A virtual conversation for workforce solutions leaders about industry stats, market snaps, and thought provoking strategies.

Integrated Marketing and Sales – Growth Simplified

Our quest to improve sales and marketing alignment in the workforce solutions industry continues. We’ve seen a lot of sales hiring over the last several months. That is an important investment. And the perfect opportunity to build the alignment. (Onboarding tips here) For new readers, we have created a 5 part framework to drive sales and marketing alignment. We are sharing the framework step by step here. We are on to Part Two!  Based on feedback, we will include the prior portion when introducing the new one. Part Two is PROCESS. Address frequency, ownership, distribution, and feedback loop. (It’s critical to track what content resonated, how and with whom, and all that needs to influence the next round of content creation). Step 2 of Part 2 Conduct/refresh competitive analysis, positioning and messaging based on current buyer behavior and sales environment. For example, there is a lot of uncertainty right now. Create messaging around how your solutions are the right move in an uncertain market.  Step 3 of Part 2 Co-create buyer relevant content based on buyer journey needs.  Address frequency,

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The Buyer Journey, Workforce Solutions

We aren’t fans of Sales Qualified Leads and Marketing Qualified Leads. We’ve found it actually fractures how sales and marketing works together; it doesn’t measure the end goal (typically a client meeting) and bifurcates the journey in an unnatural way. Below is a visual we use in discovery sessions that details the buyer journey, and how sales and marketing fit together. Each function has their role but there is no “hand off” – its a “flow”, where both functions contribute throughout the journey. KPI’s should be created for each function, and there should be shared KPI’s to ensure all oars are rowing in the same direction. We hope this prompts good discussion among your teams.  Consider by starting with a deep dive on where sales interaction and prospect engagement is stalling.

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Buyer’s Buying

A 3 minute read… You’ve likely heard the stat that somewhere between 3-5% of buyers are “in market” at any given time. That’s a small percentage, considering many workforce solutions sales pros are relying on at least some on their “target list” to be in a buying cycle in order to meet sales targets and revenue goals. The good news is that 17% are in the research stage and another 20% are “problem aware”. This provides the opportunity for sales and marketing teams to nurture relationships and build trust. A healthy target list and pipeline has a mix of prospects in various stages of buying. Determining where they are in the cycle is not easy, and ensuring time is invested with all targets can also be a challenge. Here is where marketing can play a valuable role.

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From the Shelves

We have the pleasure of working with a few from the Gen Z generation. Our experience, contrary to what one might think … they don’t just scroll TikTok, they read too. So we asked them for some of their faves. The second most popular amongst our small, non-scientific poll was Real Love The Art of Mindful Connection. By Sharon Salzberg. I mean, it cant hurt to read a book on love, right? We’ll be back to business books next month. Read summary here.

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