Marketing can only be effective if you have the skills to close the sale. These resources and articles can help you become better educated so you close more sales without high pressure techniques.  

Buyer Persona Profiles

• 10 Rules for Buyer Persona Development
• Buyer Persona Profiles, Learning who your buyers are to communicate properly
• Persona Based Content Marketing (Case Study by David M. Scott)
• 3 Steps to Creating Effective Buyer Personas
• 9 Questions You Need to Ask When Developing Buyer Personas

Buyer Personality Types (And How to Handle Each of Them)

• How to Negotiate with 4 Buyer Personality Types
• Optimizing Product Review for Different Buyer Personalities
• Mapping Content to the Sales Funnel and Buyer Types

Value-Based Selling (B2B Sales)

• A Strategy for Selling Services
• Value-Based Selling: Building a Best-in-Class Capability for Sales Effectiveness

Sales Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

• Sales vs. Marketing:  Does Your CEO Understand the Difference?
• Working with Blinders: Who’s Really Responsible for Sales?
• 5 Classic Mistakes to Avoid in a Decentralized Sales & Marketing Organization
• The #5 Mistake Sales People Make

Writing Winning Proposals

• Persuasive Proposals:  Interview with Tom Sant
• 12 Tips for Writing a Winning Proposal
• 10 Rules for Writing a Winning Proposal
• The Language of Success:  Interview with Tom Sant

Aligning Sales and Marketing

• How Alignment Helped Sales Win
• How to Align Marketing with Sales
• The Commandments of Sales and Marketing Alignment
• B2B Lead Generation:  Aligning Sales and Marketing
• 7 Strategies to Building Sales-Marketing Alignment

Industry Benchmarking/Best Practices Resources

• Resources for B2B
• Benchmarking Network
• Best Practices Database
• MSN Money
• Resources for B2C
  • JDPower.com
  • JD Power and Associates

Resources and Thought Leaders

• Jill Konrath | Sales Strategies | Sales Techniques
• Opening Statements – Just Sell®… it’s all about sales®
• SHIFT Selling Inc. – Harnessing Trigger Events
• Tom Sant: Persuasive Business Proposals

Must-Have Sales Books

• Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting Customers
• Persuasive Business Proposals
• Selling to Big Companies
• Snap Selling:  Speed Up Sales & Win More Business

Originally posted 2012-02-13 02:01:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter