Veloxy

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Highlighting the enduring significance of in-person interactions in the sales process. This includes having up-to-date info about what they’re selling and being equipped with technology that aids their sales pitches. This direct interaction allows for a deeper understanding of customer needs.

Objectives and Key Results 279

Objectives and Key Results Territory Inside sales Cross-sell 279

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 30, 2024

All credit for this post goes to Scott Gillum and his fantastic post: Why Relying on AI Won’t Improve Customer Experience. Reading it caused me to start reflecting on how much we misunderstand about AI and how we leverage it in selling. AI can help us see things about our people and customers that we haven’t seen.

Represent 92

Represent Presentation Up-sell Start-ups 92

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 25, 2024

We don’t have a set agenda, we talk about what we are seeing, usually it’s me whining about the state of professional selling. Our focus on beating the competition diverts our ability to drive substantively higher levels of performance, value creation, growth, and revenue through helping the customer solve their problems.

Customers 108

Customers Objectives and Key Results Growth Objection handling 108

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

Ever since I started selling–you know back in the old days when phones were still attached to cords–I’ve been taught, “Buyers have a structured buying process.” On the selling side we would have perfectly structured steps like Qualification, Needs Identification, Solution Presentation, Closing.

B2B 121

B2B Up-sell Contract Start-ups 121

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 6, 2024

Just as selling has evolved, buying has evolved–but differently. They don’t need a lot of education about our products. We always seem to lead with our products and focus our conversations on those. It’s probably much more efficient for them to learn about our products through those resources.

Education 120

Education Trust Sell Product 120

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 3, 2023

My friend, Hank Barnes, is rethinking the buying process with a fascinating concept he calls The Advantage Factor. One of the things he discusses in the concept of “Selling Possibility.” ” It’s related to much of what I’ve written about Inciting Customers To Change. Why should we do this?

Sell 118

Sell Up-sell Start-ups Customers 118

Veloxy

JANUARY 2, 2024

However, with increasing competition combined with a limited budget and sales personnel, reaching your quotas can be challenging. While you may want your sales team to focus on selling, they also spend much time on administrative tasks. In doing so, you can give your reps more time to sell while helping them reach more qualified leads.

Product 246

Product Territory Objectives and Key Results Sales 246

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 30, 2024

Then, too many of us turn around and inflict bad outbound prospecting on our own victims. Can I show you what results you might realize…” Sometimes, the product pitches are thinly veiled by a problem: “Is lead/demand gen a problem for you? Nothing focuses on our priorities and our company.

Product 93

Product Sell Pitch B2B 93

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 14, 2023

It’s interesting to see continued predictions of the death of selling. Some focus on PLG types of approaches, where the product sells itself–at least until one wants to scale that to the enterprise level. I actually never see anything about this other than within the selling community. Hmmm, what am I missing?

Sell 112

Sell Retail Promote Up-sell 112

Partners in Excellence

MAY 1, 2024

Andy Paul and I were having what I’ve labeled “The Old Fart Conversations About Selling.” ” Neither of us feel we are out of touch with modern selling, the challenges both buyers and sellers face. But every once in a while we get on a call to discuss “What’s happening in selling?”

Technology 73

Technology Technology CRM Pipeline 73

Veloxy

DECEMBER 14, 2022

Back in 2018, Salesforce discovered that sales reps were only spending 34% of their time selling (707 hours a year). In that same report, Salesforce found that companies were planning to invest in sales technology and other initiatives that would help their reps spend more time on the activities that generate revenue. Imagine this.

Quota 246

Quota Sell CRM Contact 246

Veloxy

JANUARY 18, 2023

Sales teams are increasingly adopting a digital-first strategy and focusing on connecting with prospects who tend to prefer self-directed buying tasks. Connecting face-to-face can become a powerful differentiator and set the stage for a long-term relationship based on trust and making customers feel valued.

