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From the Switchboard to Social Media: A Brief History of Customer Service

Sales and Marketing Management

From a business standpoint, it’s imperative to provide customer service across a multiplicity of channels, too. Smart companies saw the possibilities of cyber customer service from the beginning, and jumped right on that bandwagon. Operators Are Standing By.

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Outbound Sales vs. Inbound Sales: How to Win Big With Each Strategy

Crunchbase

Any company involved in selling needs to decide where to center its efforts: outbound or inbound sales. Balancing outbound selling and inbound selling will enable you to prep your sales team to deliver the right strategies at the right moment. What are outbound sales? What are inbound sales?

Inbound 52
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21 Salespeople Reveal the Worst Sales Advice They Ever Got

Hubspot Sales

Bad sales advice is shockingly common -- and you don’t want to find out you’ve been misdirected the hard way. After all, every mistake means it’s harder to achieve your sales goals. I once worked for a manager who put a great deal of emphasis on activity metrics rather than actual sales results. 1) “Focus solely on activity.”.

Hiring 100
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3 Facts About B2B Buyer Experience You’re Probably Ignoring

Sales Hacker

For many of us, that’s also the primary channel through which we make an increasing number of purchases. In the world of B2B sales, the conventional thinking has become especially stark. Post-sale, the numbers were equally stark. How much are companies leaving on the table when these pre-sale questions go unanswered?

Buyer 79
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Creating A Customer-Centric Strategy

Sell Integrity

Some of the common issues we hear involve: Providing consistency across channels Overcoming employee complacency Finding new ways to connect with customers and accelerate service delivery Time and cross-training Consistent, effective coaching on customer-centricity.

Strategy 117
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The Perils of Piecemeal

Cincom Smart Selling

Smart companies don’t have software initiatives; they have business initiatives that drive software purchases. You’ll find it hard to track your dealer channels. The larger you become, the harder it is to keep track of dealers’ pipelines and forecasting your own sales. How smart are you? Source: Smart Selling.

Scale 48
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4 Trends Shaping B2B Marketing in 2011

Pointclear

A mere 12% of business executives say their companies are using social media effectively, according to a recent study by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services. Sometimes, it’s because they are unsure of the real value, and sometimes it’s because they aren’t sure how to approach social channels. Why is that?

Trends 180