Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 17, 2019

Sadly, every day I see more sales people committed to stupidity. As bad as those may be, it’s the commitment to being stupid that astounds me. Stupidity is a choice, and I’m stunned by the number of people that are committed to stupidity. What makes them stupid?

Prospecting 75

Prospecting Engineering Presentation Conversion 75

SalesProInsider

AUGUST 11, 2022

And the words we choose to use during our sales conversations can make or break the opportunity to close that sale and help that person. Remove these from your language during sales conversations to describe, ask for, or commit to something: Try. “ We bring expertise for XXX to working with you …”. . Words are powerful.

Closing 133

Closing Education Sales Pitch 133

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 4, 2024

He’s also written one of the best books on “communications,” in Lean Communication , as well as Strategic Sales Presentations. I had no formal sales training and no way to differentiate my product (what’s more of a commodity than money?). Our relationship didn’t start that way, in fact it was contentious.

Sell 73

Sell Appointment Finance Pitch 73

SalesProInsider

MAY 26, 2022

Have you ever considered how the “language” and “customs” of your buyers affects what they need to make a confident decision to move forward with working together? We discussed our thoughts on what keeps the first type of traveler from engaging in these customs: Not wanting to feel uncomfortable or a belief that they will look stupid.

Customers 62

Customers Pitch Launch Up-sell 62

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 13, 2024

But lately, when I talk with the Kurlan & Associates team, the topic is consistently about salespeople who push back when our sales training and coaching is specific to RFPs. Option 1 is stupid and Option 2 is brilliant. Their most common response is, “That doesn’t work in our business.”

Manufacturing 77

Manufacturing Territory Price Finance 77

ClickFunnels

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

Get Our 2-Page Sales Funnel That Generated 185,372 Leads! So you know what a lead generation quiz is and you have a basic idea for how it works. You’d tell me that’s a stupid idea. Product-led quizzes are a great way to generate leads and make sales in one fell swoop. And quizzes are nothing if not interactive.

Lead generation 252

Lead generation Consult Conversion Gaming 252

Hubspot

JANUARY 15, 2024

Welcome to “The Pipeline” — a weekly column from HubSpot, featuring actionable advice and insight from real sales leaders. I like to call this “ghosting” — when a sales process is chugging along smoothly with a client, you feel positive that the deal will close, and then your prospect disappears without a trace. The timing isn’t right.

Prospecting 83

Prospecting Follow-up Pitch Clients 83

Sales Gravy

DECEMBER 16, 2021

Matthew McConaughey, Greenlights The number one reason for failure in sales is an empty pipeline. A few weeks back, my 24-year-old son was delivering a telephone prospecting workshop to a group of sales development reps (SDRs) who were all about his age. This is the truth. A brutal, universal, and undeniable truth. Cased closed.

Prospecting 113

Prospecting Cold Call Appointment Pipeline 113

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

In spite of how much I hate looking stupid to whoever’s doing the role play with me, I know they will help me be better. I know the work enables me to improve–so I don’t make mistakes (or at least fewer) with my customers. After all, it’s better to look stupid with our own team mates than with our customers.

Sports 105

Sports Consult Gaming Conversion 105

SaaStr

JANUARY 4, 2022

Q: What incentives work well to attract new employees to a company, and what ultimately makes them want to stay? You may find signing bonuses annoying, stupid, or a bad sign … and even be sort of opposed to them … but folks love them. They do work to tip an employee over the line to take a job. Profit-sharing.

Promote 101

Promote Start-ups Sales 101

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 7, 2020

In F2F, we had the time of the sales person, the travel expense and so forth. As a result, we do a lot of stupid things, because the cost of stupidity (from a cost of selling/marketing perspective is virtually zero. And if that doesn’t work, we 10X it. But what are the real costs of stupidity?

Price 62

Price Prospecting Contract Technique 62

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 1, 2021

All of us have had to rethink so much of what we do, how we work, what home and family life means. It’s a rare departure from my commentary on sales, leadership, and business. It’s a departure from my whining about some of the stupidity I see in social media and business. I’m thankful they have recovered.

Clients 118

Clients Meeting Customers Sales 118

criteria for success

JULY 22, 2020

Are you passionate about your work? Do you feel inspired to share the work you’re doing with others? Do you feel inspired to share the work you’re doing with others? If you do boring, stupid, monotonous work, chances ?are are you’ll end up boring, stupid, and monotonous.” – Bob Black. You are what you do.

Drivers/motivators 83

Drivers/motivators Start-ups Growth Sales 83

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 24, 2021

All of us have had to rethink so much of what we do, how we work, what home and family life means. It’s a rare departure from my commentary on sales, leadership, and business. It’s a departure from my whining about some of the stupidity I see in social media and business. I’m thankful they have recovered.

Clients 105

Clients Meeting Customers Sales 105

A Sales Guy

MARCH 14, 2017

If you’re a sales person and you give a s**t about your clients, your personal development, your career, and your company, then I have a message for you. It’s 2017, and we’re failing our customers, prospects, the companies we work for and ourselves. Rule 3: Stop sending stupid emails.

Gaming 101

Gaming CRM Promote Up-sell 101

Hubspot

OCTOBER 13, 2020

Do you have a new class of sales development reps starting soon? That's why training is so important for your sales team. Below, let's learn HubSpot sales managers' top tips for training your SDR team. Below, let's learn HubSpot sales managers' top tips for training your SDR team. Use a sales training template.

Education 86

Education Prospecting Cold Call Start-ups 86

SaaStr

JULY 9, 2021

Q: What are the common mistakes in the sales process that may lead to customer loss? In SaaS, the prospect is expecting the sales rep to be their guide, their expert on the product. The best sales reps listen and hear what the prospect’s problem is in the space — and use the product to design a solution. Prospects aren’t stupid.

Price 99

Price Quota Sales Pitch 99

Martech

DECEMBER 13, 2023

Working with expert content creators and influencers is a smart decision. Naturally, the benefits are cumulative when you work with the same creators over time. Naturally, the benefits are cumulative when you work with the same creators over time. Brands get $5.78 Top performers get an amazing $18 of EMV for the same spend.

Entertainment 76

Entertainment Campaign Trust B2B 76

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 12, 2022

There’s an interesting conversation on LinkedIn, Would You Work For Elon? The conversation is interesting, some folks commenting on the “rightness,” or “wrongness” of what Elon Musk is doing at Twitter or whether they could work at Twitter. And leaders must reinforce this in their behaviors every day.

Networking 62

Networking Conversion Go To Market Customers 62

SaaStr

JULY 14, 2023

VCs will come back and always have, but unicorns are stupid today. Now is the time to hire someone who went to work for a unicorn, got laid off, and is bitter.” In 2023, those people just want to work for a good CEO in a good company that pays well and get rid of the overfunded unicorn stress. You were lame.

Drivers/motivators 90

Drivers/motivators Quota Service Closing 90

SalesProInsider

AUGUST 13, 2020

Whether they are face-to-face or virtual, productive sales conversations are not a sideline sport. It’s the same with our buyers, the sale is about them and they want to play. In our sales conversations, buyers don’t want to be idle observers of a “pitch” or “presentation.” Buyers Want to Get on the Court. Collaboration Is King.

Conversion 127

Conversion Sports Objectives and Key Results Gaming 127

The 5% Institute

JUNE 18, 2020

If you’re selling complex products or services , the chances are high that you’ll be regularly involved in the technical sale. In this article, we’ll explore why focusing on the inner working and details of your product or service is something you need to avoid in the technical sale, and five key tips to focus on and practice instead.

Technical Sales 98

Technical Sales Technique X-functional Consult 98

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 9, 2020

Look at your technology stack for sales and marketing. I have just received 4 of the same emails from one of the largest sales, marketing, analytics automation suppliers (a very large San Francisco based company). In these difficult times, there is the very real need to reduce discretionary spending as much as possible.

Contract 91

Contract High impact Technology Technology 91

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 30, 2020

I’m an extreme type A and extremely action oriented, but I get exhausted watching these sales and business super heroes. At the same time, it’s hard to work with a Super-Hero. And these Super-Hero sales people and leaders see this, they re-double their efforts, often inadvertently, the create greater distance and more problems.

Gaming 91

Gaming Strategize Up-sell Closing 91

SaaStr

JULY 23, 2020

If you squint as you read TechCrunch, you’ll notice a pattern in a bunch of articles about Hot Startups. “Bob worked at Pinterest for 8 months before he …” or “after a stint as senior something engineer at Facebook [12 months], Bill joined …” etc. And job hopping has come to sales, too.

Promote 135

Promote Engineering Growth Start-ups 135

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 5, 2022

Not long ago, I was speaking to the CRO of a sales technology company. ” I displayed the marketing/sales outreach emails I get from his company. I reassured him, “Don’t be worried, 95% of the providers of sales/marketing technologies do the same thing, so you’re not alone. We went on in our conversation.

Technology 62

Technology Technology Prospecting Consult 62

Eliminate Your Competition

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

I have worked for many large companies that are names everybody’s heard of on your program. How did you get into sales? I immediately went into sales. I went to a really great program put out by Allen-Bradley, which was a whole year of sales training. It was almost like getting a Master’s in Sales.

Mechanical Engineering 98

Mechanical Engineering Engineering Up-sell Follow-up 98

Partners in Excellence

JULY 29, 2015

As a sales professional, I have empathy for other sales people prospecting. But in spite of that, it’s hard not to be tough on sales people when they do things that are incredibly stupid. But in spite of that, it’s hard not to be tough on sales people when they do things that are incredibly stupid.

Follow-up 93

Follow-up Conversion Prospecting Start-ups 93

Sales Hacker

APRIL 15, 2021

One of my wife’s work colleagues challenged me to a game of chess. Yep, the typical over-confident sales guy. It’s not that you say stupid things. Kind of like on a sales call. Tempo on the sales call and in the sales process is everything for us. It’s the only reason this whole thing works.

A/B testing 138

A/B testing Contract Sales Closing 138

The Sales Hunter

JUNE 13, 2013

We’ve all said at one time or another under our breath while walking out of a customer’s office, “Stupid customer. ” I’d say there have been many a gathering of salespeople where the sole topic discussed is the stupidity of customers. The stupid customer or the stupid salesperson?”

Customers 87

Customers Drivers/motivators Education Prospecting 87

SalesBlog!

APRIL 17, 2022

Nothing was working! The first month as their sales manager I found myself watching our sales numbers take a dive right before my eyes in the current tough economy. That didn’t work. I changed direction with focusing on the “perfect solution” sale followed by strong closing tactics. That didn’t work either.

Sell 52

Sell Up-sell Consult Gaming 52

The 5% Institute

DECEMBER 17, 2019

Engineer to sales; no matter what new role you may be taking up in the sales world, this can be a bit of a career change. However, if you put in the hard work that got you to become an Engineer in the first place, continue learning with an open mind, and execute what you learn – you can potentially have an excellent career in sales.

Engineering 98

Engineering Commission X-functional Objectives and Key Results 98

SalesBlog!

AUGUST 21, 2022

Why do they have sales objections on something so obvious? If the “no brainer” sale is not happening, then somewhere in this potential customers past, they have felt “pain” with a decision. What Sales Objections Really Mean. Note: The sales man had told me it was price. Overcome Sales Objections.

Appointment 52

Appointment Sales Price Trust 52

SalesLoft

SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

If you’ve been in sales for any length of time, you’ve probably had the occasion to craft and present a close plan. If today is your first day on the job or you wound up on this page via an errant web search, here’s how close plans work. A detailed plan has the benefit of keeping track of important events within the sales cycle.

Closing 78

Closing Strategize Prospecting Start-ups 78

Sales Pop!

JUNE 28, 2021

It’s a prospect that’s leaning your way after having heard your ‘un-sales’ pitch over a rather lengthy engagement period. They’re on cruise control with you in the driver’s seat (at least until you do something stupid that destroys all the currency you’ve built up with them). What’s a ‘leaner’? They believe you and they trust you.

B2B 97

B2B Sell Strategize Clients 97

Jeff Shore

APRIL 19, 2018

That might sound stupid (I mean, can you really learn how to snowboard by reading a blog), but it served its purpose. The process is about reflecting on every sales conversation and asking yourself some pointed (and often uncomfortable) questions: I didn’t get that sale. You can join me at the Closing 2.0

Closing 113

Closing Technique High impact Presentation 113

SalesProInsider

APRIL 28, 2023

But it was an easy way to get out of the conversation without hurting your feelings…or looking stupid. She could take your proposal and: Compare it to what she is currently doing (whether working with another advisor or DIYing it) and decide there is nothing compelling in it to even talk with you again.

Promote 62

Promote Prospecting Pitch Conversion 62