No More Cold Calling

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

When crafting your B2B sales strategies, think of the sales process as a curve. The Referral Gap in B2B Sales Strategies. You know by now that referral selling should be your #1 prospecting strategy, because all referred sales leads are qualified. Without referral programs in your B2B sales strategies: 1.

Webinar Metrics 120

Webinar Metrics B2B Strategy Referrals 120

No More Cold Calling

DECEMBER 6, 2019

Message to cold callers: Pestering strangers is NOT the way to prospect. You might think you’ve been able to avoid sounding like a telemarketer, but that is exactly what you’re doing, and your prospect knows it. 50 percent of B2B buyers use LinkedIn as a source for making purchase decisions. STOP Cold Calling.

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Cold Calling Social Media Telemarketing Referrals 365

No More Cold Calling

NOVEMBER 3, 2016

Ensure your sales team makes time to practice these critical prospecting strategies. B2B sales reps don’t get good overnight either. Here’s how B2B sales professionals can keep their referral skills sharp: 1. There’s no excuse today for not following up—immediately—with clients, prospects, and referral sources.

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Selling Skills Referrals B2B Cold Calling 120

No More Cold Calling

APRIL 15, 2021

Every sales leader says their #1 prospecting challenge is getting leads in the pipe. And as of July 2020, 69 percent of B2B reps didn’t have enough leads in their pipeline to meet their annual quotas, according to a survey by ValueSelling Associates. B2B salespeople all look the same to our buyers. Try this instead.

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Lead Gen Sales Qualified Lead Leads Marketing Qualified Lead 397

No More Cold Calling

MARCH 30, 2023

(Read “ Celebrating the Women on the Quarters 2023 ”) How to Win New Clients from Lost Deals I have been in B2B sales so long that I’ve probably forgotten more deals than I remember. Because I generate all my B2B sales leads through referrals, my relationships begin with trust and credibility already earned.

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Referrals Cold Calling Social Media Call-back 156

No More Cold Calling

OCTOBER 1, 2020

It takes roughly eight touches for sales reps to reach cold prospects. The #1 challenge salespeople face is reaching decision-makers quickly, but getting prospects to call you back is deceptively simple with a referral program. Yes, your most predictable and measurable prospecting tool is your very own sales team, asking for referrals.

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Referrals Cold Calling Sales Qualified Lead Call-back 373

No More Cold Calling

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Sales intelligence can identify connections between colleagues within an organization and prospects to reveal opportunities for meaningful sales contact. I love this post by Koka Sexton at InsideView about the importance of connections to drive referrals, create new sales opportunities, and truly engage your sales prospects and customers. (Do

InsideView 159

InsideView B2B Top of Funnel Webinar Metrics 159

No More Cold Calling

MAY 3, 2018

Stats like this suggest that buyers don’t really need salespeople anymore—that we should just wait around for prospects to do their research and then call us when they’re ready to buy. They know how to prospect for sales, and it’s not sitting back and waiting for marketing to send them leads. What B2B Buyers Are Really Buying.

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Lead Generation Lead Rank Lead Scoring Leads 270

No More Cold Calling

JULY 27, 2023

He complained that his prospect in Paris had arranged a meeting with all the key decision-makers, but the prospect had only given him four days’ notice. My colleague thought it was rather presumptuous of the prospect to ask him to drop everything and hop on a plane. A sales leader in Europe needed the same splash of cold water.

Decision Maker 156

Decision Maker Referrals Face-to-face Social Media 156

No More Cold Calling

JUNE 15, 2017

I have been in B2B sales so long that I’ve probably forgotten more deals than I remember. My prospect: Had a relationship with an existing vendor for basic sales training (When I asked why the buyer didn’t contract with this company, I was told their system didn’t have advanced capabilities.). My prospects are on my side.

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Account Referrals Sales Qualified Lead Lead Generation 257

No More Cold Calling

AUGUST 3, 2017

Sales symptoms are prospecting traps. It’s prospecting that’s hard. Trying to teach reps how to close without addressing the broken links in your lead generation system will not yield sustainable B2B sales leads. How did the account execs determine if prospects were actually interested? Closing is never the problem.

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Account Closing Sales Qualified Lead Referrals 220

No More Cold Calling

NOVEMBER 10, 2016

Don’t hide your B2B marketing talent. And that makes them your hidden gem for B2B marketing. B2B marketing pro Trevor Young shares more of Edelman’s research in his post: “ Three BIG reasons your business should make rockstars of your internal experts.” Many companies only bring out their technicians to do demos. Big mistake.

Lead Generation 266

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Lead Leads Marketing Qualified Lead 266

No More Cold Calling

JUNE 25, 2020

The lyrics perfectly sum up the most common B2B lead generation mistakes: “I was lookin’ for love in all the wrong places, Lookin’ for love in too many faces, Searchin’ their eyes and lookin’ for traces, Of what I’m dreaming of.”. Are you looking for your B2B sales leads in all the wrong places? Not an encouraging scenario.

Lead Generation 409

Lead Generation B2B Lead Rank Lead Scoring 409

No More Cold Calling

OCTOBER 1, 2021

Unless you address the broken links in your prospecting system, your sales reps will continue to struggle with closing the deal. Salespeople continually struggle with reaching B2B decision makers. One way to ensure you can respond quickly when prospects and clients need you is to stop taking on customers who aren’t worth your time.

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Referrals Decision Maker Cold Calling Social Media 316

No More Cold Calling

JUNE 29, 2019

To Get B2B Leads, Pick Up the Damn Phone. But very few understand how to incorporate technology into their prospecting strategy. So, they rely on outdated tactics that fail to engage the 21st-century buyer—tactics like cold calling, sending cold emails, and stalking prospects on social media. Call or text me anytime.

Referrals 222

Referrals Social Media Sales Qualified Lead Cold Calling 222

No More Cold Calling

JULY 20, 2018

Find out how they know your prospects, what’s important to the prospects, what their challenges are, what they value, how they communicate, and what might get in the way of your sales success. Or, would you rather spend your time on a cold outreach and try a dozen touches to reach your prospect? Not if you’re in B2B sales.

Referrals 288

Referrals Sales Qualified Lead Social Media B2C 288

No More Cold Calling

AUGUST 16, 2018

The best prospecting strategies require a human touch. B2B sales leaders using digital effectively enjoy five times the growth of their peers who are not at the cutting edge of digital adoption. But a recent McKinsey survey of B2B customers highlighted a more nuanced reality. Believe that? Far too many sales reps do.

Fashion 219

Fashion Buying Cycle Social Media Survey 219

No More Cold Calling

JANUARY 17, 2019

Your prospects will be confused about how your solution is different from the next guy’s. The key to differentiation is getting in early—ideally before your prospects even know they have a need. Believe that, and you’ll look like everyone else to your buyers. You’ll get in way too late. By Bob Apollo.

Competition 318

Competition Referrals Cold Calling Study 318

No More Cold Calling

AUGUST 10, 2017

Account based selling teams find it increasingly challenging to reach their target prospects. Why P2P Works for B2B. Ian Levine, chief sales officer at RO Innovation, answers that question in his fantastic article, “ The Next Game Changer for B2B Sales? All things not being equal, we work with friends. What does it mean?

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Referrals Decision Maker Cold Calling Networking 240

No More Cold Calling

AUGUST 23, 2018

It is a place for networking, research, and engaging audiences, not for pitching prospects. I don’t like it—and your prospects don’t like it. 92 percent of B2B buyers use social media to engage with industry thought leaders. The prospect doesn’t know you and doesn’t expect to hear from you. Source: Bambu ).

Social Selling 218

Social Selling Social Media Referrals Lead Rank 218

No More Cold Calling

JANUARY 24, 2019

My definition of a cold call is any attempt to reach a prospect who doesn’t know you and doesn’t expect to hear from you. Regardless of the way you reach out—via email, social media, text, direct mail, or even a knock on the door—prospects are cold as ice unless they know who you are and expect to hear from you. What Is Cold Calling?

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Cold Calling Referrals Sales Qualified Lead Lead Generation 269

No More Cold Calling

JUNE 22, 2017

Do sales organizations really need a B2B sales strategy? Based on my experience with thousands of solution selling training program participants, here are a few signs that your B2B sales strategy needs a review and re-work: Lagging Growth: You are not growing as fast as your competitors or your industry.

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Account Strategy Ideal Customer Profile Hiring 291

No More Cold Calling

FEBRUARY 15, 2018

Layered on top of these activities are a myriad of sales enablement and social selling tools—all of which are intended to help salespeople with effective prospecting and, in turn, generating qualified sales leads. What does that say about your team’s prospecting prowess? Shorten the sales process because prospecting time collapses.

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Gatekeeper Webinar Metrics Sales Qualified Lead Decision Maker 306

No More Cold Calling

NOVEMBER 4, 2014

Busting a Bad Myth Bob Appollo gives us the facts behind this fiction in his brilliant article, “ The B2B buying decision process: challenging the 57% myth.” Our prospects still need us just as much as they did before. Our prospects still need us just as much as they did before. Read the rest of the article.)

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Cold Calling Small Business Small Business Vendor 265

No More Cold Calling

MARCH 29, 2018

Qualified prospects are actually interested in your product or solution. By receiving referral introductions from people your prospects know and trust. The way we learned about our prospects was to call the corporate communications department and request an annual report. B2B selling is all about relationships.

Lead Generation 199

Lead Generation Referrals Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank 199

No More Cold Calling

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

You bet, and it’s critical to increasing B2B sales effectiveness. By sharing information, ideas, solutions, and even referrals with our clients and prospects, we become trusted resources. How to Get Prospects to Call You Back. Read “ How to Get Prospects to Call You Back.”). Does this sound like a lot of giving?

Social Selling 296

Social Selling Cold Calling Social Media Ideal Customer Profile 296

No More Cold Calling

NOVEMBER 29, 2016

Then ramp up your prospecting activity by asking for referrals from those happy customers, and you’ll be well on your way to building a strong pipeline for Q1. Learn more about referral selling in this month’s blog posts from No More Cold Calling: 3 Referral Selling Skills All B2B Sales Reps Should Practice. Big mistake.

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Referrals Cold Calling Lead Generation Social Media 120

No More Cold Calling

APRIL 26, 2018

More than 10 years ago, a marketing agency told me most sellers cave on price before prospects even ask for a discount. Referred prospects already trust and respect you—based on the word of the trusted friend or colleague who made the introduction—so there is no negotiation. Price isn’t an issue with referral business.

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Negotiation Referrals Lead Qualification Discount 237

No More Cold Calling

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

Two colleagues complained they were so involved in their work, they didn’t have time to prospect. People are so focused on their projects, and they don’t make time to prospect. If you’re heads-down on your projects and don’t prospect, you’ll have no pipeline when you surface. Why didn’t he think to ask for referrals?

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Referrals Lead Gen Social Media Cold Calling 233

No More Cold Calling

OCTOBER 30, 2016

One million B2B sales jobs in the US will be lost to self-service eCommerce by 2020, according to Forrester’s report, “ The Death of the B2B Salesman.” These referral posts from October will help you get there: Think Robots Will Replace B2B Sales Reps? It’s the same problem over and over again for B2B sales. In 2015, 43.6

Referrals 120

Referrals Sales Qualified Lead Lead Generation Cold Calling 120

No More Cold Calling

MARCH 15, 2018

Remember, prospecting is all about people. B2B selling is all about relationships. That’s no way to live, and it’s certainly no way to approach B2B lead generation. The goal of B2B lead generation is build and maintain many strong relationships. You’ve heard it: Television will kill radio. Video killed the radio star.

Lead Generation 243

Lead Generation System Leads Marketing Qualified Lead 243

No More Cold Calling

JUNE 7, 2018

And how can a B2B referral program drive up those numbers? When they get introductions from people their prospects know and trust, they walk straight into meetings with your ideal clients. Reps cold call, send cold emails, do cold outreach on social media, and rely on marketing to nurture prospects and send them qualified leads.

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Referrals Sales Qualified Lead Leads Marketing Qualified Lead 276

No More Cold Calling

MAY 18, 2017

If account-based sales reps want to reach C-suite prospects, the secret is calling at night or on weekends, when their gatekeepers are off duty. According to my “feet on the street” research and the polls I’ve conducted for decades, referral selling blows every other prospecting method out of the water. Want to land and expand?

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Gatekeeper Account Referrals Decision Maker 224

No More Cold Calling

AUGUST 19, 2014

Selling by referral is the most personal prospecting strategy that exists. He writes: A few years back I moderated a webinar for a San Francisco B2B media company called Tippit, now Ziff-Davis B2B Focus. It’s driven by relationships and trust, not social media connections. The presenter was Tippit’s CEO Scott Albro.

Referrals 292

Referrals Webinar Metrics Social Media Face-to-face 292

No More Cold Calling

DECEMBER 28, 2018

There’s a saying in B2B sales that people buy with emotion and justify with fact. But when you get referrals, the trust your prospects have with their colleagues is transferred to you. We’re not obsolete … yet. It’s more than a saying; it’s a fact. Trust is a predominant factor in any buying decision.

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Referrals Cold Calling Inside Sales Enterprise 232

No More Cold Calling

OCTOBER 21, 2014

Whether a business is ultrahigh tech or low tech, personal relationships have always been what seal the deal in B2B sales. Or you can close the laptop and actually talk to colleagues, prospects, and clients. Get out there and actually get to know your prospects. Relationships matter, and trust is the foundation.

Networking 294

Networking Cold Calling Small Business Small Business 294

No More Cold Calling

JANUARY 31, 2019

I dreaded buying another car because of the pushy, in-your-face car salespeople, who are just like B2B sales reps cold calling you. Spend your sales time making 18 or more dials to cold prospects, only 1 percent of whom will call you back. Your prospects will be confused about how your solution is different from the next guy’s.

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Cold Calling Referrals Face-to-face Sales Qualified Lead 222