ly/BestLeadGenMethod

Learn more about the speakers below!

Patrick Cahill is an expert resource for organizations like SalesForce.com, Hoovers, RainToday, and The Sales Lead Management Association. He helps them understand how to host compelling webinars that attract motivated prospects, develop valuable content that establishes credibility, implement flawless events that engage and impress attendees, and implement follow-up programs that uncover qualified opportunities.

Craig Elias is the creator of Trigger Event Selling™ and author of the Bronze Medal winner of the Top Sales Books of 2010 “SHiFT!“ His knowledge of Trigger Events has resulted in a 20 year track record as a top sales performer, winning a $1,000,000 prize in a global billion dollar idea competition and coverage on NBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal.

Have an eventful Christmas!

Craig

This blog post is about three things:

1. 5 Ways To WIN AT SOCIAL SELLING
2. Smarketing Strategy #6
3. Lead Nurturing Resources

Did you know it’s easier to sell today than it was 10 years ago?

Sales professionals who harness real-time data available via social media have an unfair advantage over those that don’t.

Learn the best mindset, strategies and tools to reach motivated decision makers before your competition.

Join experts David Meerman Scott and Craig Elias on Tuesday November 22^nd and learn:

• The best tools to use
• How to leverage real-time information
• How to make your solution more relevant right now
• How to create content that attracts the best prospects
• How to share content that gets decision makers to call you

This webinar will be moderated by Cliff Pollan the CEO of VisibleGains - His tool VisibleGains for sales is one of my favourite Social Selling tools.

Register even if you can’t make the live event because all registrants receive links to the recording and handout from the event.

Click the button below to sign up now!

http://bit.ly/WinAtSocialSelling

Learn more about the speakers below!
David Meerman Scott’s book The New Rules of Marketing & PR opened people’s eyes to the new realities of marketing and public relations on the Web.

David’s popular Web Ink Now blog and hundreds of speaking engagements around the world give him a singular perspective on how businesses are implementing new strategies to reach buyers.

Craig Elias is the creator of Trigger Event Selling™ and author of the Bronze Medal winner of the Top Sales Books of 2010 “SHiFT!“ His knowledge of Trigger Events has resulted in a 20 year track record as a top sales performer, winning a $1,000,000 prize in a global billion dollar idea competition and coverage on NBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal.

In my last blog post I shared Smarketing Strategy #5 : How to convert visitors to prospects.  If you did not have time to read it, below is a short video (1:50) that explains the three best questions ask when following up with those who access your digital marketing content.

Smarketing Strategy #6 – using the Situation, Target, Plan (STP) framework - is to nurture, score, notify sales at EXACTLY the right time.

Carlos Hidalgo – The Executive Director of the Marketing Automation Institute – has a Lead Management Framework that explains some of the benefits of effective lead nurturing are:

• Deals closed on nurtured leads have a 47% higher order value
• Nurture email have a 200% higher open rate
• Win rates are improved by up to 20%

My contribution to the lead nurturing conversation is understanding there are three key times you want to notify sales about a prospect’s activity:

1) They Reach a Scoring Threshold

In order to minimize prospect frustration and maximize sales productivity, sales 2.0 savvy organizations are implementing lead scoring systems that are an indicator of a decision makers likelihood of making a buying decision soon.

If you want to create a lead scoring system that includes key elements of Trigger Event Selling™ here is the link to download the Trigger Event Scoring™ worksheet.

When you complete the form you will receive an email with links to the Trigger Event Scoring™ (aka Trigger Event Qualifying™) worksheet, instructions on how to use it, and a sample of the completed worksheet.

2) Their Email Address Bounces

As you may have heard from me before a single bounce email is a Trigger Event that creates at least three different sales opportunities for a savvy sales professional to phone and follow-up on:

1. The person who left – where did they go?
2. The person who left – who took their place?
3. The person who took their place – where did they come from?

3) They Access Justification Resources

When the access justification resources it is highly they have experienced both the want event and the afford event now they need to justify their decision to their superiors, subordinates, or stakeholders.

Now is one of the key moments in making sure the purchase happens and you are the supplier who wins the deal.

Tom Pisello – the ‘ROI Guy’ – has an excellent infograph that talks about the need to help decision makers justify their decision based by providing:

• ROI calculators
• Third party validation of your claims
• Business cases on other customers who have benefited from your solution

One of the things that Tom’s company -Alinean - does is help organizations build ROI calculators. See their Social Media ROI calculator as an example of what they do.

Eloqua – My choice as the #2 Sales 2.0 Sales Tool - has some great resource on the process of lead nurturing:

1. A Best Practice Tool Kit on Nurturing
2. Blog posts and webinars on Nurturing
3. An infograph on which content is best used when

Have an eventful month!

Craig

P.S. Carlos Hidalgo is one of the speakers in my three part webinar series – How to Turn Webinars Into Your #1 LEAD GENERATION METHOD - with Citrix (GoToWebinar & GoToMeeting) that runs the 2^nd Tuesday of January, February, & March. Stay tuned for registration details.

This blog post is about three things:

1. Smarketing Strategy #5
2. Resistance Free Selling
3. Sales 2.0 and Social Media

In my last blog post I shared Smarketing Strategy #4 : How to put your content where the best prospects go. If you did not have time to read it, below is a short video (0:25) that explains this ‘Here vs. There’ problem and here is a visual that also explains it.

Smarketing Strategy #5 – using the Situation, Target, Plan (STP) framework - is to convert visitors to prospects and then connect with them.

I’m a big fan of using forms on a web site to convert visitors to prospect and I am a big believer of MIT’s lead follow up research - which demonstrates that you are 100X 100 times more likely to reach the person who filled in a form when you follow up in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes.

The report has some other enlightening information and can be downloaded from InsideSales.com. So if you are going to follow up on web leads do so as fast as possible.

I firmly believe that the statistics of those who fill in forms are similar to those who register for webinars. Patrick Cahill writes in an article “How to Pinpoint Real Sales Opportunities with Your Webinars”

People who register for events fall into four categories: immediate opportunities (5%) and short-term leads (20%), long-term leads (50%), and perfectly nice people who will never buy related services (25%).

The challenge is to ask questions that help you figure which group is which without pissing any of them off by being too aggressive.

So when I phone those who complete a form on my web site I always introduce myself (to make sure they know who I am) and the ask for permission to ask three quick questions   …  ”I’m Craig Elias, the Trigger Event Selling™ guy whose information you just filled in a form to download. Can I ask for two minutes of your time to ask three quick questions?”

What are the three best questions to ask?

The best way to answer that question is to start first by asking – What are the most important things to learn?

For me the three most important things I want to learn about those who fill in a form on my web site are:

1. Did they get the email, with the link to the resource the requested?
2. What made them fill in the form?
3. Is there a sales opportunity?

In today’s world of a million and one different spam filters you can never be sure that the email your systems automatically send out gets into the recipient’s inbox.

So, my first question is “Did you receive the email with the link to download the resource?”

Question #2
I am always curious what was it that they saw or heard that captured their attention and made them willing to provide their email address and phone number for in return for access to what is being offered.

So, my second question is “What resonated and made you say it was worth taking the time to complete the form ?”

Question #3
My last and perhaps most important questions is to learn which buying mode the person is in so I can learn if there is a pursuable sales opportunity. Knowing which buying mode someone is in is a key component to Trigger Event Qualifying™.

So my last questions is “What happened recently that made it more relevant or more important?”

If I learn they recently experienced a ‘Want’ Trigger Event and are in the Window of Dissatisfaction™ I ask permission to ask a few more questions so I can understand what problem they are trying to solve or what outcome they are trying to accomplish and then pursue the sale.

If I learn they recently experienced an ‘Afford’ Trigger Event and are already Searching For Alternatives  I ask permission to ask a few more questions so I can understand who they are already talking to and how I can position myself as the least risky alternative.

If I learn they have not recently experienced a Trigger Event and are in the buying mode of Status Quo  - and believe they have money, authority, and influence I start fostering a relationship while raising their expectations.

I use to ask the question where did you hear about this resource but I added that to my forms so I can focus on the what I think are the three most important questions when I get them on the phone.

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of being one of the speakers on a webinar titled “4 Steps to RESISTANCE FREE SELLING” that was put on by iSellUK. Complete the form on the page to access the recording and download the handout.

One of the steps of Resistance Free Selling is selling to those who can afford your services so I went looking for list of companies that who were most likely to afford new services.

During  my search I learned that Silvia Quintanilla of Industry Gems had almost 80 lists of top companies who are highly likely to afford your services. The collection of lists includes:

• Top Banks
• Top Insurers
• Top Hospitals
• Top Manufacturers
• Top Private Companies
• Top Public Companies
• And many more….

Click here to get your copy of The Companies Most Likely to Afford Your Services.

The next Sales 2.0 Conference is about how to leverage Social Media in your sales and marketing efforts.

It will be held in Santa Monica and features great thought leaders like Anneke Seley, Carlos Hidalgo, and Matt Heinz as well as sales and marketing executives from companies like IBM, Salesforce.com, RIM, and Frost & Sullivan.

I’ve had the luxury of attending and presenting at Sales 2.0 conferences in Boston and San Francisco and have always come away with new ways to make sales and marketing more effective and new relationships that help me stay informed of the latest sales and marketing ideas, resources, and success stories.

I would go but I’m travelling to London England to work with one of the world’s largest financial institutions.

Please let me know if you attend so I can call you the week after the event to talk about what you learned.

This blog post is about three things:

1. Smarketing strategy #3
2. Content that captures the best prospects
3. How to SELL WITHOUT DISCOUNTING

In my last blog post I shared Smarketing Strategy #2 : Using a Won Sales Analysis™ – to identify what made you win your best customers so you can replicate your biggest successes.

If you did not read my last blog post below is a short video (4:49) that explains the Won Sales Analysis™.

Smarketing Strategy #3 – using the Situation, Target, Plan (STP) framework - is to tailor your content so it’s highly likely to be noticed by those who recently experienced the Trigger Events you identified during your Won Sales Analysis™.

Have you ever noticed that as soon as you buy a new car you see it all over the road or that when you or your wife get pregnant, you suddenly start seeing pregnant women everywhere?

This is called selective perception. The Trigger Events we experience change what we see. Every time we experience a Trigger Event a new version of selective perception is created. We begin to notice things that were always there. We just did not ‘see’ them.

Why is this important? By focusing your marketing on getting the attention of those who recently experienced a Trigger Event not only will your marketing be more likely to be ‘seen’, its more likely to resonate with the decision maker and cause them to act.

You get their attention by using words, visuals, or scenarios, that will make your marketing jump off of the page and get noticed by those readers who recently experience a Trigger Event and are most likely to become your customers.

The next time you craft a message, harness the power of Trigger Event Marketing™ to focus on the audience that recently experienced a Trigger Event. Remember to use a call to action so that when they see it, they will take that most important step to becoming your customer – phoning you.

Here are  few examples:

• Getting pregnant
• Getting a raise
• Getting engaged
• Getting a new job

If you are asking yourself why am I not using B2B examples, It’s because I have not been able to find any. If you know of any please comment on this blog post and provide a link to your example.

For me it’s always fun to find people who just ‘get it’.

The Trigger Event of me starting this blog post on using Trigger Events in marketing had me seeing blogs that talked about – you guessed it – using Trigger Events in marketing.

One article by Doug Kessler the Creative Director of a B2B Marketing Agency which says “Trigger Marketing … can be the most powerful Huskie in your B2B marketing dogsled” stood out from the rest.

Doug’s article provides some excellent insights and ideas on how to implement Trigger Event Marketing™.

