Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

We are driven to pitch our products and solutions. Our questioning and discovery strategies each have an agenda, we seek answers that enable us to pitch. We have presentations focusing on us, our products, our companies and how great we are. Somehow, our customers are lost in the process.

Customers 111

Customers Negotiate Pitch Trust 111

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 10, 2024

But, too often, I see the equivalent of this problem in our GTM strategies and execution efforts. We see this everyday in our sales and marketing organizations. Sales people are meeting their activity goals, sales ops is doing their reports, managers are managing performance, and so forth. The parts would be 1.1″,

GTM 87

GTM Manufacturing Meeting Quota 87

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 26, 2024

But what really interested me were Bill’s perspectives on where buying and selling is headed and how we must change our engagement strategies to work with buyers more impactfully. ” Why I’m So Interested In Selling I worked as a finance manager for a large tech company early in my professional career. .”

Sell 95

Sell Cross-sell Finance B2C 95

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 15, 2023

We often gauge the quality of our conversations by the responses we get in those conversations. I have learned to gauge the quality of the conversation, the quality of engagement by the questions the people are asking. How do we engage people in ways that encourage deeper questions? How do we provoke this level of engagement?

Construction 108

Construction Pipeline Gaming Conversion 108

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 21, 2023

As our conversations often go, we were talking about the state of selling and how we improve. The conversation got me thinking about the issue: “Our customers desperately need help, but do we want to be helpful, do we know how to be helpful? The core issue is our customers are struggling.

Customers 112

Customers Quota Up-sell Conversion 112

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 22, 2024

Sometimes, I feel like a broken record talking about Customer and Business Acumen. Yet these same leaders complain about the ability to connect to prospects and customers. Yet these same leaders complain about the ability to connect to prospects and customers. I ask: “How does your customer make money?”

Customers 101

Customers GTM Trust Up-sell 101

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

The commonality between the two of us is the obsession around helping customers solve complex problems and create great value. My obsession to provide Customer Value Written by Christian Maure r Dave, thank you very much for picking up the challenge. That’s how my obsession to provide customer value was borne.

Customers 102

Customers Contract Consult Electrical Engineering 102

Spiro Technologies

MAY 2, 2024

Expanding to the licensing and distribution model provided Aster Brands substantial growth while also presenting new obstacles in sales, marketing, and customer communication. CEO Jake Manthei says, “the biggest part of our company is the customer engagement team. We work really hard to make our customers’ phones ring.

Manufacturing 59

Manufacturing Customers Territory CRM 59

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

.” I’d see all sorts of block diagrams, showing how the buying process always, coincidentally, aligned with the customer buying process. These would, through some magic, always align with the customers’ very structured process, Problem Definition, Needs Definition, Evaluate Alternatives, Select/Buy A Solution.

B2B 120

B2B Up-sell Contract Start-ups 120

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 30, 2024

Then, too many of us turn around and inflict bad outbound prospecting on our own victims. Let us show you how our product solves this problem… ” “You need more in your pipeline, let us show you how we solve that problem… ” Every prospecting message I see focuses on the sender, their products, and their companies.

Product 92

Product Sell Pitch B2B 92

Martech

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

When customer experience works, customers receive a consistent and seamless interaction with a business from touchpoint to touchpoint. TD Bank sees it as key to connecting with customers, colleagues and communities they serve. An often overlooked feature of CX is sound. This is TD’s first sonic identity,” said Strawn.

Customers 112

Customers Angle Strategize Trust 112

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 8, 2024

Every quarter there is the inevitable rush to close deals, to hit our numbers. The global economy/turmoil and continued layoffs/reductions, and shuffling of priorities–both within our customers, markets, and within our own organizations. Yet there are so many challenges and barriers.

Quota 107

Quota Trust Pitch Up-sell 107

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 23, 2024

Time management has always been an important concept. I can remember reading all sorts of books on effective time management, even back to college days. I continue to devour them, adapting many of the principles to my own time management. We have reached a “crisis” in time management.

