Sales can be very lucrative and fun. Even a dedicated sales professional can feel depressed, overwhelmed, underappreciated, and isolated when on the road, scrambling for quota or being yelled at by the manager.
The Sales Survival Handbook is a funny look at what it takes for a career in a soul-sucking profession. It’s a must-read for anyone who works in sales. To show empathy, marketing professionals will want to read this book.
After prostitution, sales is the second-oldest profession in the world. Despite many similarities, sales are only legal.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are nearly 14 million salespeople worldwide. Most of these people have never sold anything in their lives. This figure of 14,000,000 also coincides with the number of Americans currently using prescription medication. It is not a coincidence.
Sales can be stressful, frustrating, demanding, and yet rewarding. Few professions have as many ups or downs. You can go from crying in the toilet to popping a glass of champagne and back to crying in your car the next.
This book is for those brave enough to get up every morning and drink a ridiculous amount of caffeine to live the life of an entrepreneur. Although it is not always easy, it can often be worth it.
Marketers must be able to provide highly relevant, context-relevant Content to help them move beyond content marketing tactics.
Sales engagement is a one-to-1 activity. B2B buying groups are composed of five to six stakeholders. The specific issues of the purchasing team will be the “one.” Content irrelevant or valuable to those issues will have little impact.
The traditional custom-made approach does not meet this requirement. It needs to be more flexible and fast enough. It needs to be faster and more flexible.
Structured Content Approach
Advanced content marketers are looking for alternatives to traditional methods of marketing. They have explored the “Structured Content” approach.
Structured Content refers to information or Content that has been organized predictably and is often classified with metadata. Wikipedia
This is one approach in a larger concept known as Intelligent Content.
Intelligent Content is a strategic communication business asset:
Intelligent Content isn’t limited to one purpose, technology, or output. It is semantically aware and structurally rich. It can be reused, reconfigured, reconfigured, and adaptable. It is, in the end, one of the most strategic assets a company can have.” Intelligent Content Conference
The technical publishing profession has used structured content creation for over a decade. It is based on a structured database, similar to how website content management systems work (CMS).
This method typically uses XML content storage techniques. Software authoring systems use DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture). The Content is written into and pulled out of a previously-structured database.
