May, 2019

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In Search of the Perfect Sales Tech Stack (Here’s What’s Working Today)

Sales Hacker

Wondering how other sales teams are working their magic? Sure, their processes and talent have something to do with their success, but so does their sales stack. So what’s going on behind the curtain? Yeah, we’ve been thinking about that too. Namely… What does the perfect sales stack look like? And is it possible to leverage technology for a better pipeline and bigger deals?

Pipeline 141
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How to Estimate a “Net Value” for Your A/B Testing Program

ConversionXL

In my experience, I find that teams and organizations report many winning A/B tests with high uplifts, but somehow they don’t seem to bring those uplifts in reality. How come? Five types of A/B test “wins” can exaggerate discovered uplifts. I use the acronym “de FACTO”: F alse winners; A nti-winners; C hanging winners; T ricked winners; O verestimated winners.

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Trending Sources

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Ten Ways to Prepare for a Tough Negotiation

Women Sales Pros

By the time two parties to a negotiation are sitting across the table from each other, the negotiation may already be over. If you didn’t plan ahead, chances are that you’ve walked in to a fait accompli, a done deal, a ship that’s already sailed. If the other party has prepared in these ten ways and you have not, then you’re at an extreme disadvantage.

Negotiate 131
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Finally – Sales Training That Doesn’t Suck

A Sales Guy

Not many salespeople enjoy sales training. The idea of taking an entire day out of the field sit and listen to some so-called expert, who hasn’t sold in years tell you how to sell isn’t what most salespeople pine for in their day-to-day. The exception to that is Gap Selling. And that’s why spots are going fast, for our May 16th Sales training.

Sales 125
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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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10 Reasons Why Salespeople Hallucinate

Understanding the Sales Force

I was in the basement of our home looking for something when I saw it. It moved left to right, low, between the stored Christmas trees. I took another look and this time it moved right to left. Each time I moved, it moved. I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized it wasn't a critter but a shadow that I was casting. I saw something that simply wasn't there.

Closing 129
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Do you know how often you drop the baton?

Membrain

In the 2008 Olympics, the men’s U.S. 400-meter relay team was considered a sure thing for the finals. They had some of the world’s fastest runners and were closely watched by critics and fans. They did well in the first two legs of their qualifying round, but in the final leg, Darvis Patton failed to place the baton into his teammate Tyson Gay’s hand.

Closing 126

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Get Out the Map: Aligning Sales Processes to the Buyer’s Path

Miller Heiman Group

In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail across the ocean blue with the goal of finding riches in the East Indies. However, though he had a clear goal, he didn’t have a map, so he fell well short of his intended destination, landing in the Caribbean islands instead. (Despite what many believe, he didn’t discover continental North America or even set foot there.).

Process 122
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10 Ways to Achieve Your Sales Goals Faster

Women Sales Pros

Every January 1st brings with it a new round of resolutions, both personal and professional. You’ve made it through the first week of the year and your goals are hanging there. You may be feeling as if you’re already behind, or you’ve missed them already. For me, the first week went by in a blur. One of my personal resolutions was to post a new article to our blog every week to keep you current on what we’re finding is working in sales and marketing.

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Is Your Value Proposition Strong Enough?

Jill Konrath

I was eating lunch with the new president of a large manufacturing company. She was well aware of the work I’d done with their sales organization. So when I asked about her biggest challenge, I assumed we’d be talking sales. Instead, she answered, “Waste.”.

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How Top Salespeople Anticipate and Manage Resistance

Understanding the Sales Force

Last week Tom Hopkins shared a post on LinkedIn that resembled what I have said so many times. He said, " The art of selling involves two jobs: Job One is to reduce sales resistance and the other is to increase sales acceptance.". Many readers left comments about the importance of relationships as a means to preventing resistance from going up. I left a comment that said, " Thanks Tom.

Up-sell 126
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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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A Brief History of the CRM

Membrain

For salespeople entering the workforce today, it may be unimaginable that there once was a time before CRM. A time when contacts were managed in a flip file of actual physical cards with names and phone numbers written on them by hand.

CRM 119
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Friday Five – Boost Activity and Sales

Score More Sales

It is that time of year where you and your sellers are going to be more distracted with that upcoming vacation, parents / friends / other family visiting, and other benefits of the summer season.

Sales 112
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Sensemaking, The Foundations

Partners in Excellence

This is the second article in my series on Sensemaking. For links to all the other articles, go to: Sensemaking, The Big Issue Facing Both Our Customers And Us. It’s impossible to begin to think about sensemaking unless we have a foundation. That is, a context in which we are seeking to make sense of things. It’s this context that provides the basis for all our sensemaking activities.

Sell 117
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50 Ways to Fight Gender Bias in Sales

Women Sales Pros

Every week, someone asks me (at least once) about a specific situation a woman has had in the workplace – usually on a sales team – either to get some advice, tell what happened, or simply to share in a safe space about an incident involving them or someone they know. I’m happy to be a sounding board and while I have some solid opinions based on 30+ years in sales in male majority workplaces, I’m aware that I don’t have all the answers.

Sales 116
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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 Operations: The Guide They Never Gave You

InsightSquared

“What was your first job?”. It’s one of my favorite questions to ask a fellow professional in sales operations. Some of the answers include: Elementary school teacher. SDR. Recruiter. Pharmacy Tech. Insurance sales rep. Cosmetics consultant. Account Manager. Financial analyst. Why the wide range? Sales Operations is Still Developing. Sales operations as a profession is growing, yet it is a comparatively new function in businesses.

