Still playing it safe with your B2B messaging? So is just about everyone—and your prospects are sick of it. Find out why, and see the most interesting news and hottest jobs in sales while you’re at it.

Top Stories This Week

48% of Buyers Say B2B Ads Are Boring (and It Affects the Decisions They Make) (B2B News Network)

If the glory years of Super Bowl commercials may be behind us, then what hope is there for B2B ads? Indeed, almost half of B2B buyers find the advertising boring, and the websites not as creative as the ones marketed to consumers. Without million-dollar production values and hip celebrity spokespeople, salespeople need to get more creative when it comes to engaging buyers.

 

Salesforce at 20 offers lessons for startup success (Tech Crunch)

Love it or hate it, the CRM giant is almost old enough to drink legally. Along the way, the founders learned a lot about what it takes to build an enterprise-level SaaS solution. You’ll get the inside scoop through various recollections and get valuable lessons you can apply at your own startup, including how to sell a big idea to a very skeptical audience. (Also, people apparently write books about the CRM industry. Who knew?)

 

Signs Your Star Salesperson Will Excel as a Sales Manager (ringDNA)

All forward-thinking organizations should be thinking of ways to strengthen their sales teams, and part of that is hiring—or promoting—strong managers. As this article points out, there’s a bit of risk in making your best salesperson the newest manager; you’re trading the sure-thing revenue they bring in for the uncertainty of what they’ll achieve in their new role. Fortunately, there are characteristics you can look for in salespeople who have mastered certain soft skills that make for effective sales managers.

 

How to Turn B2B Blog Subscribers into Sales-Ready Prospects (Uberflip)

Looking for leads on an already-engaged prospect? Look no further than the subscribers of your blog and newsletter. With help from your marketing team—whom you should already ideally be aligned with—you can determine what action your subscribers have been taking on your site and build engagement paths that pave the way to them being sales-ready prospects.

 

How to Build Value in Sales Negotiations (RAIN Group)

The folks at the RAIN Group know a thing or two about creating value for buyers, and are generous in sharing their research along with their robust content. Here, they discuss ways to make sure you’re driving value for your buyers during the sales negotiation process by collaborating with your buyers. Collaboration encourages a better understanding of needs and a deeper relationship—which leads to bigger sales.

 

Hot Job Listings This Week

On the market for a new career? Here are some of the biggest sales job listings we’ve found this week.

VP/Director-level roles

  • Pivotal: Regional Director of Sales – Americas, North  (Chicago)
  • AdmitHub: Vice President, Sales (Boston)
  • BounceX: Associate Vice President, Sales (NYC)
  • SAP Ariba: Vice President, Sales – South (Houston)
  • AdRoll Group: Director of Sales, West (San Francisco)

Manager-level roles

  • Rackspace: Sales Manager – ObjectRocket (Austin)
  • Pure Storage: Manager, Sales Development (Chicago)
  • Splunk: Sales Account Manager – Public Sector (Atlanta)
  • Proofpoint: Channel Account Manager (Chicago)

Account executives

  • MongoDB: Enterprise Account Executive (San Diego)
  • Actifio: Account Executive (Multiple)
  • IBM: Account Growth Executive – Cloud Application Services (NYC)
  • Zappi: Account Executive (Chicago)
  • OutSystems: Senior Account Executive (Los Angeles)