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In this article, we discuss and identify the three main reasons why salespeople get duped into believing a specific opportunity will close and why some deals are not worth chasing. They are: Weak pipeline. Failure to ask tough questions. Afraid to pull the plug.
Sales is suffering from 9 brutal ills: The Bro Culture, Lack of Coaching Too Product-Centric Not enough sales people understand the game/rules of sales Too much reliance on selling tools. Not enough training in the industry/space Too much activity management Little respect for prospects and buyers time Not enough humility. Sales is the greatest profession in the world in my opinion.
Social media isn’t a perfect source of market research: It’s not a representative sample and, for small businesses, it’s simply too small of a sample. But for large organizations, it’s still a critical one. Why? Because it includes your most passionate fans. It’s also a rare source of candid consumer opinion: 80% of social media posts are about ourselves, and those opinions and beliefs—expressed individually and within a community—are not interrupted or biased by participation in a formal
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.
Based on much of the press, much of it created by vendors of AI solutions, AI is the answer to all the problems we have with sales and marketing. We are presented a brave new world where we can engage the right customers, say exactly the right words at the right time, making sure we ask no more than 4 discovery questions, that our opening pitch (?) is no longer than 9.1 minutes, that….
Strategies to Increase Retention, Expand Relationships and Drive Referrals This week I moved my business from one of my long-time vendors – hired someone new. The new vendor is not any less expensive, does not have a better product and is actually slightly less convenient to work with in terms of availability and response time. So why did a move? Good question and an important one to know the answer to if you want to know how to succeed in today’s marketplace.
You invest in your employees—mentoring, conferences, training. Yet over time, unused knowledge fades. Employees take other jobs. How do you protect your investment? Marketing had the highest turnover rate (17%) of any profession in 2018. It isn’t the only cause of knowledge loss. Retirements, promotions, intracompany transfers, and “the forgetting curve” all play a role, too.
You invest in your employees—mentoring, conferences, training. Yet over time, unused knowledge fades. Employees take other jobs. How do you protect your investment? Marketing had the highest turnover rate (17%) of any profession in 2018. It isn’t the only cause of knowledge loss. Retirements, promotions, intracompany transfers, and “the forgetting curve” all play a role, too.
This RAIN Group article was originally published on the LinkedIn Sales Blog. Some sales leaders believe that a quota and an attractive compensation plan are enough to ignite the hustle, passion, and intensity in a seller. It makes sense they think this way given recent Harvard Business Review articles with titles like "Motivating Sales People: What Really Works" that focus 100% on compensation.
Cash collections is a topic we haven’t discussed much on SaaStr, but boy it can be important all the way until you have a CFO. And often after. What’s the issue? The issue is that most SaaS start-ups are terrible at collecting cash that doesn’t come from a payment gateway. Just terrible. – terrible at collections. start-ups without an A/R function often have $250k-$500k in uncollectible receivables. – metrics that break and don't make sense. starts to harm yo
Editor’s Note: What started as an email string complaining about bad sales emails became… this. It’s a stark comparison to say the least, but a handful of B2B buyers we showed a draft of this to agreed wholeheartedly. Special thanks to Marilyn Cox , a B2B marketing veteran and recipient of a constant barrage of sales pitches, for writing this for us.
There’s something so positive and energizing about kicking off a meeting. It’s the open door every salesperson craves. But that thrill is easily toppled. With one wrong move, you can get off on the wrong foot and put your entire sales process in jeopardy. A derailed meeting is a derailed process. How do you kick off a meeting well? Chatter away and smile until your cheeks hurt?
Speaker: Brendan Sweeney, VP of Global Sales and David Phelan, Account Executive
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.
When a job seeker begins her search, one of the first things she's going to Google is this -- "Top companies to work for in 2019" or, alternatively, "Top companies in X industry.". It makes sense -- nowadays, a company's reputation matters more than ever. In fact, 86% of workers would not apply for, or continue to work for, a company that has a bad reputation with former employees, or the general public.
Here in Boston, we love rowing. Every year thousands of us crowd around the Charles River to watch boats gracefully glide along the river as they race at the Head of the Charles Regatta. What most casual spectators don’t realize is all the components that go into making one of those rowing shells move as quickly down the river as possible (and it’s not nearly as graceful as it may look).
New Account Executives are coming to your company with more sales experience than SDRs. So it’s tempting to think that the onboarding process just isn’t that important. In fact, it is still critical for AEs’ long-term success. According to a study conducted by Click Boarding , new employees who go through a formal onboarding process are 58% more likely to remain with the organization for three years or more.