Territory 110
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What to Do with the Salespeople Who Become Your Biggest Problem

Understanding the Sales Force

I coach a lot of sales managers and sales leaders and when I ask them what they want help with today, it's rarely a big opportunity, it's seldom coaching best practices, it's hardly ever targeted metrics for their team, and it's almost unheard of for them to request that I help them improve as sales managers, Oh no. They almost always want help with their biggest problem child.

Pipeline 124
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Great Selling Is “Habit Forming!”

Membrain

I’m sure you’ve experienced something that gives you a “rush.” It’s when, all of a sudden, everything just falls into place, everything is working as it should, it seems effortless.

Sell 114
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Master List of 15 Sales Tactics: Words and Phrases That Win Deals

Gong.io

Google sales tactics and you’ll get plenty of articles with solid offerings. “Ask about pain points. Listen to your customer. Solve problems. Generate referrals.”. Yes to all those things. And a massive YES to specific sales tactics backed by data. Like the o nes from Gong.io. They have precise sales tactics , right down to the words you should (and shouldn’t) use at each stage of your sales process.

Cold Call 107
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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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Begin With The End In Mind

Partners in Excellence

Stephen Covey’s famous 2nd Habit is: “Begin with the end in mind!” It’s great advice for most things, but stunning advice as we think about our deal/opportunity strategies. Sadly, too few sales people leverage this habit/principle effectively. The immediate reaction to this will be, “Dave, you’re crazy, sales people always do this, they are focused on getting the order and producing results!

B2B 115
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How to Stop Taking Rejection Personally

Women Sales Pros

I can’t tell you how many times people tell me they “could never” be in sales. When I ask why, I get vague answers about not liking to sell or not being good at it. Eventually, when I bring it up, they’ll agree that one of the big issues is, they couldn’t handle the rejection. Most people’s default in life and in their business is to avoid having people say ‘no’ to them at all costs.

Up-sell 114
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How The Best SaaS Sales Teams Are Improving Close Rates Today

Sales Hacker

A successful close is the end goal that every sales team guns for. Whether prospecting, making cold calls, negotiating, or even researching, every small step a sales rep takes is tied to this goal. But despite a focus on closing sales, it remains one of the biggest issues for teams. In fact, 36% of sales teams regard it as the most challenging part of the sales process, and 28% say it’s their top priority.

Closing 110
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1 Key SaaS Sales Metric to Fine-Tune Sales Productivity

InsightSquared

Sales is the Growth Engine. Sales is the engine driving SaaS company value. Top and bottom line performance are totally dependent on the sales organization and its performance. And sales expense is typically the largest expense item on a growth SaaS company’s income statement. When scaling the business, sales typically averages roughly 30% of revenue, so therefore sales spend is one of the biggest investments a company can make.

Product 102
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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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How to Magically Move Prospects into a Buying State of Mind

Membrain

Let's cover some of the lies being told to companies with sales organizations and how those lies prevent sales organizations from being their best.

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What is a discovery call in sales? (PLUS a six-step discovery process)

Gong.io

What is a discovery call in sales? It’s the most important conversation in the sales process. Discovery calls set the trajectory of your deal and will determine how you’ll do everything else in the sales process. If you do it right, you’ll be able to establish an authoritative relationship with your buyer. If it goes wrong, you’ll be playing catch during all of your conversations, until your prospect eventually ditches you.

Process 107
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Forecast Accuracy—Again

Partners in Excellence

I’ve come to learn about a seasonality effect on queries I get on Forecast Accuracy. We’re mid way through the second calendar quarter of the year. Executives are seeing they missed the number in the first quarter, we’re now midway through the second quarter and they are starting to worry. For some with XaaS models or long sales cycles, if they are off on YTD attainment, it will be a real struggle to fill the gap and make their numbers.

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Six Sales Mistakes Guaranteed To Kill The Sale

Women Sales Pros

When it comes to mastering the art of sales, sometimes it can be more important to understand what not to do when trying to get the sale. Sales is one business where you cannot fake success. Your numbers, your goals and your bottom line results will always reveal your sales skills or lack there of! You can learn a lot from watching what sales professionals do to get the sale, but even more so from what they don’t do.

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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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The New Salesenomics

Understanding the Sales Force

Back in the 1960's it made sense for gasoline prices to be discounted down to the nearest 9/10 of a cent because gas prices ranged between 17.9 to 18.9 cents. But when gas prices are around $3.00 per gallon, how does 9/10 cent continue to make sense? Some habits die really hard. I don't know about you but some things just don't make sense to me. I loved the Leavitt/Dubner series of books on Freakonomics and thought I could share some interesting sales and sales management data that make little s

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What Does AI have in Store for B2B Sales?

SalesforLife

Don’t stop reading if you have missed the live webinar on “ What does AI have in store for B2B Sales ”? Jamie Shanks, CEO of Sales for life hosted the webinar and he began the session by introducing the panel of experts-Jim Dickie, Victor Antonio, and Chad Burmeister. • Jim Dickie is a Co-founder of CSO Insights and Research Fellow for Sales Mastery • Victor Antonio is the CEO of Sellinger Group • Chad Burmeister is the CEO of ScaleX.ai.

B2B 100
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Is your differentiation based on features or outcomes?

Membrain

It’s a fundamental principle of value-based selling that whenever a prospective customer is unable to establish any meaningful difference between the options open to them, they are likely to choose what they perceive to be the cheapest or safest option.

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CXL Institute Update: New Low-Cost Subscription Plan

ConversionXL

Since we started, our mission has been to bring elite-level know-how to everyone. We’re all about helping marketers and optimizers become the best they can be. A screen shot from our Marketing Management course. Our customers drive our path forward, and we’re always listening to your suggestions. We love your live chat messages, your emails, and phone calls.

Price 99
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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