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 115

Technology Technology CRM Pipeline 115

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 8, 2024

Every quarter there is the inevitable rush to close deals, to hit our numbers. The global economy/turmoil and continued layoffs/reductions, and shuffling of priorities–both within our customers, markets, and within our own organizations. ” But, we shouldn’t be shocked or surprised.

Quota 117

Quota Trust Pitch Up-sell 117

Martech

MAY 16, 2024

It’s important that everyone is clear on the definition of customer experience. What is customer experience (CX)? Customer experience is the sum of all the interactions that a customer has with a brand over the life of the relationship with that brand. to deliver a better experience.

Customers 104

Customers B2C UX User Experience 104

Martech

MAY 7, 2024

With that sheer growth rate, it is fair to ask yourself and your team: “Do we control our martech, or does our martech control us?” With that sheer growth rate, it is fair to ask yourself and your team: “Do we control our martech, or does our martech control us?” You do the math.

Legal 110

Legal Growth Pitch Technology 110

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 6, 2024

Too often, there is an alignment challenge between what buyers need and what sellers do. We seem to be on diverging paths, and this creates problems for both buyers and sellers. What don’t buyers need from sellers? They don’t need a lot of education about our products. What do our customers need?

Education 129

Education Trust Sell Product 129

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

We are driven to pitch our products and solutions. Our questioning and discovery strategies each have an agenda, we seek answers that enable us to pitch. We have presentations focusing on us, our products, our companies and how great we are. Somehow, our customers are lost in the process.

Customers 121

Customers Negotiate Pitch Trust 121

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 109

Technique B2B Start-ups Up-sell 109

Search Engine Land

APRIL 15, 2024

Then, you must create what Google calls “ helpful, reliable, people-first content.” In this article, I will outline a process that shows you exactly how to do that and provide a simple template you can fill out to take your content to the next level. Our goal here should be to create well-optimized, people-first content.

Process 119

Process Objectives and Key Results Angle Follow-up 119

Martech

APRIL 11, 2024

In our zeal to harness the tech part of martech, the ops part of MOps and the automation part of marketing automation, MOps professionals have failed to accomplish the most important part of the equation — marketing. But in our zeal to harness technology, operations and automation, we fail to accomplish marketing.

B2B 125

B2B Manufacturing Technology Technology 125

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 18, 2024

It’s SKO season, yesterday I was leading a discussion with a great sales team. One of the sellers asked a question about dealing with customer questions and queries about the products, particularly deeply technical questions. As we spoke, it struck me how we revel in these questions.

Customers 129

Customers Up-sell B2B Trust 129

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. I’m afraid too many people will latch onto that concept and miss the real point of this post which is the revenue/growth potential we lose.

Customers 117

Customers Objectives and Key Results Growth Objection handling 117

Force Management

DECEMBER 14, 2023

When executed well, your channel program will decrease the cost of a sale, improve reach into new markets, and grow overall seller capacity without increasing internal headcount. However, backing your program with the right resources will be critical to its success. How do we specifically solve these problems with your solution? •

Negotiate 137

Negotiate Education Market share Growth 137

Search Engine Land

JANUARY 12, 2024

Google Ads customer service has plummeted to an unacceptable all-time low, according to search marketers. A ‘brutal’ process Mike Kelley, Chief Marketing Officer at Sylvan Learning, has been working in marketing for almost 20 years. The whole process has been brutal.” They don’t respond to emails either.

Engineering 138

Engineering Clients Networking Represent 138

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 14, 2023

It’s interesting to see continued predictions of the death of selling. Others see the preference of buyers for rep-free buying experiences and digital buying processes as evidence that selling is no longer necessary. I never read procurement articles suggesting the death of sales. Hmmm, what am I missing?

Sell 122

Sell Retail Promote Up-sell 122

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? Do we want to provide that help?

Customers 122

Customers Quota Up-sell Conversion 122

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 11, 2024

ChatGPT and its colleagues are, too often, a debilitating cheat for sellers who don’t want to put in the work. There, I said it, I got it off my chest. Hacks for structuring and measuring an entire sales organization. The key reasons that would drive a customer to change. Or any market or industry.

Healthcare 117

Healthcare Drivers/motivators Engineering Presentation 117

Salesforce

APRIL 24, 2024

You probably had to pack up too much stuff, transport it in a truck and unpack it in the new location – hoping it survived the trip. It’s not possible (yet) in the physical world, but with zero copy integration, that’s how you can handle your customer data. What you’ll learn What is zero copy integration?

Customers 124

Customers Transportation Government UX 124

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 26, 2023

We never have enough. And regardless what we do, we never will. Whatever time we tend free up, is immediately filled with something else and we become time poor, once again. We have endless tools and technologies, increasingly assisted by AI, enabling us to accomplish more in each hour.

Follow-up 135

Follow-up Prospecting Conversion Technology 135

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 30, 2024

It’s Monday morning, I’ve just cleared my email and social feeds. 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?

Product 98

Product Sell Pitch B2B 98

Partners in Excellence

MAY 8, 2024

It’s always a bummer to show up late to the party. Desperately, we try to find someone to talk to, something interesting to talk about, but…… It seems so much of “modern” selling looks like this. But we don’t understand what has happened. It’s so much simpler that way.

