Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 20, 2020

Amy Volas wrote, “Is Sales Over-segmented,” Bob Apollo wrote, “Has role specialisation in B2B selling gone too far?” Much of their discussion has to do with the current mechanization of selling that’s become popular in the SDR/AE approach to selling. Likewise, selling is more complex.

Assembly Line 141

Assembly Line Manufacturing Sales Up-sell 141

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 30, 2020

It’s customers prospecting–looking for solutions to their problems. ” “We are expanding our factory capacity and need to add a new assembly line, can we talk about your products as a potential solution?” Don’t they know I don’t sell that stuff? They search the web.

Prospecting 106

Prospecting Customers Assembly Line Education 106

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Do you genuinely care about your customers? ” Crickets…… I realize, they don’t understand what the customer is trying to achieve, what it means to them, why it’s important. Or I ask something, innocently, of sellers, “How is your customer measured? Those assembly lines are failing!

Assembly Line 102

Assembly Line Trust Up-sell Start-ups 102

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 5, 2023

In announcing reductions at Salesforce yesterday, Marc Benioff was quoted, saying customers “are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions.” Customers have, for months, been: Much more selective about what projects they move forward with. Customers will be crying for help! We help them do better.

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Customers Assembly Line Commission Manufacturing 102

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 5, 2023

I just listened to an outstanding webcast on the future of selling, conducted by four close friends. I am a student of their work, they are among the smartest thinkers about selling I’ve ever met. It seemed, unconsciously, the conversation around selling gravitates to SaaS selling.

Conversion 68

Conversion Sell Manufacturing Healthcare 68

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 9, 2020

Ironically, while buying is getting more personal–more about people relating to people, selling seems to be, increasingly, less so. Relationships were fundamental to sales and selling in distant times. Customers become targets for POs rather than people–individuals–to help and for whom we create unique value.

Assembly Line 84

Assembly Line Sell High impact Up-sell 84

Partners in Excellence

JUNE 12, 2023

So much of what our focus in “modern selling,” seems to be the adaptation of Lean Manufacturing techniques into selling. We’ve created “assembly lines” with specialized functions, passing our customers from one station to the next. We cannot manage or control the variation!

Manufacturing 68

Manufacturing Assembly Line Technique Quota 68

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 5, 2021

In complex B2B buying, it’s popular to talk about being consultative and/or creating value with our customers. We talk about sales people as problem solvers, working with our customers to identify and help solve their problems. We are creating massive sales assembly lines optimizing the order taking process.

Assembly Line 112

Assembly Line Sales Price Trust 112

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 15, 2021

We redesign knowledge work, emulating the principles of the industrial assembly lines of the past. We chop up work, creating assembly lines where knowledge workers focus on perhaps the functional equivalent of tightening a bolt. them passing the work to the next person in the knowledge worker assembly line.

Assembly Line 73

Assembly Line Manufacturing Government Up-sell 73

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 10, 2018

At the end, Brent Adamson pulled me to the side asking, “Dave, you seem to have a pretty dark outlook about selling, what’s up?” Am I contributing to it’s improvement and the ability of sales to contribute to our customers and the companies we sell for?” Sales people change jobs, every 20-22 months.

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Sell Assembly Line Up-sell Cold Call 80

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 27, 2018

And we have the convergence of information overwhelm, increased sources of distraction, accelerating change, and skyrocketing complexity–in our customers markets, in their own organizations, with competition/partners, and within our own organization. At the same time, sales performance continues to stagnate or even decline.

Sell 92

Sell Objection handling Assembly Line Territory 92

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 18, 2017

The focus in much of our discussions on selling is about us–sales people. We have highly focused roles, each role focuses on it’s job in the sales process, once complete, the widget–I mean customer, is passed to the next function, then the next, then the next… on down the sales assembly line.

Assembly Line 53

Assembly Line Sell Customers Up-sell 53

Salesforce

JULY 28, 2022

Any disruption to an assembly line or a delivery fleet can bring operations to a standstill, putting pressure on manufacturers to fix the issue as soon as possible. When managed with connected commerce , this channel is a reliable way to increase your bottom line and improve cost margins. Let automation do the thinking.

