How to stay on top of marketing and sales news and tips
We complain a lot about information overload today, but when you make your living selling, you need all the high-quality marketing and sales news and tips you can get.
Am I right?
Fortunately, with easy access to the Internet via high-speed connections, we have a huge pipeline full of sales news and marketing advice. But, you need to point your browser in the right direction and employ a few tactics to get the information that best suits you.
Let’s start getting your pipeline of golden sales news and tips primed.
RSS feeds for capturing sales news
I’m mentioning this first because understanding how RSS feeds work, and the best way to use them, will be important for some of the advice and information I give you a little later in this article.
Many websites – and especially blogs – have an RSS feed that “broadcasts” new posts automatically to RSS “readers.” Look for the RSS icon. Sometimes these readers are built right into web browsers, some of them are browser extensions, and others are stand-alone software.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Decide which device or devices you want to read your marketing and sales news on.
- Go to Google and enter something like “best RSS reader for Chrome,” or “best RSS reader for iPhone” – whatever device or operating system you want to use.
- Download and install the RSS reader to your device or computer.
With that accomplished, you’re ready to “subscribe” to some RSS feeds. Visit some of the sites I mention below and look for the RSS icon. Click it and subscribe to the RSS feed or follow the specific instructions for the reader you’ve installed.
Done!
Hashtags
One way to find articles that you might otherwise miss, is to follow the hashtag #sales (you might also follow #marketing) on Twitter. There will be a lot of Tweets that you won’t care about, but you may find some writers, interviews, or information that is good, yet more obscure than some other news and information.
I like to log onto the Twazzup site (it uses your Twitter information) and enter a hashtag. On the screen shot below, you’ll see that I’ve entered the hashtag #sales. There might be a couple of articles I’d like to check out. But also notice that it tells me who some of the “influencers” are in the #sales Twittersphere. You might find people to follow this way, and also people you would want to get to know personally.
Categories
Almost every website that posts articles has them organized by categories and/or tags. Often, there is a way to search by category or tag. Two major sites that are always worth checking out this way are Forbes and Entrepreneur.
- To see the latest marketing and sales news at Forbes, enter this in your browser: http://www.forbes.com/sales-marketing/
- To accomplish the same thing at Entrepreneur, enter this in your browser: https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/marketing
Now that you’ve done that, bookmark those pages and check them each week for updates. Also, be on alert for other websites where you can search by category or tag. Perform the search once, bookmark it, and come back to it on a regular basis.
Google alerts
Here’s a quickie. Set up a Google alert on the topic of sales or sales tips. You can tweak that term if you like to make it better fit your interests. You can have these alerts sent to you on a few different frequencies, but daily or once a week are usually the most convenient settings.
So far, I’ve been giving you tools and tactics, now let’s switch gears and direct you to some of the best sales blogs on the Internet.
Blogs filled with sales news and tips
These blogs mostly focus on B2B sales, but the advice and inspiration they offer will be useful to virtually anyone who is even remotely connected to sales. They are highly recommended. Spend some time exploring them to discover the ones you want to use to fill your RSS reader up with great content.
- Jill Konrath. Jill delivers practical advice and sales strategies. I like her work so much, I try to get articles from her whenever I can!
- SalesFolk. The emphasis here is on learning how to write cold emails.
- Adaptive Business Services. This blog and website bills itself as “The Small Business’ Guide to Social CRM.”
- Sales Pro Insider. Nancy Bleeke works to give you what you need to assemble, train, and audit your sales team.
- Sales Engine. Lots of practical information here to drive more leads into your sales funnel and convert them.
- A Sales Guy. Keenan is the “sales guy” here and he wants to spread his passion, organizational skills, and knowledge… inspire you along the way.
- The Sales Blog. This is Anthony Iannarino’s blog. The noted speaker and sales coach posts daily sales tips.
- Selling Power Blog. Lots of guest writers grace these pages. Note that you can zero in on exactly the categories that you’re interested in via its sidebar navigation.
- Inside Sales Experts Blog. You’ll find a lot of good articles on “metrics, trends, and analysis” by a variety of writers on this site.
- Jonathan Farrington. Farrington is senior partner at Jonathan Farrington & Associates, CEO of Top Sales World and the co-editor of Top Sales Magazine.
Tap into the universe of Internet-based sales information I’ve presented here, and you’ll be the most well-informed member of your sales team. However, I have one question I need to ask you:
Have I missed your favorite sales blog? If so, share it with us!