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Prospecting isn't always the easiest task we are required to carry out in sales. It can be daunting, monotonous, and inconsistent. However, it must be done and it must be done well!
When a prospect downloads your lead magnet , their journey to paying customer has only just begun—it may never finish. Most B2B leads don’t become customers. Benchmarks for download-to-customer conversion rates are scarce. But Salesforce revealed that less than 0.5% of webinar leads ever convert to customers. That’s a grim portrait, even if conversion rates for other lead magnets are multiples higher.
Are you underestimating the power of testimonials for your sales? You may consider your own behavior when purchasing something from Amazon, for example.
The right words have the power to overcome most of the objections faced by every salesperson , and the best salespeople know the words that sell. They also know which words work against them… and which moments call for no words at all. “ What you do and say during sales conversations is the most decisive separator between mega-successful salespeople and average salespeople,” says Gong CEO Amit Bendov.
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.
Of course you have sales problems. If it’s not a production problem, it’s a productivity problem. If it’s not a productivity problem, it’s a servicing problem.
An alarming digital marketing trend should scare all online publishers: Organic traffic from Google is vanishing: Google’s latest search elements (featured snippets and People Also Ask) steal clicks from organic listings. The first three positions account for over 50% of clicks. This means that you’re still “buried” on the bottom or middle of Page 1.
Google is a fickle beast. The search engine is imperative to the success of your web content, but no one truly knows how the Google algorithm works (except for the elusive Google search-quality team, of course). Google’s search engine is also ever-changing. Google didn’t become the #1 search engine in the world without prioritizing its user experience.
Google is a fickle beast. The search engine is imperative to the success of your web content, but no one truly knows how the Google algorithm works (except for the elusive Google search-quality team, of course). Google’s search engine is also ever-changing. Google didn’t become the #1 search engine in the world without prioritizing its user experience.
I am a big believe in Free editions — when they work. At EchoSign, we launched not only with a Free edition, but we launched 100% Free. We thought it was a great marketing strategy, back in the day. It really wasn’t for a B2B product. At least, not at first. Just having a “Free” version doesn’t get millions of folks to use your product.
If you’ve struggled to succeed at sales, you have 3 options for responding. You can quit and move on… give it your all and try to get better at sales… or transition out of sales and accept a different role with your employer. There’s no shame in leaving a sales job or changing roles. . But I want to assure you that most people CAN get better at sales — if they’re willing to do the work. .
It’s that time of year. Many senior sales execs are starting their planning for next fiscal year. Inevitably, the commission plan becomes part of the discussion. “Dave, if only we get the right commission plan, we will fix all our performance problems! Can you help?” Of course I can help, but I always ask, “What makes you think it’s the compensation plan that’s standing in the way of sales performance?
Remember the good ol’ days when we found jobs through ads in the daily newspaper? Hard to believe, especially considering the fact that 70% of jobs are found through personal relationships , according to John Bennett , director of the Master of Science at the McColl School of Business. Whether you're trying to develop your personal career or forge new business relationships, making offline, personal connections has become even more critical as online social networking becomes the norm.
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.
I'll be 64 in November which means that just like everyone else, I'm getting older. There are certain things that younger people do that change when they get older. For example, younger adults : go to bars and night clubs but tend to choose dinners out or nights at home binge watching TV when they become more mature. go to concerts but tend to choose movies when they get older. backpack across the US or Europe but tend to choose cruises as they age. want freedom at work but are more open to stru
Whether you’re an absolute stud performer or fairly new to your sales role, it’s completely natural that your sales motivation will dwindle from time to time. The reason being is we get stuck in our day to day activities of prospecting and speaking with potential clients; and then lose sight of the reason why we may be in sales in the first place. This article isn’t written to give you a quick pump up which will be short lived (there’s plenty of that stuff already out there).
I love to ski. It’s one of my top “flow” activities, and I especially love the alps, which has some of the best ski slopes in the world. But as any skier knows, it’s a sport with some very specific risks. One of the most dangerous things that can happen, is to get caught in an avalanche.
Social media is everywhere. For many people, social media is used daily for entertainment, socialization, and even news consumption -- myself included. Additionally, over the last two decades, it has risen as one of the primary marketing channels. With over 40% of the world's population on social media, it's critical your business devise an effective social media strategy to reach your intended audience.