Territory 246

Territory CRM Represent Lead generation 246

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 21, 2023

As our conversations often go, we were talking about the state of selling and how we improve. The conversation got me thinking about the issue: “Our customers desperately need help, but do we want to be helpful, do we know how to be helpful? The core issue is our customers are struggling.

Customers 113

Customers Quota Up-sell Conversion 113

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

Introduction: Several weeks ago, I wrote, “ Sellers, Are You Really Interested In Selling? ” My good friend, Christian Mauer , challenged me, “Dave, why are you so interested in selling?” ” It was a great question and he caused me to reflect, I wrote, “ Why I Am Obsessed With Selling.

Customers 103

Customers Contract Consult Electrical Engineering 103

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

“Discovery” has been an important part of the sales process ever since I started selling (Yes, that was back when we had first chipped a wheel out of stone.) In all our training, we’ve gotten playbooks, done role plays, and learned how to conduct discovery and what questions we should be asking the customer.

Technique 102

Technique B2B Start-ups Up-sell 102

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 26, 2024

It’s a solution that addresses the way buying is changing, integrating digital and personal selling. But what really interested me were Bill’s perspectives on where buying and selling is headed and how we must change our engagement strategies to work with buyers more impactfully.

Sell 96

Sell Cross-sell Finance B2C 96

Martech

MAY 2, 2024

Understanding and engaging the buying group is critical for B2B success. When companies need to make major purchases, they typically assemble an internal team — known as the buying group, buying committee or buying center — to evaluate options and make the decision. You still don’t really know who is buying what.

B2B 110

B2B Drivers/motivators CRM GTM 110

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 3, 2024

Our mindsets aren’t so focused on improving efficiency, rather on avoiding doing the work. It takes some time and effort to make them work as advertised, and when we can’t make them work, we look for another short cut. We struggle because the shortcuts don’t help us do the “whole job” more effectively.

Objection handling 108

Objection handling Construction Technique Drivers/motivators 108

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 7, 2023

Unfortunately, too many are driven by wishful thinking and random walks through the customer engagement process. ” There are a small number that leverage a selling process strongly. ” There are a small number that leverage a selling process strongly. Where are they in doing those activities?

Process 109

Process Sales Up-sell Meeting 109

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 4, 2023

I think, “Why do we revel in achieving our quotas and scaling goals, when we could be doing so much more?” ” If we achieve our growth/revenue goals, we think we are doing well. Imagine what we could do, without impact to the cost of selling, if we started being more effective in how we manage each deal?

Quota 110

Quota Growth Sell Process 110

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 16, 2023

Virtually every organization I work with has a real misunderstanding of Selling Processes and Sales Methodologies. And, I think, training companies and consultants (like me), sometimes confuse these issues, not serving our clients as effectively as we should. At some level, this can be confusing.

Process 89

Process Sell Sales B2C 89

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 16, 2024

We know what we have to do, and, for the most part, each of us is well intended–we really want to do the things that cause us, our customers, and our companies to be successful. For example, as sales people, we know–without a doubt that: We’ve got to prospect and fill our funnels.

Cross-sell 104

Cross-sell Pipeline Meeting Presentation 104

Force Management

DECEMBER 14, 2023

A channel program is an effective way to increase your capacity and expand market share, helping you reach your growth goals faster. For today, we'll set aside the capacity piece of the formula and dig into the actions leaders can take to boost productivity from channel partners. What is our proof?

Negotiate 137

Negotiate Education Market share Growth 137

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 4, 2023

If you don’t know/follow Brian, you should, he’s one of the best thinkers/practitioners I’ve met in selling. We were talking, loosely, around the advantages of being customer focused and what that means. His research showed those being customer focused outperformed those being more product focused by more than 2-1.

Customers 106

Customers Pitch Meeting Sell 106

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 3, 2022

Yesterday, I published a rather long article on the Selling Process. It’s part of my series of articles about “Things We Thought We Understood About Selling But Really Didn’t.” ” Apologies, the article was rather long, but the selling process is so important.