Price 68

Price Up-sell Conversion Presentation 68

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 5, 2024

Some have run multi-billion sales organizations and companies, some are managing their own territories selling millions a year. They disqualify deals that aren’t in their sweet spot, they are driven to use their and their customers’ time well. At the same time, they are viciously focused on doing the work.

Territory 117

Territory Sports Technique Represent 117

Adaptive Business Services

MAY 15, 2024

I have distilled Nimble down to 10 easy steps that will increase your sales. We’re not going to do anything advanced. However, the fundamentals are 90% of what you need to do in order to see awesome results! We can then easily see what belongs to who and who has done what. These are the fundamentals.

CRM 71

CRM Pipeline Contact Closing 71

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 22, 2024

During most of April, I’ve been frequenting a Smoothie Bar near the place we are staying and when I take my first sip each day, one thought occurs to me each time. “Why don’t the smoothies I make at home taste this good and why doesn’t the texture of my made-at-home smoothie compare?” ” He was right.

Drivers/motivators 81

Drivers/motivators Construction Sales CRM 81

Search Engine Land

JANUARY 17, 2024

Google will lay off approximately 1,000 employees from its advertising sales team this year. Why we care. ” Google has not confirmed what changes we can expect, but Marvin did add: “I do think Support is an area where LLMs/Google AI will be able to make big strides in improving experiences. .”

Engineering 122

Engineering Service Meeting Process 122

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 22, 2024

Sometimes, I feel like a broken record talking about Customer and Business Acumen. Speaking to sales enablement executives, fewer than 10% have any sort of business acumen programs in place. Yet these same leaders complain about the ability to connect to prospects and customers. I ask: “How does your customer make money?”

Customers 109

Customers GTM Trust Up-sell 109

Martech

MAY 9, 2024

When we spoke, he was driving to an airport in Croatia, but he was still able to address the “trough of disillusionment” that might be just around the corner for some — not all — uses of generative AI. Q: It seems every manager has been given a mandate to bring genAI into their technology and processes.

Appointment 86

Appointment Technology Technology Follow-up 86

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 20, 2024

Our feeds are filled with hacks, prompts, “cheat sheets” offering things like, “What are key decision maker roles for this… ? What are qualifying questions… ? What are trends… ? How do I handle objections… ?” ” I take these hacks, trying them out myself.

Gaming 124

Gaming Engineering Presentation Start-ups 124

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

One of my favorite songs, as a kid, was Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain… ” It was not only a great song, but provoked decades of discussion about who she was singing about. Fast forwarding to current times, based on how we engage our customers, we demonstrate a similar vanity.

Manufacturing 117

Manufacturing Finance Presentation Technology 117

SaaStr

MAY 17, 2024

As Product leaders, you have to build trust with CEOs and founders, align on vision and strategy, stay focused on the customer’s problem, and effectively navigate misalignment to ensure your product has the greatest chances of success right out of the gate. But how do you tactically achieve all of that?

Product 68

Product GTM Trust Growth 68

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 24, 2024

Properly used, with the right prompt engineering, AI can help us better understand potential issues our customers face. We can, for instance, ask it for issues facing certain roles. We can ask it to look at certain industries/markets, or types of companies. The LLMs will provide ideas, insights.

Represent 120

Represent Presentation Up-sell Engineering 120

Martech

MARCH 12, 2024

You’re likely familiar with the Pareto Principle, the old 80/20 rule and how it applies to marketing — 80% of your profit comes from 20% of your customers. You also know who those “best” customers are. The metric that illuminates your best customers is customer lifetime value. Your TAM has a subset of your ICP.

Customers 97

Customers Drivers/motivators Construction Legal 97

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 17, 2024

We talked about some fascinating concepts: Mis-diagnosis and Missed-diagnosis. So much opportunity is lost, both for sellers and customers, because of diagnostic problems. But each requires different approaches with our customers. This article will focus on Missed-Diagnosis, or inciting customers to change.

Manufacturing 117

Manufacturing Represent Clients Education 117

Search Engine Land

APRIL 11, 2024

The label appears as a grey box positioned underneath the company name, logo and URL as demonstrated in the screenshot below: The feature is not clickable, and so the purpose of it is causing confusion amongst PPC marketers. ‘People Also Consider’ badge on a search for our brand.” ” What Google is saying.

User Experience 106

User Experience Engineering Service Process 106

Partners in Excellence

MAY 22, 2023

We use discovery to understand the customer’s needs, problems, requirements. We use discovery to understand the capabilities they seek in looking at solutions. Qualification enables us to understand that the customer is committed to making a change and they have a strong interest in our solutions.

Education 121

Education Customers Process Closing 121

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. Too often, however, we could/should be doing much better. Yet they fail!

Quota 118

Quota Growth Sell Process 118

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 we turn up to work, we aren’t able to put ourselves into robot corporate mode. We are still that human that was at home in the morning and has many different motivational drivers.

Drivers/motivators 102

Drivers/motivators B2B B2C Quota 102

SalesLoft

APRIL 8, 2024

The best reason for adopting a new sales technology is to find a solution to your organization’s pain points. That’s exactly what Ron Greer , VP of Worldwide Inside Sales at OpenText , wanted for his team. It was a challenge for them to figure out what was really working and what wasn’t.

Inside sales 86

Inside sales Sales Campaign Technology 86