SBI Growth

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

In the Future of Content Marketing survey, 39% of nearly 60 respondents indicated they did not have a defined content marketing strategy. If you have read my past three articles on content marketing ( article 1 , article 2 , and article 3 ), then this percentage number is strikingly similar. This percentage further validates the findings of a recent survey by eConsultancy , which found 38% of 1,300 businesses, did not have a defined content marketing strategy.

Marketing 314

Marketing Hiring Strategy Buyer Persona 314

Steven Rosen

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

Monday Nov. 19th, 2012. As part of a special one day promotion I am offering my new eBook 52 Sales Management Tips – The Sales Manager’s Success Guide FREE. Click here to get your FREE copy. Visit my website and go to the FREE BONUS GIFT section to sign up for hundreds of dollars in FREE resources. Whether you are a sales executive, senior sales leader or a new, experienced or aspiring sales manager I’m confident you will find this book to be a valuable guide to consult whenever you are experie

Sales Management 310

Sales Management Face-to-face eBook Promotion 310

MTD Sales Training

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

Prospecting mistakes are the most deadly errors you can make in professional selling, in large part because they are so difficult to quantify. Sales mistakes and blunders in the sales process or in. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

Prospecting 308

Prospecting B2B Sales Process Sales 308

The Pipeline

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

As we head into the home stretch of the year, we are faced with the usual rituals and customs of the season. Closing business, failing to prospect, and ensuring the traditional lull in the pipeline and related activity at the start of the year. In this headlong rush to the end of the year, you need to carve out a bit of time to plan for next year.

Commission 291

Commission Face-to-face Call-back Pipeline 291

Advertiser: ZoomInfo

Longer sales cycles. Increasingly discerning buyers. More meetings. Intensifying competition. Economic uncertainty. Go-to-market teams of every size, in every industry, are grappling with these challenges firsthand. Thankfully, there’s an answer. We’ve developed an entirely new way for GTM leaders to identify and execute proven, data-driven strategies that drive revenue.

Sales Cycle

SBI Growth

NOVEMBER 17, 2012

This post is written for CEOs who want to teach the board how to properly evaluate sales performance. According to Spencer Stuart , the average age of a board member in corporate America is 62.4. Many of these individuals made their fortunes in their 40s. When they were running businesses, life was vastly different. They used the information available to them to make decisions about the future of the business.

Top of Funnel 310

Top of Funnel Penetration Scale Funnel 310

MTD Sales Training

NOVEMBER 22, 2012

“What?! Work in a straight, commission only position? Are you nuts?” “On commission only, it’s one week you got it, one week you don’t.” “Commission only is more about luck…”. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

Commission 283

Commission Positioning Sales 283

The Pipeline

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

The great thing about sales is that every day is different, bringing new challenges, or familiar challenges with new wrinkles, testing your skills and agility. This constant change directly impacts both sales people, their sales organization, and by extension their sales process. Some organizations dodge this by not having a process, allowing their sales people to rely on their “creativity” or god given skills to deliver the numbers.

Sales Process 266

Sales Process Pipeline Top of Funnel Company 266

SBI Growth

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

Many sales leaders judge the effectiveness of their sales process by the level of field adoption. (“Are the reps using it? Then it must be working. Let’s move on.”). This is lazy thinking. Adoption rate is a function of execution, not effectiveness. Execution means: did you roll it out successfully. do you reinforce it regularly. do your managers drive compliance.

Sales Process 303

Sales Process Licensing How To Government 303

The Sales Heretic

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

By guest blogger Marilyn Suttle There are many reasons why your business might not be doing as well as you’d like. Don’t bother blaming outside factors like the economy. And don’t waste your time shaming yourself for not having a crystal ball about past decisions. Start attracting quality customers now, by dropping your defenses while [.].

Customer 231

Customer Sales 231

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Sales

MTD Sales Training

NOVEMBER 23, 2012

Relatively few companies have cross border business, and fewer still are global. In the U.S. less than 1% of firms export and of those, two thirds export to only one country. Contrast that with. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

Relationals 279

Relationals Company 279

The Pipeline

NOVEMBER 23, 2012

Guest Post – Megan Totka. Like it or not, the holiday buying season has begun. While most will agree that it starts earlier and earlier each year, some new trends have arisen that give a different feel to at least some of the bargains that are being offered. Of course, the big box stores keep lowering their prices in order to draw in huge crowns on the epic Black Friday.

Small Business 263

Small Business Small Business Fashion Incentives 263

SBI Growth

NOVEMBER 23, 2012

I’ve heard a lot of talk about “ Content Marketing.” It gets great reviews from C-Level executives, marketers and even sales managers. But how does Content Marketing help the Sales Rep? How does it help them make more money? Today’s post outlines the benefits of Content Marketing from the Sales Rep’s perspective. This is the Problem. I had a recent conversation with a Sales Rep named Seth.

Marketing 300

Marketing Sales Qualified Lead Face-to-face Buyer 300

Score More Sales

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

This week I had the pleasure of helping with a charity in Boston called Community Servings. They are celebrating 20 years offering their annual pie event where bakers bake thousands of pies and people buy them. It sounds so simple – but the tricky part is coordinating all the pies that come in, preparing the right pies to go to the correct buyers, and then getting them to the right location for pick up and in some cases, delivery.

Outbound 204

Outbound Influencer Lead Management Up-Sell 204

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Data

MTD Sales Training

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Running into voice mail when prospecting has become a more intrusive and frustrating problem. Just the decision on whether or not you should even leave a voice mail message, is a good question. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

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Prospecting Cold Calling 272

The Sales Hunter

NOVEMBER 23, 2012

What does your sales plan look like for 2013? Is it tactically focused with a series of objectives you need to accomplish? If it is, that’s fine…but is it also focused toward sales leadership in how you will meet your objectives? What I find is far too many sales plans do not have built into them any process for sales leadership. By this I mean… Do you have goals established for new relationships you want to build?

Sales Leadership 208

Sales Leadership Objections Motivation Positioning 208

SBI Growth

NOVEMBER 22, 2012

Today’s post is the first of three directed to Sales Operations leaders. Resource allocation is critical to success for sales. Customer/prospect segmentation is a key first step in making wise allocation decisions. You might have the best propeller-heads available performing segmentation analysis. But if you can’t drive segmentation into the field you’re wasting much of your company's expense and effort.

Segment 288

Segment Customer Territories Penetration 288

Sales and Marketing Management

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

Issue Date: 2012-11-19. Author: Dan McDade. Teaser: Business-to-business ales teams are not hitting their numbers despite significant investments and huge marketing efforts. Why? Lead generation processes that once generated returns no longer get the job done. Here are four key pressure points and interventions to help achieve desirable outcomes. Business-to-business ales teams are not hitting their numbers despite significant investments and huge marketing efforts.

Leads 185

Leads Marketing Qualified Lead Lead Generation Marketing 185

Speaker: Andrew Regan, Managing Partner at BlueSeed Retail Ltd.

Did you know that 70% of new retail technology fails to deliver expected benefits and can often decrease customer value, service, and experience? With that in mind, how can we empower our store associates to leverage new technology to optimize the customer experience and boost productivity? This exclusive webinar with Andrew Regan will dive into strategies to empower retail associates for success with new technology.

Retail

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Last week I received a call from the Boston Ballet - part of their annual fundraising drive. I hate these calls as much as you do, but the lady who called, engaged me by asking if I was looking forward to this year's new production of The Nutcracker Ballet. When she got to the part when she was asking for money, she screwed up (at least with me).

Up-Sell 173

Up-Sell Prospecting Sales Training 173

The Sales Hunter

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

How do you show thanks to your customers? The value of the thank you is more than you might think. We all like to think we’re thankful for our customers and those people we come in contact with, but let me share with you another benefit that gets lost in the context of business. Several years ago I was traveling with a CEO. As we were traveling together, I couldn’t help but notice how gracious he was and he thanked everybody he came in contact with.

Customer 204

Customer Hotels Travel Face-to-face 204

SBI Growth

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

This blog is for Sales Leaders running rapidly growing sales forces. We will discuss a systematic approach to annual quota planning. You are preparing for 2013. Every year rolling out new expectations is challenging. You are hiring new reps. Subsequently, this leads to smaller territories. Yet, quotas are increasing. You can already hear your team complaining as you deliver the news.

Territories 275

Territories Quota Hiring Maximizer 275

Anthony Cole Training

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

I started this series of blog post on the 3 Must Haves For High Performance Sales Teams with #1 Prospecting DNA. Do me this is an obvious skill set and is the priority of any other UNLESS you outsource this to a 3rd party OR you have a sales environment where your sales team essentially plays "Catch" - people either calling in or walking in. #2 is Qualifying DNA - if you don't have to worry about prospecting then this by far is the most important skill set to possess. possessing the DNA of quali

Outsourcing Services 171

Outsourcing Services Closing Hiring Decision Maker 171

Advertiser: ZoomInfo

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Cold Calling

Increase Sales

NOVEMBER 22, 2012

Today here in the US is Thanksgiving a Day of Gratitude for what we have as citizens of this great country. When we are truly grateful for what we have received, we are indeed happy. This is not just one day of having an attitude of gratitude, but one of 365 days. So as you enjoy your time with families and friends, be grateful for today, for yesterday and for tomorrow.

Facebook 157

Facebook 157

The Sales Hunter

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Are you allowing your competitors to define you and what you sell? I’m not a big one to spend an overt amount of time worrying about the competition, but I do get concerned when I hear from salespeople about this… their concern is what their competitor is saying about them. The best defense is a good offense. If a competitor is spreading rumors about you, don’t think for a moment you’re going to win by suddenly spreading rumors about them.

Face-to-face 190

Face-to-face Competition Comparison Sales Leadership 190

HeavyHitter Sales

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Harvard Business Review is arguably the most prestigious publication for business leaders and management thinkers. Here’s one of my recent Harvard Business Review articles on creating a winning sales call strategy.   It's the question that g oes through the mind of a salesperson during every call: How is the customer reacting to my pitch? It's an apt question.

Strategy 136

Strategy Analysis Decision Maker Sales 136

Anthony Cole Training

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

I first heard this when I attended a workshop I attended years ago in Cleveland, Ohio. The speaker was the one and only David Sandler. Many years have passed since that day and I've had the opportunity to talk to hundreds of prospects and sales people about their prospects. The answer to that question is: YES! Here is a guest blog from Sales Development Expert, Author and Highly Recognized Leader in Sales Force Evaluations - David Kurlan.

Airlines 137

Airlines Prospecting Decision Maker Vendor 137

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?

Marketing

Increase Sales

NOVEMBER 21, 2012

According to the US Census Bureau in 2010, 98.2% of all small businesses are small business with 99 employees or less. Gone for right now are the big corporations commanding the majority of the booths in the marketplace. This transition has dramatically changed the small business leadership roles. sxc.hu. Today’s entrepreneurs must expand their small business leadership roles to include more awareness and knowledge about the sales process including marketing and selling within the now wha

Small Business 154

Small Business Small Business Inbound Trends 154

The Sales Hunter

NOVEMBER 22, 2012

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States — a holiday where people stop to spend time with family and friends and to express their thankfulness. As I reflect on what Thanksgiving Day means, let me share my thoughts having spent a lifetime in sales. As you read the list, I’m sure you’ll find these could very well be yours too: Thanks to every customer for your belief and support in what I do.

Motivation 185

Motivation Meeting Prospecting Company 185

A Sales Guy

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

The secret sauce of sales is simple, do what is right. If your product isn’t a fit, don’t sell it. If your product meets 6 of the 7 needs of the client, tell them about number 7. If there is a better option, let your customer know. Don’t hide anything, lying through omission is still lying. If what you sell doesn’t work, take it back.

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Meeting Customer Sales 115