When a lead is ready to buy? How do we know when is the right time to hand them over to sales so that they can close them as a customer?  What happens if that contact isn't quite ready yet?

The key is to have tightly aligned sales and marketing processes and a trusting, open relationship between sales and marketing teams.  This involves executive "encouragement", visionary thinking and a two-way conversation between sales and marketing ... a surprisingly tough call for some companies. 

B2B organisations with tightly aligned sales and marketing operations achieved 24% faster three-year revenue growth, and 27% faster three-year profit growth (SiriusDecisions)

View our webinar to find out more>>

So why do so many companies admit to a difficult relationship between sales and marketing?

I don't believe it's about the people!

It's more about the data systems and processes.. 

Is "Inbound Sales" just another alternative to Sandler, Holden, Miller-Heiman, SPIN, Value Selling, the Challenger Sale and other sales methodologies?  Or is it a new way of thinking?

Or both?

All the aforementioned sales methodologies teach us valuable lessons.  They teach how to seek out the "fox" (Holden), to "go for the no" (Sandler) and other techniques for qualifying out time wasters, getting control over the deal and progressing the sale faster than your competitors.  

Whether you are several months or years into your investment in HubSpot and Inbound Marketing, just kicked off your HubSpot implementation or just beginning the journey, you want to make sure HubSpot is set up and working to meet the individual needs of your business to ensure you get the most out of HubSpot and inbound marketing.

Any piece of software that affects how several areas of an organisation works needs careful planning and review at the beginning of the implementation and as part of its ongoing operation. HubSpot has several moving parts and typically it affects marketing, sales, executive teams, internal web teams, IT, operations, relationships with existing external agencies, PR .... so how do you get it right from the start or stop yourselves plateauing .... here are a few pointers:

If you find some great content, it's worth sharing! Having read Brian Halligans inspirational blog on things inbound marketers should be considering in 2017, I wanted to share it in its entirety, adding some of my own thoughts. 

I was particually struck by Brian's thoughts on supply and demand dynamics. Increased competition means that marketing needs to work harder to engage buyers as earlier as possible which means finding different and more engaging conversion assets ... we are firmly in the "youtube age" and sales leaders need to find ways to make their sales teams more effective to beat the competition, which in some sectors means switching to a inbound sales mindset.  If buyers want a self-service experience (self-service research and self-service sales) then as Brian concluded the buying process needs to be automated and for 2017 I predict a surge in companies looking at Sales Enablement as a way to improve sales efficiency.  

Enough of me, sit back and enjoy Brian's insight.