Objectives and Key Results 102

Objectives and Key Results Technique Presentation Closing 102

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

It’s no surprise, we have more demands on our time than we have time to fulfill those demands. For decades, technology continues to offer ways to improve our efficiency (and every once in a while, our effectiveness–but that’s a separate post). We change our minds and our positions constantly.

Technology 115

Technology Technology High impact Meeting 115

Search Engine Land

APRIL 30, 2024

You try to define your target market, only to be told, “Our audience is anyone who wants our product – we don’t exclude anyone.” The problem is that going ultra-deep in a psychographic profile doesn’t actually help you craft a 30-character headline for fleet management software. Ready to refine your approach?

CTR 97

CTR Real Estate Legal Clients 97

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 10, 2023

Recently, in conversations with clients and other groups, I’ve been stunned at how few have performance plans in place for their people. ” Performance plans and planning are critical to both managers and their people. These plans help each assess whether we are doing our jobs and achieving our goals.

Quota 108

Quota Teamwork CRM Pipeline 108

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 24, 2024

Properly used, with the right prompt engineering, AI can help us better understand potential issues our customers face. We can invest a lot of time in refining our prompts, feeding the LLMs reports to analyze to refine the insights provided (and these tools are supposed to save us time?). The LLMs will provide ideas, insights.

Represent 110

Represent Presentation Up-sell Engineering 110

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 19, 2023

As sellers, we always talk about the importance of our “Unique Value Proposition.” ” For decades, we have thought about our value proposition in the context of our products/solutions. And we focused on our differentiation to determine our uniqueness.

X-functional 117

X-functional Price Presentation Product 117

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

I spend a lot of time with sales managers, at all levels. Endless forecast and pipeline discussions–usually between managers and not with people. One on one’s are irregular, and easily pushed off when something the manager prefers to do. And every once in a while, they see a customer with their sales people.

Pipeline 104

Pipeline Meeting Technology Technology 104

Membrain

FEBRUARY 26, 2023

When you look at these things we use to describe “salesmanship,” none of it is meaningful to the buyers – the people we have to engage to meet our quotas, achieve our goals, and earn our commissions. They are focused on our success. Salesmanship” is more about helping the customer than our own self focus.

Commission 125

Commission Quota Negotiate Pitch 125

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Do you genuinely care about the people you are prospecting? Do you genuinely care about your customers? Do you genuinely care about your people? I receive calls and outreaches from dozens of people a day. Or I ask something, innocently, of sellers, “How is your customer measured? I see this in deal reviews.

Assembly Line 97

Assembly Line Trust Up-sell Start-ups 97

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 26, 2024

I was speaking to a group of sales people. But as I reflected on the question, I asked, “What books are your customers reading? Where do your customers go to learn? ” We constantly struggle to connect with our customers, to understand their challenges and problems. What should we be reading?”

Manufacturing 115

Manufacturing Technique Sell Customers 115

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 9, 2024

Where AI/Robots are provide the promise to free people up to do the things AI/Robots can’t do, instead, too many seem to be following the example set by these tools. ” Likewise, within our organizations, we lose connection with the individual. Organizations become depersonalized, people become replaceable widgets.

Presentation 114

Presentation Follow-up Customers Trust 114

Salesforce

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

Recognizing your agents’ contributions during National Customer Service Week (celebrated annually the first full week of October) is an opportunity to say thank you and continue to foster a positive, high-performing work environment. Here are six Customer Service Week ideas to show your appreciation all year round.

Service 136

Service Customers Gaming Drivers/motivators 136

Martech

MARCH 13, 2024

AI will profoundly impact the workplace and the roles of people working on creative. Many people I speak to talk of the boundaries or limitations of AI, noting where it falls short of expectations. I’m advocating that we all ride this wave by rolling our sleeves, experimenting and embracing AI tools.

