Anthony Cole Training

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Reasons for having a well-thought out sales process include seller and buyer risk management, standardized customer interaction during sales, and scalable revenue generation. With all the information available to the buyer and with so many more companies competing for the same buyer, the buyer pretty much calls the shots.

Decision Maker 182

Decision Maker Hiring Buyer Sales Methodology 182

Anthony Cole Training

JANUARY 23, 2019

In selling, properly qualifying a prospective buyer is crucial in order to move an opportunity through the pipeline and ultimately close in your favor. In this blog, we cover the 3 things to remember about all prospects and how to fully understand and qualify their motivation to make a change.

Conversion 150

Conversion Motivation Pipeline Buyer 150

Anthony Cole Training

JUNE 7, 2019

In today's world of selling, it is increasingly more difficult to get the attention of a prospective buyer after only a few outreach attempts. We know they're busy but let's face it, we're all busy.

Prospecting 123

Prospecting Face-to-face Buyer Sales 123

Anthony Cole Training

NOVEMBER 1, 2017

In today’s world of marketing and sales, a significant key to unlimited leads is a company’s ability to get potential buyers to find them. There is an entire industry dedicated to inbound marketing and one of the leaders in the industry is HubSpot.

Leads 125

Leads Marketing Qualified Lead Marketing Hubspot 125

Anthony Cole Training

OCTOBER 18, 2012

He taught me many things about selling: Why buyers agree to meet with you. Why buyers won't meet with you. How buyers go about making decisions, why they delay or think it over. How and why most sales people fail to get decisions from prospects.

Hiring 198

Hiring Exercises Proposal Decision Maker 198

Anthony Cole Training

MAY 1, 2015

Once you understand the motivation of the buyer, you can and should decide early in the sales process if it makes sense for you to work on an opportunity or not. Well, you need to recognize the following: First, it’s part of the official buyer’s manual. Win on price, lose on price.

Margin 120

Margin Pipeline Prospecting Follow-up 120

Anthony Cole Training

OCTOBER 20, 2014

If you can coach your people to only present to qualified buyers 100% of the time, you will close more business, more quickly at higher margins. “Qualified” means the prospect has: described a problem that has to be fixed. committed in advance to spend money to fix the problem. agreed to make a decision once you present your solution.

Insurance 168

Insurance Insurance Margin Hiring 168

Anthony Cole Training

JUNE 10, 2014

There are no unknown buyers. Or paying attention to the other drivers on the road who aren’t focusing on what they should be doing – which is driving. You see, the same is true in selling – there are no accidents. There are no political reasons not to get the business.

Up-Sell 176

Up-Sell Motivation Sales Prospecting 176

Anthony Cole Training

MARCH 19, 2013

As I listened to Jean and the other speakers discuss “selling to women”, it is clear to me that you cannot treat all women the same - just as you cannot treat all buyers the same. Her interviews and research about women buyers revealed the following: Women don’t feel listened to. Women don’t feel like they are believed.

Hiring 198

Hiring Banking Survey Conference 198

Anthony Cole Training

MARCH 4, 2014

Three of the five listed point to the root cause record of I must educate the buyer in order to get them to buy. Not getting decisions at time of presentation. Not getting timely decisions. These are just a few records identified in the analysis.

Decision Maker 180

Decision Maker Education Analysis eBook 180

Anthony Cole Training

OCTOBER 20, 2014

If you can coach your people to only present to qualified buyers 100% of the time, you will close more business, more quickly at higher margins. That your prospect has committed in advance to spend money to fix the problem. And that your prospect has committed to making a decision once you present your solution. Guaranteed!

Hiring 201

Hiring Insurance Insurance Margin 201

Anthony Cole Training

FEBRUARY 21, 2013

This paper describes the buyer's buying funnel today and discusses the consistency between the zero moment of truth, the 1st moment of truth and the 2nd moment of truth. The idea is that the buyer is looking for consistency between the promise and the deliverable.

Insurance 212

Insurance Insurance Hiring Sales Qualified Lead 212

Anthony Cole Training

AUGUST 9, 2013

The selling process is one of: 1) making contact with a potentially interested buyer, 2) finding out what they want, 3) why they want it, 4) how much money they have to get what they want 5) discussing and agreeing on the decision making process to get what they want and THEN, and only then, 6) presenting your product or solution.

Sales Qualified Lead 205

Sales Qualified Lead Competition eBook Segment 205

Anthony Cole Training

APRIL 19, 2011

has on the buying/selling process from the buyers perspective. Todays buyers usually start the buying process by first deciding that there is a variance between what they want and what they have. What I dont see in the blog nor do I see as an outcome of the meeting is what impact Sales 2.0 It doesnt matter what it is.

Hiring 181

Hiring Ideal Customer Profile InsideView Webinar Metrics 181

Anthony Cole Training

JUNE 18, 2014

The Zero Moment of Truth AND, more times than not, the First Moment of Truth are now in the hands of the buyer/consumer. Back in the day when the sales person initiated the sales process, that may have been true; but we no longer initiate the sales process.

Prospecting 197

Prospecting Face-to-face Call-back Consumer 197

Anthony Cole Training

SEPTEMBER 4, 2014

I stopped reading, highlighted the passage and made the following note: “This pertains to sales managers and sales professionals in their relationship AND should also be applied to sales professionals and buyer relationships!”. How does this fit in sales and sales management? I have a couple of thoughts.

Sales Management 169

Sales Management Negotiation Insurance Insurance 169

Anthony Cole Training

JUNE 20, 2012

But I'm not writing this today to talk about the buyer. No matter how much time, effort or money you have spent on advertising and marketing, if someone isn't thirsty they won't take the water. What I really started to think about was about your sales people and how you cannot make them thirsty for success.

Incentives 191

Incentives Incentive Advertising Advertising 191

Anthony Cole Training

JUNE 5, 2015

We're a free and trusted resource for CRM buyers who are feeling overwhelmed by all the choices of solutions out there. Our team of software advisors provides free telephone consultations to help buyers build a shortlist of systems that will meet their specific needs.”.

Hiring 120

Hiring Sales Management CRM Scale 120

Anthony Cole Training

OCTOBER 13, 2014

The company subscribed to the “Al Grannum” school of 10-3-1 - see 10 people, 3 will be qualified buyers, 1 will buy. I was first introduced to goal setting in sales when I was an insurance agent with National Life of Vermont. The General Agent was Dave and his manager was Bob. You do the math.

Sales Management 204

Sales Management SME Incentives Incentive 204

Anthony Cole Training

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

Quotes only qualified buyers. Understands and executes an effective sales process. Is skeptical and curious. Sells / positions value of the relationship instead of selling price and product. Understand how a prospect will decide. Will find a way to close. Unlikely to take a ''think it over'' because they eliminate that as an option.

Hiring 120

Hiring SalesForce Research Industry 120

Anthony Cole Training

AUGUST 9, 2013

An effective selling process consists of: 1) making contact with a potentially interested buyer, 2) finding out what they want, 3) why they want it, 4) how much money they have to get what they want, 5) discussing and agreeing on the decision making process to get what they want and THEN, and only then, 6) presenting your product or solution.

Sales Qualified Lead 120

Sales Qualified Lead Competition eBook Segment 120

Anthony Cole Training

JUNE 11, 2013

So, to connect this to the "nature of the business", what you need to examine is how your personal buy cycle influences your perception of how buyers buy from you. Our own personal buying process can, and will, often influence how we sell.

Buying Cycle 191

Buying Cycle Education Objections Insurance 191

Anthony Cole Training

JUNE 25, 2013

They don''t know how to sell in a new buyers'' buying environment. There are lots of reasons why your sales people fail to hit goals. The goals are wrong. Goals are arrived at using the wrong methods. They don''t know how to approach a changing market. They don''t have the skill set or knowledge to execute your strategy.

Hiring 169

Hiring Intent Construction Coaching 169

Anthony Cole Training

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

Quotes only qualified buyers. Understands and executes an effective sales process. Is skeptical and curious. Sells/positions value of the relationship instead of selling price and product. Understand how a prospect will decide. Will find a way to close. Unlikely to accept a "think it over" because they eliminate that as an option.

Hiring 120

Hiring Research SalesForce Call-back 120

Anthony Cole Training

DECEMBER 23, 2019

In this blog, we discuss the best habits of highly successful salespeople and sales managers. Being an extraordinary sales manager is grueling and time-consuming.

Sales Management 215

Sales Management Consumer Hiring Sales 215

Anthony Cole Training

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

The blog post discussed the challenges of being a salesperson in a world where the buyer no longer needs us because of the flood of information available via the internet and other media. In short: The buyer no longer relies on a sales agent to provide information.

Hiring 180

Hiring Ideal Customer Profile Webinar Metrics eBook 180

Anthony Cole Training

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

Recruiting new sales talent and hiring better salespeople are complicated and time-consuming processes. Especially, when you're not prepared to fill a vacancy, don't have a pipeline of candidates, or have an idea of what "better" means for your business.

Hiring 216

Hiring Sales Talent Consumer Pipeline 216

Anthony Cole Training

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

The most successful salespeople are always challenging and adapting their personal sales process to be more effective. However, they don’t challenge the notion of the importance of making prospecting their "A" priority every week.

Hiring 200

Hiring Sales Process Sales Prospecting 200

Anthony Cole Training

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

In this blog, we discuss why prospects object when it comes down to buying time, and why we can't always blame the prospects in these situations. Overall, salespeople must ask better questions to help increase sales, build better relationships, and help uncover their prospect's compelling reasons to buy.

Prospecting 161

Prospecting Hiring Objections Sales 161

Anthony Cole Training

DECEMBER 11, 2019

In this blog, we discuss the concepts behind real, tangible sales growth and ask the question, "Is Your Sales Growth Stuck in the Chimney with Kris Kringle?".

Hiring 168

Hiring Sales Insurance Insurance 168

Anthony Cole Training

MAY 16, 2011

If you count on repeat buyers, this is critical to your business success. Posted by Tony Cole on Mon, May 16, 2011.   delicious. Depending on the type of sales you are in, maintaining current accounts may have a significant impact on your sales success. If you are in a traditional retail situation selling a commodity, then not so much.

Hiring 186

Hiring Ideal Customer Profile Webinar Metrics eBook 186

Anthony Cole Training

OCTOBER 29, 2019

In this blog, we discuss what it takes to differentiate yourself as a salesperson in the market today, and how sales and politics can often be similar. As the public tends to avoid political candidates that sound like all of the rest, the same can be said in sales.

Hiring 139

Hiring Sales Marketing Banking 139

Anthony Cole Training

OCTOBER 21, 2011

Extraordinary in several ways, but what really has always impressed me was his simple approach to delivering his message AND his great insight to his potential buyers. As I posted a couple of days ago, Steve Jobs was more than a CEO, he was an extraordinary sales person. I wish I could argue the point, but I cannot.

Hiring 181

Hiring Ideal Customer Profile Webinar Metrics eBook 181

Anthony Cole Training

OCTOBER 25, 2019

In this article, we discuss the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) and the notion that significant changes have swept over the sales landscape these past 20 years.

Hiring 136

Hiring Sales Course Social Selling 136

Anthony Cole Training

FEBRUARY 14, 2012

Some sales people like to shop around, think it over, and compare so they let buyers do that to them. If you have a need for approval - cannot handle rejection - then asking for a decision might force the prospect to tell you "no" and you dont want to hear that. Listen to Dave Kurlan talk about need for approval).

Hiring 169

Hiring Ideal Customer Profile Webinar Metrics eBook 169

Anthony Cole Training

DECEMBER 14, 2011

In a B2B world of selling, there are many variables that need to be handled if your sales professionals are going to turn a suspect into a prospect, into a qualified buyer and into a client. Day in and day out, you have sales people on sales calls. The key to effective sales call debriefing actually begins with effective pre-call preparation.

Sales Coaching 168

Sales Coaching Hiring Coaching Sales Qualified Lead 168

Anthony Cole Training

JUNE 28, 2011

How much confidence does that instill in your buyer when you tell them what you think instead of what you know? Many times in the last 16 years of sales training and sales management consulting, Ive heard sales managers and sales people, in role play situations, say: "I think".

Hiring 180

Hiring Ideal Customer Profile Webinar Metrics eBook 180