It took me a while to understand the power of events and field marketing. One thing is clear — events are expensive. Putting on your own event is expensive — and complicated. Exhibiting at someone else’s event is expensive — and bounded. Events: Are They Worth the Big Expense? Got 100 Customers? Believe It Or Not, It’s Time for Your First User Conference.
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
In order to sell someone, you first have to get them to book a meeting with you. And as salespeople know, this is far easier said than done. Reps make countless calls each day, hoping and praying that one of their prospects will pick up the phone. Finally, someone does -- and what do they say? "I'm too busy for this.". "Can you just send some information?".
Sales is not a destination; sales is a journey of continual learning. Throughout my many years of selling, I have been constantly gaining new insights and ideas. The discussion continues about whether sales is an art or a science. People are quick to point out the number of new sales tools created by advances in technology; however, all of this is just noise.
One of the biggest issues we hear from everyone involved in sales and marketing is capturing the customer attention. Whether it’s that first communication, an email, text, or social engagement, that first phone conversation, or that first meeting. Getting that first contact or engagement is something nearly everyone struggles with. Given the difficulty we have with these first contacts, one would expect we would be driven to create the very best first impression we possibly could.
This week on the Sales Hacker podcast , we talk to Brian Birkett , the SVP of sales at LeanData. Brian is a long time sales executive and sales leader. He’s responsible for leading global revenue at LeanData. He brings a diverse background in sales management experience spanning from startups to large public companies in both field and inside sales.
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.
No pipeline, no quota attainment. Prospecting is a vital aspect of sales success. Interestingly, there’s a bold shift away from a fundamental aspect of B2B pipeline generation: Cold calling. It’s turned into a full-on, anti-cold calling trend, which is not the right move in our books. Inbound enterprise buyers are a rarity, and you end up pursuing them with outbound sales prospecting.
The world, both our customers and our own, is best characterized by turbulence. By this, I mean each of us, at least if we are paying attention, is pummeled by information overload/overwhelm, massive disruption, escalating change, increasingly confusing choices, increasing complexity, transformation, time compression, risk, uncertainty, and distraction.
Wondering how to bring SaaStr learnings into your company? We’ve got the answer! We’ll train your team in the very top lessons of SaaStr. How to drive deal size up! How to decrease churn! How to sell more a solution, and less of a tool! We’ve curated 100+ of the top SaaStr lessons, along with easy-to-learn-from 3 minute videos from our top speakers, all into one product — SaaStr Pro!
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.
????????We’re finding that buyers are limiting contact with sellers to manage their time. In fact, Jill Konrath put it best when she said, “buyers are busy and long-term planning is sometimes only a few weeks.
You can argue that all investment funds are difficult to acquire from the CFO – but purchasing services like sales training to improve performance and consulting companies is a tough sell internally. I get it. Remember the CFO is also not a seller, and doesn’t always understand that sales skills are sharpened like a knife, not turned on/off like a blender.
One of the key questions I ask when I meet with sales executives and sales people is, “What causes you to win, what causes you to lose?” Often, I ask to see any data and analysis they have on wins and losses. A couple of things happen: Surprisingly, people don’t know the answers. Yes there are anecdotes, “We were involved in this situation… ” They are either the single greatest success or the single greatest loss.
Warning: This is not your average sales contest. We’re not going to talk about making the most cold calls, setting the most meetings, or closing the most deals. The most creative sales contests focus on increasing other, less run-of-the-mill outcomes. That’s what makes them creative! In this case, we are going to talk about a sales contest that builds stronger relationships and accelerates deals.
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.
In addition to our Sunday App of the Week feature, we also summarize some of our favorite B2B sales & marketing posts from around the Web each week. We’ll miss a ton of great stuff, so if you found something you think is worth sharing please add it to the comments below. 4 Ways Companies Can Bring Humanity Back to Business. Sales and marketing don’t have to be a numbers game, humans need connection.
Sales leadership is nothing more than interacting with others to make a positive impact. We can break it down even further and say that sales leadership is just people connecting with people. Sales and leadership are one and the same. Sales is only as complicated as we want to make it. I feel like we too often over complicate it and then wonder why our customers aren’t buying.
At a kickoff meeting earlier this week, I was having a disturbing conversation with a group of sales people. It seemed a big part of their “prospecting,” was trolling customers for RFPs and RFIs. I probed them on this, their response was, “It’s so easy, these are people who already want to buy, they’ve put together their requirements, all we have to do is just respond to the RFPs!
After interviewing 200+ sales and marketing pros and analyzing hundreds of sales materials, we wrote the Sales Hacker guide to building a killer Sales Deck. If you can change what a sales rep sees , you can change what they say. Better Sales Decks = Better Sales Demos. But as a buyer, I still see bad Demo after bad Demo. After about a dozen, I could see that the root cause of the problem was deeper than just decks.
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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