Here is a link to his article B2B content marketing around Buying Triggers

While on the Velocity Partner’s website be sure to checked out their B2B Marketing Manifesto that talks about:

• 3 new realities of B2B Marketing
• The REAL B2B marketing challenge
• 5 B2B imperatives
• 6 B2B staples

P.S. They also have a B2B Content Marketing Workbook that I like.

Join us on September 13^th as thought leaders Mark Hunter, Craig Elias, and Steve Connolly share 3 Ways to Eliminate the Price Objection. (See the bios below.)

You don’t want to miss this FREE Online Event at 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT | 2:00PM -3 :00PM EDT on Tuesday, September 13, 2011.

Register even if you can’t make the live event because all registrants will receive links to the recording and handout from the event.

Click the button or below to sign up now!

http://bit.ly/NoMoreDiscounting

Learn more about the 3 speakers below!

Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” helps B2B sales professionals close more high profit sales by identifying better prospects, building profitable long-term customer relationships, and negotiating mutually beneficial strategic partnerships.

Mark has conducted thousands of training programs to organizations like BP, Novartis, Northrop-Grumman, American Express, and Kawasaki. His book High Profit Selling is due out in December of this year

Steven Connolly is a 15 year veteran of B2B product management and is currently the Senior Product Manager responsible for the revolutionary new sales tool iSell.

Steven is a frequent presenter on sales topics such as using social media for increasing sales as well as best practices for prospecting and lead generation.

Craig Elias is the creator of Trigger Event Selling™ and author of the Bronze Medal winner of the Top Sales Books of 2010 “SHiFT!“ 

His knowledge of Trigger Events has resulted in a 20-year track record as a top sales performer, winning a $1,000,000 prize in a global billion dollar idea competition, having his last company chosen by Dow Jones as one of the 50 most promising companies in North America, and coverage on NBC, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

This blog post is about three things:

1. Seven Sales and Marketing alignment strategies
2. An upcoming trip to London, UK
3. Four podcasts on networking

In my last blog post I talked about my previous top 7 lists (Top 7 Sales 2.0 Tools, Top 7 Social Media Tools, & Top 7 Sales Mistakes) and that my next top seven list will be the Top 7 Sales & Marketing alignment (aka Smarketing) strategies.

Smarketing IS NOT about trying to get people’s attention and telling them what you want to say IT IS about getting the attention of the right people and telling them what they want to hear.

So the big questions are:

• Who are the right people?
• What do they want to hear?
• How do you get their attention?

During my first sales job the General Manager, of what was back then called AMP of Canada, told a story of 10 people on bicycles racing toward their goals versus 10 people on a bicycle built for 10 racing towards a common goal. That was the moment I realized the power of creating alignment in an organization.

Over the next seven months I will share my top seven sales and marketing alignment (aka Smarketing) strategies. I will be using a modified version of the STP process as the framework to help you and your team align your sales and marketing activities.

The STP process is a method to create a common understanding of where you are (the current Situation), get consensus on where you want to go (the desired Target) so that you can create alignment on how you are going to get there (the Plan).

Here is the current version of the STP template that I will be modifying.

The UK

I will be joining Nick Hewer of UK’s “The Apprentice” and Jonathan Farrington in London England to be part of OneSource’s UK product launch.

All attendees will be provided with a copy of my Trigger Event Sellingâ„¢ book – SHiFT!

I will be in London from June 19^th through to June 25^th and staying at the Park Plaza County Hall ( 1 Addington Street) so if you would like to connect over beverages or food while I am there just text me (+1.403.874.2998), Skype me (Craig.Elias) or send me an email (Craig.Elias@TriggerEventSelling.com).

Event Details

Date: Wednesday June 22nd ²⁰¹¹

Location: Vinopolis, London’s City of Wine, No.1 Bank End, London, SE1 9BU

Time: 15:30 – 19:30

http://bit.ly/TriggerLaunchUK

Nick Hewer is Alan Sugar’s right-hand man on the UK version of The Apprentice. His facial expressions, borne of wonderfully dry humour and a lifetime’s business experience, tell you exactly what he thinks of the contestants.
Nick’s speech will take audiences behind the scenes of “The Apprentice”, before turning into an extended question and answer session. With The Apprentice consistently topping the ratings, this is certainly not one to miss.

