
Although attendees of the 2015 Forrester Sales Enablement Forum were split between Marketing and Sales, they had a singular focus: empowering salespeople to sell more efficiently and effectively.
The two-day event was packed with presentations on digital marketing trends, changing buyer expectations, Sales and Marketing alignment, and even the looming death of the traditional salesman. I rounded up 14 of my favorite one-liners from the event in case you missed it.
1) “If it doesn’t apply to the buyer’s journey, we just don’t do it.” – Shelby Dawirs, director of corporate campaigns at Logi Analytics (Tweet This Quote)
2) "We believe one million [B2B sales] jobs will be net displaced by 2020."- Andy Hoar, principal analyst at Forrester Research (Tweet This Quote)
3) “I banned the term 'demand generation.' Don’t think about it as demand gen -- think about it in terms of customer engagement.” - Stephanie Meyer, head of marketing operations at GE Healthcare (Tweet This Quote)
4) “Your competitor can copy your product or service, but they can't copy the relationships you build.” - Brian Goonan, partner at Ernst & Young (Tweet This Quote)
5) “Random acts of marketing don’t work. They’ve got to be integrated and part of a plan.” – Joanne Moretti, SVP marketing and sales enablement at Jabil (Tweet This Quote)
6) “Marketing and Sales alignment is an abstraction until grounded with clear goals, specific metrics, and continuous refinement.” – Atri Chatterjee, CMO at Act-On Software (Tweet This Quote)
7) “We have a tendency to tell people what something is and what it does, when the most important thing to that person is what it means to them.” – Joanne Moretti, SVP marketing and sales enablement at Jabil (Tweet This Quote)
8) “If I can tell you what my problems are, I'm not dead yet. They're problems, but I don’t have an urgency to solve them." - Tim Riesterer, chief strategy and marketing officer at Corporate Visions (Tweet This Quote)
9) “I define a lead as the person who just [bought]. They are a lead for Marketing to nurture." - Stephanie Meyer, head of marketing operations at GE Healthcare (Tweet This Quote)
10) “Your buyers want to work with salespeople who have empathy for them, who understand their roles and challenges, and who can be prescriptive in helping them.” - Mark Lindwall, senior analyst, Forrester Research (Tweet This Quote)
11) “Just tell the client story and everything else will fall into place.” - Paul Gottsegen, CMO at Mindtree (Tweet This Quote)
12) “Don’t tell a gut story. We’re in the digital age -- everything is trackable.” - Rowena Track, VP of marketing at TE Connectivity (Tweet This Quote)
13) “Who would you rather call -- someone on your website who has just done something, or that person 24 hours later when they’re in a meeting?” - Todd Johntson, sales manager at LogMeIn (Tweet This Quote)
14) “People who come to a B2B site want a B2C experience.” – Neil Ringel, EVP contract division at Staples Advantage (Tweet This Quote)