Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 18, 2024

One of the sellers asked a question about dealing with customer questions and queries about the products, particularly deeply technical questions. Customers asking us about the product capabilities, drilling deeply into what the products and solutions do. But are they asking us the right questions?

Customer 118

Customer Revelation Buying Cycle Lead Rank 118

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

We were talking about his prospecting challenges. Like all of us, he was struggling to get the engagement he wanted. ” We talked about some of his strategies. He was very focused on the customers and people he was prospecting. “What is he interested in talking about? Why should I respond?”

Ideal Customer Profile 117

Ideal Customer Profile Face-to-face Trade Show Prospecting 117

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 22, 2024

Unbeknownst to us, Jim and I had probably encountered each other years before. Jim and John, were out to reinvent (and succeed) in developing some of the most powerful customer-aligned value selling tools I have ever seen. I believe God has a design for our lives and sometimes He uses seemingly unrelated circumstances to get us there.

Exercises 101

Exercises Course Engineering Software 101

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

There were a few times in my selling career, I’d have to do deep research to begin to understand trends, challenges and issues facing my customers. I’d seek information I could use in talking to them about change. It would take hours, I’d get a few important points that I could leverage with my customers.

Face-to-face 116

Face-to-face Journal Research Tools 116

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 22, 2024

Sometimes, I feel like a broken record talking about Customer and Business Acumen. When I talk to leaders about their GTM strategies, the focus is on products and presenting the capabilities of products. Yet these same leaders complain about the ability to connect to prospects and customers.

Customer 101

Customer Face-to-face Enterprise Enterprise 101

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 1, 2024

They have gone through the work of defining the problem, defining what they want to achieve, getting funding, identifying the risks, looking for solutions… And then they talk to us. Alternatively, they actually reach out, asking to talk. They are doing something they don’t know how to do and get overwhelmed.

Trade Show 77

Trade Show Conference Segment Groups 77

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

Our questioning and discovery strategies each have an agenda, we seek answers that enable us to pitch. We have presentations focusing on us, our products, our companies and how great we are. We have closing strategies focused on getting the order. Somehow, our customers are lost in the process.

Customer 111

Customer Discount Negotiation ROI 111

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 16, 2024

We know what we have to do, and, for the most part, each of us is well intended–we really want to do the things that cause us, our customers, and our companies to be successful. We’ve got to be customer focused. We’ve got to retain and grow our customers. We’ve got to make our numbers.

Top of Funnel 103

Top of Funnel Funnel Pipeline Exercises 103

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 11, 2024

We constantly talk about winning. To most of us, it’s unimaginable, but why do we see this persist YoY, even continuing to decline? Several years ago, it took 200-400 touches to get a response, today it take 1000-1400 to get the same response, tomorrow 5000 +? And our customers don’t want to see us!

Scale 109

Scale Maximizer Quota Revenue 109

SocialSellinator

APRIL 24, 2024

AI means making computers act like humans, learning and thinking like us. Now, companies can use AI to talk to customers better and make them like the brand more. It's like having a super smart helper who figures out what people want and how to get them excited about it.

Social Media 59

Social Media Media Opportunity Marketing 59

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 8, 2024

The global economy/turmoil and continued layoffs/reductions, and shuffling of priorities–both within our customers, markets, and within our own organizations. Our fixation on mechanizing everything in selling, minimizing the human connection, and our failure to connect with customers on their problems/challenges.

Top of Funnel 107

Top of Funnel Face-to-face Data Buying Cycle 107

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 1, 2024

Somehow when we open our mouths or send an email or do an outreach, all it accomplishes is driving our prospects and customers away. Prospects and customers can always sniff it out, regardless how we try to cover it up. It is all about them and has little to do with the customer. They continue to be all about us.

Ideal Customer Profile 73

Ideal Customer Profile Face-to-face Social Media Up-Sell 73

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 26, 2024

But as I reflected on the question, I asked, “What books are your customers reading? Where do your customers go to learn? Where are they going to get insights on how to more effectively grow their businesses and perform?” We create the greatest value with our customers when we connect with them where they are at.

