October, 2024

article thumbnail

7-Steps to Achieve Sales Team Excellence

Understanding the Sales Force

The Boston Red Sox had a mediocre team in 2024. They had too many left-handed hitters, not enough starting pitching, an undependable bullpen, and by far, the worst defense in the MLB. Sure, they won half their games, but they lost the other half – many of them games they should have won. Most sales teams win fewer than half their “games,” and while defense can’t be blamed, pitching can!

Hiring 358
article thumbnail

The Surprising Self-Sabotage Among Sales Professionals – and How to Overcome It

Sales and Marketing Management

Low self-esteem is a significant issue that sales professionals and leaders need to recognize and address. Here are some steps that managers can help team members take to build confidence. The post The Surprising Self-Sabotage Among Sales Professionals – and How to Overcome It appeared first on Sales & Marketing Management.

How To 671
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Building Tomorrow’s Success: How to Capture New Sales Opportunities for 2025

No More Cold Calling

You have a more important goal than closing business for Q4. No, you don’t need your glasses to read that again. If your focus is on winning as much business as possible before year-end, you’ll be starting 2025 in a losing position—with a lackluster pipeline and few new sales opportunities for the New Year. Take your eyes off the Q4 prize for a moment.

article thumbnail

Using Sales Enablement Tools and Technology to Add Value to Relationships

Anthony Cole Training

In order for salespeople to truly engage, build value, and develop long-lasting relationships, they must compliment their selling approach with sales enablement tools and technology. Listening with the intent to learn, asking questions that are not product-based, and understanding the nuances, trends, and challenges of a company and industry are required in today’s environment.

article thumbnail

The Trends You Need to Succeed This Holiday Season

October Prime Day is usually an early sign of how consumer spending trends ahead of the holidays. This one was no exception. Our October Prime Day Report breaks down what’s working: the products flying off the shelves, the categories winning big, big brands, and the search terms defining demand. All brought to you via Similarweb’s Shopper Intelligence platform.

article thumbnail

Succeeding with People: A Game-Changer in B2B Sales

Sales and Marketing Management

Interpersonal skills can be learned and refined over time to help salespeople close more deals and build lasting partnerships based on trust and mutual value. The post Succeeding with People: A Game-Changer in B2B Sales appeared first on Sales & Marketing Management.

B2B 285

More Trending

article thumbnail

How to Master Social Listening in Sales

The Center for Sales Strategy

Social listening is a powerful tool that can provide crucial insights to help guide decision-making. Most businesses know this and may already have some social listening tactics. But does your current social listening strategy drive sales? Keep reading as we explore how social listening is linked to sales and offer some tips to help you grow your sales by improving your social listening.

How To 111
article thumbnail

Death to the 3X Sales Pipeline!

Membrain

Throughout my entire career, there has been one unrelenting mantra that remains unquestioned gospel from the mouths of every sales leader to the ears of every dutiful salesperson: “You need to keep 3 times your annual quota in your sales pipeline”

Pipeline 125
article thumbnail

Leveraging AI to Supercharge the Human Side of Sales

Zoominfo

AI tools are reshaping the way salespeople tackle their day-to-day work, automating many of the core business development tasks that have eaten away at the average sellers’ day. But AI isn’t just taking over mundane administrative work. It’s also raising big questions about the future of the sales profession — including lingering worries that many sales jobs could soon be replaced by machines.

Scale 130
article thumbnail

How to Build a Top Sales Team with a Great Sales Training Program

SBI Growth

Like a championship sports team that needs great athletes , exceptional salespeople are the lifeblood of a high-performing sales organization. But if you have recently recruited new salespeople, you probably have also experienced how brutal it is to try to hire top talent in today's market. Even during more favorable hiring conditions, hiring sales executives is risky.

Hiring 177
article thumbnail

AI Strategies for Sales Managers: How to Cut Down on Tedious Admin Work

What if you could help your sellers stop wasting 72% of their day on non-selling activities and focus on bringing in revenue? Incorporating AI in your enablement workflows can help you cut down on busy work, get projects done faster, and let your team (and you!) focus on making a bigger impact. We put together this guide to show you how to use AI to cut time and costs for projects, including collateral creation, development of training videos, and automating tedious processes.

article thumbnail

How Digital Business Cards are Transforming Sales and Marketing

Sales and Marketing Management

By embracing the technology of digital business cards, sales and marketing executives can bridge cultural divides, track engagement, and create lasting impressions – all while reducing their environmental footprint and maximizing the return on their networking efforts. The post How Digital Business Cards are Transforming Sales and Marketing appeared first on Sales & Marketing Management.

Marketing 296
article thumbnail

Cold Reach Outs: Do Email and LinkedIn Work?

Understanding the Sales Force

I last wrote about the efficacy of cold emails/LinkedIn Messages in February, when it was clear that immature AI and ineffective cold messaging wasn’t effective. The phone was and still is a better option. Read here. Although I continue to receive pathetic emails and Messages, I recently got one that was significantly better. Allow me to share some examples of typical emails/messages so that you can avoid these mistakes and then I’ll show one that suggests there is finally hope for

LinkedIn 334
article thumbnail

Personal Branding for Sales Success

Anthony Cole Training

Companies develop a brand, why not salespeople? It is worthy of your time to think about what you do differently and better than your competition. What do you bring to the table, and how do you solve problems for your existing clients? If you cannot pin that down, it is critical that you focus and develop your personal brand. Think about a significant purchase you made recently and the process you went through as a buyer.

