Resource Topics: sales

Breaking into new verticals: Using trade media to reach new sales targets

One of the most underutilized B2B relationships is with your industry’s leading trade publication. According to a 2018 Mequoda Magazine Consumer Study, 42.4% of U.S. adults read at least one digital magazine per month — a 15% increase in three years. This goes to show trade pubs are much more than the monthly magazine they produce. 

Gone are the days where a trade publication’s reach is confined to the pages of their magazine. For many B2B SaaS industries, trade pubs and, more specifically, their websites, are the pulse of the industry. They are the first place your potential customers will look for current news and trends and can help you successfully fill your sales funnel.  

Many digital publications are hungry for fresh, relevant content. With shrinking editorial staffs, these outlets want high-quality contributions from a variety of authoritative sources. 

Here are three ways SaaS companies are using trade media to reach new SaaS customers in the market:

Support Lead Generation Efforts

Trade publications provide an opportunity to uncover new prospects and provide lead intelligence. But in today’s online publications, authors and companies are in a much more unique position. The conversations and content that orbit trade publications are constructed by people both looking for help and offering solutions. This goes to show the soft-sell approach can work wonders and move prospects along the sales funnel quicker.

Expand Your Reach

For companies looking to target new industries, trade media provides an opportunity to showcase industry expertise prospects can trust. When SaaS companies create a new offering or target new verticals, trade coverage can give them credibility. For example, if a company’s software has previously been built to support marketing teams but has new functionality for sales and customer support, earning coverage in those new verticals to raise awareness among the new buyer persona is a huge boost. Software sales reps can then use educational content and thought leadership coverage found in third-party media to refresh prospect email cadences to reach target buyers. 

Enhance Your Content Strategy

By reading and actively participating in trade publication content, you should advance your level of knowledge about prospects’ needs and pain points — all the things that keep decision-makers awake at night. You can then brainstorm the best ways to solve those pain points to attract leads, guiding them through your sales funnel. That being said, companies should consider what types of content are needed for various stages of the buyer journey and target accordingly. With proper lead nurturing supported by the right content every step of the way, companies will strengthen the relationship with the prospect, ultimately closing deals and driving revenue.

For more information on why trade media matters in B2B SaaS, please visit https://www.blastmedia.com/

How Sales Technology Has Evolved in the COVID-19 Era

Fight or Flight. It’s the primal human response that occurs when faced with a harmful or threatening event. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many industries and professionals to make quick transitions to fight this challenge, or take flight and let the pandemic win. The B2B sales industry was no exception. According to a study by Business2Community, COVID-19 has caused a 73.9% decrease in B2B sales opportunities. How has the industry fought this harsh reality?

B2B sales went digital and, more importantly, adopted sales technology to not only assist with this transition, but also gain insights, advice and enhance productivity during this time of crucial change. Sales technology provided the tools the B2B industry needed to stand up to the fight. But finding success through the use of sales technology took place in phases.

According to McKinsey and Company, the three phases of the COVID response for the sales industry are: 

  1. Navigating the Crisis
  2. Preparing for Recovery
  3. Reimagining the Next “Normal’

Each phase has played a crucial role in the efforts we have seen from sales technology through the COVID-era so far. Let’s take a closer look at how each breaks down:

Phase 1: Navigating the Crisis

The first step to any response is surveying the damage and navigating through it. That’s exactly what vidREACH did beginning in late March 2020. In sales, human interaction is a core component, and finding a way to imitate that in a virtual setting was necessary for the sales industry to achieve long-term success. According to a study by Google, 64% of B2B buyers have increased their use of online video. Seeing this drastic increase affirmed the need for video sales technology as B2B sales teams navigate this crisis.

vidREACH, a video email and sales engagement platform, introduced vidREACH Individual. CEO Sean Gordon told MediaPost this product assists sales teams in achieving “enhanced human-to-human connections straight from a phone or video email solution to help sales teams improve engagement with customers and prospects.” Core features include the ability to send, track engagement analytics and easily integrate with Gmail, Outlook and Salesforce, in order to create a more human-to-human interaction throughout the new virtual sales process. vidREACH and its email video solution made the first step in the road to recovery. 

Phase 2: Preparing for Recovery

After the initial shockwave rolls through and you have navigated the transition, it’s time to prepare for recovery. This doesn’t mean preparing for the problems, but moreso, looking at the current situation, analyzing customer needs and finding your opportunity. In the COVID-19 era, customers need data, personalization and trust before purchase. 