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
Too often, I’m in reviews with sales people whining, “The customer is irrational!” They go through a litany of complaints, including: “They don’t understand our products and why they are superior… ” (Of course it’s not their job to do that.) “They keep changing their minds… ” “They aren’t being logical, we’ve presented all the data/analysis, it should be obvious… ” and on and on and on… The net
Have you ever wondered what top sales leaders are reading? Have you ever wondered what their #1 sales book recommendation for success is? If you have listened to even one episode of the Hey Salespeople podcast (if not, what are you waiting for?), you know that SalesLoft’s self-declared sales nerd and podcast host, Jeremey Donovan asks every guest two questions: What is the first thing you remember selling?
Nonprofit fundraising is exciting. It’s the lifeblood of charitable organizations and can serve as a way to raise awareness of a cause and drum up interest among donors. Fundraising is also a massive undertaking. Because it’s likely your primary means of income as a charitable organization, raising money can be a burdensome, never-ending effort. It can even seem scary.
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.
Too often, as executives look to improve sales performance, they look to doing something new or different. It may be adopting a new methodology, new technologies or tools, changing your go to customer strategies. Any of these can improve sales performance, but the come with their costs. Since these represent major changes, the change management process and time involved in solidifying changes can be very long.
One of the most significant mistakes any sales person can make is to assume that their prospective customer is inevitably going to buy something, and that the only remaining questions are what, when, and who from.
By Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing. “How I Work” is one of my favorite recurring features in Inc Magazine as well as via Lifehacker’s This Is How I Work Series. Every week on Thursday we feature a new B2B sales, marketing or business leader here answering our own version of “ How I Work ” questions. You can catch up on everyone we’ve featured thus far in the “How I Work” series here.
Knowing the business impact of what you sell makes a huge difference. It's how your prospects decide whether or not your products or services are a match. Yet so many companies fail to quantify the business value of their products/services. And sometimes, it’s just not possible.
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.
Is it possible that living in a selfie society is affecting sales results?Sales success? You know, that insatiable desire to take a picture of yourself–regardless of what you’re doing–and immediately post it on all the social media channels. The goal is to make sure everyone knows just how cool and successful you are. This self-absorption can adversely affect your prospecting and sales efforts because the best salespeople are other-absorbed, not self-absorbed.
Yes, I’m whining about inept, manipulative prospecting. This might also be titled, “How stupid do you think your prospects are?” Several weeks ago, I get a LinkedIn Invitation: Dear David, Allow me to ask to be connected with you as I remember that your name and Partners In EXCELLENCE were mentioned during a conversation at the [Organization Name] conference, last December in Berlin.
Many sales representatives only start to think about closing the deal later in the sales process. However, to really set yourself up for closing, you need to be setting the groundwork from the very beginning. The best way to do this is to exercise control over sales conversations. If you can do this, you can successfully deploy a solution-selling approach.
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.
What can happen when employees are held to unreasonable standards by managers and their behaviors don’t drive the best outcome for the company? Ask Wells Fargo. In 2016, it was discovered that Wells Fargo employees secretly created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts — without their customers’ knowledge — to meet sales goals. More than 5,000 employees were fired as this outrageous behavior came to light.
We get discovery wrong in so many ways: We fail to do discovery. We jump straight to the pitch. We ask all the questions we are supposed to ask, without knowing what they mean and why we are asking them. Or we don’t pay attention to the answers. (This is a variant of 1, but we want to make the customer think we care when all we want to do is pitch.
When you hear the word “blog”, what do you think of? Maybe your mind goes to stories about travel, yoga, and exciting new restaurants to try. What if I told you that, although these thoughts may be valid, other terms and phrases should be coming to mind? These include conversions, a boost in revenue, calls to action, inbound marketing, and improving customer relationships.
How Many Follow-Ups Does It Really Take? At the risk of aging myself, there used to be a commercial for Tootsie Pop suckers in which a young child asks the wise owl, “How many licks does it to take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?”. It was a set up to the premise that no one really ever knew because the lollipop was soo good people “bit” before licking their way to the center.
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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