September, 2013

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The Truth About Sales People #4 - They Don't Prospect Very Well

Anthony Cole Training

'Sales people have to prospect! At least that was the case in 1983 when I was selling Nautilus exercise equipment, and it still is today even as president of Anthony Cole Training Group. I know this is not a great revelation, and you are probably wondering why I would even add this to the list of truths about sales people. Honestly, I have to say I''m confused by this.

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6 Steps to Creating a Killer Sales Culture

A Sales Guy

'The five of us would sit in the cafeteria every day, eating lunch together. Everyone in the company knew who we were. There was an energy you could feel. We were a small team, but a team we were. We were at 200% of quota. We had secured 90% of the market. We devastated the competition. We were thought leaders in our space. We all loved going to work.

Quota 127
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The “Squishy” Buying Cycle

Partners in Excellence

'Too often, we think of the customer’s buying process as something that, once we understand it, is fairly structured and defined. Our job as sales professionals becomes aligning our selling process with the customer’s buying process, moving through the process in a disciplined manner. I think there is a different view of the buying cycle, one that is more “squishy.” Hank Barnes of Gartner , has an interesting concept of the buying cycle being a series of “activity

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Are Sales and Sales Management Candidates Getting Worse?

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan There are more sales experts, self-professed and otherwise, than ever before. There is more free content on sales and selling than anyone could have imagined. There are probably twice as many books on the subject than just 10 years ago. There are categories of sales tools and CRM applications where none existed a few years ago.

Sales 115
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Welcome to the Future of Hospitality: Smart Rooms Start Here

Speaker: Jady West, VP of Hospitality & Chris Bennett, Head of Sales & Engineering

The modern hotel room is no longer just a place to stay—it’s an experience to remember. Today’s guests expect seamless 5G connectivity, personalized comfort, and high-tech convenience. From AI-powered smart room controls to in-room entertainment and app-based services, technology is redefining hospitality from the inside out. In this new session featuring industry pros Jady West and Chris Bennett, we’ll explore how high-speed, high-bandwidth connectivity powers the innovations that are enabling

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5 Ways to Avoid Stupid Customers

The Sales Hunter

'Not all customers are good customers. In fact, there are some customers who are just plain stupid. Sometimes we as salespeople don’t recognize how stupid they are until it’s too late. As a public service, I’ve come up with 5 things you can do to avoid dealing with stupid customers. 1. Don’t sell on price. When you sell on price, the biggest group of people you’re going to attract is stupid people.

Customers 111
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Why 80 Percent of Companies Lose at Customer Retention

Score More Sales

'Every day you can see examples of how big brands and small brands are blowing it when it comes to getting new customers and then retaining them. Just go in to a retailer in a mall or in a big box store somewhere and try to have a really great interaction with an employee. Go to a restaurant for the first time in hopes of having a high value customer experience – it is rare.

Customers 101

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The RIGHT Way to Ask to Connect on LinkedIn [Don't be a Hack!]

A Sales Guy

'I get tons of LinkedIn requests every day. I’m not a LION , but I do try to accept most request from everyone who asks. That being said, I have 100′s of unaccepted requests in my LinkedIn box. I haven’t accepted them yet because I don’t know them, why they wanted to connect and I can’t find any common ground. I get a s**t ton of connection requests because of this blog.

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We’re Communicating, But Are We Really Connecting?

Partners in Excellence

'Technology has extended wonderful capabilities to make us more efficient. We have CRM, Marketing Automation, and Emailing systems that enable us to “communicate” in ways we never imagined or had the time to do in the past. A prospect reaches out for some information. We immediately respond with a “personalized” note and the content.

Cold Call 124
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Can You Improve a Kick-Ass Sales Force?

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Most of the calls and emails we receive come from companies with flat or declining sales. However, some of the greatest successes occur when we help companies that are already kicking ass. Mark Roberge, Sales VP at Hubspot , is responsible for building one of those kick-ass sales forces and he contributed a guest post to Software Advice on Building a Sales Team the Hubspot Way.

Sales 114
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Sales Prospecting Rule: If in Doubt, Make the Call!

The Sales Hunter

'Far too many salespeople have been conditioned to believe they need to have everything perfectly prepared before making a prospecting phone call. I am very much opposed to that belief. Yes, I agree we need to be prepared when we are making any type of prospecting call, whether it be in person or on the phone. Problem is that sometimes the level of preparation we would prefer is just not possible.

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Automation, Evolved: Your New Playbook for Smarter Knowledge Work

Speaker: Frank Taliano

Documents are the backbone of enterprise operations, but they are also a common source of inefficiency. From buried insights to manual handoffs, document-based workflows can quietly stall decision-making and drain resources. For large, complex organizations, legacy systems and siloed processes create friction that AI is uniquely positioned to resolve.

