B2B Lead Blog - Inside Sales

JUNE 27, 2019

A small thing changed my work in a big way. This is the story of how I started focusing on empathy for customers. About five years ago, someone sent me a video on a Tulsa, Oklahoma business that changed the entire way I approach sales and marketing. The first thing that caught my attention was that Mother Teresa had publicly endorsed the business. “ Wait,” I thought. “Mother Teresa endorses businesses?”

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Hotels Commission Funnel Video 86

B2B Lead Blog - Inside Sales

MARCH 8, 2019

Want to connect better with people on the phone or in person and build rapport today? Over the past few days, I’ve had two readers reach for advice on how to do better outreach. One reader wrote, “never had a role like this before and I’m desperate to succeed and be the best I can be for myself and the company.” ” Another one writes, “thankful for any help I may get because I am a millennial x 3, so this is not natural.”

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B2B Lead Blog - Inside Sales

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

In spite of the fact that in the past pushy salespeople and poorly trained marketers have tarnished the image of the phone, I still believe that smart cold calling is still a very useful lead generation tool. Studies by leading marketing research firms like MarketingSherpa show that 92% of B2B buyers are open to cold calls if the salesperson is relevant. However, to ensure success, cold-calling needs to be part of a holistic lead generation strategy.

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Cold Calling Lead Generation Leads Telemarketing 80

B2B Lead Blog - Inside Sales

SEPTEMBER 26, 2017

Sales enablement is intended to help raise performance, but a lot of efforts have backfired due to departmental silos. And now there’s growing gap between what salespeople need and what they’re getting to improve performance. For example, Corporate Visions recently surveyed 500 B2B marketers and sales professionals that 20% of organization content creators “just do what they think is best” with no overarching structure at all.

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Sales Enablement Banking Hotels Exercises 54

Speaker: Jay McBain, Principal Analyst – Channels, Partnerships & Ecosystems

We are in the middle of a major transformation of how companies go to market – in fact, 76% of global CEOs feel that their current business models will be unrecognizable in the next 3 years – and ecosystems are the main reason why. With the vast majority of business conducted through indirect channels around the world and given structural changes in our economy (before and after COVID-19), new buying journeys, subscription/consumption models, marketplace growth, and emerging technologies, most firms are now considering partner enablement as the key ingredient to survival (and success). The future of partnership ecosystems will be focused on driving intra-firm value creation, network effects, and partner co-innovation – a huge opportunity for firms to grow the right partners and enable them effectively.

Channels

B2B Lead Blog - Inside Sales

OCTOBER 31, 2016

In most B2B companies with complex products or services, marketing-sourced leads rarely account for even half the revenue and often it is much less. To keep valuable field sales resources productive, many of the more innovative sales and marketing departments build “sales development” teams. Oracle. Marketo. HubSpot. Salesforce.com. Just to name a few. Very quickly, these teams contribute more pipeline than any other lead source.

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Revenue Buyer Persona B2B Marketo 43

B2B Lead Blog - Inside Sales

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

I recently was called by the CEO of a small technology company who was wondering how to optimize his lead generation team’s cold calling efforts. He called me after two salespeople just quit, and he said, “I’m about to give up on cold calling and start doing inbound marketing. I think cold calling is dead … what do you think I should do?” ” I thought to myself, “It’s no wonder his sales team quit.”

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Lead Nurturing Cold Calling Leads Lead Generation 48

B2B Lead Blog - Inside Sales

FEBRUARY 2, 2015

How much is your address book worth? I know that seems like a silly question because very few people even have a little black book that contains all of their contacts’ phone numbers and addresses. I can remember when my father had a sturdy metal rolodex sitting on his office desk that contained all of his priceless contact numbers. I would sit at his desk and spin the cards around like I was a contestant on “The Price is Right.”

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Networking B2B Decision Maker Twitter 40

B2B Lead Blog - Inside Sales

JULY 14, 2014

In inside sales, it’s not just about what you “ask” prospects; it’s about when you ask them. This is where a lot of sales development reps get it wrong. Intuitively, fast, upfront and to-the-point seem like a sound approach and I’m a big fan of brevity. But, I also believe in timing and sequence, as both can make or break conversion.

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B2B Lead Blog - Inside Sales

MARCH 31, 2014

Lead generation teleprospecting is the art of acquiring sales-ready leads for a sales staff. When it comes to communicating an organization’s value and credibility, asking the right questions and relieving any anxiety is key to a campaign’s success. Consequently, wouldn’t it make sense to test and optimize this process? After all, the knowledge you acquire can be applied to several facets of your marketing efforts, including what you emphasize online.

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Lead Generation Insurance Insurance Campaigns 40

Advertiser: ZoomInfo

Every sales forecasting model has a different strength and predictability method. It’s recommended to test out which one is best for your team. This way, you’ll be able to further enhance – and optimize – your newly-developed pipeline. Your future sales forecast? Sunny skies (and success) are just ahead!