Journal 115

Journal Banking Influencer Strategy 115

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 8, 2024

In reading an article about the latest hints and tips in using AI for prospecting, a sentence stood out to me. It talked about how “mundane” outbound is. And, perhaps, it is this mindset that underlies the poor results we get from our prospecting. They are more than an email address or a phone number.

Outbound 104

Outbound Customer Service Prospecting Customer 104

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

We want to get a desired outcome without doing all the work one would normally have to do to achieve that outcome. ” (I did get a lot of value from the book.) ” Tim Ferris made hacks and shortcuts a badge of honor and fun with his “4 Day Workweek.” ” (I did get a lot of value from the book.)

Discount 119

Discount Pipeline Opportunity Tools 119

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 25, 2024

We don’t have a set agenda, we talk about what we are seeing, usually it’s me whining about the state of professional selling. Our focus on beating the competition diverts our ability to drive substantively higher levels of performance, value creation, growth, and revenue through helping the customer solve their problems.

Competition 107

Competition Customer Buying Cycle Vendor 107

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 17, 2024

We talked about some fascinating concepts: Mis-diagnosis and Missed-diagnosis. So much opportunity is lost, both for sellers and customers, because of diagnostic problems. Both represent huge opportunities for all of us. But each requires different approaches with our customers. They don’t perceive any problems.

Face-to-face 107

Face-to-face Opportunity Education Customer 107

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 12, 2024

It’s harder and harder to get a response. 5 years ago, it took 200-400 touches to get a response. And when we finally do reach someone, they don’t want to talk to us. When we eventually find someone that wants to buy and will talk to us, 60% end in no decision made. Confession time.

Face-to-face 106

Face-to-face Commission Up-Sell Discount 106

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 19, 2024

Our customers, partners, peers, managers ask us questions or make suggestions, we have to deal with each of them, immediately. Our customers, partners, peers, managers ask us questions or make suggestions, we have to deal with each of them, immediately. Some one has asked a question, we have to respond with an answer.

Channels 106

Channels Course Data Meeting 106

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 9, 2023

It was such a fun conversation, we focused on how we increase our effectiveness and impact through deeper understanding of our customers/prospects. Sam Coit summed it up well with the comment, “Understanding how different roles think and feel allows us to better cater our approach and offer the most possible value.”

Ideal Customer Profile 106

Ideal Customer Profile Customer Scale Face-to-face 106

Marc Wayshak

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

In this article, I’ll guide you on how to make a follow-up call that gets sales meetings. Over my 20 years of experience as a sales trainer, I’ve observed a distinctive change in the way salespeople communicate when talking to personal contacts versus prospects or customers. Check it out: 1. Your tone sets the tone.

Follow-up 121

Follow-up Sales Meeting Meeting Real Estate 121

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

Or we compare our customers, “we have these fancy logos…” We spend time with, basically, “mine is bigger/better than theirs,” in comparing alternatives. We tend to differentiate on what is important to us, rather than what is important to the customer. But let me shift to being Distinctive.

Banking 101

Banking Comparison Retail Trends 101

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 26, 2023

We have endless tools and technologies, increasingly assisted by AI, enabling us to accomplish more in each hour. ” In a few hours or a day, I would get a typed draft of my prospecting letter. .” ” In a few hours or a day, I would get a typed draft of my prospecting letter. Then mail-merge came.

Retention 126

Retention Maximizer Buying Cycle Social Media 126

Emissary

SEPTEMBER 27, 2021

But just a few years ago they—and for that matter, the whole customer success function—were the new kid on the block. It was hard to get the right data, hard to build a case for value, hard to predict success and alter implementations. . Take a random sampling of the material used for several client QBRs.

Exercises 245

Exercises Demand Generation Agencies How To ROI 245

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 29, 2024

Interrupting him, “Well Microsoft and Google are very different from us. ” The call wasn’t going the way it had been scripted, I could tell how frustrated he was getting. But those are the conversations our prospects and customers value the most! They want to talk about their problems.

Conversion 81

Conversion Microsoft Face-to-face Google 81

Alice Heiman

OCTOBER 18, 2023

Most months I get two read, and occasionally more depending on how much time I have on airplanes. I find I get more books finished these days if I listen rather than read. And even if you don’t get to them right away, read them and adjust your plan accordingly in the first quarter. One for fun and one for business.

Lead Rank 121

Lead Rank Sales Qualified Lead Positioning Quota 121

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 6, 2024

Likewise, they don’t need our “glamour list,” all the great logos and customers. More importantly, they have probably done their homework and talked to people they trust, who may have experience with our products. What do our customers need? Often, our customers don’t know what they don’t know.

Buyer 119

Buyer Incentives Incentive Discount 119

Hubspot Sales

MARCH 11, 2024

Time is money, and that’s doubly true when you work with customers. For the last six years, I’ve been an avid user and champion of using async video in my day-to-day as a seller — well before joining Loom to lead its Sales and Customer Success teams. It all comes down to the importance of storytelling and authentic connection.

Quota 109

Quota Video Revenue Call-back 109

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

Fast forwarding to current times, based on how we engage our customers, we demonstrate a similar vanity. We think our customer care about us–they obsess about our companies, our products, and how great we are. ” Talk about vanity! Our customers simply don’t care! ” What do they care about?

Engineering 107

Engineering Up-Sell Lead Rank Lead Scoring 107

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 4, 2023

We were talking, loosely, around the advantages of being customer focused and what that means. His research showed those being customer focused outperformed those being more product focused by more than 2-1. His research showed those being customer focused outperformed those being more product focused by more than 2-1.

Customer 105

Customer Scale Buying Cycle Discount 105

Alice Heiman

APRIL 23, 2024

In a recent captivating episode of “Sales Talk for CEOs,” Clate Mask, CEO and co-founder of Keap, shared his journey from law school to leading a company that’s at the forefront of small business automation software. For CEOs looking to streamline their operations and enhance customer engagement, Clate’s insights are golden.

Scale 62

Scale Small Business Small Business Sports 62

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 30, 2024

Each of us experiences the same thing, grumbling at the terrible quality outreach. Then, too many of us turn around and inflict bad outbound prospecting on our own victims. We talk about the problems our products and solutions solve… ” But this isn’t the issue many customers face. How does it impact us?

Face-to-face 92

Face-to-face Buying Cycle Outbound B2B 92

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

“All sorts of “”Experts” offer miracle cures and prompts to “give us the answers, doing all the work for us.” As I look at how too many sellers are using Generative AI, I wonder if we are using it to its full potential? We had a pharma company using it for drug discovery.

Engineering 107

Engineering Ideal Customer Profile Lead Rank Airlines 107

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 11, 2024

We carefully construct comparative checklists, identifying the capabilities that set us apart from other offerings—always making sure we check more boxes for our offerings than the competition checks off. When we meet with customers we focus on the differentiation of our offerings in those conversations.

Scale 94

Scale Construction Comparison Face-to-face 94

Partners in Excellence

JULY 20, 2023

As sellers, our job is to talk to customers. Research report after research report say the same things: The majority of customers prefer a rep-free buying experience. Currently, it’s around 17% for all sellers–not just us, but our competitors. Customers say sellers waste their time.

Customer 62

Customer Report Research Conversion 62

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 21, 2023

As our conversations often go, we were talking about the state of selling and how we improve. The conversation got me thinking about the issue: “Our customers desperately need help, but do we want to be helpful, do we know how to be helpful? The core issue is our customers are struggling. You already know that.

Customer 112

Customer Face-to-face Buying Cycle Loyalty 112

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

When I started to write this post, I typed, “Is it a good use of their time?” In reality, we should only be making choices, “Is this the best use of my time at this moment?” ” Time is a fixed sum initiative for all of us. Perhaps engaging us in a decision.

Meeting 108

Meeting Study Groups Customer 108