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Inside Sales Power Tip 134 – Show Appreciation

Score More Sales

'The best service professionals around the world show appreciation for their customers and internal team. Those of us in remote, professional selling (also known as Inside Sales) need to be more aware of the massive, incredible power of appreciation. I submit that there is more power in this idea than in most any other aspect of selling, and have written about its power before.

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Upgrading Your Salesforce - Improve Success of New Sales People

Anthony Cole Training

'Upgrading the sales force is the responsibility of every sales manager, sales leader and sales executive. Upgrading the sales force , in my opinion, simply means this: developing and building a team that is better this year than they were last year. "Better" can be defined in many ways, but for our purposes, let''s define it this way: Selling more business, more quickly at higher margins.

Negotiate 171
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Why Sales People’s Product Demo’s Suck and What to Do About it!

A Sales Guy

'Product demos and trials seem to be the thing these days, especially in the world of SaaS (Software as a Service). Everyone wants to get there hands on the product before they buy. So much so, it has become part of most sales cycles. Customers want to see, touch and feel the product now. They want to experience what they are going to buy. They want to experience how it feels and how complex or easy it is to use.

Product 119
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Rethinking Prospecting

Partners in Excellence

'Prospecting is critical to our success as sales people. We need to find new customers, we search for people who want to buy our products and services. We constantly conduct prospecting campaigns–email programs about what we do, endless phone calls: “May I speak to the person in charge of copier purchases?” “I’m in your area next week, can I spend a few minutes talking about your employee benefit programs?

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Get Higher-Quality B2B Leads That Convert!

B2B marketers face a number of challenges, including: continuously generating great leads converting leads to active sales prospects finding vendors that deliver real results Aggregage has proven content syndication, webinar, online advertising and intent signal marketing programs that deliver higher-quality leads. More than 700 companies have already benefited from our programs.

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The Connection Between Gas Prices and Sales Lead Follow Up

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan I was pumping gas yesterday and two things came to mind: When I was a kid gas sold for 18 cents per gallon and the five neighboring gas stations were competing on price. So it made sense that gas was priced to the tenth of a cent. 18.9 cents here, 17.9 cents there. But at $4 per gallon, why on earth are gas stations still pricing gas by the 10th of a cent?

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4 Secrets for Reaching the CEO and Other Senior People

The Sales Hunter

'Trying to reach senior level people requires strategies that typically do not work for others. Consider these 4 secrets: 1. Send senior level people an email late Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. This is one of the best techniques you can use, as senior level people don’t ignore email on the weekend. In fact, for many extremely busy executives, the weekend is the one time of the week when they will spend an extended period of time on email.

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Grow Sales with Rhythm and Cadence

Score More Sales

'Rhythm : movement of variation with patterned recurrence of a beat. Cadence : the flow or pattern of events – the beat, time, or measure. As a former marching band member, I know something about rhythm and cadence – it’s what made our band so great. But in business? How can sales grow based on these ideas? Top sellers and sales leaders have always appreciated predictability such as specific dates on the calendar for annual planning, quarterly planning, coaching sessions, and reviews.

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The Truth About Sales People #3 - They Are All Terminal

Anthony Cole Training

'In the book, "Tuesday''s with Morrie", the author, Mitch Albom, makes a comment about Morrie''s terminal condition. Morrie responds with, "Mitch, we are all terminal; it''s just a matter of when.". And so it is with your sales people. This is even true for you - the owner, executive, founder, partner of the firm you lead. Everyone associated with your team today will one day NOT be there.

Sales 169
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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

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Quitters, Dabblers, Hobbyists and Superstars — The Path to Greatness

A Sales Guy

'Greatness is hard. Many of us think we’ve attained it in some way or another but the truth is we haven’t. We haven’t even touched the surface. This is a simple fact. Most of us who think we’ve attained greatness are really just hobbyists. Achieving greatness goes against the grain of society. Society ingrains us in the concept of ROI (return of investment) or ROE (return on effort).

Sports 118
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“I’m Not Paid To Have Conversations, I’m Paid To Get Orders!”

Partners in Excellence

'I write and speak frequently about customer focus, engaging customers in conversations about their business, and understanding customers. I’ve also taken pretty strong positions against the “show up and throw up” style of selling. The other day, was speaking to someone about these topics and the importance of engaging customers in talking about their business rather than pitching.

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Motivating Your Sales Team - Secrets to Success

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan My first post-vacation post is a collection of announcements that have been sitting in my note-taking app, inbox, and calendar. So, in no particular order: If you are not a client and want an inexpensive way to experience our training, I urge you to attend this 90 minute workshop being produced by Lorman: Motivating Your Sales Team - Secrets to Success I will share my top secrets to motivational success on Tuesday, September 10, 2013 at 1 PM Eastern

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4 Types of Questions You Need to Ask on Every Sales Call

The Sales Hunter

'Allow your prospect to understand the value of what you have to offer by the questions you ask. In preparing for a sales call, you should at the minimum develop the following: 4 Questions that will allow the customer to explain to you their needs and the benefits they desire. 3 Questions for which you don’t have the answer. 2 Questions that link back to what the customer shared with you on a previous call. 1 Question that closes the sale.

