Sales, Marketing, & Technology Blog

Orange Pegs Media is famous for inbound lead generation, a tool used by businesses looking for predictable growth. But leads aren't always the problem.

In fact, there's often a major conflict created by trying to grow most businesses by simply adding more leads to the mix, something we discovered after operating for 5 years as a digital marketing agency specializing in inbound lead generation.

It's the same problem just about every marketing agency, digital or otherwise, faces when trying to help businesses derive value from their services.

They are simply not focusing on the kinds of KPIs that get business leaders like you out of bed in the morning.

One week ago, I welcomed my daughter, Autumn Lynne Hamon, into the world.

Despite being punctual as hell and allowing her scheduled cesarean to happen as planned, her arrival was unexpected, doubted, and as my 4-year-old son hinted at, straight-up trickery!

Are you tired of the finger-pointing when sales aren't where they should be?

After 15 years in a b2b sales role, and now as a CEO, I know I am.

It's distracting, soul-sucking, and it doesn't EVER lead to objective decision-making. As a leader, you're torn between listening to your performers and your own gut instincts - two sources that are WILDLY unreliable (#sorrynotsorry).

So, how do you stop the finger-pointing, and get your sales back on track?

When we're trying to bring a product or service offering to market, it's important that we go into the planning phase with a solid basis for what we are trying to accomplish.

As the owner of the business, this probably isn't news to you... But how aligned are your business objectives with the rest of your company's individual groups, particularly, sales and marketing?

Don't let your salespeople feel like they're on an island of one.

"Sales enablement" is quite the buzzword these days. But what does it actually mean?

At the highest level, the definition of sales sales enablement simply means that we're improving sales' ability to close more deals by taking advantage of advanced technologies that focus on data, automation, and objective reasoning. Sales enablement is the sales version of "growth hacking." We achieve optimal outcomes by A/B testing our way to the top.

You may have heard or thought this before - worry about what to do with your inbound leads after they are coming through the door. By then, you'll have intel on their behaviors, and can make better bets on how to distribute them into the sales pipeline. This is the best way to improve sales performance for the company utilizing the inbound methodology.

Makes sense, right?

Unfortunately, there may be much bigger problems to tackle related to your sales infrastructure, which, if left unresolved, will actually diminish the value and impact of the leads you generate through inbound. More importantly, these problems are not inbound-specific, which means you have other investments at risk.

Addressing your sales infrastructure first enables quicker, cheaper wins, and a much better launch to your inbound lead gen program when you do decide to go there.

What is your mission statement really saying to your prospective customers?

Not sure of how to grow your business by leveraging your mission statement? I have some bad news... Your mission statement sucks... #sorrynotsorry.

It's not unique... not even close. Worst of all, nobody is championing it the way they should be. If they were, it would suck a lot less, because your competitors are struggling with this too. But they're not, and it's likely due to mismanagement of the issue.

I know it's a challenge, and likely one of the toughest ones you'll face, regardless of whether your company is in start-up mode or if it has been around for 30 years. However, it is worth overcoming, because you'll be in less crowded waters if you do.

Is coming up with your next growth plan frustrating the living crap out of you?

As a Sales Leader or Business Owner, you want the same things - more deals. How we get there... well, that's another story, and typically where the roads diverge.

The problem is that neither of you are right... or you're both right... or it's a combination of the two, plus something you hadn't considered yet.

I guess the real problem is that there is no way to validate or disprove anything, which brings to light the most glaring weakness plaguing your ability to grow - your data integrity.

Making decisions without data is hard.

So, why do it? Why put hunches and gut instinct in the driver's seat when so much is at stake?

If your b2b sales process is meant to scale, you need data, and your CRM is the reason why you're not getting it. 

Check out the video below for a discussion about your CRM, and how to transform it from an encumbering management tool to a tool for sales growth.

There is NO single good reason to still be relying on cold calling scripts when we have things like websites & social media to make proper introductions.

Earlier in the year we engaged with a transportation services company in an inbound marketing project that was already moving forward. Our job was to carry on the existing strategy... only better than the guys before us.

Well, if you ask me, this is a recipe for disaster, so although we took the assignment, we had other ideas.

Is the cloud making it rain for your business?

Last year more than 21,000 people attended the Inbound conference in Boston, hosted by Hubspot. To put that into perspective, in 2015 there were 14,000.... in 2013 there were 5,000... Something like 500 people attended their first year, which was in 2012.

That's a CRAZY amount of growth! No wonder the methodology isn't working as well as it used to, right?

Inbound used to be a disruptor. Now it's known and practiced by marketers just about everywhere. Your marketing team probably does some version of it today.

If you haven't heard about about inbound at this point, you're in the minority, and you're really behind. Luckily, if that's the case, the landscape is about to be hit hard with another disruption, and you could be first-in. If it's not the case... if inbound is something your business practices... then you'll be able to relate to the challenges it's experiencing. The good news is that it's once again time to strap on your party hat, and get ready for the rocket ride, because disruptive growth IS possible.