The Pipeline

JANUARY 2, 2017

In sports, it could be measures like goals against, team batting average, or in our favourite sport, average deal size, time to recover cost of acquisition or leads to opportunities converted. Going a step better, one can benchmark against another entity doing a similar thing, and see how you are doing vs. them in specific measures.

Sports 209

Sports Sales Enablement Account Based Marketing Exercises 209

The Pipeline

DECEMBER 10, 2012

Sports have trade deadlines, sales organizations have trade season, usually at the start of the year, just after bonuses are paid. Unlike sports, there is no free agency where top players can go to the highest bidder. What I never understand is why companies, and sales leaders participate in this silly ritual.

Hiring 254

Hiring Wireless Sports Territories 254

The Pipeline

NOVEMBER 3, 2014

Each rejection is like a blow, whether we overcome them or not, they consume effort, energy and they take their toll, much like a blow in any athlete in any contact sport. And yes, let there be no doubt that sales is a contact sport.

Face-to-face 288

Face-to-face Sports Objections Territories 288

The Pipeline

MARCH 12, 2021

Just like any salesperson would recommend to their favorite sports franchise. .” The first two gave the expected double down, focus on the cream, and all that jazz. I had nothing left but the truth, fire the 50% right now, and rebuild. Silence, no takers. But sales leaders would rather lead a big army than the right army.

Data 386

Data Sales Leadership Quota Sports 386

The Pipeline

AUGUST 5, 2021

In sales the go to is often sports, and one can understand why. By Tibor Shanto. Helping people adopt new skills and habits can take many forms. One proven way is to use analogies from different yet relatable practices. The stats, competitiveness, playbooks, execution, individual contribution to the team effort, and more.

Lead Rank 352

Lead Rank Lead Scoring Ideal Customer Profile Objections 352

The Pipeline

MAY 29, 2013

As in sports, music or other crafts, focusing on the most basic aspects is as important as mastering the big things, your messaging, value props, etc. Today I offer up some other basic things you can do, to improve your success in some simple ways.

Prospecting 296

Prospecting Cold Calling Handbook Sports 296

The Pipeline

MARCH 16, 2020

That sports team shut down, impacts bars, rideshare, workers, and people who we sell to. But the virus has created a rare commonality, causing the market to behave in a more monolithic fashion. Trickle Down. I know that it wasn’t meant to be used like this, but this is what we will all experience in the coming months or cycles.

Objections 310

Objections SME Lead Rank Lead Scoring 310

The Pipeline

FEBRUARY 26, 2015

It can, and you don’t have to run a popular sports bar; nearly any business can learn some valuable lessons from the month of madness, some even as simple as the power of simplifying your sales. March Madness is unlike other sporting events because it attracts non-sports fans.

Small Business 120

Small Business Small Business Sports Social Media 120

The Pipeline

MAY 15, 2014

To use a sport analogy, your pipeline is your core, no matter what sport you are in hockey, tennis, or running, a strong core, a well exercised and maintained core adds to athletic performance and lifts one competitor to victory over a comparably talented athlete with a less conditioned core.

Pipeline 300

Pipeline Top of Funnel Funnel Sports 300

The Pipeline

FEBRUARY 13, 2017

In some sports and other skills based endeavours, for example figure skating, you can score points for artistic merit, and you also get scored on execution. By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca .

Lead Rank 219

Lead Rank Lead Scoring Guidelines Sports 219

The Pipeline

OCTOBER 1, 2019

As soon as you say ‘just’ you’re taking a diminutive and subservient posture, bad form is a sport of peers. I know what you mean when you say to a prospect: “I just need a few minutes” or the popular “I just need a quick 15 minutes.” You think you are making it easy for them, you’re just scaring them.

Objections 291

Objections Sports Up-Sell Buyer 291

The Pipeline

DECEMBER 10, 2012

Sports have trade deadlines, sales organizations have trade season, usually at the start of the year, just after bonuses are paid. Unlike sports, there is no free agency where top players can go to the highest bidder. What I never understand is why companies, and sales leaders participate in this silly ritual.

Hiring 120

Hiring Wireless Sports Territories 120

The Pipeline

APRIL 24, 2018

But the thought process that goes into buying your “leading edge AI based transformational disruptive solution,” is fundamentally no different than how that same buyer decided to buy the sports jacket or whether they should add chicken or shrimp to their salad.

How To 267

How To Sports Buyer Objections 267

The Pipeline

JULY 3, 2014

Most major sports have significant dates through the year when it comes to proactively developing the team, building a roster that will help you win now and into the future. A key difference between sport GM’s and sales leaders, is the fact that VP’s of Sales cannot trade players for other talent or future considerations.