For the sales enablement and content management platform Mediafly, this realization led to the development of a content hub that provides customers with personalized and evidence-based sales content, which launched in July 2020. In the Startup Selling Podcast, Carson Conant, CEO of Mediafly, talked about the importance of integrating personalized and interactive content within the sales process through sales technology. Conant said, “If you create content that is more interactive, more dynamic and more data-driven, you can arm the salespeople with a better story and you can show [customers] that it is in their best interest to use [your product].”

Mediafly’s content hub accounted for the needs of prospects and customers. In order for businesses to recover their sales pipeline, it was essential to incorporate data, personalization and trust into the sales process. Mediafly realized that essential component and integrated that ability into their platform, allowing B2B businesses to sail through this unprecedented time, heading for recovery in what will likely be a new normal.

Phase 3: Reimagining the Next “Normal”

Life as we know it will look a little different in the post-COVID era. For example, Kate Lister, President of Global Workplace Analytics, predicts 25-30% of the workforce will be working virtually multiple days a week by the end of 2021. With the continuance of a highly virtual workflow, sales teams are looking for ways to succeed in the next “normal.” 

Chorus.ai is helping achieve success in the virtual sales process by providing a sales technology tool that uses AI to track and analyze virtual pitches so sales teams can close deals even if all their buyers operate virtually. WIRED covered a story in October 2020 on how Chorus’ sales technology tool is helping MavenLink enhance its sales efforts. Jeramee Waldum, President of Global Sales for Mavenlink, said Chorus helped his team secure a deal by analyzing their pitches, providing coaching recommendations, tracking analytics and more to identify and highlight the client’s concerns. Upon this insight from Chorus, MavenLink structured their sales efforts to align with the client’s specific needs, leading to a successful sale. 

While we’re not out of the woods in regard to the pandemic, the determination and effort put forth shows the sales technology industry is following the path to return B2B sales to success. vidREACH, Mediafly and Chorus are only a few cases of many sales technology platforms fighting to ensure sales success throughout our journey and into the next “normal.”

Is your sales technology platform enhancing the success of virtual B2B sales? Contact Lindsey Groepper to find out how BLASTmedia can share your solution.

Developing Ideas for Thought Leadership Content: Four Questions to Ask Your Sales Team


Marketing and sales both want content that compels prospects to act. Yet, according to eMarketer, 90 percent of content developed by the marketing team is never used in selling.

Fortunately, as a marketer, you don’t need to spin your wheels thinking of a new strategy. By utilizing your sales team’s input, you can develop thought leadership content that resonates with media, salespeople on the front lines of customer acquisition and prospects. How can your team create thought leadership content that sales teams want to share with prospects? Start with asking the right questions. Continue reading “Developing Ideas for Thought Leadership Content: Four Questions to Ask Your Sales Team”

Overlooked Marketing Tools That Can Be Leveraged By SaaS Sales Teams

Whether the discussion centers around lead quality, buyer personas or content, there seems to be a never-ending battle between sales and marketing departments to stay aligned — not just in SaaS, but across industries. When it comes to content, the sales team is rarely using the content that the marketing team is creating — in fact, according to data from eMarketer, 90% of content developed for sales is never used in selling. Continue reading “Overlooked Marketing Tools That Can Be Leveraged By SaaS Sales Teams”

3 Truths That All SaaS Sales Reps Understand

According to Redpoint Ventures Managing Director Tomasz Tunguz, SaaS companies invest between 80 percent and 120 percent of their revenue in sales and marketing in the first five years of their existence. That’s a lot of monetary pressure to put on sales and marketing teams. And when it comes to SaaS sales, it’s a totally different beast from other B2B tech sales. You’re selling software and service — and this means that company you’re trying to woo is tied to your business for as long as they want to use your product. It’s a true commitment!

Continue reading “3 Truths That All SaaS Sales Reps Understand”

Three Ways Thought Leadership Coverage Can Align Marketing and Sales

Congratulations! Your PR team secured stellar coverage with a target media outlet, and the CEO is thrilled his quote was included. But just as the whole team finished patting themselves on the back, someone from sales points out a potentially awkward truth: the product was never mentioned. Was valuable time just wasted on some pointless article that can’t assist the sales funnel? Continue reading “Three Ways Thought Leadership Coverage Can Align Marketing and Sales”