Lead generating

Why 8% of sales people get 80% of the sales

STEVE JOBS

Research suggests only one in 50 deals are struck at a first meeting, yet many sales people give up after just one or two knock-backs. Perseverance will give you a major edge on competitors.

You can sometimes be so close to your business that you can miss the simple solutions for growing it, where the greatest opportunities often lie. Solutions that are blindingly obvious, once you’re aware of them – but are amongst the best kept secrets on the planet if you’re not.

For example: Only 2% of sales occur at a first meeting

People in business often hope and expect to do business the first time they meet a prospect. Yet studies reveal that only 2% of sales occur when two parties meet for the first time.

The 2% who buy at a first meeting tend to be people who have already looked into the subject matter, and already know what they’re looking for. If they meet someone who ticks all the right boxes and they get on well, then business may well be transacted. But that is far from the norm. The other 98% will only buy once a certain level of trust has been built up. Continue reading

30 Thought-Provoking Email Marketing Statistics

Thinking smallDigital marketers send nearly a trillion emails every year.  Budgets for email marketing continue to grow as email platforms become more robust, offering automation and greater integration with other channels.  In some organizations, email marketing is a cornerstone, while in others, it has lost favor to newer channels.  Regardless, email marketing is conducted in some capacity by almost any business.

The following list contains a combination of interesting and surprising statistics related to email marketing – covering everything from email marketing usage trends to list composition.  The key takeaways from the list are the opportunities in terms of spam prevention, list hygiene, and measurement/optimization.  Doing things that many of your competitors aren’t gives you an edge in the cluttered inbox.

1. Email marketing spending is predicted to rise to $2 billion dollars by the end of 2014 (Forrester)

2. 64.5% of B2B marketers plan to increase spending on email marketing in 2014 (eMarketer)

3. 55% of all business to business emails are marketing messages (Epsilon)

4. 30% of companies send more than half a million emails every month (Adestra)

5. Email marketing accounts for an average of 19% of digital marketing budgets for US B2B marketers (eMarketer) Continue reading