Customer Reviews

The Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Sales & Marketing

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This book is a wake-up call for marketing and sales organizations. The old ways of going-to-market are no longer effective in today's business environment.

John Coe clearly understands the new sales paradigm and what it takes to be successful. He shows readers what it takes to:
- Break through the marketing clutter and get noticed.
- Obtain high quality leads and convert them to sales.
- Create and execute an effective campaign.

From the very first page of this book, I was hooked - and I'm a pretty discriminating reader. As someone who specializes in new product launches, I'm pretty cynical about most books since they just keep regurgitating old, time-worn strategies and tactics.

This book is different. Well worth the investment.

Jill Konrath

CEO, Leapfrog-Strategies
http://www.Leapfrog-Strategies.com

Founder of top sales portal:
http://www.sellingtobigcompanies.com

John Coe's New Sales Coverage Model explains a holistic approach to marketing, which aligns marketing and sales together.

If you're like most readers you will be tempted to skip over the fundamentals that John Coe lays out such as database design, planning, and micro-segmentation.

The thing about marketing is that many marketers enjoy the creative process but few have the discipline for execution. Coe's book lays out an effective strategy, which requires teamwork and a shared vision involving all players.

This practical book lays out step-by-step what you need to do to sell more and spend less. Great book!

Brian Carroll
Author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale : Boost the Quality and Quantity of Leads to Increase Your ROI

My colleague John Coe has written a new book, "The Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Sales and Marketing," published by McGraw-Hill.

It is not a "high concept" or "big idea" book; therefore, fans of The ClueTrain Manifesto and other such highfalutin nonsense may find John's book way too practical - filled with stuff you can actually do today to increase your sales tomorrow.

But if you like, as I do, business books that are heavy on the nuts-and-bolts, telling you what to do to increase sales results - and how to do it cost-effectively - than buy John's book today.

Coe has a fresh look at how we must do business today. This book is written in a conversational tone with great examples. It's the perfect refresher for a seasoned sales consultant and it outlines the basic principals for entry-level sellers.

This book is a must as a resource and reference!

This book has made me look like a genious to our EVP of Sales and Marketing. After reading it, I can talk about the core elements of our B2B lead gen program from a framework perspective. It also has some very tactical information including some great document templates that helped me put together our campaigning program.

It is a little dated and lacks some of the more recent information about new lead gen tools for the web. However, it will give you a solid basis (i.e. "fundamentals") for establishing your program that you can build on.

I feel a little guilty for not sharing the book with our entire marketing team, but for now it's helping me be the star - my little secret weapon!

I'd like to offer a different perspective on this book. I am a Project Manager for a consulting company, and many of my projects are for Sales and Marketing organizations. Reading this book helped me better understand the business processes my clients are responsible for, and while it didn't make me an expert in B2B marketing, I can ask the right questions now. I actually took this book to a few meetings with the client and the team and read quotes from it in the context of "guys, we are definitely doing the right thing - listen to what this book says".

The book is full of specific details and examples, has a lot of hands-on information that could be applied right away, and its light, almost ocnversational style makes it an easy and enjoyable read.

Coe bridges the gap between marketing and sales productivity by connecting the dots with new and irrefutable proof that the basics work if you follow the formula. This is a must read for marketing, marketing communications and sales management in the same company so everyone is on the same page. If you're not making your numbers, read this and you'll find out what you're doing wrong.

The old measures for sales are outdated. This book is excellent for stating why marketing and sales are part of the same process - why the old measures for marketing and sales prospecting are outdated - and why we need to take advantage of new thinking and new technology to improve our ability to find, qualify, and close new business customers.

Use this book to a) check your assumptions about marketing and sales, b) educate your management team about marketing and sales, and c) sell more - the ultimate measure of your success.

The alternative is to keep your resume updated and return headhunters calls, because the rest of the world will continue to evolve and the effective life of the outdated sales manager will continue to grow shorter.

Many books skim over the fundamental reasons why the salesperson role is changing in the b2b space, but John tackles this shift head-on. He not only points to the changes in the marketplace (i.e., an abundance of clutter), but also that one of the key roles of the sales person (information provider) has been taken over by the Web. Further, he delves deep into why work habits (turnover, telecommuting,purchasing by committee) also contribute to the problem of meeting face to face with decision-makers.

Another key strength of the book is it questions common assumptions about how to organize your sales accounts. He challenges the typical large account/small account model to share how real-world sales increases are feasible with modern sales models.

If you're been out of the market for a few year or shifting to the b2b arena after working in the consumer sector, this should be the first book on your reading list.
DUH! Marketing: 99 Monstrous Missteps You Can Use to Learn, Laugh, and Grow Your Business

This book is written by an author who obviously understands the modern sales and marketing environment. This book is a beautiful weaving of perspectives and insights from both the sales AND marketing points of view. If you are like me trying to bridge the gap between the two every day then you will chuckle at the way John Coe describes some of the conversations that take place between sales folks and marketing folks because you've heard almost the exact conversations before. "Get us better leads." "Increase your closing rates." I guess all organizations have these internal discussions.

Where this book stands apart, however, is the way Coe develops his thesis that the modern selling and marketing environment has changed. The customer is in control more than ever and they don't want to hear from you or talk to you during the sales process until they are ready--and when they're ready you must also be ready and bring your A Game because at that point everything counts and you must have your sales and marketing functions wholly unified.

Practical tips and insights from database structure to lead handling to aligning the two functions to achieve the same goals to finding and defining common performance metrics to measure it all.

A very good and balanced perspective.