Craig Elias is the creator of Trigger Event Sellingâ„¢ and the author of SHiFT! Harness The Trigger Events That Turn Prospects into Customers. His knowledge of Trigger Events has resulted in a 20 year track record as a top sales performer.

Jonathan Farrington is a globally recognised business coach, mentor, author and consultant, who has guided hundreds of companies and more than seventy thousand frontline sales professionals and sales leaders around the world towards optimum performance levels. He is Chairman of The JF Corporation and CEO of Top Sales Associates, based in London and Paris.

This blog post is about three things:

• Art – A webinar with Art Sobczak
• Action –  The second of two podcasts about selling to the C-Suite
• Alignment – Seven strategies for sales and marketing alignment

Art Sobczak  (the Gold medal winner of the Top Sales Books of 2010 ), Steve Connolly (Senior Product Manager for OneSource – the Gold medal winner of the Top Sales 2.0 Solutions of 2010) and myself (Bronze medal winner of the Top Sales Books of 2010) join forces to share the “GOLDEN SALES STRATEGIES of Top Sales Performers”.

In this ‘real time selling’ event we will look at three Trigger Events that happen the day of the event and share how you can use them to sell a number of different solutions.

When you register be sure to select your industry. The three industries with the most registrants will be the ones we apply the ‘real-time’ Trigger Events to.

Date: Tuesday May 24^th – 11:00AM PST | 2:00PM EST

Speakers: Art Sobczak, Steve Connolly & Craig Elias

Registration: http://bit.ly/triggerwebinar

Register even if you can’t make the live event because all registrants will receive links to the recording and handout from the event.

Click the button below to sign up now!

http://bit.ly/triggerwebinar

Below is my 2nd podcast with Steve Bistritz the author of Selling to the C-Suite.

In this podcast we talk about value and what makes executives buy.

We also talk about the power of:

• Establishing rapport and a connection with executives
• Understanding an executives aspirations, value, and interests
• Working with those who will have money, authority, and influence not just those who have it now

In the past two years months I have created three different top 7 lists:

• Top 7 Sales 2.0 Tools
• Top 7 Social Media Tools
• Top 7 Sales Mistakes

For the next seven months I will write about sales and marketing alignment (aka smarketing).

On the last Tuesday of May and will focus on why sales and marketing alignment is so important.

My first post – the #7 Smarketing Strategy – will be published the first Tuesday of June.

I would like to include some success stories in that post so if you have a smarketing success story you would like to share with the 8,000+ readers of this blog post please contact me via phone (+1.403.874.2998 or 866.744.7904), Skype (Craig.Elias), email (Craig.Elias@ShiftSelling.com) or using this contact form.

This blog post is about three things:

• The three best Trigger Events to watch for
• Golden sales strategies of top performers with Art Sobczak
• Selling to the C-Suite – My first of two podcasts with Steve Bistritz

This blog post is about three things:

• The #1 Sales 2.0 tool – iSell by OneSource
• April’s Webinar – How to Generate the HIGHEST QUALITY LEADS
• May’s Webinar – Prospecting Strategies That GET THE CUSTOMERS YOU WANT

My pick for the #1 Sales 2.0 tool is iSell by OneSource. iSell is also the Gold medal winner of the Top Sales 2.0 Solution of 2010. I picked OneSource’s Trigger Alert tool iSell over every other type of sales 2.0 tool because:

• It’s the perfect companion to Salesforce.com
• It allows me to be proactive in going after the accounts I want
• I don’t have to rely on someone to filling in a form on my web site before I start my sales process

It is different from its competitors in three main ways:

1. It shows you all the relevant contacts in LinkedIn – even those that are more than 3 degrees away from you
2. It actively monitors over 300,000 corporate web sites so you learn of Trigger Events before they make the news – this way you’ll get a head start because you know when a decision maker has left the company and you don’t have to wait months until their replacement is announced
3. It contains sales primers that allows any sales person to quickly understand what is going on in any industry, the key concerns of  executives in each department, and the best questions to ask.

