The Thomas Blog

8 Books Every Salesperson Should Read

It doesn’t matter if your sales team is converting leads at a record rate or struggling to meet quotas — there’s always room for improvement. People at every level of your team from directors and managers to consultants and representatives can benefit from new insight and perspective.

There are so many great resources available for sales folks these days: webinars, podcasts, eBooks, white papers, and conferences (click here for those resources!) but I’ve gained so much knowledge by reading plain old books. Take a look at some of my favorites below:  

The Changing Face of Thanksgiving Weekend and How it Relates to Manufacturing’s SMBs

You’ve likely read numerous headlines by now telling you which stores will be open on Thanksgiving Day. You also probably read some stories about retailers that have chosen to stay closed on this national holiday.

But beyond that, there’s another movement taking shape that asks consumers to avoid the crowd altogether and head to your local mom-and-pop stores on Small Business Saturday.

Leveraging Omni-Channel Marketing For B2B

Today’s marketing world is filled with many terms and buzzwords. From acronyms like “KPI” and “CTR” to rising industry trends like “big data” and “hyperlocal,” sales and marketing leaders in the manufacturing space constantly find buzzwords left and right. So when you come across the word “omni-channel,” you may be quick to dismiss it.

That would be a mistake.

The Best Days and Times to Call, Email & Post on Social Media: For B2B Manufacturers

With B2B marketing, the adage “timing is everything” applies — well, maybe not “everything,” but it is certainly crucial to successful marketing campaigns.

This is key as the the digital marketing space for US manufacturers becomes more crowded. For instance, did you know that more than 80% of manufacturing marketers promote their presence on social media platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn?

6 Social Selling Tips: For Sellers In Manufacturing

Facebook? Check. Twitter? Check. LinkedIn? Check.

If you’ve already put in the work of building out profiles on these major social media platforms and have gained some followers, you’re off to a great start. But even more important than gaining followers, of course, is gaining customers — and simply having a social media presence isn’t enough to reliably convert connections into leads.

Below, we’ve outlined six tips to remember when developing and optimizing your social media marketing strategy. These tips will help you to better leverage your professional online brand to create more relationships with buyers through social media interactions — the process known as social selling. Here's how you can keep your social selling on point.

Top 3 Pitfalls for Industrial Sellers

Over time, sellers learn that not all customers are created equal, and some customers are more difficult to sell to than others.

That's because the industry is evolving and the buyer’s journey of an industrial customer is changing along with it. As an industrial business, how are you managing these changes — are you keeping up internally, or are you facing roadblocks when it comes to connecting with the right buyers and closing your sales?

In this post, we discuss three common pitfalls industrial sellers experience, important things to remember about the industrial buying and selling process, and how to make sure you're on the right track to closing those deals.

The Invisible Leads Missing From Your Marketing ROI

As an industrial marketer, you know how impactful digital marketing can be. However, measuring that impact can often be a challenge.

Cold Calling vs. Warm Leads: No Contest

Cold calling used to be the most effective way to attract and engage prospects. Now, however, sales efforts driven by cold calling are simply not  as effective in the digital age when compared to warm leads driven by targeted, strategic marketing initiatives. 

Introducing Thomas WebTrax 3.0: Opportunity Intelligence for Industry

When you have data that tips you off to a buyer’s interest early on in their buying process, that data is priceless. Without it, those buyers are as much as 70 percent of the way through their buying journey before you find out they’re interested in products and services like yours — if you ever find out at all.