Anthony Cole Training

SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

We’ve been doing a fair amount of research into lead generation through our primary source, Hubspot. We’ve had a long business relationship with them because they provide a great platform for all things that are digital marketing and associated data. One thing we will begin to take better advantage of is their CRM application. This will allow us to tie our marketing efforts directly to a client management AND pipeline management system.

Lead generation

Openview

SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

A new study from Process Street in partnership with sales email tool PersistIQ reveals the inside sales outreach of the world’s 281 top SaaS companies, and how they respond when a high-ticket lead (in this case, we used Vodafone) signs up for a free trial or demo. Using the details of a fictional Vodafone employee to sign up for SaaS products , Process Street automatically collected all incoming outreach including sales emails, marketing emails, and voicemail transcripts.

Inside sales

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 15, 2017

A/B testing tools like Optimizely or VWO make testing easy, and that’s about it. They’re tools to run tests, and not exactly designed for post-test analysis. Most testing tools have gotten better at it over the years, but still lack what you can do with Google Analytics – which is like everything. When you run a test until you’ve reached validity ( not the same as significance ), you have to do post-test analysis to decide on the way forward.

A/B testing

A Sales Guy

SEPTEMBER 18, 2017

Why? Kids are great at asking why? They accept the fact they don’t know very much, so they just move through life, like an information sponge asking why about everything. It’s kinda liberating if you think about it, if you accept that you don’t know anything. If you’re OK with the fact that you don’t know, then asking why is the natural thing to do.

Sell

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.

Sales

Engage Selling

SEPTEMBER 15, 2017

I’m going to share a quote with you that a client recently reminded me of that I used to say all the time.

Clients

Hubspot

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

In a perfect world, all prospects would love you starting the moment they shook your hand -- and then they’d eagerly sign on the dotted line. Unfortunately, deals are almost never that easy to win. And it can seem nearly impossible to close when you’re dealing with tough customers who make everything harder than it needs to be. If clients try to push you around, or they waffle indefinitely over their next steps, deals can drag on for weeks on end.

Closing

Openview

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Anytime someone moves into a new role, there is an adjustment period to figure out how to be effective. When that transition is from an individual contributor to manager, that adjustment can be even more jarring. We all know the typical story with sales managers – they were a top performing salesperson, had ambitions to move up in their career, and then a position opens up and they are managing a group of salespeople.

Objectives and Key Results

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

It’s easy to get lost down the rabbit hole of metrics for your business. When it comes to getting the most out of your website performance, only certain metrics are what you can consider key performance indicators. The trick is figuring out which ones. What are key performance indicators? A key performance indicator (KPI) is a quantifiable activity used to measure how a key aspect of your business is operating or how much volume it’s receiving.

Click Through Rate

A Sales Guy

SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

I lay on the couch too much. I don’t exercise enough. I’m grossly out of shape. There is no way around it. I needed to workout. Therefore, about a month ago, because running and any other “cardio” was too hard, I started walking. I know, I sound like an old man. It kills me. I used to be super active. I played football, softball, skied, played basketball and golfed.

Process

Engage Selling

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

Are you present enough with your clients? A couple of years ago, I had just boarded a flight and noticed an attendant in the aisle helping another passenger find their seat.

Presentation

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.

Objection handling

Hubspot

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

7 Habits of Highly Effective People Summary: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey is a self-improvement book. It is written on Covey's belief that the way we see the world is entirely based on our own perceptions. In order to change a given situation, we must change ourselves, and in order to change ourselves, we must be able to change our perceptions.

Teamwork

Anthony Cole Training

SEPTEMBER 15, 2017

What does it take generate and convert leads and hire sales people who can consistently perform this ultimately necessary job?

Lead generation

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

Image Copyright iStock Photos. Several of my recent conversations with sales leaders have focused on how to quickly and effectively and efficiently get new salespeople up to speed and help them to have an immediate impact. Quickly and immediate are relative to the learning curve and the sales cycle but are still the key outcomes. Most companies combine some kind of classroom training with self-directed online training, shadowing an experienced salesperson and coaching.

Conversion

Openview

SEPTEMBER 14, 2017

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on Inc. here. When ranking the list of professions that are likely to be replaced by AI, sales is often way down on the list , along with chiropractors and preachers. The rationale for such predictions are that sales is still considered a high-touch profession. A recent survey showed that in certain industries, people would rather buy from someone who is charismatic and fun even if that salesperson doesn’t know their product well.

Cold Call

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

Hospitality

Membrain

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

"That wasn't what I expected!" You might say that after reading an awesome book, waiting for months and years in anticipation of the movie version, only to be extremely disappointed when the much hyped film failed to live up to what you remembered feeling when turning the pages.

