Terry Graham’s Post

I'm in my 8th week at 1Breadcrumb and THIS is one of my biggest goals👇 ...to build a tight relationship between #sales & #marketing. 🤝 This might surprise you, but it's not uncommon for a sales team to have never worked directly with a marketing team before. At our worst we work in silos, each claiming the results as our own in an effort to hit our ROI targets, and miss out on one of the most important collaboration opportunities in business! 👉 Integrated sales & marketing teams who are working towards a common goal achieve SO MUCH MORE. Why? 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁. It might take a prospect 12 months of brand interactions, conversations, content consumption, and a dash of good timing before they close. And when they do, whose win is it? It's undeniably BOTH. 👀 The power of sales and marketing talking to each other means that: 💥 I can create ads that address the most common pain points 💥 I can ensure the website answers the most common barriers 💥 I can run ad campaigns targeting a list to warm them up before cold outreach 💥 I can retarget anyone who interacts with our brand so they remain in our orbit until they're ready to buy 💥 I can create a kick-ass report that our target customer will find really useful 💥 I can build case studies to help qualify prospects 💥 I can tell sales which companies are clicking and who is liking our ads to redirect our outreach plan 💥 I can learn from sales' conversations to redefine our messaging and strategy And the BIGGEST way to build this relationship is to 𝕗𝕣𝕖𝕖𝕝𝕪 𝕤𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕖 𝕚𝕟𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟. 👉 Tell sales what you're doing and how it could impact their goals. 👉 Ask sales to tell you about their conversations with prospects, or better yet, read the summaries/listen to the calls. 👉 Join their WIPs so that you can collaborate more efficiently. By doing this, not only are you advocating for your marketing department, but you're also helping sales to shine brighter too! ✨ ✨ ✨ Anything I've missed? I'd love to hear about any kick-ass marketing & sales relationships below! 💛

I’m seeing lots of posts from marketers, sellers and agency leaders on the topic of cold calling and outbound.   So here’s my, hopefully, helpful perspective for planning your 2025 Marketing and Sales Alignment: it’s about where you point your guns in order from worst to best!   Event/Webinar recruitment of prospects? Nope. Not a good use of anyone’s time, likely to fall into the ‘prospect bothering’ single channel trap that can also cause brand damage. Use digital channels here and have your BDs touch on it as part of a well-defined message to their TAL, but please, please don’t let the event be the only message.   Event/Webinar recruitment of clients? Yes. Positioned as a client services/check-in approach. Helps you (marketing) to get feedback on messaging and interest in the topic. But please let your BDs attend the session for their own learning and client exposure.   Event follow-up? Nope, leave that to the people who met with the person at the event or the speaker. If there isn’t anyone who engaged with them at the event, this justifies your BDs attendance at the next event!   MQL follow up? Nope. Too soon. But do share the trends and insights from the MQL engagement which will help your BDs i.e. this asset seems to go down well with this job title. Also, ask your BDs where they are getting success and target these folks.   MQA follow up? Maybe, but allow your BDs to work with sales and add new contacts to their approach, not just the ‘aware’ ones. And no “saw you downloaded the thing” big brotherisms. BDs let marketing know what got you the most success, types of organisations, roles, messages, objections, insights….   Cold calling back through data generated by marketing and sales YTD? Maybe, you need a very good message and stellar timing, or you’ll rely on volume (sorry, burnout!) to get anywhere – better to use a multichannel approach. BDs please let marketing know what worked and what didn’t if you have to work on these crumbs.   TAL defined by marketing and working with AEs? Yep. That’s the job, normally. Hit both marketing and sales KPIs! BDs, make sure to report back to marketing.   Cross/upsell for existing clients? Yep, but please ensure BDs are thoroughly briefed and integrated.   ABM? Now we’re talking! Pod teams with senior AEs, get them on outbound too to role model and keep their skill sets and empathy in check! Marketing will be your best friends by the end of it!   There is a trend on where it’s best to point the guns – if we can all try to do this then ‘cold calling’ won’t die because it will deliver value, we just have to give them a fighting chance:   BD working for marketing only: Nope. BD working to bridge the gap between marketing and sales: Yep. BD working closely with sales to improve skillsets: Yep.   And my last nugget of value; there are 8 ‘channels’ to outreach, so I recommend we plan to use them all in 2025. Comment in the thread if you don’t know what they are and I’ll DM you! Happy aligning! 😇 🥂