Hiring 120

Hiring Sports Sales Talent Territories 120

The Pipeline

JANUARY 6, 2014

This a ritual not limited to sports, it is practiced in B2B sales, but under different names, fueled by the same need, and with all the same negative connotations; the end is nigh, and you know the drill. We’ve all seen it or lived through it, the end of quarter (or other sales period) deal coral and round up time.

Top of Funnel 276

Top of Funnel Pipeline Sports Funnel 276

The Pipeline

AUGUST 21, 2013

As in sports, it is a good thing to have great coaching leaders and great teammate leaders, they can coexist and serve the greater good. They are able to lead prospect through a range of choices, challenges, noise and alternatives, cheaper and easier solutions, and get them to arrive at choosing them.

Lead Rank 317

Lead Rank Lead Scoring Sports Promotion 317

The Pipeline

AUGUST 12, 2013

Many sales leaders who don’t hesitate to cuss out the manager of their favourite sports team for being slack on training or practice, will regularly tell me that their people do not require training, “my people have five, ten, 12 years of experience”.

Hiring 305

Hiring Sales Qualified Lead Quota Sports 305

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

SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

Just the plain simple fact that we are measured on our success with numbers, leads to the integral, if sometimes inconvenient fact that sales is a numbers driven sport. While no one will argue that there needs to be a greater focus on quality than quantity, you also can’t get away from the fact that numbers play a great role in sales success.

Top of Funnel 282

Top of Funnel Funnel Sales Qualified Lead Insurance 282

The Pipeline

DECEMBER 18, 2018

When you are in the middle of it, the heat of the experience, be that a sport game or sales or selling, it is easy to assume that the others involved are prepared and as ready as you are, or they should be; especially in a sales, where the buyers seem to be willing participants. Home Team Disadvantage.

Buying Cycle 247

Buying Cycle Buyer Objections Face-to-face 247

The Pipeline

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

While it is true the professionals who are known to be consistent top performers, be they in sales, sports or finance, that top 10%, the ones in the rest of pack aspire to be, are often said to have a winning attitude.

Fashion 303

Fashion Sports Motivation ACT 303

The Pipeline

JUNE 25, 2015

How much of a premium would you pay to bet on a sporting event where the odds favoured your team over the other by 6000 to 100? By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca . A no-brainer right, in fact too good to be real, right?

Prospecting 120

Prospecting Call-back Sports Proposal 120

The Pipeline

MAY 8, 2013

No different than the expectation and practice in professional sport. A more workable and realistic goal is to understand that you do need to get involved on a number of levels, that it does get personal, and that you need to be able to deal with and manage the outcomes whether they go your way or not.

Top of Funnel 276

Top of Funnel Sports Funnel Buyer 276

The Pipeline

MAY 26, 2016

I love the line “Coaching is a contact sport! 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. You can’t fake it.” Too many do try and fake, or want to make it a genteel feel good exercise.

Sales Management 180

Sales Management Coaching Sports Promotion 180

The Pipeline

OCTOBER 19, 2012

Think local magazines, community newsletters, and even ad books for local sports teams. Bed Bath and Beyond is another that sends paper coupons. Small businesses can also utilize smaller publications. Print advertising is often inexpensive. It doesn’t have to be fancy, either.

Fashion 293

Fashion Small Business Small Business Hiring 293

The Pipeline

JUNE 9, 2016

I just can’t help myself, but sport analogies are so great when it comes to making some points about sales. By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca . You know when your team is down by some outrageous score, no hope of a come back, Jesus or not, just like the Raptors in game 5.

Lead Rank 120

Lead Rank Lead Scoring Trends Sports 120

The Pipeline

JULY 9, 2015

Much like a sporting coach will mix up his line up based on what they are facing, last minute line changes, all to ensure maximum impact, sales organization can move from geo or vertical views of the world, to what kind of buyer is Johnny best suited to? Think about taking buyer persona to a different level.

Data 120

Data Hiring Margin Buyer Persona 120

The Pipeline

NOVEMBER 15, 2020

Whatever the sport, the great ones were first to practice and last to leave. Many succumbing, and opting for the ease of sequence operators, rather than take on the opportunity to develop salespeople. This leaves many salespeople to do it on their own, and own time.

Prospecting 241

Prospecting Call-back Quota Objections 241

The Pipeline

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

The first was a sports magazine that was a companion to their TV sport network. But about six months ago, the magazine division of the same conglomerate, started sending me unsolicited copies of magazines, I had little or no interest in.

Pipeline 212

Pipeline Wireless Top of Funnel Hiring 212