Sales Forecasts

B2B Lead Blog - Inside Sales

JANUARY 27, 2014

As the MECLABS Research Partnership analyst team, my colleagues and I speak with professionals who attend our events (like the next month’s MarketingSherpa Email Summit in Las Vegas), purchase our publications, and want more information about how MECLABS can help grow their business. So every day we hear about the challenges they’re facing.

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B2B Lead Blog - Inside Sales

DECEMBER 2, 2013

For years, marketers have been testing messages on emails, websites and pay-per-click ads to determine which ones drive the most sales. At MECLABS, we’ve made this a science and have even patented a Conversion Heuristic to analyze the process. A few months ago, we started applying this heuristic to a channel that is more than a century old – the telephone. MECLABS has its own leads generation group working with clients to help them drive more revenue through teleprospecting.

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Decision Maker B2B Channels Advertising 40

B2B Lead Blog - Inside Sales

MAY 13, 2012

B2B marketers, stop focusing on generating leads. You’re wasting your time and your sales team’s time. Now that I have your attention, here’s what you should focus on instead: helping salespeople sell. How do you do that? By sending them only qualified leads. Most leads aren’t qualified Leads are only qualified when they fit your universal lead definition (ULD). Don’t have a ULD? Before you do any more lead generation, make developing one your highest priority.

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B2B Lead Blog - Inside Sales

APRIL 22, 2012

When you’re converting inquiries into qualified leads, it’s widely believed that time is of the essence. Even research published in the Harvard Business Review says you’re almost seven times more likely to qualify a lead if you respond by phone within five minutes than if you respond an hour later. That’s why, when one of our Research Partners , a B2B telecommunications company, wanted to convert more inbound leads into sales-ready ones, we cut our response time.

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Telecommunications Lead Qualification Lead Generation Leads 40

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Analysis

B2B Lead Blog - Inside Sales

MARCH 11, 2012

You could be racing the finest Formula One car, but if you’re always steering in the wrong direction, even a horse and buggy will beat you to the finish line. So it is with marketing. Too many marketers think they can lead the pack by leveraging the hottest channels, software and platforms. But these tools, like race cars, are only effective when they’re moving in the right direction.

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B2B Lead Blog - Inside Sales

JULY 1, 2012

When I first started making test calls with MECLABS, I was unsuccessful, to say the least. I was unaware of the real goal of the call, lacked an effective strategy, and was generally unprepared. After about 900 calls, my results were disappointing — I only had one lead! Since I was unsuccessful, I lacked confidence in my ability, and that feeling came through on each call.

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Decision Maker Trade Show Lead Generation Construction 40

Sandler Training

MAY 16, 2029

Brian Sullivan, VP of Sandler Enterprise Selling, speaks with Steve Moritz, thirty year veteran of the technology industry and CEO of Moritz Consulting Group about Consulting Services: Putting the client first in sales and delivery. Listen Time: 40 Minutes. Professional Development

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Enterprise Enterprise Groups Industry 64

The Pipeline

JANUARY 13, 2021

A Guest Post – by Michael Wigge. I always find changing the filters helps bring different often valuable perspectives, I have enjoyed Michael’s approach to challenges. I wanted to share it with you all and help you learn from his experience, and apply it to your selling. Michael Wigge.

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Travel Film How To Construction 228

Speaker: Christopher Ryan, Founder and CEO of Fusion Marketing Partners

Sales & Marketing departments that work together guarantee higher acquisition, better nurturing, and more effective sales. Join Christopher Ryan for this insightful webinar, presenting the wide funnel lead nurturing model. Don't miss out on this opportunity to get your teams working together and your revenue performance optimized.

Lead Nurturing

Steven Rosen

JANUARY 18, 2021

Are You Focused on Results Generating Activities? Not another virtual meeting! How many times a day do you think that? How can you get any significant work done if all you are doing is attending virtual meetings and managing endless emails?

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Sports Energy Objections Meeting 193

The Pipeline

JANUARY 19, 2021

By Tibor Shanto. For a tribe that fixates so much on the close, salespeople are way too reluctant to reveal the outcome. Preferring instead to take the buyer on an unnecessary journey. If prospects like the outcome they will take interest in the process.

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Territories Energy Software Software 182

Mr. Inside Sales

JANUARY 8, 2021

Two weeks into the New Year, and are you already stressed about picking up the phone and making prospecting calls? I learned a secret years ago that enabled me to overcome my fear of making calls, and that allowed me to make hundreds of cold calls stress-free.

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Cold Calling Licensing Gatekeeper Decision Maker 223

Mr. Inside Sales

JANUARY 15, 2021

Once very couple of years, I like to re-run this article on the importance of asking questions as opposed to pitching. While this context is presented as an interview, it is completely translatable to sales—and that means YOU.

