Marcus Sheridan on Finding a New Appreciation for Inbound in 2016

Once called a "web marketing guru" by the New York Times, Marcus Sheridan's rise to sales and marketing fame is an untraditional one, but also one for books. 

Fresh out of college, Marcus stumbled across his first business venture installing swimming pools out of the back of a beat-up pickup truck with two of his friends. Flash forward nine years to 2010 and their company became one of the largest pool installers in the US -- and the most visited swimming pool website in the world. 

They did it all with the help of Marcus' incredible inbound and content marketing that was far ahead of its time. 

With this success, Marcus started his sales, marketing, and personal development blog—The Sales Lion, in 2009, and he has since grown the brand to be synonymous with inbound and content marketing excellence.

Last month, I reached out to Marcus and asked him what he thought 2016 had in store for sales and marketing. Here's what he had to say:

“In 2016, I believe the biggest issue in this space will be two-fold:

1. Getting cross-organizational buy-in for Inbound Marketing (specifically with Sales and Management Departments)
2. Getting Sales Departments to not only appreciate Inbound for what it is, while also embracing it and helping to make it a culture within the company.

Marketers need to get much better at truly communicating what Inbound is, what its impact can be on an organization and on each individual (especially in Sales), as well as what can also happen if the organization refuses to embrace Inbound and the digital consumer of today.”

Want more from the Marcus and the marketing pros?

See what Brian Halligan, Ann Handley, Arjun Moorthy, and other Marketing, Sales, and Design experts have to say about 2016 in our free report, 16 on 2016: Inbound Marketing Predictions from 16 Industry Experts. 

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