Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Why Sales

The 15 Best B2B Sales Blogs

best sales blogsWe doubt anyone ever chose to be a B2B sales rep because it seemed easy. B2B sales cycles have a reputation for being arduous grinds that require lots of perseverance and tactical planning in order to get head-to-head with a key decision maker at the right time. Though closing large B2B deals can often be challenging, fortunately, there are some great blogs that can serve up insight to help both new and seasoned B2B sales samurais reach new degrees of mastery.
We just updated our list of the best sales blogs to include some of the most current and valuable thought leadership around B2B sales. Though our list isn’t in any particular order (all of these blogs are winners!), when selecting the best B2B sales blogs, our criteria were simple. We chose the blogs that, in our opinion, offer the best tactical and strategic value to sales professionals, while also releasing a regular stream of content. We highly recommend that salespeople, marketers and entrepreneurs give all of these fantastic blogs a thorough read.
  1. Sales Engine Blog

    • Sales Engine was founded by expert sales consultant Craig Wortmann. On his blog, Craig shares winning sales strategies that can appeal to salespeople with all levels of expereience.
    • Choice Quote: “Say ‘thank you’ and go all the way with it. Salespeople most often thank people via email. But an email “thank you” is more like than spam than it is like gratitude. If you want to truly thank someone, then thank them.”
  2. A Sales Guy

    • Simply put, Jim Keenan is one of the top sales and marketing influencers on the web. He is also one of the foremost thought leaders when it comes to leveraging the power of social media to sell more. And with posts with titles like “Why This Sleazy Pitch Is Actually Good Selling, his blog is actually as fun to read as it is informative.
    • Choice Quote: “Social is the next communications platform, and like email before it, the phone before email and the face to face meeting before that, it’s changing how we engage one another and how sales are made.”
  3. Predictable Revenue

    • Aaron Ross literally wrote the book on B2B inside sales. He pioneered Salesforce’s inside sales model which brought in $100 million in yearly recurring revenue. His book Predicatable Revenue has been rightly called by Inc.com the “Silicon Valley Sales Bible.” Check out his blog for some choice insights into how to optimize inside sales processes, divide your team into dedicated sales roles and scale a sales team effectively.
    • Choice Quote: “By using email to generate interest and then only calling those who respond, you have a constant stream of warm and friendly leads.”
  4. Sales Prospecting Perspectives

    • The AG Salesworks Team puts out fantastic content that regularly features guest posts by top sales leaders and executives. It’s definitely worth reading!
    • Choice Quote: “Recognizing that 90% of your activity will result in a no, there is never any point in taking it personally. All you should be looking for is a fit.”
  5. Millenial CEO

    • Millenial CEO features Daniel Newman’s thought leadership. Newman is an experienced C-Level executive who is passionate about sales and marketing strategies and entrepreneurship. His blog boasts an attractive design, it’s easy to navigate and features must-read articles like “6 Trends Transforming the B2B Sale.”
    • Choice Quote: “From the first contact until eternity, it is the responsibility of our organizations—large and small—to create memorable customer experiences. Not some of the time, but all of the time.”
  6. Fresh Sales Strategies

    • Top sales author Jill Konrath’s blog is full of prescriptive sales advice that can help B2B (or B2C) sales reps quickly raise the roof on their sales game.Check out her blog to find out how to quickly become a trusted advisor, how to onboard sales people effectively and how to deal with crazy-busy sales prospects.
    • Choice Quote: “if you’re not asking the right questions, all you’re going to get is gobbledygook. Meaningless drivel that builds relationships, but doesn’t advance the sales process.”
  7. The Sales Blog

    • On The Sales Blog, B2B sales coach S. Anthony Iannarino dishes out high-level insights learned from years in the front lines of B2B sales. One of the perks of his blog is that he doesn’t just give advice, he asks questions that can inspire sales reps to focus on past experiences and how they might learn from them.
    • Choice Quote: “What is the one thing you need to do today that, if completed, would have the greatest impact on your results? Who do you have to be to make that big choice?”
  8. B2B Lead Roundtable Blog

    • Comprised by thought leaders at Meclabs, the B2B Lead Roundtable blog offers strategies that can help sales and marketing professions thrive in the ever-changing B2B landscape. This blog is quite forward-thinking, covering topics like sales and marketing alignment, CRM integration and lead generation.
    • Choice Quote: “CEOs need to look at the economics of competitive market dialogue holistically, with Marketing and Sales working together to walk customers and prospects through the buying cycle as economically as possible.”
  9. Sales Journal

    • With snappy headlines like “3 Ways to Feel the Love in you B2B Sales,” and “4 Business Lessons from Quentin Tarantino Movies,” recruitment firm Naviga’s sales blog is as entertaining as it is edifying.
    • Choice quote: “Directors like Tarantino love candor, useful feedback, and aren’t afraid to have difficult conversations. Likewise, in order to run their business successfully, leaders need to surround themselves with employees they can depend on who aren’t afraid of conflict.”
  10. Selling Power

    • Gerhard Gschwandtner’s name might be difficult for some of us to pronounce, but his Selling Power blog is full of easy-to-digest sales strategies that can help B2B professionals take their game to the next level. The blog features tiered content. Some articles like “Will You Set Smart Goals for 2013,” are geared toward a general sales audience while others like “Five New Year’s Resolutions for the Data-Driven Sales Leader” are aimed at transforming sales managers into masters.
    • Choice Quote: ” A sales professional’s greatest asset is knowledge. The more you know about a prospect, the more relevant you are to your prospect and the easier it is to close a deal – and then a bigger deal.”
  11. Heavy Hitter Sales Blog

    • Steve W. Martin’s Heavy Hitter Sales Blog offers advanced insight to senior B2B salespeople. Building on his series of books as well as more than 20 years of experience selling enterprise solutions in Silicon Valley, Martin’s blog is a great resource for top sales professionals (or sales professionals eager to reach the top).
    • Choice Quote: “Customers can experience many different types of reactions to salespeople, ranging from fear and hate to love and trust. For example, combative and synergistic sales calls are at the extreme ends of the spectrum. The winning sales call strategy is based upon executing synergistic sales calls and this is dependent upon establishing four different receptive states with the prospective customer.”
  12. Inside Sales Experts Blog

    • The Bridge Group focuses on building, expanding and optimizing inside sales strategies for tech companies. Their Inside Sales Experts Blog offers resources aimed at helping inside sales reps close more deals. The blog covers topics such as lead generation, inside sales productivity, and sales coaching.
    • Choice Quote: “Companies are cannibalizing each other’s Reps with top-tier candidates pretty much sitting on a Lazy Susan and waiting to be served up to the next highest bidder. Clients are constantly asking me, ‘How do we compete? What can we do to recruit A-players?’
      Here’s my response: “If you want the best Reps, make a strategic investment in your front-line sales managers.’”
  13. Vorsight’s Inside Sales Tips

    • From cold calling to prospecting to sales management, consultancy firm Vorsight’s inside sales blog covers nearly every aspect of inside sales. B2B professionals at any stage in their career can glean valuable sales insight from Vorsight’s well-curated blog.
    • Choice Quote: “Separate your cold calling into two activities: prospecting to find the right person, and phone stalking (call blitzing for those who may get offended by the former) to get that person on the phone.”
  14. Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

    • Jonathan Farrington is an internationally recognized business coach and sales consultant. His blog features eloquent meditations on sales strategy. His blog posts are popping with kernels of wisdom, waiting to be digested by B2B sales professionals with an appetite for success.
    • Choice Quote: “Gradually, as we ascend the sales success ladder, we experience a life-changing epihany — well those of us that become successful do — and it dawns on us that actually, it takes just as long to progress an opportunity that has no chance of closing, through the various funnels and pipelines, as it does a profitable and closeable one.”
  15. Score More Sales

    • In naming her blog Score More Sales, Lori Richardson is doing nothing less than calling sales reps to action. Indeed, Richardson’s blog is highly action-oriented. With blog headlines like “Get Your Feet Wet with Social Selling” and “Let’s All Champion Sales Resources! Sellers, See This,” the blog posits itself as a beacon to inspire enthusiasm, activity and—of course—revenue generation among sales teams.
    • Choice Quote: “In selling there is a lot of big talk about closing deals, as if the act of “closing” is a verb and is something to do TO your prospective client or customer. Gain control of these feeble buyers, right? …Control in a buyer and seller relationship is not a one-way thing.”
Related: please check out our blog post: The 12 Best Sales Books for B2B Sales Reps

3 Awesome Comments So Far

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  1. RingDNA (@RingDNA)
    March 21, 2013 at 10:05 am #
    Hey @iannarino and @B2Bleadblog You made our list of top B2B sales blogs! #b2bsales #B2B http://t.co/JDfZR0W1qe
  2. RingDNA (@RingDNA)
    March 25, 2013 at 9:36 am #
    Hey @SalesJournal and @Gerhard20 You made our list of top 10 B2B sales blogs! #b2bsales #b2b http://t.co/KbkXbbDyHu
  3. S. Anthony Iannarino
    October 29, 2013 at 4:16 am #
    Thanks so much for including me!
    Anthony

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