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Licensing Gatekeeper Decision Maker Motivation 195

Speaker: Marc Wayshak, Sales Strategist, Best-Selling Author & Founder, Sales Insights Lab

Engaging prospects in a strong two-way dialogue is something most reps struggle with. In this session with Marc Wayshak, you’ll discover a data-driven approach to sales meetings that yields significantly better results. Specifically, you’ll learn how to: • Engage prospects with authority • Keep your prospects’ attention • Achieve buy-in during sales conversations • Get prospects talking about their key challenges, • Gain a strong commitment before presenting your offer. In short, you’ll discover how to implement a process that helps you close more deals than ever before.

Sales Meeting

Sales Benchmark Index

JANUARY 16, 2021

While every industry has been impacted by the ongoing pandemic, private equity professionals have had to unpack an entirely different set of challenges trying to buy and sell in this environment.

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Revenue Analysis Industry Meeting 182

Sales Benchmark Index

JANUARY 18, 2021

Most companies earn the majority of their revenue from existing customers, and with the recession that began in March 2020, this is truer than ever. SBI’s quarterly pulse survey shows that companies are more dependent on their existing customers to.

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Survey Revenue Marketing Research 168

Sales Benchmark Index

DECEMBER 2, 2020

This time last year, SBI released the research report “Sales Kickoffs are Dead,” and revealed how to host a world-class acceleration summit for your employees. The same principles still apply — create an environment that motivates your team and activates.

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Report Motivation Research How To 260

Sales Benchmark Index

NOVEMBER 14, 2020

Marketing leaders have faced numerous difficulties over the past year, but one challenge is not exclusive to just 2020—sales and marketing alignment. Getting this correct is more imperative now than ever before and can make-or-break your growth strategy. Ultimately, companies.

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Marketing Revenue Analysis Meeting 276

Speaker: Sandi Lin & Linda Schwaber-Cohen

In this webinar, Skilljar CEO Sandi Lin shared learnings from Skilljar's recent study and her insights on the state of Customer Education. She dug into key findings so you can benchmark against industry trends and understand how your strategy and metrics compare.

Education

Sales Benchmark Index

DECEMBER 7, 2020

There’s no doubt that the pandemic has permanently impacted daily life in every way. It’s also clear that corporate digital transformation is accelerating in every way. After all, in 2019, many enterprise sales calls absolutely had to be in person.

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Enterprise Enterprise How To Revenue 253

Anthony Cole Training

JANUARY 14, 2021

In our first blog on How to Hire No Assembly Required Salespeople series, we discussed the four critical steps you must take to minimize hiring mistakes and identify top talent.

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How To Sales 186

Sales Benchmark Index

NOVEMBER 12, 2020

While the world innovated rapidly and continually adopts many advanced technologies, the sales environment is still catching up. In most cases, face-to-face selling was the top method or process, allowing for strong relationship building, effective communication, and the ability to.

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Face-to-face How To Data Buyer 274

Sales Benchmark Index

DECEMBER 19, 2020

Consumer behaviors have changed drastically over the past year, with a significant rise in ecommerce. As the supply chain is being disrupted across industries, businesses are reimagining how to go to market, generate demand, and serve customers. On today’s show, Grant.

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Distribution Revenue Analysis Consumer 235

Speaker: Ruth Stevens, President of eMarketing Strategy

In a pandemic, it’s more important than ever to focus on retaining and expanding current customers. So, how can sales and marketing support the retention effort? Join Ruth Stevens as she dives into this fast-paced session and reviews the 7 key strategies for current customer marketing, to enable sales and expand customer value.

Retention

Sales Benchmark Index

DECEMBER 5, 2020

Over the past several months, SBI’s latest research has unpacked how market-leading CEOs have responded to market disruption and how they approach planning for 2021. Those identified as “Accelerators” have not only managed to thrive in the face of adversity.

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Marketing Leads Revenue Analysis 236

Sales Benchmark Index

OCTOBER 21, 2020

At this point in 2020, all your competitors have undergone some variation of a “digital transformation” to supplement an end-to-end data-driven, Customer Experience (CX) focused digital sales strategy. A recent study conducted by KPMG found that over 90% of companies.

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Strategy Leads How To Report 272

The Pipeline

JANUARY 12, 2021

By Tibor Shanto. It is estimated that 40% of our daily activities are driven by habit. This simplifies things to some degree, as we just need to replace bad habits with good. That’s where the challenge comes in, changing habits.

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Exact Leads Video Sales 178

Sales Benchmark Index

DECEMBER 26, 2020

It may be easy to assume that tech-enabled services became an overnight success in the wake of the work-from-home and digital phenomena. However, many companies will not only miss their number but have also experienced an 8% year over year decrease.

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Revenue Analysis Meeting Retention 208

Advertiser: ZoomInfo

Sales enablement is the strategic process of providing sales teams with the content, guidance, and mentorship needed to engage targeted buyers. It’s all about equipping sales professionals with the tools they need to put their best-selling foot forward. And if sales teams want to continuously sell better -- and faster -- their sales enablement process must have a game-winning strategy. It's time for you to start selling smarter - and hitting your sales number - with the best B2B database in the market. Get started today.

Sales Enablement