July, 2013

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I keep on knocking but I can’t come in…

Bernadette McClelland

'I keep on knocking but I can’t come in… If we consider for a moment a typical day in our life and we imagine that we have a door to our world that swings on its hinges. We let in what and who we want to let in and we turn away what and who we don’t want to let in when it suits us – we are too busy, too stressed, too pre-occupied, too frightened – mainly because it means we have to make some kind of a shift in what we are doing, thinking or being.

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Do You Really Need/Want a Shorter Sales Cycle?

The Pipeline

'By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca. Shorter sales cycles are one of those things that come up in many discussions with sales and corporate leaders. When I ask them what specific improvements they would like to see 18 to 24 months out, a shorter cycle is usually one. While I get it, there is more to the question than many have given serious and productive thought to.

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Twelve Common Words That Are Costing You Sales

The Sales Heretic

'The right words can help us make the sale, while the wrong words can blow it for us. The challenge is, often what we think are the right words are actually the wrong words. Here are twelve words you’re probably using in your sales and marketing efforts which are—in reality—working against you: 1. “Quality” 2. [.].

Marketing 316
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Powerful Questions to Qualify Sales Opportunities

Score More Sales

'Looking back, I remember thinking that Ron had some sort of memory problem. He was my sales colleague. We both were account managers selling millions of dollars worth of technology to a major aircraft company. Between us, we sold more than $30M a year of items selling for $20 or $100 or $5000 each. Ron and I would meet with various decision makers who were involved in a project that would involve thousands of the items we sold on one contract.

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ABM Evolution: How Top Marketers Are Using Account-Based Strategies

In times of economic uncertainty, account-based strategies are essential. According to several business analysts and practitioners, ABM is a necessity for creating more predictable revenue. Research shows that nearly three-quarters of marketers (74%) already have the resources needed to build successful ABM programs.

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Coaching for Performance

Steven Rosen

'Reviewing Performance with an Arrogant / High Performer. By Steven Rosen. Many of my clients are now in the process of doing midyear reviews with their sales people. Whether you are doing a midyear or year end review it is important to provide constructive feedback to help your sales reps improve. Some sales managers struggle when they have to highlight areas of skill improvement with their reps.

Coaching 307

More Trending

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It’s 3AM…Are You Awake?

Bernadette McClelland

'It’s 3AM…Are You Awake? You can’t sleep… so you grab your notebook and jot down that great idea. You’ve got an appointment in your diary and you’re champing at the bit to get there. You have this idea you’ve heard and you can’t wait to incorporate it into whatever you’re working on. You find yourself creatively daydreaming about how to make something even better.

Airlines 294
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ROO vs. ROI

The Pipeline

'By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca. Everyone is familiar with ROI – Return On Investment, sales people love to talk about, buyers (and their CFO’s), love to hear about it, and even more, love to achieve and validate a return on their investment. But much like solution selling, after the shine wore off a bit, buyers became more hip to ROI discussions, sellers abused the concept, stating high often unattainable numbers that represented the highest ROI achieved by one or a few buyers ra

ROI 306
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How to Follow Up Without Being Obnoxious

The Sales Heretic

'You know you need to follow up with prospects in order to close sales. But you don’t want to call every other day asking, “Have you made a decision yet? Huh, have you?” So how can you make sure you stay in front of your prospects without coming across as a pest? Listen to my [.].

Follow-up 303
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When will Sales catch up with Marketing?

SBI Growth

'The sales field is suffering. Customers are suffering. Sales forces lack buyer-centered tools for success. When will Sales catch up with Marketing? Sales field alignment with the modern day buyer requires more than lip service. This blog is focused on the transformation of Sales to incorporate buyer-centered tools. CMO’s can help sales make the number in 2014.

Marketing 301
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Salesforce’s 8th State of Marketing Report

Discover today’s biggest marketing trends in the 8th edition of Salesforce’s “State of Marketing” report. Salesforce surveyed 6,000 marketing leaders worldwide to discover how marketers are: Embracing AI to operate more efficiently Removing silos and leveraging AI to enhance the customer experience Innovating to meet evolving customer needs Preparing for the retirement of third-party cookies By submitting this form, you agree to have your contact information, including email, passed on to the sp

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Sales Management Coaching Tip #2 – Start Asking

Steven Rosen

'Great Sales Coaches Ask Effective Questions. Do you want to be told what to do? Do you want your boss to be a micro manager? Of course not. You want your boss to ask you what you think. Why are you constantly telling your sales people what to do? STOP telling and start asking. Great sales coaches ask effective questions. Effective questioning forces reps to come up with their own solutions and improve their performance.

Coaching 294
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Are you making sales or measuring sales activity?

Jeffrey Gitomer

'We''ve Moved! Update your Reader Now. This feed has moved to: [link] Update your reader now with this changed subscription address to get your latest updates from us.

Sales 314
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You Can’t Stoke a Cold Fire

No More Cold Calling

'Establishing relationships is priority No. 1 for salespeople. After “retiring” from a long, invigorating career in sales, Bob Terson—founder of SellingFearlessly.com —now leverages his passion for helping others by sharing his wisdom with salespeople around the world. Seasoned sales professionals who give, give, give are a joy to meet. Bob reached out to me, offered to help anyway he could, and invited me to guest blog for him.

Call-back 286
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Is it Ever The Right Time? – Sales eXchange 208

The Pipeline

'By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca. If you prospect regularly, a common push back you get from potential buyers is “it’s not a good time”, or “the timing is wrong”, or any variations on that theme. In some instances it makes sense, calling an accounting firm in the March April timeframe, or a school supply company in August; these are times those companies are busy executing, having made purchase decisions much earlier in the cycle.

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The Battle of the Authoring Tools: A 10-Point Comparison for Picking the Right One

Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions

There are plenty of great authoring tools for developing eLearning, but the one you select could directly impact your course's outcomes. Depending upon your learners’ needs and your organization’s performance goals, you could be overlooking considerations that impact the both effectiveness of your courses and how long it takes to finish them. From general capabilities to specific workflow structures, some aspects are critical when it comes to learning objectives and deadlines.

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How Sales Managers Can Encourage Performance

MTD Sales Training

'As a sales manager, there are many responsibilities that you hold in terms of results as well as performance. You’re paid for the results you achieve; the more you achieve , the more successes. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

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How Conferences Can Boost Your Sales

The Sales Heretic

'A lot of salespeople, professionals and business owners view conferences and conventions as a big waste of time. Attending such events takes them away from their day-to-day work, putting them further behind schedule than they already are. Others view conferences as an excuse to get away from work for a few days and party on [.].

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4 Sales Ops Lessons from the NFL

SBI Growth

'There’s no denying that in sales, talent is a key differentiator. The same goes for pro athletes. The majority of your “A” players are talented. They hold themselves accountable and have the competencies required for success. However, even the most talented will fail if they''re put in the wrong environment. Even the best NFL quarterbacks. Today’s post is about how Sales Ops can create conditions that enable success.

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Increase your close ratio!

Steven Rosen

'By: Steven Rosen. My colleague Nancy Bleeke has just launched a book that we all need – whether we are new to sales or not, whether we sell to business buyers or consumers. In Conversations That Sell , Nancy shares specific tips, techniques, and tools that you can immediately put to use to ensure your conversations drive sales, strengthen the relationship, and help you meet your quotas.

Closing 263
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Guide to Using Buyer Need Data

This guide explains how to use Buyer Need Data to identify prospects who could use your solution *before* they demonstrate intent.

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The Top 3 Reasons Why Salespeople Fail at Consultative Selling?

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan I have been teaching and writing for years that buyer-focused selling, a consultative approach to sales, is the best approach for differentiating, adding and being the value, maintaining and increasing margins and winning a larger percentage of opportunities. These days, I am just one of many who are spreading this message and even if we get through to only one leader at a time, we will eventually get most companies selling in a way that brings consi

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Hiring Efficient Salespeople for Your Small Business

The Pipeline

'The Pipeline Guest Post – Megan Totka. I think that a lot of us in the business world take sales for granted far more than our predecessors did. These days, it’s easy to assume that a product will sell itself, or that it will be easily marketed via free or cheap avenues like social media. Unfortunately, not all businesses and products will be able to take off this way.

Hiring 293
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Stop Being A Salesperson & Be A Business Resource

MTD Sales Training

'Many surveys have been carried out asking for business-buyers’ reactions to salespeople who approach their businesses. Many buyers are impressed by the level of knowledge that some salespeople. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

Resources 261
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Showing Up is Standing Out

No More Cold Calling

'Step away from your computer and meet face to face. Showing up counts! You show up on the Web , on the phone, and through video conferencing. But while technology tools can certainly drive business development, nothing beats sitting down with someone and talking face to face (that means in person). The Value of Face-to-Face. One of my clients (let’s call her Karen) invited two clients to lunch with the sole purpose of reconnecting and asking for referral introductions.

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Connect, Care, Convert: Secrets to Establishing Trust with Niche Markets and Turning Them Into Clients

Speaker: Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach®

Niche markets represent a huge opportunity for the financial services industry in America. From college students and women to communities of color and low-to-moderate-income households, niche populations have specialized financial needs – but they often underutilize many valuable financial products and services. How can you better connect with these consumers?

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Top 10 Best Practices from a Fortune 500 CMO

SBI Growth

'Changes in marketing organizations today are accelerating at a greater pace than ever before. This is the time of year when Marketing leaders start mapping out 2014 changes. Making the Number in 2014 starts now. Are your marketing campaigns generating the desired return on marketing spend? How are you supporting the new “A” players in sales? How are you supporting social selling?

Lead Rank 262
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Stop Using Your Brain as Your CRM

The Sales Hunter

'I would be a rich person if I was paid a dollar each time a salesperson told me they don’t enter most information into their CRM system because they have a good memory and can remember. You must use your CRM system to its full potential or you are robbing yourself and your company of more success. Salespeople say they can remember info for one simple reason — they’re lazy and don’t want to go through the work of recording the information.

CRM 261
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Creating Extraordinary Customer Relationships

Sales and Marketing Management

'Business professor Michael LeBoeuf famously stated, “A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.” This may sound simple, but any working professional knows that satisfying customers takes more than a great product; it takes a great relationship, which is admittedly a much more complicated task.

Customer 218
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Wasted Sales Opportunities – How One Bank Blew Theirs

The Pipeline

'By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca. One of the big Canadian banks, we’ll call them the Green bank, has a current radio ad that I believe holds a great lesson for sales people. In the ad, a customer of a competing bank, is complaining to a competing bank manager that all he got for switching to the bank was a toaster, “I already have a toaster; and it doesn’t even toast bagels.

Banking 293
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The Next Level of Sales Enablement: Sales Content Management

Speaker: Deniz Olcay, Senior Director of Product Marketing, and Jake Miller, Senior Product Marketing Manager

Modern Sales Content Management (SCM) platforms have become table stakes in the world of sales enablement. Sellers need one-stop access where all of their sales content is stored, organized, deployed, and measured. Today’s modern SCM platforms achieve just that. However, these various platforms also have key differences. In this value-packed webinar, Deniz Olcay and Jake Miller will unravel and debunk the top three SCM myths and explain how to get the most from your SCM solution.

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Guaranteed Ways To Get Prospects To Open Your Emails

MTD Sales Training

'One of the biggest frustrations I hear from salespeople is the inability to get their prospects to open the emails that they send to them. Many think that just because the product they sell will. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

Guarantee 261
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A Rare Paragraph or Two About Making Successful Sales Presentations

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Geoffrey James contributed a terrific piece to Inc.com in May. I''ve criticized some of Geoffrey''s articles in the past but this one, 3 Reasons Why Most Presentations Fail , is really good. Basically, Geoffrey says that salespeople wrongly: Provide too many details about too many things. Talk about their history and clients instead of their prospects'' issues.

Exact 247
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How to Make the Number with Less People

SBI Growth

'Receiving the email or phone call from your boss is never pleasant. “All hiring is on hold until further notice. We are short of our bottom line number. The CEO wants to approve all hires until the beginning of next year. This means no hiring except in extreme circumstances. You have to make the rest of 2013 with the sales heads you have.” Now you must make the number with less than a full team.

Hiring 262