Excel spreadsheets, handwritten notes, emailing yourself details about a customer's preferences . . . all of these are ways that we input and track information about our leads, prospects and customers. Then there's the encyclopedic knowledge you or your team members have stored in your heads that no one else has access to. But what happens if you or a point of contact in your company gets hit by the proverbial bus?

This month we are revisiting the Barriers to Entry exercise—because it is a valid and honest look at how your company does business and can lead to improvements that will help you achieve your goals. 

Once upon a Hubspot Inbound Marketing Summit, I had the opportunity to listen to Dorie Clark speak, and began following her more closely.

Trust plays an important role in building long-lasting relationships with clients—and turning prospects into clients in the first place. Most companies will research a vendor or potential partner online before making contact. So how do you build trust with a prospect that you’ve never met?

One way is to shine a spotlight on the employees they’ll be working with so they’re familiar enough with your people, your values and your culture to feel comfortable reaching out and making an introduction.  You can do this in a number of ways, from writing staff bios to highlighting your team on social media.

Check out a few of our favorite ways to spotlight staff: