Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 17, 2024

We talked about some fascinating concepts: Mis-diagnosis and Missed-diagnosis. I have written a companion article on Missed-diagnosis. For instance, as sellers, we are looking for customers that have the problems we solve. So our diagnostic process is very biased. Customers mis-diagnose their problems.

Cancellation 77

Cancellation Face-to-face Inbound Opportunity 77

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 8, 2024

Every quarter there is the inevitable rush to close deals, to hit our numbers. The global economy/turmoil and continued layoffs/reductions, and shuffling of priorities–both within our customers, markets, and within our own organizations. Yet there are so many challenges and barriers.

Top of Funnel 107

Top of Funnel Face-to-face Data Buying Cycle 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. The customer/problem focused sellers always out perform the product focused sellers—enormously! So why change?

Customer 105

Customer Scale Buying Cycle Discount 105

Steven Rosen

JANUARY 14, 2024

They also highlight the importance of self-awareness and reframing challenges as opportunities for growth. Many companies struggle with executing their plans and strategies, leading to missed opportunities and underperformance. But what if we could change our perspective on execution? But why is execution so difficult?

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Video Competition Coaching Strategy 156

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 31, 2024

So for the 40 companies that are buying, we or our competitors close only 16 of them. That’s a huge lost opportunity. All we have to do to convert those opportunities is focus on building their confidence in the change initiative. Let’s say the total revenue we and our competitors are getting totals $1B.

Opportunity 110

Opportunity Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Analysis 110

Janek Performance Group

APRIL 17, 2024

Our recent webinar Turbocharging Business Development Strategies noted the importance of BDRs. They can be instrumental in accelerating revenue generation and fostering customer relationships. They then leverage research tools and market insights to pinpoint promising opportunities. They are tasked with acquiring new business.

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Outsourcing Services B2B Lead Rank Sales Qualified Lead 118

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 25, 2024

In this post, I’m going to make the argument, that based on what I see in too many selling initiatives, is that we, as a community, have migrated from focusing on helping customers solve their problems to just beating the competition. While we claim to want to help the customer solve their problems, we aren’t.

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Competition Customer Buying Cycle Vendor 107

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 3, 2023

” It’s related to much of what I’ve written about Inciting Customers To Change. Too often, sellers catch customers who are very late in their buying cycle. They’ve determined there is a problem, an opportunity, a need to change. Imagine engaging the customer much earlier.

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Buying Cycle Up-Sell Opportunity Google 117

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.

Customer 112

Customer Face-to-face Buying Cycle Loyalty 112

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

In all our training, we’ve gotten playbooks, done role plays, and learned how to conduct discovery and what questions we should be asking the customer. Implicit in our thinking about the discovery process is that our customers know the answers, our job was to get ask questions to get those answers.

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B2B Up-Sell Customer Data 101

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 31, 2023

One email was: Hey David – I can get 5Da612E7B495Bc000168C6Ba 3 new clients each month with our guided interview system. Our customers tend to like being referred to by their name, not some code string. What am I missing? Do you treat all your customers as inanimate code strings? What am I missing.

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Insurance Insurance LinkedIn Intent 127

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 19, 2023

When I look at a lot of the “expert” advice in my social feeds, the emphasis is on how we reach and engage more and more customers. This is critical, at least in the thinking of these experts, because those customers we are trying to engage aren’t responding in the numbers we need. So we can keep extending our reach.

Customer 99

Customer Enterprise Enterprise Account 99

Zoominfo

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

The more up-to-date information you can see on your future customers, the better equipped you’ll be throughout the entire sales process, which is why we focus on real-time intent. Tier 1: Champion Moves When the biggest supporter of your product moves to a new company, it’s a significant opportunity.

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Intent Data Buyer Intent Intent Data 130

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 29, 2023

I’ve noticed a huge gap in how we equip and train our sellers, how we help them engage our customers in high impact conversations that focus on them and their problems, not pitching our projects. This gap became bigger with Challenger, as we equipped our people to provide “Insights.”

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Analysis Conversion Training Examples 113

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. These days, customer success motions benefit from better, and more plentiful, data, from more sophisticated customer success platforms and from past lessons learned. And they were difficult to pull off.

Exercises 245

Exercises Demand Generation Agencies How To ROI 245

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 31, 2023

Some react, “Dave, we’ve got to focus on hitting the numbers, achieving our growth goals! ” Too many view customers and prospects as objects we have to overcome or as the objects that stand in the way of our ability to achieve our goals. It’s tough work and sellers need to be tough minded!”

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Lead Rank Objections Trends Groups 114

Force Management

DECEMBER 14, 2023

You have to accept that your partner controls the time frame, message to the customer, and, ultimately, your forecast. Ensure that your company's message and your partner’s message are consistent Driving consistency between your organization's message and your partner's message are critical to support your customer's sales process.

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Channels Revenue How To Case Study 137

Zoominfo

JULY 12, 2021

What’s missing from these and other interactions? We’re solving that problem with our acquisition of Chorus.ai, an industry leader in conversation intelligence. Revenue teams will get the insights they need for strategic onboarding and coaching opportunities. Fast-Track Sales Enablement. Reduce onboarding ramp time.

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Face-to-face Intent Data GoldMine Lead Rank 264

Partners in Excellence

MAY 22, 2023

We use discovery to understand the customer’s needs, problems, requirements. Our focus on discovery is making an assessment, “Does the customer have needs and requirements that our products address, do we think we might have a strong possibility of competing and winning. But what about the customer?

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Proposal Education Resources Customer 112

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 3, 2024

We blow off the digital dust, update it with what we did last year, we add the new numbers for this year, identify enough initiatives to keep management off our backs. We blow off the digital dust, update it with what we did last year, we add the new numbers for this year, identify enough initiatives to keep management off our backs.

Account 77

Account Exercises Enterprise Enterprise 77

Partners in Excellence

MAY 10, 2021

We started talking about the irony of change, how our jobs are all about change–yet we, somehow, seem the most resistant to changing how we sell. It is strictly about change, helping our customers/prospects recognize the need to change, helping them in that change process. Sales/selling has little to do with what we sell.

Vendor 121

Vendor Incentives Incentive Opportunity 121

Allego

MARCH 12, 2024

During our conversation, Episode 62 of The Adapter’s Advantage podcast , we delved into the complexities and nuances of the current B2B sales environment. We discussed how traditional sales models are being disrupted by the need for more integrated and customer-centric approaches.

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Top of Funnel Lead Rank Pivotal B2B 118

Nutshell

JANUARY 24, 2024

As artificial intelligence (AI) takes a more prevalent role in today’s world, you’ll find more opportunities to integrate this technology into your business strategy. Revenue intelligence involves using AI technology to analyze sales, product, and customer data to find new trends and areas where you can improve your revenue.

Revenue 71

Revenue Sales Forecasts Forecasting Data 71

Smooth Sale

MARCH 25, 2024

Our collaborative blog walks you through the maze by diving into the nitty-gritty of expanding your business to help you avoid entertaining the idea of quitting. Our collaborative blog walks you through the maze by diving into the nitty-gritty of expanding your business to help you avoid entertaining the idea of quitting.

Small Business 118

Small Business Small Business Outsourcing Services Hiring 118

Smooth Sale

APRIL 16, 2024

Photo by Geralt via Pixabay Attract the Right Job or Clientele: How To Overcome Anxiety for Better Outcomes Each day presents us with new challenges, opportunities for personal growth, and empowerment. Sometimes, walking alone is necessary to motivate our mind, body, and spirit to achieve new heights. We only have one life to live.

How To 118

How To Hiring Face-to-face Networking 118

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 29, 2024

The seller identified an issue he thought was impacting our company. ” Quickly, he responded, “I’d like to schedule a meeting where we can demo our solutions… ” I stopped him, “No you raise a fascinating issue and seem to think we can do better. It was a provocative outreach. Can I schedule a demo?”

Conversion 81

Conversion Microsoft Face-to-face Google 81

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 20, 2023

Almost universally, there seems to be a demand gen problem—it has become increasingly difficult to catch prospect/customer attention, regardless of the techniques we leverage for demand gen. Our universal solution to meeting our demand gen goals is more and more often. But that fails.

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Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Demand Generation Targets Face-to-face 85

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 22, 2021

For decades, there’s the image of the “customer is always right.” ” Sales people have been deferential to the customer, not wanting to seem disagreeable or contentious. Somehow, there’s a feeling that if we disagree with the customer, we become “unlikeable,” scaring the customer away.

Customer 111

Customer Face-to-face Objections Influencer 111

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

He was very focused on the customers and people he was prospecting. ” He responded, “Well they should care, they are in our ICP, we sell to all sorts of organizations similar to this organization… ” I repeated my question, “How do you know the customer cares?” How do you know if he cares?

Ideal Customer Profile 117

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

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 18, 2021

But just because the customer can answer those questions doesn’t necessarily mean the deal is real from the customer’s point of view. Look at the number of budgeted buying initiatives that never result in an order (even though the customer could give the right answer to all the BANT questions).

Ideal Customer Profile 165

Ideal Customer Profile Outsourcing Services Customer Enterprise 165

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 26, 2023

The goal of each of these is increasing our efficiency. And we can automate sequencing to resend those emails a couple of days later with the sentence, “In case you missed this……” During this time, response rates have plummeted. If I think, for example, the evolution of “prospecting letters.”

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Retention Maximizer Buying Cycle Social Media 126

Partners in Excellence

JUNE 8, 2021

It’s imperative that we continue to evolve our thinking on value and value creation. Way back, in the old days, we created value for our customers by educating them about new products and solutions. Customers didn’t have the web back then, search was a foreign concept.

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Face-to-face Education Trade Show Channels 125

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 11, 2024

We invest a lot of time and effort in differentiating our products and services from the alternatives. 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.

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Scale Construction Comparison Face-to-face 94

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 4, 2023

We spend a huge amount of time getting customers to accept a request for a meeting. Customers are busy. On our side, we are incredibly busy. Recently, I’ve taken to asking sales people the question, “Are you ready for your next customer meeting?” How do you know if these are important to the customer?

Meeting 105

Meeting Customer Report Pipeline 105

Smooth Sale

APRIL 17, 2024

As such, our collaborative blog offers a few elements to remember about being the sole manager and accepting full responsibility for business success. As such, our collaborative blog offers a few elements to remember about being the sole manager and accepting full responsibility for business success. The challenge can be significant.

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Outsourcing Services Real Estate Hiring Policies 120

Partners in Excellence

JULY 28, 2021

” We are driven to “make the numbers,” because those are our goals and we are driven to achieve our goals. When we miss the numbers, we panic, we whip ourselves into a frenzy of activity to do more–all in service of making the numbers. Have our customers changed? Have things changed?

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Face-to-face Competition System Relationals 114

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 12, 2020

The pandemic, social change, and economic crises impact all of us, personally, organizationally, and how we engage our customers. And as a result how we sell, how we engage customers, how we work will change–I think profoundly. I think we are missing a huge opportunity. Why different?”).

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Face-to-face Revelation Channels Exercises 157