Original Equipment Manufacturer 52

Original Equipment Manufacturer Manufacturing Assembly Line Sell 52

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 4, 2016

I believe selling is a set of disciplined processes, many of which can be “engineered” to optimize our ability to engage the right customers/prospects, with the right conversations, at the right time. Even to the point that some commoditized or repeat buys are completely automated on the customer and supplier sides.

Assembly Line 49

Assembly Line Customers Manufacturing Objectives and Key Results 49

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 29, 2023

For years, I’ve been writing about the mechanization of selling. Customers have become depersonalized widgets that we move along our selling assembly lines. Our people have become replaceable widgets as well.

Assembly Line 129

Assembly Line Trust Clients Technology 129

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 21, 2017

We seem to be approaching or passing the tipping point where leading sales practitioners view successful selling as a disciplined, focused, engineered approach to engaging and creating value for customers. Stated differently, moving more toward selling as a science. We learn these things when we really understand science.

Sell 67

Sell Assembly Line Manufacturing Up-sell 67

Highspot

JULY 31, 2020

How you organize your sales team will be determined by the regions you serve, the number of products and services you offer, the size of your sales team, and the size and industry of your customers. Prepares sellers for customer engagements via training and onboarding activities. The Assembly Line.

Assembly Line 72

Assembly Line Territory Strategize Education 72

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

We continue to organize our sales and marketing initiatives around what makes us more efficient or old views of how customers buy. The overall marketing/sales assembly line takes customers through this linear process, all oriented to moving the customer through a buying decision.

Assembly Line 94

Assembly Line Sales Process Account management 94

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 19, 2021

One of the most important things a sales person can do with her customer is to “understand.” Stephen Covey’s fifth habit, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood,” is a fundamental principle of selling and leadership, yet it is rare that I see this principle exercised.

Assembly Line 90

Assembly Line Drivers/motivators Technique Sell 90

Partners in Excellence

MAY 25, 2021

When I started selling, I had the responsibility for growing a very large banking account. I focused on understanding my customer, identifying opportunities to grow, and building our value with the customers. So specialists in check processing helped customer re-engineer their processes.

Assembly Line 112

Assembly Line Account management Education Sell 112

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 29, 2016

There are all sorts of phrases like, “people buy from people,” which ascribe the importance of building relationships with our customers. Yet, it seems that too much of how we actually manage the customer engagement life cycle seems to ignore the importance of developing relationships with our customers.

Assembly Line 49

Assembly Line Customers Trust CRM 49

Spiro Technologies

OCTOBER 20, 2022

On this podcast, I talk with company leaders about how they’re modernizing the business of making, moving, selling products, and of course, having fun along the way. So the customer themself loves that, it’s just a way for them to save money and make sure they’re being accurate. Transcript. Alex Reneman: Sure.

Sell 52

Sell Manufacturing Assembly Line Technology 52

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 27, 2017

It’s become common “wisdom” that we have to align align our sales process with our customers’ buying processes. I suppose it’s easy to want to believe customers have buying processes. But if we look at complex B2B buying, do customers really have a buying process?

Process 53

Process Customers Assembly Line Manufacturing 53

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

The struggles have less to do with choosing what to buy, yet sellers tend to focus on what they are selling. We view the process as a transaction, moving the customer from person to person on our sales assembly lines. We focus on our success, failing to empathize with the customer and showing that we care.

Assembly Line 48

Assembly Line Trust Up-sell B2B 48

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

We’re also brought to you by Vidyard — the best way to sell in a virtual world, whether you need to connect with more leads, qualify more opportunities, or close more deals. Make prospecting videos, follow-ups, product demos, and other communications that drive virtual selling. Welcome to the Sales Hacker podcast.