Sales

RAIN Group

SEPTEMBER 27, 2017

In our research report, The Value Driving Difference , we studied almost 500 organizations' practices regarding how focused they are on driving value for buyers. Companies that rose to the top as Value-Driving Sales Organizations had higher sales win rates, were more likely to grow revenue, had lower undesired sales staff turnover, and much more highly motivated sellers.

Negotiate

Hubspot

SEPTEMBER 14, 2017

Social media can be an overwhelming place -- even for the experts. Which networks should they use, what should they write, how frequently should they post, and does the time they post really matter? I analyzed HubSpot customer data for one week during the month of June -- comprised of a total of roughly 10K different accounts on each different platform, as well as 15K posts to Linkedin company pages, 25K posts to Facebook business Pages, and nearly 60K posts on Twitter.

Networking

Anthony Cole Training

SEPTEMBER 22, 2017

Despite how good a high powered team looks on paper, there are always “skeletons in the closet”.

Sales

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.

Retail

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 26, 2017

Image Copyright iStock Photos.

Consult

Engage Selling

SEPTEMBER 14, 2017

This week, I had the pleasure of addressing 400 top Financial Services professionals at a national sales conference in Las Vegas.

Sales

Jill Konrath

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Yesterday, Dianna Geairn (The Irreverent Sales Girl) and I were musing about some of our big sales wins. As we talked, we realized that our underlying assumptions—about prospects, our roles and factors that could hinder success—were crucial to our performance. In very short order, we identified 17 sales assumptions and why making them helps you win more deals.

Sales

Openview

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

The buying environment is becoming increasingly complex. A few reasons are likely top of mind including the emergence of new competitors, frequency of touchpoints, ever-shortening buyer attention span, and so on. But have you considered how a generational shift in your prospects’ demographics might impact the buying environment as well? Today’s B2B buying committees are growing more diverse as Millennials take their seats alongside Generation X and Baby Boomers.

B2C

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.

High impact

Hubspot

SEPTEMBER 4, 2017

I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm not the most together person in the world. I eat three meals a day, but one of them is usually takeout. I hit snooze so often it should be considered a nap. And I definitely don't drink enough water. But I imagine I'm not alone. There are plenty of productive members of society like myself who work and go to school and have fulfilling lives -- those lives just don't always involve waking up at 5 a.m. for morning meditation or listening to stimulating podcasts on

Product

Anthony Cole Training

SEPTEMBER 8, 2017

At some point that title won’t make me think of the great Jack Nicholson and his role as Colonel Nathan Jessup in the 1992 movie “A Few Good Men” … but it is safe to say that point in time is a long way off for me. It is one of my all time favorite movies. For now, that famous line from Colonel Jessup has me thinking about how selling has changed so dramatically even within the last few years.

Sell

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 25, 2017

I was in the right-hand lane of very slow moving traffic because of a lane closure ahead, marked by orange cones. I was along side the cones in the lane where traffic was merging left. All of a sudden, a police siren and flashing lights were upon me but I had nowhere to go. Cars were in front of me and to the left of me with cones to the right and the cop was right on top of my rear bumper.

Closing

Engage Selling

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Do more: it’s an expectation imposed on sales reps constantly. Every year, quotas go up, KPIs get revised and the number of people that need to be served keeps climbing.

Quota

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B2B

The Sales Hunter

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

Salespeople are quick to call me to ask how they can be successful in sales when they’re stuck selling what they believe is something their customers don’t want. It’s time to stop blaming what you sell as the reason for your struggles. Not only is it time stop blaming what you sell, but it’s also […].

Sell

Openview

SEPTEMBER 26, 2017

I just returned from Dublin where I spoke at SaaStock 2017 (what an amazing group of founders and investors!) to share some of the lessons I learned while building out NetSuite’s BDR team. NetSuite is the world’s leading cloud ERP provider. Founded in 1998, they IPO’d in 2007 and were ultimately acquired by Oracle for $9.3B in 2016. What’s amazing about NetSuite is that their software can literally be used by any company.

Promote

Membrain

SEPTEMBER 24, 2017

When you crunch the numbers, the most common outcome of even apparently well-qualified complex sales opportunities is a loss - not to an alternative solution, but to the status quo.

Sales

Anthony Cole Training

SEPTEMBER 6, 2017

In the last 30 days, I’ve talked to more than a dozen company executives, sales people and sales managers. I’ve asked them “What is the #1 constrictor to hitting your sales goals?” The answer every time was: getting more qualified leads. I know this is not a large sampling and I would be concerned about the validity of this finding if only 25% of them said that getting more qualified leads was the main problem.

Sales

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.

Start-ups