At the end of each year, I put out a list of that year’s top blog posts. Often, as I review which topics were read the most frequently, certain themes emerge. In 2022, for instance, sales effectiveness and methodologies took a top position as popular topics.
This year, I’m pleased to see one of my anti-Salesforce rants hit the top ten. I was surprised to see that posts about the “Jobs To Be Done” (JTBD) framework in sales made it to the top ten not once, but twice. A lot of my personal favorites made the top ten list this year, as well, including an interview with a former FBI agent, a piece about design thinking, and one that raises the question of whether your salespeople are just “playing” at sales.
For your enjoyment, here’s the list. Which one was your favorite?
Business acumen is a critical skill for anyone selling in a complex B2B sales environment. Knowing how to communicate value to stakeholders at every level of the organization depends on it. So what exactly does it mean to have business acumen skills? Clearly, this is a question folks wanted an answer to this year.
Design thinking is a customer-centric methodology for approaching problems and innovation. According to McKinsey & Company, it’s one of the most effective ways to differentiate your company and products from the competition. And it’s an incredibly valuable way to look at sales. I was pleased to see this one hit the #9 spot.
Nobody wants to be accused of “playing” at their work or, especially, their profession. But sometimes we set up systems that force our people to “game the system” instead of actually produce the results we hire them for. This piece explored the various ways that salespeople sometimes “play sales” instead of actually selling, and how to change that.
Prospecting is an important part of every sales organization. But that doesn’t mean the tools are the same for every industry. In fact, when you’re prospecting for a complex B2B sale, the situation is different enough that you need an entirely different set of prospecting tools. Apparently, I’m not alone in finding this an important topic as it hit our #7 spot this year.
The status quo is often our biggest competitor when it comes to making sales. One reason for that fact is that people are naturally afraid of actively making mistakes. The status quo is often our biggest competitor when it comes to making sales.
But often, NOT taking action is the biggest mistake. The JOLT approach, developed by Matthew Dixon and Ted McKenna, helps sellers get buyers past their fear so they can make a decision.
The status quo is often our biggest competitor when it comes to making sales.
In complex B2B sales, it’s often the case that whoever engages the most relevant stakeholders is the one who wins the deal. But figuring out who matters and gaining access to them can be a big challenge. This piece outlined a 5-step process for helping your sales team reach more stakeholders more effectively, and it proved to be popular enough to hit the #5 spot in our list.
My favorite topic turns out to be one of your favorites as well. I added this “Salesforce sucks” piece to the library of anti-Salesforce rants, and it hit the #4 spot. For this one, I spoke with a former FBI agent who has made helping companies prevent Salesforce from cheating them into an entire career.
The Jobs To Be Done Framework proved a crowd pleaser this year, taking both the #3 slot AND the #1 slot. This piece introduces the concept and then shows how it can be applied specifically to a sales context to improve your sales process and differentiation.
Prospecting is a necessary task in sales, but often a disliked and neglected one. Often, we tell ourselves we don’t have time for it when actually we just don’t want to. In this piece, Mark Hunter shares a simple framework for prioritizing prospecting time, and making it count. It proved a popular topic, taking our #2 spot.
The most popular blog topic of 2023 was another JTBD post. “A brief history” type articles tend to do very well on The Art and Science of Sales blog, and this one was no exception. This piece explains where the concept came from, and how it’s applied in innovation and product development, and then explores its application in B2B sales.
Finally, I want to thank everyone who has read our blog this year and every year prior. I’ve been writing since 2014, faithfully putting out an article every week. That is a lot of blog posts, and some of you have been along for the ride from the start. I am grateful to all of you, whether you’re one of the original readers or have joined us more recently. Here’s to the close of 2023 and heading into another year of blogging on The Art and Science of Complex Sales.
George is the founder & CEO of Membrain, the Sales Enablement CRM that makes it easy to execute your sales strategy. A life-long entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in the software space and a passion for sales and marketing. With the life motto "Don't settle for mainstream", he is always looking for new ways to achieve improved business results using innovative software, skills, and processes. George is also the author of the book Stop Killing Deals and the host of the Stop Killing Deals webinar and podcast series.
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