My May webinar “Prospecting Strategies that GET THE CUSTOMERS YOU WANT“  is with Art Sobczak & OneSource – see the info below on for more information.

Win $1,500 worth of Trigger Event services by suggesting which types of Trigger Event you think are best to be notified of and why. To win the $1,500 prize you must get the most votes for your answer.

Answers are submitted by commenting on this blog post. Answers are voted on by clicking on the  button that appears at the end of each answer/comment. Winners are announced the last Tuesday of the month – April 26^th – so voting ends at Midnight (MST) on Monday April 25^th.

Answers/comments need to be approved – to avoid spam – which typically takes just a few minutes. Contact me by phone (+1.403.874.2998), Skype (Craig.Elias), or this contact form, if you don’t see your comment approved within a few minutes of posting it.

Use the “Share” button below to Tweet , Stumble!, Digg, and email your friends so you get the most votes, because the voting system I use does not allow you to vote for your own answers.

Join Ivana Taylor (a contributor to AMEX Open Forum, writer for Small Business Trends, and #21 out of over 30,000 internet professionals on the 2010 Fast Company Influencers Project) and myself (Craig Elias) as we join forces to give you a fresh perspective on sales and marketing alignment and show you:

• Which digital assets attract the most profitable prospects
• Where to place content so it drives the best prospects to your website
• When are the three best times to pass a web-based lead to your sales team
• How to get sales to give marketing the data they need so sales get the leads they want
• How to create a simple seven step system that aligns your sales and marketing efforts
• Which sales and marketing research results in the greatest payoff for you and your sales team

Date: Tuesday April 12^th – 9:00AM PST | 12:00PM EST

Register even if you can’t make the live event because registrants will receive a link to the recording and the handout.

http://bit.ly/Smarketing

Join Art Sobczak  (the Gold medal winner of the Top Sales Books of 2010 ), OneSource (the gold medal winner of the Top Sales 2.0 Solution of 2010 and Craig Elias (the Bronze Medal Winner of the Top Sales Books of 2010) as they  join forces to give you the best strategies on how to prospect over the phone.

Date: Tuesday May 10^th – 9:00AM PST | 12:00PM EST
Host: OneSource (Gold Medal Winner of the Top Sales 2.0 Solution of 2010)
Speakers: Art Sobczak & Craig Elias (Gold and Bronze Medal winners of the Top Sales Books of 2010)

Registration opens on April 15, 2010

This blog post is about three things:

1. The 4 best sales resources: Fillers, Movers, Shakers & Starters
2. Two Webinar Links: Ivana Taylor & Keith Ferrazzi
3. Trigger Buzz #11: Tonight: Sales and marketing alignment

In my last blog post I asked the question what are the best resources to put behind a form so sales can connect with decision makers at the right times.

• Content decision makers want access to once they experience a ‘want’ Trigger Event and start thinking about changing suppliers
• Content that shows decision makers they can afford to change
• Content that shows decision makers how they can justify their purchase
• Content that starts them down the path of becoming your customer

One of the companies that gets this more than anyone else I know is Eloqua. They call the first three types of content funnel fillers, funnel movers, and funnel shakers. They even go so far as to classify members of their marketing team the same way – That’s one of the reason’s I chose them as my #2 Sales 2.0 tool.

The first type of content is the most important because once a decision maker experiences a want Trigger Event they start defining the problem and start seeing products and services that then are used to design the solution. Miss this step and you can be locked out of the rest of the funnel

The first type of content answers questions decision makers have when they have a bad experience with their current supplier or take on a new job (or responsibility) and are curious about what they could be doing.

The second type of content shows decision makers the different ways they can afford to make the purchase

The third type of content helps decision makers justify their decision to their superiors, subordinates, and potentially shareholders.

