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(**To hear the audio version, click here! ). When I was in high school, I ran track. During my sophomore and junior years, I ran the 1-mile race. Though I normally like to take the lead early, I really wasn’t entirely focused on a “great start” because I had 5,280 feet to make up for a slow start. During my senior year, I ran the 880-yard event. Not a sprint, not the exhausting 440, but certainly a little more demanding of speed and a good start than what I needed when I ran the mile.
After working with sales people, social media marketers, community managers, entrepreneurs, charities and many other professionals on five continents I have had the opportunity to see the Rules of Engagement implemented (and ignored) in almost every environment. Stephen Jagger and I sat down and penned these rules in 2008 when we were writing Sociable!
Hey, marketers, I have a suggestion. Reach out to some of the best social sellers in the world like, Koka Sexton, Brian Fanzo , Jack Kosakowski , Jill Rowley , Eric Mitchell , Carlos Gil, etc. and take notes. You need to learn how to social market because you’re making a mess out of it. Social marketing is just like social selling. It’s about giving, not taking.
While running A/B tests on all your traffic at once might seem like a good idea (to get a bigger sample size faster), in reality it’s not. You need to target mobile and desktop audiences separately. Here are 5 reasons why. #1: Different things work. What ends up winning for desktop audiences, often does not for mobile users. If you bucket all your traffic into a single test, it might end up as “no difference” – while actually mobile was winning big and desktop losing big,
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
Unfortunately, one of the biggest sins I see in performance management is avoidance. Usually, we’re good at recognizing problem performers. We’re just terrible in dealing with them. There all sorts of reasons we avoid dealing with them–all bad. They include: Dealing with problem performers takes a lot of time. Dealing with problem performers is no fun–for both the manager and the problem performer.
Earlier this week I posted an article that explored whether or not a salesperson should be punished for landing a big deal if that same salesperson had nothing else in the pipeline. It generated some heated discussion in the comments section and since there was disagreement about compensation in the comment section, I thought it would be helpful to discuss that.
The Dave Kurlan Blog – Understanding the Sales Force – has ben abuzz with comments about a youth baseball coach that made his team run wind sprints after they gave up a lead big enough to invoke the ‘mercy rule’. I won’t go any further into the comments made by others about Dave’s position. You can click here to follow that discussion. What I will talk about is this: Consistency – As some of you know, I played college football at UConn from 1973 to 1977, coached at the University of Cincinnati f
The Dave Kurlan Blog – Understanding the Sales Force – has ben abuzz with comments about a youth baseball coach that made his team run wind sprints after they gave up a lead big enough to invoke the ‘mercy rule’. I won’t go any further into the comments made by others about Dave’s position. You can click here to follow that discussion. What I will talk about is this: Consistency – As some of you know, I played college football at UConn from 1973 to 1977, coached at the University of Cincinnati f
You have the prospect who you know would benefit from working with you, but they simply will not respond to you. Question arises in your mind, “Should I continue trying to connect with them or should I instead simply move on?” This question comes up a lot when I’m working with sales teams. There is no […].
Make a list of all the questions you ask a prospect. Try to be as exhaustive as you can, but make it at least 10. Now, take a look at your questions and remove all the questions that aren’t “business” questions. Questions like, who are the decision makers? When are you looking to have the solution in place, etc? Once you’ve removed the non-business questions, scratch off all the non-business process questions.
You want to speed up your testing efforts, and run more tests. So now the question is – can you run more than one A/B test at the same time on your site? Will this increase the velocity of your testing program (and thus help you grow faster), or will it pollute the data since multiple separate tests could potentially affect each other’s outcomes?
The executive team of a large division of a very large corporation called me to “fix the sales problem.” We were to have a meeting to discuss the issues they faced and to discuss potential corrective actions. I’d asked for data to better understand the sales performance issues. I, also had short phone discussions with a few key sales managers to understand the issues.
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.
It was a beautiful spring day and while I was walking to lunch yesterday I was thinking about my slugglish metabolism. When I was young, I never stopped walking, running and bicycling and I probably burned more calories than I consumed. I was only 115 pounds when I graduated from high school! I'll turn 60 later this year, and other than the baseball coaching I do, and using the golf cart the few times I play golf each year, I am as close to inactive as possible.
A guest blog by Dave Kulran, President and founder of Objective Management Group, with an introduction by Tony Cole, President of Anthony Cole Training Group. INTRODUCTION: I’ve been working with companies for 22 years: companies of all sizes, in various business segments and across the country. One thing I’ve witnessed, discussed or heard for all of these years is the issue about talent.
I’m digging into 14 things great salespeople do that set them apart from average salespeople. Today I’m talking about goal setting! Do you set goals? Before you think goal setting is not for you, watch the video. It’s not just about setting goals, but about setting the right ones. Your ability to set goals […].
Yeah, yeah, we all know about the value of social selling for top of the funnel selling. How it’s great for engaging your prospects, and potential clients. We know it’s awesome for sharing information and insight. We know it’s great for listening for prospect needs and complaints. But, social can be used for something else as well and it’s highly under used — learning.
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.
You have a hypothesis, and run a test. Result – no difference (or even drop in results). What should you do now? Test a different hypothesis? Not so fast. A fairly common scenario. Let’s imagine that you conducted a qualitative survey , and a large number of respondents voiced concerns about your credit card payment page – they didn’t feel it was secure enough (even though it actually was secure).
There’s no doubt digital technologies and social media are changing the way we live, engage, and do business. Their influence is huge and the growth rate continues to accelerate. I read all the stuff that says everything’s moved to the web. I don’t disagree, but I don’t agree. Some would have you believe all we need to do is spend our time on the web, leveraging social sites and tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tinder (oops) and others.
Republicans and Democrats argue all the time. Fans of long-time rival sports teams argue too, regardless of whether the rivalry is at the high school, college or pro level. Players argue with umpires, referees and judges. Kids argue with their parents and everyone argues with their cable company and wireless phone providers. So why is it so hard to understand why marketing argues with sales?
A guest post by Tony Scelzo, President of Stringcan. We know that domino companies that move from small to big don’t all share the same characteristics 100%, but the similarities that they do share are striking, so when Tony Cole pointed out that there were at least two things he’s seen breakthrough companies succeed in—we were quick to have him elaborate.
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.
This year I've been talking a lot about Nurturing. It's a critical component in the sales and marketing process; yet, most companies aren't implementing it effectively—that is, if they are at all. I feel so strongly that nurturing needs to be a focus, I asked a panel of 11 experts to weigh in on the best lead nurturing programs (and processes) and what to expect in the coming year.
This weeks show The Word was one of the best. It tackled a subject I think many sales people struggle with and that’s the difficult customer or climate. It can seem cliche, but it’s not. Customers and prospects need to work with sales people in order for a good sale to take place and when they won’t everything goes south. This episode of The Word tackles this challenge with Anthony Iannarino and Tim Ohai.
Warren Buffett, in speaking at his annual shareholders’ meeting, shared about the importance of culture to a company. He spoke about how imbedded culture is at his own company, Berkshire Hathaway. He said the value of the culture will be seen in how it does after he’s gone. Culture starts at the top with the […].
Sales people continually looking for the killer close. Somehow, there has to be something the sales person can say or do which causes the customer to immediately issue a PO. Through my career, I’ve been “taught” and subjected to 100’s of different closes. The assumptive close, the puppy dog close, the limited time close, and the list goes on and on and on.
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.
Copyright: 123RF Stock Photo. Half of the company's 20 salespeople have left voluntarily in just the last month and the CEO wants to know why everyone is resigning. He wants Jeff, his sales manager, coached up and needs to recruit replacements. He has tremendous urgency to get this moving and believes that Objective Management Group's (OMG) Sales Candidate Assessment will help him select good salespeople that will stick around.
How often are you checking up on your sales process? Learn why regular check-ups are so important for your business! Need new strategies to enhance your current sales process? Get a copy of Nonstop Sales Boom!
On Tuesday, May 12, 2015, I had the pleasure of hosting Linda Richardson on PowerViews LIVE for an informative discussion on Changing the Sales Conversation: How to More Effectively Sell in Today’s Hyper-digital World. Credited as the visionary and leading authority of the consultative sales movement, Linda is also a best-selling author of 10 books, including the recently released Changing the Sales Conversation.
This past week I had the absolute pleasure of hangin’ with two true sales badasses, Mike Wienberg author of New Sales Simplified and Kelly Riggs author of Quit Whining and Start Selling. These guys know selling and how to build world class sales organizations. So it was a blast spending 45 minutes freestylin’ on why sales teams aren’t performing and what it takes to get them there.
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.
Social selling is a process and it is a means to an end. Social selling in and of itself is not the end. It’s important to remember this. Never think for a moment you will be able to achieve 100% of your success solely due to embracing social selling. Below are 5 secrets you […].
“Time available for selling” is plummeting. Several years ago, we assessed how sales people for a very large client were spending their time. Both they and we were shocked with the results, less than 20% of their time was being spent directly on customer related activities. Let me sharpen that definition a little, primarily so you can see the magnitude of the challenge sales people face.
Copyright / 123RF Stock Photo. Do you remember the morning that you couldn't find your keys, but they were right there on the counter? Or the time that you couldn't find an article of clothing, but it was hanging right there in your closet the entire time you were looking for it? Or the time you couldn't find your car in the airport parking garage? And yes, it was right where you parked it.
Don’t handle poor performers poorly. There’s a more productive way to help them recover. Get the details in this week’s video sales tip. Is a member of your team constantly missing their targets? Give them a copy of Nonstop Sales Boom!
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.
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