Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 26, 2016

Earlier this week I wrote an article on why so many sales managers are so bad. In today's article, I'll share what makes them so ineffective. The easiest way to explain this is to start with a baseball analogy. Our son, who is now 14, is a very talented baseball player. In addition to me, he has been coached in some capacity by approximately 15 other baseball coaches with varying degrees of effectiveness.

Sales Management 172

Sales Management Coaching Motivation Examples 172

The Sales Hunter

JULY 26, 2016

The most valuable asset any salesperson has is their time. It’s not what they sell or the customers they sell to; it’s their time. How we use our time is what will make a much bigger impact on our success than nearly anything else. Below are 10 things you must be doing to help save your […].

Customer 151

Customer Selling Skills Sales Leadership Sales 151

SBI Growth

JULY 26, 2016

Market research is mission critical to winning in the market place, and against your competition. It should influence your overall sales strategy, and govern how you allocate your resources.

Research 131

Research Government Marketing How To 131

MTD Sales Training

JULY 26, 2016

You’ve probably been on courses where you’ve discussed the different types of questions that are available to you. You’ll have heard of open questions and closed questions. You’ll be familiar with probing questions and possibly leading questions, too. But the truth is that this can bog you down into thinking you’ve got to vary your questioning type and it can lead to confusion and a lack of flow in the conversation.

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Examples Prospecting Decision Maker Buying Cycle 120

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A dramatic shift has occurred in the B2B landscape. Buying has transformed radically in the last half-decade, causing growth rates to plummet, customer acquisition costs to skyrocket, and churn rates to surge. For SaaS companies relying on traditional sales strategies to grow revenue, these trends will only become worse, as they now falter in the face of modern purchasing paradigms.

B2B

Pointclear

JULY 26, 2016

Most companies admit to generating only a 10-25% follow-up of their sales inquiries. With so little follow-up, they’re reaching, on average, only 25% of available buyers. This means that 75% of the marketing dollars spent on lead generation are wasted. Why it’s Important. “If your company is average, you are only following up 10-25% of the leads you give your salespeople which means you are wasting 75% of your lead generation budget!”.

Marketing 109

Marketing Lead Generation Top of Funnel Funnel 109

Tom Hopkins

JULY 26, 2016

Business productivity is a great topic to include in your sales presentations. Who doesn’t want their staff members to be more productive? With some products such as software, increasing productivity is a given–after the learning curve has been completed with training. However, with other products, it may not be so obvious that they’ll positively impact […].

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Closing Selling Skills Networking Software 60

SalesLoft

JULY 26, 2016

Sales metrics may be a new trend for departments like marketing and service, but measuring analytbegiics is nothing new to data-driven sales teams. They’re no stranger to the importance of capturing and analyzing the effectiveness of their daily actions and activities. Everything from time spent on the phone a day to the size of that most-wanted whale opportunity, sales metrics are to sales teams as vitals are to a surgeon.

eBook 52

eBook Lead Rank Lead Scoring Analytics 52

Partners in Excellence

JULY 26, 2016

My last post inn this series was “ Super Hero Sales Managers.” I hesitated for a moment discussing this topic–sales compensation plans. In many ways, it’s a No-Win discussion. I can barely scratch the surface on this topic, sales people, sales executives, and non sales executives invovled in compensation are likely to be unhappy.

Compensation 48

Compensation Sales Leadership Commission System 48

Engage Selling

JULY 26, 2016

If more sellers embraced their sales day with the same vigour that they embraced their 10,000 step Fitbit challenges there would be a heck of a lot more companies accelerating revenue this year.

Revenue 48

Revenue Company Customer Service Up-Sell 48

Speaker: Carlos Hidalgo, Co-Founder & CEO of Digital Exhaust, Author, International Keynote & TEDx Speaker

Recent research shows that only 50% of B2B organizations state that they have good alignment between their marketing and sales teams. This lack of alignment tremendously impacts the ability to meet business goals, and is a limiting factor for building and maintaining customer relationships. While many B2B organizations continue to struggle with aligning their marketing and sales teams, they can take practical steps to unify both teams and simplify their overall approach.

Sales

Sales Gravy

JULY 26, 2016

Sometimes you have to “fake it till you make it”. Meaning, if you’re nervous before a sales call, so be it. Just don’t let the prospect know. This is a problem all sales reps at one time or another have had to conquer.

Sales 40

Sales Prospecting 40

OpenSymmetry

JULY 26, 2016

An inside look of what it’s like to be a sales compensation consultant. Many people don’t know what it’s like to work as a sales compensation consultant. We asked our team to share their own perspective of a traveling sales comp professional. Here’s what they came up with: You know you’re a sales compensation consultant when…. … your subconscious is your friend; you wake up knowing a solution you’d spent hours on the night before. .

Compensation 57

Compensation Incentives Incentive Travel 57