October, 2018

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Strategy Is Sexy, Execution is Boring

STAR Results

Business success is a function of brilliant strategies and excellent execution. How are your sales to date? Every sales leader I have spoken with could easily answer this question. I am sure you can as well. Here is a more challenging question: How well are you doing when it comes to strategy execution ? This is a much more challenging question and there is no easy answer.

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Salespeople, Why is Everyone Playing from the Same Playbook?

A Sales Guy

I think too many sales organizations, their salespeople AND their sales leaders are playing from the same playbook. Why? I don’t see enough innovation. I spend an incredible amount of time with salespeople and sales leaders, and the most common thing I see is how similar they all are. Most everyone hires based on the same hiring principles. Most everyone prospects using the same prospecting principles.

Cold Call 117
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Trending Sources

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Is Technology Actually Helping or Hurting Your Sales Conversations?

Membrain

Technology can be a double-edged sword for sales departments. The promise of greater efficiency and effectiveness is hard to resist, yet many technologies actually make things worse rather than better.

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If Your Sales Process Looks Like This, You’re Blowing Deals

Openview

I got on a call with an SDR recently who was nothing short of lovely. He asked great questions, talked about my goals, what I was looking for, what I wanted to see in their technology, etc. He listened well, was authentic, and was helpful from start to finish. Then I asked to see the technology. Which is when he told me it wasn’t his job and that he’d have to get me scheduled with an Account Executive because he wasn’t allowed to show me.

Process 110
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How to Improve Email Deliverability and Optimize Each Send

Learn how to optimize email deliverability and drive greater email ROI. What lands your email in the customer’s inbox? Understanding those factors, otherwise known as email deliverability, is critical to getting the most return on your campaign investments. But the “rules” around which factors land you in the spam folder aren’t always easy to keep up with.

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Project Management And Sales?

Partners in Excellence

What’s selling have to do with project management? It may not be obvious, but strong project management skills are essential for top performing sales people—both for helping our customers buy and for effectively leveraging our own resources in the process. Think about it, a moment. Our customers have a project–not a buying journey.

Sales 121
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Five Key Skills for Sales Ops Career Success

InsightSquared

If you’ve ever thought about becoming a lawyer, the path is pretty clear: Get a Bachelor’s degree. Take the LSAT. Earn your JD. Pass the bar. The process may not be easy, but at least it’s laid out. You know exactly what steps to take, including recommended classes and exam prep courses, in order to put yourself on a path to success. When I think about sales operations, there is no defined route to take.

Sales 110

More Trending

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A Lesson In Commitment

A Sales Guy

How often do you commit to something and then not follow through? I get it, it happens a lot. We aren’t perfect. But not meeting a commitment scratches the surface of lying. No! You didn’t lie, but it has a similar effect. When we commit to someone, and then break that commitment, it undermines trust. In this video, I talk about a way to improve your ability to keep your commitments.

Trust 115
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Sales And Sales Management Is Broken

Membrain

I have to admit being consumed with CSO Insights latest Sales Performance Report. If you haven’t had the opportunity to read it, make sure you take the time to download and study it. It’s filled with fascinating analysis, each chart presents huge opportunities for performance improvement.

Sales 111
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This “Unfair” Advantage Separates Top-Notch Sales Teams from The Rest

Openview

Imagine you’re part of a Grand Prix race through the winding streets of Monaco. You’ve got the fastest, most exotic car. The best crew. Powerful fuel. And you’ve been training for years. But, while your rivals zip along the harbor like electric slot cars, you sputter along at a crawl. It turns out, your wheels aren’t perfectly aligned. They’re each set in slightly different directions, creating tremendous friction.

Quota 104
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Sales Hacker’s 35 Most Influential Women in Sales

Sales Hacker

Welcome to Sales Hacker’s first-ever Influential Women in Sales list! In this exclusive list, we wanted to honor not just female leaders that promote their own sales platform (no shame in that!) but those that take it even a step further by being incredibly intentional about promoting the next generation of female salespeople and making their path a little easier.

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Brick & Mortar Retail Relevance: How to Stay Ahead of the Curve

Speaker: Jay Black, Senior Account Executive

Let's set the record straight: in-store retail isn't dead - it's evolving! Faced with the digital age and the demands of omnichannel shopping, some retailers are thriving while others are struggling to adapt. Join Jay Black in this exclusive session as he explores the strategies that set successful stores apart, including: Crafting unique and unforgettable in-store experiences 🛍️ Mastering the art of retail demands 🛒 Navigating inventory challenges in today's climate 📦 an

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New Data Shows that You Can Double Revenue by Overcoming This One Sales Weakness

Understanding the Sales Force

My wife and I have been watching 24 for the last few months and we've made it to season 7. Once in a while, one or both of us falls asleep during late-night episodes but we are always saved by: PREVIOUSLY ON 24. With that in mind, I will save you if you didn't happen to read last week's article which is a pre-requisite for this one. PREVIOUSLY ON UNDERSTANDING THE SALES FORCE.

Sales 107
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The Simple Secret to Doubling Your Income in Sales

Women Sales Pros

What would it mean to you if you doubled your income—with the same number of customers? Think about how it would feel to give the same amount of effort and earn two, three, or many more times as much. Last month, I conducted a training with a large software company and discovered their top rep, Trina, earns more than five times as much as the lowest performer in her company—while talking to the exact same number of customers.

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3 Ways to Help You Close Your “Non-Urgent” Buyer

Jeff Shore

By Amy O’Connor. ?It’s every salesperson’s worse nightmare – the non-urgent buyer. The buyer who says they are in no rush to make any type of decision. In fact, they may not even buy at all according to them. You know what this typically is? B.S. – buyer strategy! It’s important to understand that the buyer’s number one strategy is to appear non-urgent in front of a sales person.

Closing 105
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Going Beyond The “What” Of Activity Metrics

Partners in Excellence

Activity metrics are receiving lots of attention. Activity metrics can be very useful, at the same time, they can stimulate a lot of, well … wasted activity. Too often, we focus on the wrong things as we put activity metrics in place. We focus on the “what and how many,” for example, “You need to make 150 dials today,” or “You have to send out 200 prospecting emails,” As a result, the activities become “ends” in themselves, and not means

Gaming 113
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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

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Sales Coaching for the Digital Age

Openview

Maintaining a position of preeminence in the highly competitive IT industry requires leaders to adapt to changes in the business landscape more rapidly than the competition. Continued success also relies on innovative sales enablement techniques that boost performance, help meet customer needs and achieve bottom line results. While many corporate sales enablement functions are already leveraging state-of-the-art enablement mechanisms, like online and virtual trainings, chat bots etc., most are s

Territory 101
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Don’t Drop the Ball on Follow-Up: Announcing Action Items by Gong.io

Gong.io

“Send us an invite for 3 PM next Tuesday,” said the VP of Sales. “I’ll get my CFO to join. But send your ROI study beforehand. He won’t join unless he knows how you’re thinking about ROI.”. I had just wrapped up a demo with a key account and could feel the momentum. I quickly sent the calendar invite for Tuesday. But while I juggled 30 other deals in my pipeline, I completely forget to send the ROI study.

Follow-up 103
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Salespeople With This Weakness Score 47% Worse at Reaching Decision Makers

Understanding the Sales Force

A lot of the salespeople I coach have a weakness in their Sales DNA - their need to be liked. Approximately 58% of all salespeople have this weakness and on average, salespeople score 76% in that competency. Elite salespeople have an average score of 87% and weak salespeople have an average score of 69%. What would it look like if we were to pivot this data and look only at the group who have it as a weakness?

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3 Steps to Communicating Your Value by Painting a New Reality Picture

RAIN Group

One of the greatest difficulties in sales is helping buyers understand what outcomes they will achieve when they work with you. Creating a picture of what outcomes are possible with the solution you present is imperative for two reasons: Buyers need to be convinced of the positive outcome—and that you can achieve it—or they likely will not purchase.

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1st, 2nd, and 3rd Party Intent Data: Which Is Right for You?

How do 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party intent data compare? 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party data each have specific advantages and disadvantages. It comes down to four factors: accuracy, cost, control and quantity. This infographic explains the pros and cons of each and helps you understand which one is best for meeting your business objectives. Intent data can be a great way to fill your pipeline and close more deals.

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3 Common Scenarios that Make Your Customer the Sales Person

Jeff Shore

By Jeff Shore. ?. ?I am going to propose three scenarios that are similar to ones you might come across fairly often in your sales career. ??Scenario #1: You sell life insurance. You are having a conversation with a friend in a social setting, and the talk turns to your friend’s insurance coverage. He says to you, “I would switch our policy over to you and your company, but my wife picked our life insurance and she likes the agent we are using now.”.

Customers 104
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Will robots one day replace your salespeople?

Membrain

We’re still underestimating artificial intelligence, says Andrew McAfee. That was the premise of his presentation at the Nordic Business Forum in September, and he should know.

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Lessons from ZipRecruiter: Building a Sales Org From Scratch in a Product Led Company

Openview

When Kevin Gaither was hired as the forty-ninth employee at ZipRecruiter , the closest the organization had come to talking about sales was to say that they didn’t want to have a call center. A leading online employment marketplace, ZipRecruiter had experienced astronomical growth since launching in 2010. To-date, the company has helped more than 1.5 million businesses of all sizes find great candidates, received more than 430 million job applications, and currently has more than 8 million jobs

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Stop Cold Calling – Start Warm Calling with your COI!

Women Sales Pros

Love it or hate it, there’s no getting around it. Prospecting is one of the most effective and fastest methods to grow your business. It’s also one of the most widely disliked aspects of a sales professional’s career. So how can you make it easier? Stop cold calling and start warm calling with centers of influence and referrals. As the saying goes, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

Cold Call 101
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The Battle of the Authoring Tools: A 10-Point Comparison for Picking the Right One

Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions

There are plenty of great authoring tools for developing eLearning, but the one you select could directly impact your course's outcomes. Depending upon your learners’ needs and your organization’s performance goals, you could be overlooking considerations that impact the both effectiveness of your courses and how long it takes to finish them. From general capabilities to specific workflow structures, some aspects are critical when it comes to learning objectives and deadlines.

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Are You Solving the Wrong Sales Problem?

Engage Selling

Could you be solving the wrong sales problem? In other words, is the culprit behind a lack of sales the real issue, or an easy “scapegoat” which is masking the real problem?

Sales 99
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3 Time Management Strategies to Get More Done with Less Effort

RAIN Group

There are only 24 hours in each day. Some people are able to achieve incredible amounts in that time seemingly effortlessly. Others put in massive amounts of effort, but don't seem to get where they want to be. What are those in the more productive group doing differently? How are they able to achieve so much more?

Product 104
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Do You Have a Mastermind Group Challenging You?

Jeff Shore

By Jeff Shore. ?I want to talk today about mastermind groups. I believe very strongly in the concept, strongly enough that I am a part of four different mastermind groups. For those of you who are not quite sure, mastermind groups are like-minded individuals who come together on a regular basis to share ideas, frustrations, best practices, etc. At times they are organic and self-led, but more commonly they are paid programs.

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Finally! Science Reveals the Actual Impact of Sales Coaching

Membrain

I have read and even reported that sales leaders who coach their salespeople see a boost in revenue of around 27%. It sounds like a realistic number but I have not seen any science to back it up. Until now. Check this out!

Sales 102
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How to Leverage Intent Data for Better Outcomes

Speaker: Susan Spencer, Principal of Spencer Communications

Intent signal data can go a long way toward shortening sales cycles and closing more deals. The challenge is deciding which is the best type of intent data to help your company meet its sales and marketing goals. In this webinar, Susan Spencer, fractional CMO and principal of Spencer Communications, will unpack the differences between contact-level and company-level intent signals.

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How the Growth of SaaS Makes Life More Difficult for Customers and What to Do About It

Openview

When I was the sales leader at ion interactive, even our smartest customers sometimes asked me questions that, at the time, seemed pretty clueless. For example, I’d often get calls from prospects asking “So wait, how are you different from Google Analytics?”. In my head (though thankfully never out loud) I’d be screaming: “I just told you! We’re nothing like them.

Growth 95
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Stop the Prospect Chase and Follow-up

SalesProInsider

Most people know who first responders are…those heroes that charge into danger to save the day! In selling efforts, though, we are more likely to run into non-responders. Those prospects who seem to run away from you after a conversation. The non-response reaction starts harmlessly enough. You have a meeting with a prospect that seems to go well.

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How I Realized That Selling is Just a Bunch of Crap

Understanding the Sales Force

Those are strong words and probably quite surprising coming out of my mouth but I'll explain it all. Earlier this week I was leading another Sales Leadership Intensive and during a break it came to me. I was emphasizing how important it is to role-play as part of every coaching conversation and that's when I realized that what I was sharing was a bunch of crap.

Sell 97
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The 36 Best Instagram Captions for Every Type of Post

Hubspot

If you're anything like me, you take about four minutes choosing a filter for your Instagram photo, and about four hours deciding on a caption. Worst of all, after much creative effort and advice from friends, I'm usually barely able to write a caption that goes beyond, "Had a fun day with friends!". And I'm a writer -- go figure. Next time you're contemplating a caption to go with your Instagram photo, take a look at our complete list of captions for any mood you need to evoke.

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5 Inspiring B2B Marketing Campaigns to Take Yours to the Next Level

Your next big B2B marketing idea starts here. Get inspired with these five successful B2B marketing campaigns. Ready to generate more leads, interest, and revenue with your B2B marketing? In this comprehensive eBook, you’ll get: In-depth studies of five successful B2B marketing campaigns spanning a wide range of industries Key takeaways and lessons from each story to implement in your own strategy Resources to help your own B2B marketing thrive By submitting this form, you agree to have your con