July, 2012

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Tribute to an Icon - Steven Covey

Anthony Cole Training

Steven Covey had a significant impact on my life and I'm guessing some of your lives as well. I read his books: 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. 7 Habits of Highly Successful Families. First Things First. Principle Centered Leadership. Speed of Trust. The first one I read was 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Clearly a landmark book for Steven and a book that changed millions of people.

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The Most Important Thing To Know About Account Management

A Sales Guy

The single most important element of account management and one of the most critical sales skills is proactivity. This seems rather obvious. Yet, unfortunately, far too many farmers or account managers leave too much to reaction or reactivity. The great advantage to account management is your access to data. You should know almost everything there is to know about the account, what the culture is, what’s been budgeted, who the decision makers are, who the competition is, what the pitfalls are,

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Top 5 Sales Management Best Practices

Understanding the Sales Force

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan The first problem with today's title is the "5" in "Top 5.". They are not the 5 that most sales managers spend their time on, so let's begin with the sales management practices that most sales managers actually spend their time on. By the way, that's how so many "best practices" (that aren't) actually get published.

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Technology Is No Substitute For Thinking

Partners in Excellence

There are a lot of great technologies that can become indispensable to sales professionals. Great sites to research things going on in our markets and with our customers, CRM tools, playbooks, and all sorts of other sales aids. Each of these can help magnify our impact and effectiveness with customers. They can help make us much more productive and accomplish a lot more each day, week, month.

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Smart Tools & Strong Teams: A People-First Approach to AI in Sales

Speaker: Matt Sunshine, CEO at The Center for Sales Strategy

AI isn’t replacing salespeople—it’s empowering them. The most forward-thinking sales organizations are using AI to enhance human performance rather than eliminate it. From coaching and messaging to prospecting and pipeline accountability, artificial intelligence is giving managers and SDRs the new tools they need to work smarter, sell better, and close more.

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7 Mistakes That Hurt Your Email Relationship Building Efforts

ConversionXL

People will not buy your stuff on their first visit. The more expensive and/or complicated the product, the more time they need to think and decide. People like to buy from people and businesses they know and like. This is why it’s a good idea to capture emails and build a relationship before you even ask them to buy anything. This post is about getting the most out of your relationship building efforts with your email list.

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Quit Talking About You. Your Customer Doesn’t Care.

The Sales Hunter

Recently I was doing a training session with some very capable salespeople. We were talking about how to engage the customer in a conversation. It was a good discussion, minus one thing. Too many in the group were talking about how they share with the customer results of things they’ve been able to do for other customers. Sharing what I refer to as testimonial information with a customer can be a great approach, if it’s done right.

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Pipeline Movement – [Shitty Sales Management]

A Sales Guy

Yup, I said it. Shitty sales management can kill pipeline movement. As sales leaders, we spend so much of our time evaluating our teams and the individuals on them, we often forget that our s**t can stink too. We can be the reason deals are getting stuck. After all, it is our job to help keep deals moving. This is especially true with first line managers.

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3 Types of Salespeople - Which Can Expand Your Sales?

Understanding the Sales Force

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Yesterday, we were in a small seaside village and in a nautical gift shop, I read this sailing quote: "The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The realist adjusts the sails.". Translated for selling: "The pessimist complains about the prospect. The optimist expects him to buy.

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Reading The Buyers’ Minds

Partners in Excellence

As sales people, we always are trying to get into our Buyers’ minds. We want to understand what they are thinking, what drives them, how we can position ourselves and our solutions most favorably. We constantly search for some insight about how to connect more effectively. I’m always fascinated by the machinations we go through to understand what’s going on in our Buyers’ minds.

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The Key To Customer Loyalty

ConversionXL

If you want to double your results, you can either double the number of visitors (very expensive), double the conversion rate (possible, but increasingly harder as there’s a max limit to your conversion rate) or double repeat purchases – loyalty. Jakob Nielsen has mentioned that 2010–2020 will be the loyalty decade. Investing in loyalty is as important as investing in usability and conversion optimization.

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How to Coach Reps on Overcoming Sales Objections with Confidence

Speaker: Brendan Sweeney, VP of Global Sales and David Phelan, Account Manager

In a world where buyers are more informed and objections are more nuanced, confidence isn't optional—it’s a competitive advantage. In high-stakes conversations, knowing how to handle pushback can make or break the deal. Join industry experts Brendan Sweeney and David Phelan for a behind-the-scenes look at how teams are transforming sales coaching with real-time feedback, objection-handling role plays, and pre-call preparation that actually sticks.

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Are all Sales Prospects Worth Your Time?

The Sales Hunter

You’ve been chasing a sales prospect you think will turn into a great customer, but for one reason or another, the trail has gone cold. The prospect hasn’t provided you with any indication such as proprietary information or sense of time to lead you to believe they may buy from you. The question now becomes,”What do I do next?” There are two strategies you can use.

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Poll Question about Sales Success

Anthony Cole Training

The results are in for my poll question on Linkedin. The question I asked was: When you are asked about someone on your team not meeting expectations your response is? The possible answers where: They are failing to execute. They lack effort. They need more training. They are making progress. I have failed to develop them. The results in a nutshell: 50% blamed the performer, 50% took responsibility for the failure of the team member.

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Sales Revenue is a One Trick Pony

A Sales Guy

Revenue, just about EVERY sales organization runs on it. Everyone has a revenue quota. Sales reps are measured on it. Sales leaders are hired or fired on their ability to make it. Sales teams are managed to it. Revenue is the king of sales metrics and thats why many sales organizations fail. Pulling the revenue lever is a big lever. It’s a big lever because revenue can come from a number of different places; increased deal sizes, more deals, conversion or win/loss ratios etc.

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3 Types of Salespeople - Which are Best at Growing Sales?

Understanding the Sales Force

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Yesterday, we were in a small seaside village and in a nautical gift shop, I read this sailing quote: "The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The realist adjusts the sails.". Translated for selling: "The pessimist complains about the prospect. The optimist expects him to buy.

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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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Lean Sales And Marketing — The Role Of The Manager

Partners in Excellence

Managers play a critical role in the lean sales and marketing organization. It’s different from we think in the traditional organization. In the traditional organization, there’s the belief we work for our managers. We all know the corporate hierarchy and pyramid. In too many organizations, managers spend too little time coaching. They are busy in meetings, they are busy with paperwork, they don’t have time or the skills to work with their people.

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Improve as a Sales Professional – 3 Tips for Better Listening

Score More Sales

Last week we talked about how a focus on improving your speaking can grow your sales revenues – the same, if not more holds true with being an effective listener. Listening – and really hearing – what buyers are looking to do, what problems they are trying to solve, and what the pulse of the market is – it’s critical for success.

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Why Do Salespeople Talk Too Much?

The Sales Hunter

Yes, there is a punch line to this question. Why do salespeople talk too much? Because as long as they’re talking, the customer can’t tell them “no.” I hate to say it, but there is a lot more truth in that statement than a lot of people will want to admit. This is also why the number one part left out of a sales presentation is the close.

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Facebook Launching 9 More Targeting Options for Organic Updates

Hubspot

How great would it be if you could target your organic Facebook business page updates by more than just users' location and language? That'd probably be pretty valuable -- and more effective -- right? If you're nodding your head in agreement, we've got some great news for you. According to TechCrunch , it looks like Facebook has started rolling out powerful new post targeting options today called 'Page Post Targeting Enhanced.'.

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Breaking The Commerce Bottleneck: Your SAP Exit Plan Starts Now

Speaker: Jason Cottrell and Gireesh Sahukar

Retailers know the clock is ticking–legacy SAP Commerce support ends in 2026. Legacy platforms are becoming a liability burdened by complexity, rigidity, and mounting operational costs. But modernization isn’t just about swapping out systems, it’s about preparing for a future shaped by real-time interactions, AI powered buying assistants, and flexible commerce architecture.

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Female Athletes. a Footnote in Olympic Promotion

A Sales Guy

I woke this morning to this story in the USA Today: Team USA Uniforms: Controversial choice? The article discussed the fact that the women’s uniform apparently had no pants and that the uniform was made in China and not the U.S. To me however, the real offense is the placement and depiction of the female athlete in the uniforms official promotional photo (above).

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The Unusual Case of Arturo - How He Sabotaged His Own Sales

Understanding the Sales Force

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan One of my clients owns a Mexican company that provides phone, video conferencing and surveillance equipment to integrators and end-users. During the height of the violence in Mexico, Arturo was kidnapped and held, bound and gagged, at gun point. He was released - one of the few, fortunate survivors - but the emotional scars ran deep.

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Managing Complexity

Partners in Excellence

It should come as no surprise to anyone that has been semi-conscious over the past decade, that our worlds are becoming increasingly complex. Our jobs, and those of our customers are more complex and difficult. Fewer people doing more. The rate of change is accelerating. We have too little time to accomplish even our “A” priorities. In a recent IBM CMO Study , 79% of the respondents expect high/very high level of complexity over the next 5 years, yet only 48% felt prepared to de

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How to Bounce Back From Sales Rejection

Score More Sales

If there is one thing true it is this – no one likes to deal with personal rejection. Those of us who are or have been professional, long time sales representatives, business development managers, and sales evangelists have typically learned the secret to success: You don’t take rejection personally. Even athletes miss some balls – sometimes lots of balls – or they miss the net and the game is lost.

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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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Telephone Skills are Crucial to Prospecting Success

The Sales Hunter

I’ve been looking closely at 6 secrets for prospecting success , and we’ve already covered confidence and follow-through. Now we have arrived at telephone skills! If you feel you don’t have the telephone skills you should have to be successful in sales prospecting, don’t feel bad. You’re not alone. Telephone prospecting skills are the number one thing salespeople say they lack.

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How to Optimize Your Google+ Content for Lead Gen, From the Experts at Google

Hubspot

Pause for a moment to think. Are you really making the most of your Google+ presence? As in, are you leveraging Google+ for all its lead gen potential ? The most organic way to use Google+ to generate leads is by posting compelling content updates that include links back to your website. And in order for this to work, you need marketing content that will interest your audience and capture their attention.

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How to Set Quota

A Sales Guy

Community member Jeff Abbott commented on a recent post about how he’d like to better understand how quotas are set and by whom. I thought this could be a good topic, so here it goes. The first thing you need to know about quotas is there are a lot of different ways to set them. There are rules that deviating from can be costly, but outside of that there are a lot of roads to setting the right quota.

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When Should You Use a Telemarketing Firm to Schedule Sales Calls?

Understanding the Sales Force

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan If you have no desire to find a lot of new business from new accounts, you don't need telemarketing (and you can stop reading this article). If you would like to establish new accounts and generate a significant increase in revenue, there are several things you can do: You can hire hunters - salespeople who will find and close those new accounts.

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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 Intrusiveness Of Prospecting

Partners in Excellence

I’ve been carrying on a number of discussions in various forums on LinkedIn. It’s been with people reacting to my post, “Well It Worked, Didn’t It?” One of the key themes in these discussions is prospecting, with people taking all sorts of positions, and lot of discussion about the “C” word–yes, Cold Calling.

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2 Simple Ways to Stand Out in Sales

Score More Sales

Recently I read a rant from one of my colleagues who was tired of people not responding to e-mail. I know exactly what he means. It happens so often that it seems now to be acceptable and perhaps even fashionable to not reply to an email – even between client and company, or family members, or friends. Before you get as mad as my colleague did, (which I don’t blame him for) – if you are a seller or other business professional making a living building relationships through comm

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Your Eyes Are Telling the Customer if You Believe in Your Price

The Sales Hunter

I’m always amazed at the number of salespeople I encounter who cannot give the customer solid eye contact when they’re presenting their price. If you can’t give your customer solid eye contact when you present your price, then you are telling your customer you don’t believe in your own price. Smart customers and professional buyers in particular know this and are watching you when you present your price.

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10 Companies That Totally Nail Copywriting

Hubspot

You all know The Old Spice Guy, right? "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign was successful for many reasons, but one of them was that it gave Old Spice a voice. A voice that came through in every video, commercial, tagline, Facebook update, tweet -- you name it. And do you know who is behind all of that marketing collateral ? Copywriters. The ability to find the exact right words to tell your company's story isn't an easy feat, and it's even harder to do so consistently.

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New Research-Backed Strategies to Empower Managers as Culture & Engagement Leaders

Speaker: Beth Sunshine, SVP, Up Your Culture

When culture isn’t consistently lived out across the organization, engagement suffers—and it often starts with a disconnect at the top. In this session, Beth Sunshine, SVP of Up Your Culture at The Center for Sales Strategy, will reveal how HR and executive leaders can close the gap between vision and execution by equipping frontline and mid-level managers to become culture carriers.