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The Intersection of AI and Sales: Personalization Without Compromise

Speaker: Jesse Hunter and Brynn Chadwick

Today’s buyers expect more than generic outreach–they want relevant, personalized interactions that address their specific needs. For sales teams managing hundreds or thousands of prospects, however, delivering this level of personalization without automation is nearly impossible. The key is integrating AI in a way that enhances customer engagement rather than making it feel robotic.

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Inside Sales Power Tip 130 – Know Your Buyer

Score More Sales

'Want to get slowed down as a sales prospector and waste a lot of time? Call on the wrong prospects. You can waste literally days out of every month looking for the wrong buyers. I would go so far as to say that some sellers waste 2 months out of every year going after the wrong prospective customers. Does Outbound Lead Gen Still Work? . Outbound prospecting does work and it works well when you know who your target market is, what your buyers are looking for, and you have a compelling message t

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True or False? Prospecting is FUN!

Anthony Cole Training

'Sales people have to prospect - that''s the truth. Sales people can find their prospects in lots of different ways: Introductions, direct mail, internet offers, networking, internal referrals from business partners, cold calling, pre-approach mail, association memberships, and business networking groups. This is all true. What is also true is that, no matter how a sales person gets a name, the next step is to contact them.

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What the Best Sales People Know, the Rest of Us Don’t

A Sales Guy

'When it comes to selling and closing deals, there is something the best sales people know, the rest of us don’t. This knowledge is, at the core, why the best sales people spend less time on deals that won’t close, why they are able to close deals other sales reps can’t and why they have the ear the most influential decision makers in their accounts and opportunities.

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“Is There Anyone Else We Should We Be Talking To?”

Partners in Excellence

'Sometimes we become so task focused, we lose site of the bigger picture and what we could be doing. We’re working a deal with a prospect. They’re spending time with us, we are learning their requirements, moving through the buying cycle. We’re caught up in the deal, in trying to move forward. And we forget something critical, we forget to ask, “Is there anyone else we should be talking to?

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AI Strategies for Sales Managers: How to Cut Down on Tedious Admin Work

What if you could help your sellers stop wasting 72% of their day on non-selling activities and focus on bringing in revenue? Incorporating AI in your enablement workflows can help you cut down on busy work, get projects done faster, and let your team (and you!) focus on making a bigger impact. We put together this guide to show you how to use AI to cut time and costs for projects, including collateral creation, development of training videos, and automating tedious processes.

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Sales Quiz: Growing Opportunities

Engage Selling

'With a new customer, there are many things to be done. What is the most important if you want to create new opportunities? Take the quiz and find out!

Sales 88
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5 Ways to Identify a Masquerading Salesperson

The Sales Hunter

'Is it real? Is it fake? What is it? What I’m talking about is the person who thinks they’re a salesperson, but is anything but one. It’s time to have one of those frank discussions about the salespeople who simply are not salespeople. Here are 5 ways you can identify a masquerading salesperson: 1. They fail to ask for the order.

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Resource for Top B2B Sales Blogs

Score More Sales

'Nearly every day I get asked about good blogs, books, and resources for the sales reps on the front lines – those with quotas who have to come up with new ideas and think outside of the box for success. Reps who make dozens, if not hundreds of calls, who craft emails and need to be fired up every day. Think outside of the box? At a recent conference, I liked Oracle Social Selling expert Jill Rowley’s comment: “There is no box” It makes me realize that creativity is one

B2B 92
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Should Marketing Be Compensated On Revenue?

Pointclear

'James Obermayer, Executive Director and CEO of the Sales Lead Management Association and President of Sales Leakage Consulting is a regular guest blogger with ViewPoint. Some have heard me say in interviews and on SLMA Radio that, pound for pound, marketers produce more revenue than anyone in their company. If this is true, and no one has refuted me yet, why isn’t marketing management (and everyone in the marketing department) compensated in some manner on revenue the same way sales people and

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Prepare Now: 2025s Must-Know Trends For Product And Data Leaders

Speaker: Jay Allardyce, Deepak Vittal, Terrence Sheflin, and Mahyar Ghasemali

As we look ahead to 2025, business intelligence and data analytics are set to play pivotal roles in shaping success. Organizations are already starting to face a host of transformative trends as the year comes to a close, including the integration of AI in data analytics, an increased emphasis on real-time data insights, and the growing importance of user experience in BI solutions.