The last type of content is designed to have the decision maker start going down the path of becoming your customer as soon as possible in the funnel above. Some people think free trials are one way to do this. What I don’t like about free trials is that the decision maker does not get that attached to the solution because they know they will lose all the time and effort the invested once the trial is over.

My preference is any form of a freemium model – Offer something free or at low cost and started them down the path of becoming your customer knowing that when the decision maker experiences an afford Trigger Event they have already invested in learning to do things your way and you are now highly likely to be the supplier of choice – because decision makers are very busy and see limited value in spending the same time learning about your competition.

I hear all the time “this only works for small purchases and in the B2C world”. When I hear this I only have one thing to say – BULLS*&#!  If I have learned one thing in my time as a top performing sales professional and working with a number of customers – First in wins more times than anyone else. So the game is how do you get in first to define the problem, design the solution, and position yourself as the logical choice.

Different types of content that can be use are templates, white papers, case studies, webinars, videos – two of my favorite video solutions are Brain Shark (here is how I use it) and Visible Gains. I recently learned about Visible Gains so I have not completed my first video with them yet. Here is an excellent example of the power of Visible Gains – notice how the viewer is empowered to choose the direction they want to go next. This information is tracked and allows you to follow up more effectively.

I could write all day about this but I’m a better talker than I am a writer so I am doing a one hour webinar on this topic with Ivana Taylor of Do It Yourself Marketing which is being hosted by my favorite survey tool Survey Analytics.

Join Ivana Taylor from DIYMarketers and Craig Elias – the creator of Trigger Event Selling™ and Trigger Event Marketing™ – as they join forces to give you a fresh perspective on sales and marketing alignment and show you:

• Which digital assets attract the most profitable prospects
• Where to place content so it drives the best prospects to your website
• When are the three best times to pass a web-based lead to your sales team
• How to get sales to give you the data you need so they get the leads they want
• How to create a simple seven step system that aligns your sales and marketing efforts
• Which sales and marketing research results in the greatest payoff for you and your sales team

You don’t want to miss this FREE Online Event at 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM PDT on Tuesday, April 12, 2011.

Register even if you can’t make the live event because all registrants will receive links to the recording and handout from the event.

Click the button below to sign up now!

http://bit.ly/Smarketing

For those of you who can’t wait until the webinar you can participate in tonight’s TriggerBuzz – see below for more details.

The second webinar that I mention above is the one I did with Keith Ferrazzi and T.A. McCann that has almost 2,000 people register for it. The recording can be viewed at – http://blog.gist.com/2011/03/17/video-recording-the-power-of-connecting-webinar/

Tonight’s Trigger Buzz (Tuesday March 29^sh @ 6:00PM PST | 9:00PM EST) is on how can you align your sales and marketing efforts to attract and close the best customers?

Details on TriggerBuzz and how it works can be found at http://ShiftSelling.com/TriggerBuzz.

Have an eventful week!

Craig

This blog post is about three things:

1. The #2 Sales 2.0 tool - Eloqua
2. 3 Ways to Find Hidden Opportunities - With Keith Ferrazzi & T.A. McCann
3. Trigger Buzz #10 - Tonight: Competitive Intelligence

My pick for the #2 Sales 2.0 tool is Eloqua.

Eloqua is a sales and marketing alignment platform that allows organizations to collect, analyze, and distribute wisdom about customers and their buying patterns so they can maximize new customer acquisition and implement Revenue Performance Management.

With deep integration with Outlook & Salesforce.com, Eloqua helps organizations improve their understanding of:

• Which prospects are at which stages of the sales funnel
• What content should be provided to a prospect
• What actions can be taken

… to strategically move deals down the funnel so when the time is right they can be closed.

The best part is that Eloqua can:

1. Target the best prospects
2. Automatically nurture leads
3. Deliver “sales ready” leads to sales
4. Measure and analyze everything along the way

One secret to making a marketing automation tool like Eloqua work is to create the digital assets that compels decision makers to provide their contact information in order to access them.