When I first entered the B2B world, connecting with prospects was straightforward - cold calls, emails, maybe a networking event or two. But times have changed. Did you know that 92% of B2B buyers are willing to engage with sales professionals who are considered to be industry thought leaders on social media? That's a staggering number we can't afford to ignore. Yet, many marketing teams face a common hurdle: getting their sales teams on board with social selling. I've heard the concerns firsthand; "How do we start?", "What if it doesn't yield immediate results?", "Do we have the right support?". These are all valid questions, and it's time for them to be addressed head-on. I'm excited to share that on November 6th, Oktopost is hosting a webinar featuring experts from LinkedIn and Getronics. We'll be diving deep into: - Securing your sales team's buy-in for social selling - Training them to stand out and become thought leaders on LinkedIn - Supporting their efforts with a robust employee advocacy program This isn't just another webinar; it's a roadmap to transforming your sales approach and bridging the gap between marketing and sales. If you're looking to empower your team and drive meaningful engagement in today's digital landscape, you won't want to miss this. Save your spot here: https://okt.to/ulUBqs For more exciting tips, tricks, and up-to-date insights on social selling - check out our talented Neill Murphy, who is constantly demonstrating best practices. Don't like webinars - no problem. Just drop me a line, and we can talk about social selling all day long!

How do you raise awareness and create demand at scale when enterprise companies have 1.8x more companies targeting them? Background: We rolled out our new Enterprise ABM Program at the end of May. Initial results have been promising – over 60% of accounts within our 1:one program have moved into opportunity. Our flagship channel, LinkedIn, has been the primary vehicle of execution so far. And it’s worked because we’ve been super relevant with the ads and messaging we serve. But with increased exposure, it gets much more complex to get the attention of Enterprise accounts. So we have needed to lift and shift our approach to channels outside of LinkedIn. 1. Targeted and relevant email nurture programs. Personalised emails to the relevant stakeholders that diagnose their problem and serve the solution via personalised microsites and interactive demos tailored to their use case. We then package these assets up into a sales enablement pack and pass them to our SDRs for them to use in their broader outreach moving forward. 2. Exclusive dinner events Hosting dinners around key events like Forrester, SaaStr and Dreamforce informs our targeting and messaging - we are not inviting everybody, we are intentional with our outreach. These dinners have worked especially well in engaging new and current contacts that we wouldn’t normally have involved in the sales cycle. By combining these initiatives with our LinkedIn activity, we’ve seen: - More unique web visits to high-intent pages - we’ve seen a 400% MOM increase in high-intent web visits from 1 specific account (screenshot attached). - MQLs move much faster through the funnel, especially from meeting attended to SQO - A higher proportion of decision-makers coming into the deal who are already aware of Cognism - Higher opportunity ACV P.s If you’re interested in more insights from me, I have a newsletter. I will leave the link to sign up in the usual place. #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration

Sales Professional's Action Plan for December As December rolls in, many of our prospects are taking time off or are out of the office, making it a quieter month for outreach. But rather than seeing this as a slowdown, let's use this time strategically to set ourselves up for success in January and beyond. Here’s how I have planned for effective outreach when everyone returns: 1. Refine Your Target List Identify key decision-makers and tailor your outreach strategy based on their specific needs and pain points. 2. Research and Insights Dive deep into research about your prospects’ industries, recent news, and trends. Understanding their challenges will help you craft personalized messages that resonate when they return. 3. Craft Compelling Messaging Develop clear, concise, and compelling messaging highlighting how your solution can address your prospects' challenges. Focus on value propositions that align with their goals for the new year. 4. Plan Your Outreach Strategy Consider a mix of emails, calls, and social media engagement to maximize your chances of connecting when they’re back in the office. 5. Engage on LinkedIn Use LinkedIn to stay active during December. Share valuable content related to your industry, engage with your network, and comment on relevant posts. This keeps you at the top of your mind when prospects return. 6. Set Up Follow-Up Reminders Schedule follow-up reminders for early January to ensure you reach out promptly after the holiday break. Timing is crucial—be among the first they hear from! 7. Reflect and Learn Take this quieter time to reflect on your past outreach efforts. What worked? What didn’t? Use these insights to refine your approach moving forward. Let’s turn this downtime into an opportunity for growth and connection. Wishing everyone a productive end to the year! 🌟#SalesStrategy #Outreach #NewYearPreparation #SalesSuccess #LinkedInTips

Here’s a sales tip you don’t see often: Perception is everything. Here's how you can use this fact to book more meetings from cold outreach💡 The biggest factors to getting your emails opened are: 🟢 (familiarity with) sender name and reputation 🟢 message is relevant and timely (subject line AND first line, AKA trigger) And to get a reply 🟢 info in the message has to be new (my suggestion is to lead with a point of view THEN validate interest or need) 🟢 CTA has to be clear and actionable 💡 Takeaway: you can write the most tailored message out there. If the message isn’t relevant, timely, or new, you won’t get a response. (regardless if it’s a cold or warm email) But here's the thing: 💡 The goal isn’t to personalise every single email you send. It’s to make your message FEEL personal. Perception is everything. So instead of personalising every single email manually, run trigger-based campaigns It’s the only way you can truly make your message FEEL personal at scale. Some examples you can apply today: 💡 if you see x number of BTL employees engaging with your product: 🟢 reach out to an ATL stakeholder educating on this fact and how they could get even more impact out of the platform 💡 when you land a new customer, 🟢 reach out to their close competitors as well 🟢 reach out to another business unit or child company within the mother company 💡 ICP-fit companies in my territory who are showing intent signals for solutions used by my existing customers 🟢 reach out to leadership with a point of view and validate interest The cool thing about trigger-based campaigns is that you can reuse them every time a prospect fits a trigger scenario. You set it up once and if the campaign converts, you can reuse them over and over again. 🚀 Happy hunting! #outbound #techsales #enterprisesales

The key to making cold emails more effective involve Building a Strong Brand: When I first started in my career, I didn't fully grasp the importance of branding. I underestimated how a well-crafted brand could transform my outreach or any of the clients I do outreach for. Needless to say, I missed out on early opportunities. A lot of these could’ve been avoided. ⏪ So if I could rewind it… 1. Charge Higher Prices Without Losing Prospects: ↳ Good branding elevates your product. ↳ Recipients see it as premium, not generic. ↳ You can price accordingly without pushback. 2. Increase Cold Email Response Rates: ↳ Strong brands grab attention. ↳ Your emails stand out in crowded inboxes. ↳ More responses mean more opportunities. 3. Build Trust and Encourage Engagement: ↳ Branding fosters trust. ↳ Prospects are more likely to engage. ↳ It gives you a lasting competitive edge. In the B2B space, I think BDRs/SDRs should be more involved in branding and demand generation efforts. Who else agrees? #sales #bdr

I used to think social selling was a sales initiative. I was wrong. It's a collaboration between marketing and sales/enablement. Here's how I would operationalize social selling if I was back in corporate marketing and supporting social selling: Execution - Curate relevant industry articles for the team to use in their personal posts, DMs, and comments - Explain how to strategically leverage the company messaging and marketing content in their outreach - Provide a recommended plan for weekly LinkedIn activity - Create a repository of templates & resources they can pull from Training - Include Social Media training during the onboarding process, SKOs and regular team communications - Document any critical brand language requirements or style guidelines - Show them how to reshare posts and add their own unique insights; build out a DM cadence they can use with prospects & network Over Communicate - Share a calendar of upcoming Company Page posts and high-level topics planned over the next 30/60/90 days - Create a place for the team to ask questions, get support, and share what’s working/resonating  - Report on successes & wins My number 1 goal would be to make social media as EASY as possible for my sales team. Are you making it simple for your team? #socialselling #b2bsales

Interesting take on increasing the use case positioning to help product positioning Robert Kaminski 🎯 lays out the approach in the article. Good read for all product leaders and executives #productmanagement #innovation #productpositioning

I once spent a year emailing a list of people I didn't know to sell them. By the end of the year, the company realized I wasn't working. We parted ways. It was a happy moment in my career, believe me. When you do things that don't matter you know it. There are lots of people on @Linkedin who will tell you they can write amazing email campaigns that convert in B2B sales. They will hype you on statistics of high conversions (average might be <3%) and revenue growth up and to the right. They will talk about the power of automation and volume, and how to get around domain filters. They will sell you on targeting intelligence and data that give you "the good leads." Don't buy it. People buy from people. You have to cultivate your relatability and authority carefully and not spoil credibility with stuff that gets you deleted or blocked by filters. People know the difference between engagement and a direct sell. They know when people care about something and want to share it, regardless of a transaction. When does conversion actually happen? 1) You take the time to nurture a relationship. University of Kansas says it takes 200 hours to really get to know someone. 2) You understand your job is to build credibility first and credibility will help you close the deal. 3) You engage with a real person in a real way.... not with an AI managed email campaign. It takes time. That’s content sellers often leave out. Doing this is an investment. You have to be focused. This is why I spend time with clients trying to get them to focus on a specific avatar.... not multiple. Your offer, you messaging, your operations/execution have to align to deliver the integrity that your prospects will recognize. If this sounds like you and what you value, I am here to help you build the foundations. #focusos #sales #executive #revenues #leadgen