The Pipeline

APRIL 2, 2020

Looking for a new normal while knowing it will irrelevant in 24 – 48 hours, is a futile exercise. Further, we are still in the early stage of the unknown, each day bringing new challenges, testing accepted norms. I understand that keeps the idle feel busy, and a great soapbox for pundits, and it certainly makes for a good intro.

Face-to-face 279

Face-to-face ACT Exercises Travel 279

The Pipeline

AUGUST 10, 2017

Telephone prospecting, after all, is an exercise in communication. Proactive Prospecting Summer – Part 6. In this segment of Proactive Prospecting Summer, we look at the importance of the unspoken in prospecting calls.

Prospecting 159

Prospecting Exercises Compensation Segment 159

The Pipeline

JANUARY 7, 2013

You can still download the 360 Deal Review tool , and start what is an easy but valuable exercise. Without the last step, it’s just a validation exercise with little or no value. The key is what you identify as working, what is not, and more importantly, what you are prepared to do about it.

Exercises 281

Exercises Decision Maker Referrals Buyer 281

The Pipeline

DECEMBER 24, 2019

There is an easy exercise to get ready for this, talk to that role in your company, say a CFO. You get a question to an answer you hadn’t considered. Talk to someone in the prospect organization, role, not person, and see if you can have a conversation on their terms?

Exercises 194

Exercises Quota Exact Pipeline 194

The Pipeline

NOVEMBER 7, 2016

This exercise will be hard for those who are already lying to themselves by proclaiming “sales is not a numbers game”. Given that quotas and conversions are numbers, and you’ll need those inputs to plan your success.

Wireless 303

Wireless Face-to-face Pipeline Distribution 303

The Pipeline

AUGUST 28, 2017

One that process should be a bottom up exercise, not the top down approach you find in most organizations. If we do not evolve our process, we can look to it to get in our way. This would suggest two things that usually don’t happen in the real world.

Exercises 247

Exercises Sales Process Objections Buyer 247

The Pipeline

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

We do an exercise with reps of all skills, experience, and offerings. You can look at this in the following way. We ask them a simple question: “what do you sell?” With all the talk about being customer centric, and being driven by the buyer’s journey, the most typical answers we get, actually contradict their stated intent.

Travel 253

Travel Margin Buyer Exercises 253

The Pipeline

MARCH 2, 2016

Allow sufficient time for debriefing and application exercise. As a result, the session comes off as time waster and an irrelevant exercise that is divorced from the day-to-day realities that members of the sales team confront. Kick things off with a CEO briefing. Consult the original blog post for the others.

Sales Meeting 120

Sales Meeting Meeting Exercises Conference 120

The Pipeline

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

Yet every time we do an exercise around what “you sell”, we see a different result. Most people when challenged or pushed will revert to their comfort zone, and for sellers, comfort is their product. I know what you’re thinking, “not my team.” In almost all cases, sellers answer that question in the form of the deliverable.

Lead Rank 201

Lead Rank Lead Scoring Face-to-face Objections 201

The Pipeline

AUGUST 15, 2012

Borrowing from the work relating to how people learn, because getting someone to change and buy from us is an exercise in educating the buyer; there are three types of learning styles: visual, auditory and kinesthetic (or tactile). Buyers tend to fall into one of three groups when they take in, understand and absorb your message.

Exercises 223

Exercises Education Pipeline Buyer 223

The Pipeline

OCTOBER 5, 2017

What was striking is that for the most part, these “events”, fall in to one of two groups, they are either objective, fact based exercise, leading to a realistic view of their opportunities, with the conviction one gets when one is fully engaged and working the opportunity. Real or Fantasy.

Pipeline 281

Pipeline Lead Rank Groups Opportunity 281

The Pipeline

JULY 21, 2014

Not only that, but in all instances, you have demonstrated yourself to be a professional who completed the “Prospecting Exercise”, and will be remembered for being that pro. Others will say cold call. Either way is good by me, and I have direction. Believe me you’ll call them again).

Cold Calling 299

Cold Calling Prospecting Referrals Sales Qualified Lead 299

The Pipeline

OCTOBER 13, 2014

Sales is very much a balancing exercise, somewhat like a scale, to keep balanced, you need to ensure that there is as much weight on one side as there is on the other. By Tibor Shanto - tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca . When there isn’t it could lead to problems for the parties involved. The most common example of this in B2B selling is price.

Lead Rank 299

Lead Rank Lead Scoring Scale Margin 299

The Pipeline

JULY 6, 2017

Consisting of instruction by me, exercises, and tools, the same program clients have used to increase conversions and pipeline by over 25%. Enroll in the program today, and use the Thursday Proactive Prospecting Summer series to keep you on track, and filling your pipeline.

Prospecting 245

Prospecting Segment Objections Pipeline 245

The Pipeline

JULY 16, 2019

But once you develop the habit, make it routine, put time aside for the exercise each week, and you’ll find pay-off that continues to grow over time. I understand every minute counts and stopping to do something related to an event six months ago may seem odd.

Prospecting 284

Prospecting Trade Show Objections Buyer 284

The Pipeline

OCTOBER 6, 2016

Which interesting since many of these buyer, and certainly all the people who sell these tools point to data, but as with many things, leveraging data for success is a subjective exercise, allowing people to ignore those data points that don’t support their current opinion. Sorry to confuse the issue with facts.

Case Study 291

Case Study Fashion Exercises Buyer 291

The Pipeline

JULY 14, 2014

A large part of the problem is that a lot of the advice is focused on how to avoid the unpleasant aspects of the exercise, most specifically the objection/rejection. Much like the ab machines which promise a swimsuit figures in just five minutes a day. I am the Zomby Woof ).

Cold Calling 308

Cold Calling Social Media Call-back Exercises 308

The Pipeline

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

To ensure the exercise has merit, the plan needs to be directly tied to a specific objective, in this case sales goals. As a first step we broke it down to three things: Planning – Since “good” in the context of what we were looking at was a relative thing, without a clear plan there was no “relative” scale.

Scale 300

Scale Exercises Relationals Objections 300

The Pipeline

APRIL 17, 2017

Communication, which at the core selling/buying is, will always be a mutual exercise, which why monologues work well in theater, but not in delivering revenue or quota. By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca . As such, a bit of forethought and focusing on how you’ll choreograph the sales are important.

Buyer 242

Buyer Exercises Vendor Lead Rank 242

The Pipeline

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

Sure you can argue without the call there is no appointment, but I now adopt the outlook that the real test of my ability is in the meeting, not in the exercise that leads to it. I now shift the win/lose scenario to what happens in the resulting meeting, not the call that leads to the meeting.

Outsourcing Services 281

Outsourcing Services Cold Calling Call-back Exercises 281

The Pipeline

JUNE 25, 2019

Others questioned the need for the exercise, saying more prospects relieves the tension. It seems everyone has ideas on how to shorten sales cycles, wanting to go beyond the limits my experience only, I took the question out to others. While there were some common suggestions, there were two that many did not address.

Buying Cycle 241

Buying Cycle Sales Cycle Lead Rank Lead Scoring 241

The Pipeline

SEPTEMBER 17, 2019

Over time the decision muscle atrophied, decisions became a safety in numbers exercise. Given everyone propensity to cover their ass, decisions will likely continue to be a group exercise. Hyper due diligence curtailed people’s ability to act initially, eventually the ability to make decisions. Used to be 5.4 It then rose to 6.8,

Outsourcing Services 212

Outsourcing Services Lead Rank Vendor Buyer 212

The Pipeline

JANUARY 2, 2017

A worthwhile exercise indeed – a good start would be a definition. For those who doubt this make over, one need only consider “The Sales Enablement Society (SES, really close to SOS)”. Their stated goal “is to better define and ultimately solve, the vast disparities that exist in sales enablement roles and functions in organizations today.”

Sports 209

Sports Sales Enablement Account Based Marketing Exercises 209

The Pipeline

AUGUST 19, 2013

My daughter was telling me about an incident during an exercise with her squadron, she had a problem performing that she attempted to address with an excuse, the response from sergeant: “Sounds like a personal problem.”. Yet some continue to deliver, and some continue to be victims (of what, they are not always sure.

Hiring 275

Hiring Face-to-face Account Exercises 275

The Pipeline

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

Some organizations do invest time and resources into developing future managers with some form of high performance program, but those don’t always work as much as they hype would suggest, (imagine that), so while it’s an OK feel good exercise, it does not produce all its hyped up to be.

Hiring 285

Hiring Lead Rank Lead Scoring Sales Leadership 285

The Pipeline

MARCH 25, 2013

You quickly go from an exercise in creative selling to being on your heels in a defensive posture. It is hard to sell what you have if you don’t know, it is harder to sell if you don’t know how what you have can help the buyer, and harder still if you can’t discuss how what you have applies to the buyer’s world.

Exercises 275

Exercises Buyer Call-back ACT 275

The Pipeline

JUNE 10, 2013

I am antisocial, (although some have accused me), but spending time talking about the weather, or the useless season the local sports team is having seems counterproductive to the goal of the exercise, helping the buyer move closer to their objectives, and yours. And while the people buy from people crowd may want to pounce on me, wait.

Sports 296

Sports Meeting Exercises Buyer 296

The Pipeline

MARCH 6, 2013

Better to look at a sale as an exercise in building. With all the pressure growing each hour and day into the depleting selling year, it is not a surprise that sellers are always seeking short cuts, or tips to reduce time. While I understand what’s driving the desire, I would caution you to focus on the objective and desired outcome(s).

Proposal 275

Proposal Face-to-face Exercises Pipeline 275

The Pipeline

JANUARY 16, 2014

To be clear, and as you will see further on, “deep dive” does not have to be a laborious time consuming exercise with minimal payoffs, it can and should be an ongoing process that helps you with deals you are currently involved in, while also allowing you to capture and repurpose things on the fly. All important things you want to leverage.

Sales Cycle 220

Sales Cycle Exercises Segment Objections 220

The Pipeline

JULY 14, 2014

A large part of the problem is that a lot of the advice is focused on how to avoid the unpleasant aspects of the exercise, most specifically the objection/rejection. Much like the ab machines which promise a swimsuit figures in just five minutes a day. I am the Zomby Woof ).

Cold Calling 247

Cold Calling Social Media Call-back Exercises 247

The Pipeline

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Like overweight people looking for that magic pill, instead of understanding that the magic pill combined with regular exercise and activity will always deliver a slimmer tummy, and healthier state. Sure the Atkins Diet worked for some, but it worked better for those who combined it with exercise.

Cold Calling 292

Cold Calling Social Media Decision Maker Lead Rank 292

The Pipeline

DECEMBER 31, 2012

What is odd, is that with both groups their employers do have a choice, a choice each oddly refuses to exercise, which begs the question, why the employers refuse to execute the obvious course of action – firing the non-performers. “Hey, if my solution is not the right one for you, no other solution will do.”.

Energy 241

Energy Territories Exercises Groups 241

The Pipeline

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

Since the prospecting call is an exercise solely meant to get that first meeting/sales call, it does not call for the level of research many inexperienced prospectors put into it.

Prospecting 267

Prospecting Face-to-face Guarantee Research 267

The Pipeline

MAY 25, 2017

Active and Passive buyers have made the decision to decide on their own, leaving the sellers who service them no opportunity to exercise by sales people who are only selling to these buyers. Frankly a challenge for many inbound types, and others.

Top of Funnel 198

Top of Funnel Objections Face-to-face Buyer 198

The Pipeline

MAY 26, 2016

Too many do try and fake, or want to make it a genteel feel good exercise. Dave introduces introduce stats to help frame things, helps you to see the difference between coaching and the fact that coaching is ongoing not periodic. I love the line “Coaching is a contact sport! You can’t fake it.”

Sales Management 180

Sales Management Coaching Sports Promotion 180

The Pipeline

DECEMBER 19, 2016

Seems this training was either an exercise in futility or a strange approach to attrition. By page 73, complete surrender, in listless letters that looked like the last words of a man wondering the desert, in the top margin, two words: “Help meeeeee”. Needless to say, the owner of the manual is no longer there.

Margin 120

Margin Exercises Training Call-back 120

The Pipeline

JUNE 18, 2019

But Plan B is not a distraction or cleansing; it is by design, a consuming exercise that if done thoughtfully and completely, will deplete resources from the primary goal. However, thinking about Plan B is not cleansing the pallet, but confusing the pallet. The New Plan A.

Resources 252

Resources Energy Commission Exercises 252