My take on that is:

• What information or resources are they looking for once they experience a Trigger Event that makes them want to purchase your solution?
• What would they be looking for once they experience one of Trigger Events that lets them afford your solution?

Win $1,500 worth of Trigger Event services by suggesting the resources you can put behind a form that can be used to alert sales to the fact that a decision maker now wants to make a purchase or can now afford to make a purchase. To win the $1,500 prize you must get the most votes for your answer.

Answers are submitted by commenting on this blog post. Answers are voted on by clicking on the  button that appears at the end of each answer/comment.

Winners are announced the last Tuesday of the month – March 29^th - so voting ends at Midnight (MST) on Monday February 28^th.

Answers/comments need to be approved – to avoid spam – which typically takes just a few minutes. Contact me by phone (+1.403.874.2998), Skype (Craig.Elias), or this contact form, if you don’t see your comment approved within a few minutes of posting it.

Use the “Share” button below to Tweet , Stumble!, Digg, and email your friends so you get the most votes, because the voting system I use does not allow you to vote for your own answers.

In today’s changing world one thing has remained constant – the power of connecting with influential people.

Join us on Wednesday March 16^th as thought leaders Keith Ferrazzi, T.A. McCann & Craig Elias share insights on how to build your network to learn of the hidden opportunities that can take your career or your business to its highest level.

During this 60 minute web event you will learn:

• How to connect with those you want
• Who you want to connect with and why
• How to leverage technology to make it happen

Date: Wednesday March 16^th
Time: 9:00AM Pacific | 12:00 Eastern

Registration: http://bit.ly/FindHiddenOpportunities

Speakers

Keith Ferrazzi, the world’s foremost expert on relationship development, is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Who’s Got Your Back. His first book, Never Eat Alone, redefined professional networking today. As founder and chairman of the consulting, training, and research firm Ferrazzi Greenlight, Ferrazzi counsels the world’s top enterprises on how to dramatically accelerate the development of business relationships to drive sales, spark innovation, and create team cohesion. Ferrazzi is a thought leader and a philanthropist, putting his signature methodology to work to aid corporate citizenship and education. Ferrazzi has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Inc., and Fast Company, and has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, Larry King, and other national TV. He lives in Los Angeles and New York, and can be found online at Relationship Masters Academy

T.A. McCann was the founder and CEO of Seattle-based Gist (www.gist.com) – a next-generation social contact management solution for business professionals. In February 2011 Research in Motion (RIM) acquired Gist. T.A. now serves as Vice President in the Research and Development department of RIM. Previously T.A. was an entrepreneur-in-residence at both Vulcan Capital and Polaris Venture Partners. Prior to Polaris, he held senior positions at Microsoft, leading product planning for the Exchange Server Group and developing Service Delivery Platforms focused on mobile applications and was the founder of Jump2Go, HelpShare and Soft Labour.  T.A. currently serves on the board of Zoopa and Wishpot. He is also an advisor/mentor for Techstars/Seattle, Founders Institute, h-farm and NWEN. In addition to his deep technology background, T.A. has won sailing’s America’s Cup and sailed around the world.  T.A. holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. You can learn more about T.A. at gist.com/tamccann or @tamccann.

Craig Elias is the creator of Trigger Event Selling™ and author of the Bronze Medal winner of the Top Sales Books of 2010 “SHiFT!“. His relationship building skills combined with his knowledge of Trigger Events has resulted in a 20-year track record as a top sales performer, winning a $1,000,000 prize in a global billion dollar idea competition, having his last company chosen by Dow Jones as one of the 50 most promising companies in North America, and coverage on NBC, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Tonight’s Trigger Buzz (Tuesday March 1^st @ 6:00PM PST | 9:00PM EST) is on what is the most valuable information you can gather when talking to a decision maker who is firmly in the buying mode of Status Quo because they have experienced a Trigger Event yet?

Gathering this information gives you a significant advantage over the competition once the decision has experienced a Trigger Event.

Details on TriggerBuzz and how it works can be found at http://ShiftSelling.com/TriggerBuzz.

Have an eventful week!

Craig