Drivers/motivators 109

Drivers/motivators Technology Technology Launch 109

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

Time available for selling is the time sellers spend preparing for a customer interaction, the interaction itself, and the follow-up from that interaction. We want to look at how effectively people are using that time, but for the moment, let me look at the time sellers spend outside this.

Sell 129

Sell CRM Technique Territory 129

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

The tools themselves are evolving quickly, but having gone through a several of these technology disruptions in the past, I recognize we usually find the mediocre to poor uses first, but as we gain experience we improve our understanding and start to leverage the technology to its full potential. Or are we misusing them, tragically?

Manufacturing 107

Manufacturing Engineering Technology Technology 107

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 2, 2024

Preface: I first met Rene Voorhost years ago when he was the Nordics/Benelux sales manager for National Instruments. What I am passionate about is people, technology and making impact. I enjoyed it even more if I could go onsite, to experience, assess then solve the problems at first hand in close collaboration with my customers.

Sell 102

Sell Education Territory Engineering 102

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 14, 2024

At that time, my clients were asking me the same questions, I wrote a paper to help them think about the issues and how to manage through and thrive. In many cases, organizations have cut many people, but try to continue the work done before the cutbacks. Slowdowns are impacting many sectors of the economy. We see a lot of uncertainty.

Objectives and Key Results 111

Objectives and Key Results Clients Drivers/motivators Start-ups 111

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 3, 2024

Our mindsets aren’t so focused on improving efficiency, rather on avoiding doing the work. And as we start linking shortcuts, things that are disconnected in the process, we find ourselves doing more work to fit them together, trying to manage a whole bunch of varied shortcuts that are supposed to make things easier for us.

Objection handling 107

Objection handling Construction Technique Drivers/motivators 107

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 6, 2024

Second, a leadership perspective as a CRO who cares deeply about the people on the team. Third, a vision of what we and our customers achieve through working together–and isn’t that our ultimate goal as sellers? First, a personal perspective as a seller. I think thats what makes the sales game so interesting.

Sell 73

Sell Hospitality Retail Drivers/motivators 73

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

How customers want to be engaged has changed profoundly. Our version 3.7 world, is profoundly different… The rate of change/disruption continues to accelerate at a rate that we (our customers and us) struggle to make sense of. Our version 3.7 ” More people are involved in the buying process.

Technology 92

Technology Technology Up-sell Meeting 92

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 4, 2023

I think, “Why do we revel in achieving our quotas and scaling goals, when we could be doing so much more?” ” If we achieve our growth/revenue goals, we think we are doing well. Imagine what we could do, without impact to the cost of selling, if we started being more effective in how we manage each deal?

Quota 109

Quota Growth Sell Process 109

Martech

OCTOBER 9, 2023

I recently attended the Henry Stewart Digital Asset Management (DAM) conference in New York City, where I moderated some sessions and workshops. I was also able to interact with my fellow colleagues, catching up on all the pertinent issues affecting marketing and creative management.

Government 114

Government Technology Technology CRM 114

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 11, 2023

Yet despite all of this, the primary lever managers use to drive performance is comp–and I suspect that’s why we see the data above. But we didn’t abandon our other initiatives. For example, if we have a new customer acquisition goal, let’s put that goal as a performance objective.

Objectives and Key Results 102

Objectives and Key Results Pipeline Finance Quota 102

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 10, 2023

I was meeting with a group of sellers, talking about engaging their customers. I asked the question, “Who are the people, at your customers, most important to your ability to sell something? They cited a number of people, “CIOs are usually the key people involved in a project. Who depends on them?

Customers 81

Customers Finance Legal Conversion 81

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

But we attempt to make purposeful choices about how we invest our time This is what all the self-help books preach, and this is what we try to do to achieve our goals. But we attempt to make purposeful choices about how we invest our time This is what all the self-help books preach, and this is what we try to do to achieve our goals.

High impact 108

High impact Meeting Customers Closing 108