Streamlined

Open communication and clear expectations.

Both are foundational for any relationship… including between your sales and marketing teams.

Seth Lieberman is the CEO at SnapApp where they focus on solving sales & marketing misalignment.

In the current climate, the vast majority of the buyer journey is completed before a potential customer even speaks to your sales rep.

Buyers self-educate. That's why it's more crucial than ever for marketing & sales to be aligned.

You've got a problem.

There are a lot of fantastic, important marketing books out there, but you don't know which ones you should read next.

You need to hear our next guest.

Douglas Burdett is the host of The Marketing Book Podcast. (Forbes called it one of 11 podcasts that will keep you in the know.)

We asked Burdett which books he's recommending to marketing and business leaders right now and why.

• Buyer Personas by Adele Revella. "There are just five insights you need to understand your customer well," said Burdett. "You don't have to do it perfectly. You just have to do it a little bit better than your competition."
• They Ask You Answer by Marcus Sheridan. This is the story of a failing Florida pool company that saved their business by answering every pool question on their website.
• From Impossible to Inevitable by Aaron Ross. There are three types of lead generation activities that every fast-growing company should be doing. Ross calls them seeds, spears, and nets.
• The Convenience Revolution by Shep Hyken. The more you can do to reduce friction for your customers, the more successful you'll be.

If you want sales growth, you'll need a CRM solution.

The good news is that one of the best ones out there is 100% free, forever‎.

That includes unlimited users and contacts.

We recently interviewed John-Erik Pszenny, Principal Channel Consultant at Hubspot, which offers a suite of sales and marketing tools which range from free to enterprise-level pricing for the most advanced functions.

He outlined some questions you need to ask yourself before you deploy any CRM.

If you REALLY want to be above average with your inbound marketing then you should check out the insights from our interview with Todd Hockenberry, founder of Top Line Results and co-author of the book Inbound Organization.

"Every single person in your organization has to consider how their role influences the customer journey and whether either enhances it or takes away from it because it's going to do one or the other," says Hockenberry.

To learn more, listen to the podcast link.

Seventy percent of B2B buyers' purchase journeys are accomplished before they contact the manufacturer. They're exploring the website, looking at chat boards, and collecting information to decide whether or not they're even going to get in touch. You have to put your best foot forward digitally.

• Pick two or three examples and concentrate on them initially.
• Fine-tune the information that's available to potential prospects in the existing customer community portals.
• Give strong feedback and citizen support in all of the places that prospects are likely to go.
• Offer information that makes that initial engagement or research more relevant.

There's no denying that LinkedIn is a fantastic tool. So then why are so many people so seemingly clueless on how to use it effectively? What are you doing wrong? Wayne Breitbarth is a LinkedIn trainer and was a guest on the Streamlined podcast recently. He thinks that really there are 3 things you need to remember:

• Utilize the Advanced Search Feature

• Send a PERSONAL Connection Request

• Have A Follow Up Plan

We're all familiar with the revenue funnel method.

Marketing drums up all these amazing leads, which the sales team takes and converts into customers, which the customer success & support teams nurture through their lifecycle.

But what if revenue isn't a funnel, but a flywheel?

What if marketing and sales and customer support empower one another? What if they're not enemies?

How would you ensure that that flywheel stayed spinning?

Sunny Manivannan says it's all about alignment, and he and his team at Guru are doing 3 things to ensure that alignment

How intentional are you when it comes to learning from other business professionals in your industry? In the world of marketing, where technology and processes change (and improve) everyday, we need one another to stay on top of our game. Because we just don't have all the answers, and we never will. There's too much to learn. But that's why we're launching the Streamlined podcast.

Podcast hosts, Jeff Coon and Steve James, partners at Stream Creative, hope to help today's manufacturing business leaders achieve growth through sales, marketing, technology & process improvements. And what better way to do that than a podcast where you provide a lot of value through an easy-to-access medium and build a personal connection with your audience.

By tuning into the podcast, you'll hear from a diverse group of subject matter experts who will provide actionable takeaways you can implement right away in every episode. Practices that will help you become more effective and efficient ranging from topics like sales and marketing process improvement and implement emerging technology to grow your business. If your company is lacking a streamlined work culture, this is the podcast for you.

If you have suggestions for show guests or topics, email the podcast team at [email protected]