Process 107

Process Manufacturing Legal Contract 107

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

Fast forwarding to current times, based on how we engage our customers, we demonstrate a similar vanity. We think our customer care about us–they obsess about our companies, our products, and how great we are. Our customers simply don’t care! ” Talk about vanity!

Manufacturing 109

Manufacturing Finance Presentation Technology 109

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 31, 2023

With smaller groups or one on one’s, I frequently talk about “The Joy of Selling… ” To some this concept may seem a little too soft and abstract. Some react, “Dave, we’ve got to focus on hitting the numbers, achieving our growth goals! ” I can think of few roles that have such an impact.

Sell 115

Sell Assembly Line Growth Prospecting 115

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 22, 2024

Sometimes, I feel like a broken record talking about Customer and Business Acumen. Yet these same leaders complain about the ability to connect to prospects and customers. Yet these same leaders complain about the ability to connect to prospects and customers. I ask: “How does your customer make money?”

Customers 102

Customers GTM Trust Up-sell 102

Partners in Excellence

MAY 30, 2023

The world has changed, but we are still doing the stuff we’ve always done–at least in selling. We engage in linear selling processes–Prospecting, Qualifying, Discovering, Proposing, Closing. It hasn’t changed since I started selling, despite all the data showing us customers don’t buy that way.

Objection handling 105

Objection handling Quota Entertainment Up-sell 105

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 9, 2023

Recently, sitting with a sales management team, we started discussing the “Sales Process.” ” They displayed their sales process. As you might expect, the process was divided int a number of stages. In the last 8 years, we’ve become more sensitive to the customer buying process.

Process 87

Process Sell Customers Trust 87

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

It’s devastating to company growth and performance, it’s devastating to our individual growth, development and performance. The same can be said about so many other things we see happening in business and society.) In complex B2B, it can take 3-9 months to ramp up to where you can take on the job and start producing.

Pipeline 110

Pipeline Growth Up-sell Territory 110

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

Normally, she can install these apps with no problems, but she needed help. “Why does your lock screen look so different, can I do that?” Ideally a simple upgrade and not needing to buy a new device.) The way they work is from an out of date version of selling. Our version 3.7

Technology 92

Technology Technology Up-sell Meeting 92

Search Engine Land

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

And this doesn’t help to increase investment in our industry. You increase the brand’s: Mental availability : The likelihood of a brand being considered in a buying situation. Physical availability : The ease and convenience that a brand can be purchased from. Without trust, we don’t buy.

Service 125

Service Engineering Growth Trust 125

Partners in Excellence

JULY 31, 2023

Most of the time, as sellers, we focus on our self interests. As a result we spend a lot of time looking at our selling process and the things we want to do to our customers. Sometimes, though rarely, we think about their buying process.

Customers 84

Customers Manufacturing CRM Contact 84

Partners in Excellence

JULY 28, 2023

When I sit down with sales organizations, we inevitably spend a lot of time talking about the Sales Process. But one of the most fundamental problems I see is these sales processes are internally focused, always looking at the things we Do To Our Customers. Find out who’s involved in the decision process.

Process 80

Process Customers Negotiate Sales 80

Search Engine Land

MARCH 13, 2024

One of the biggest mistakes I see time and time again with B2B content is that it misses the point that you are selling to a human. When you get this right, the impact can skyrocket. We can be demographically similar and have different reasons to buy. But this is not what truly motivates someone to buy.

Drivers/motivators 102

Drivers/motivators B2B B2C Quota 102

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 1, 2024

We tend to spend the bulk of our time responding to people who are looking to buy. We identify them because they are hitting on our websites, downloading white papers and we reach out to them saying, “We have the best solutions in the world, can we talk… ?”

Manufacturing 77

Manufacturing GTM Represent CRM 77