Commission 90

Commission Quota Assembly Line Sales 90

Spiro Technologies

OCTOBER 5, 2022

Adam Honig: Hello and welcome to Make It, Move It, Sell It. On this podcast, I talk with company leaders about how they’re modernizing the business of making, moving and selling products. Well, I’m super curious – is that level of precision in terms of timing important for other customers? Transcript.

Manufacturing 59

Manufacturing Sell Construction Electricity 59

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 15, 2021

Each of our customers’ strategies, goals, priorities, culture, and values are different. We take them through the same standard “handling” as we engage them and move them through our selling process (forget they have their own buying processes and they struggle with it.). Why do customers not respond to our outreach?

Assembly Line 69

Assembly Line Quota Pitch Meeting 69

Partners in Excellence

JUNE 30, 2023

”) But as I look to much of what we do in business/sales/marketing/customer experience, so many of the things that we to are long past their “Use by dates.” How our customers buy is changing faster than we are adapting to respond to them. We look at sales roles and how we engage our customers in outmoded ways.

Assembly Line 62

Assembly Line High impact Quota Technique 62

Gong.io

APRIL 28, 2021

How on earth can that be a bad idea, when all customers care about is ROI? Picture this: You’re a software sales rep and you gave a stellar demo to your customer’s CFO. In other words, for every dollar your customer spends, they get 40 dollars in return. You need to tailor your message to your customer’s strategic priorities.

Assembly Line 71

Assembly Line Manufacturing Drivers/motivators Strategize 71

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 13, 2021

And, while I will contradict my opening premises, too much of the time, in seeking “predictable revenue,” we treat every aspect of selling as laws etched in granite. They recognize the real value in the organization has nothing to do with what they sell, or the tools, programs, processes, and so forth.

Assembly Line 85

Assembly Line Quota Prospecting Start-ups 85

ClickFunnels

JUNE 18, 2021

Middle of the sales funnel (MoFu): Potential customers. Bottom of the sales funnel (BoFu): New and existing customers. Our co-founder, Russel Brunson, has developed a sales funnel model called The Value Ladder, which we believe is the most effective way to sell online. You get the attention of a person in your target audience.

Minimum Viable Product 229

Minimum Viable Product Assembly Line Niche Sales 229

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 9, 2018

Their approach is to exploit the “relationship,” but not the value they create in helping the customer achieve their goals. Neither of those extremes is about relationships, neither of these extremes understands the importance of relationships with our customers. Andy poses that relationships are about “connection.”

Assembly Line 88

Assembly Line Account management Gaming Sell 88

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 6, 2017

I’ve always been biased more to the science side of selling than the art side. I believe that selling is a disciplined process, that we can “engineer” those processes to increase our impact, customer engagement, and our effectiveness. I find myself in an unusual position.

Assembly Line 56

Assembly Line SQL Trust Sales 56

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 17, 2018

How do we reduce the variability in sales people and what they do, creating the lowest cost ability to acquire customers. After all, AI and ML will solve all the problems of the selling world. If we structure our engagement process to be more transactional, the assembly line process becomes very attractive.

Assembly Line 88

Assembly Line Pitch Sales Growth 88

Hubspot

MAY 9, 2022

The Assembly Line — a model where reps work on designated responsibilities, specific to a certain pipeline stage. A CRM can provide a shared repository for customer data to make for more cohesive sales efforts. Conversation intelligence platforms can offer you more perspective on where your reps might be struggling on the phone.

Assembly Line 73

Assembly Line Objectives and Key Results Construction Commission 73

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 22, 2017

I read an article in which the position was put forth, “Inside sales does not have the responsibility for creating pipeline, only the responsibility for selling. The speaker was clearly smart and had been very successful in selling, perhaps there was something I misunderstood. A terrific strategy for driving product line growth.

Territory 48

Territory Sell Assembly Line Manufacturing 48

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 31, 2017

We design our organizations to be lean mean selling machines. Prospectors prospect, account managers account manage, product line specialists are expert in their product lines, and on and on… Each role is precisely defined, we have the metrics to by which we constantly measure performance. And it works… for a while.

Assembly Line 58

Assembly Line Manufacturing Account management B2B 58