Buyer 253
article thumbnail

Relationships will be critical in the AI age

Sales 2.0

Sales is not getting any easier. Buyers have become even better at screening out salespeople. When the Internet arrived, buyers’ need to speak to a salesperson to get basic information was eliminated. Buyers could go online and get all the information they needed. About a decade ago, certain subject matter experts came up with a solution to this problem.

Scale 195
article thumbnail

Buyer’s Guide: 5 Tough Questions To Ask a Salesforce Managed Services Provider

This guide is for leaders who recognize the importance of Salesforce but would rather trust a team of external experts to do the heavy lifting. Choosing the right managed services provider is a significant decision that impacts your business's efficiency and success. In this 10-minute read, you'll find 5 essential questions to ask any potential provider.

article thumbnail

From Incarceration to Transformation ~ Lessons in Differentiation

Bernadette McClelland

From Incarceration to Transformation ~ Lessons in Differentiation Lessons in Dfferentiation The correlation between corporate life and incarceration might seem distant, but the similarities do exist. One key parallel? Differentiation. Whether it’s self-promotion, leadership, or standing out – it’s about doing it for the right reasons. This past month, I returned to Colorado’s State Penitentiary, a maximum-security prison, as part of Breakthrough ‘s incredible 32-week program, The Cha

Hiring 195
article thumbnail

Research: How to Drive Commercial Efficiency

SBI Growth

Facing headwinds from inflation, rising-wages, and decades-high interest rates, many firms are struggling to realize their growth ambitions while keeping costs in line. While some firms managed to outperform the market by being more responsive to changes, many companies are still holding onto common practices that were once considered prudent, but are now sapping efficiency and holding back profitable growth.

Research 177
article thumbnail

Beyond Greenwashing: Why Sustainability Must Be a Core Strategy for B2B Companies

Sales and Marketing Management

Sustainability must be a core strategy, not just for its ethical priorities, but also because there are various business imperatives. The good news is that there are core strategies you can employ to keep sustainability at the heart of your organization in a way that has positive outcomes for your business, for stakeholders, and the planet. The post Beyond Greenwashing: Why Sustainability Must Be a Core Strategy for B2B Companies appeared first on Sales & Marketing Management.

B2B 296
article thumbnail

My Latest Sales Epiphany From Watching Playoff Baseball

Understanding the Sales Force

My latest sales epiphany happened while I was watching Friday’s American League Championship Series game between the Yankees and the Guardians. The Guardians went to the bullpen to bring in a relief pitcher and I felt nothing. Wow! If it was the Red Sox, I would have been worried sick that the pitcher they were bringing into the game: Sucked all year Walks too many guys Is prone to giving up home runs Pitches worse against the Yankees Won’t prevent the Yankees from scoring right he

Epiphany 194
article thumbnail

How to Find Common Ground: Account-Based Marketing (ABM) for Team Alignment

Speaker: Alex Moore, Co-Founder of Stratagon Marketing & Technology

Ever wondered why sales and marketing teams often struggle to collaborate effectively? Diverging goals, poor communication, and conflicting strategies frequently create silos, leading to a disconnect where marketing efforts fail to translate into substantial sales conversions. Enter Account-Based Marketing (ABM). ABM aligns marketing and sales efforts toward specific target accounts, fostering personalized interactions with high-value prospects.

article thumbnail

The Benefit of Consistent Sales Pipeline Management

Anthony Cole Training

According to HubSpot, companies with well-optimized sales pipelines reported a 28% higher revenue growth rate compared to those with poorly managed pipelines. So why is it that many sales leaders default to coaching the deal at hand and do not consistently have sales pipeline management sessions with their people? These sessions should begin with a broader view of the opportunities each salesperson has in their pipeline, with a focus on several key metrics so that managers can compare and track

Pipeline 247
article thumbnail

Cover the bases…or you’re out!

Sales 2.0

In my last two posts ( this one and this one ) I described a framework for progressing larger sales opportunities that I have had a lot of success with. It is a process described in Robert Miller and Stephen Heiman’s book “Strategic Selling” (now called New Strategic Selling.) In this framework there are four types of people involved in a sale. The economic buyer The users The gatekeepers The coach I described these four types of people and gave you some tips on how to find the fourth type of pe

article thumbnail

The Top 20%: Lessons on Scaling in the B2B SaaS Market

Force Management

A recent piece by McKinsey notes that 80% of startups who landed Series A funding failed within eight years (n=3164). Using interviews with B2B SaaS leaders who beat those odds by scaling from startup to over $100MM in ARR, McKinsey's recent playbook examines how these companies set up their organizations, common challenges they overcame and the actions leaders can use to emulate these pathways to success.

Scale 152
article thumbnail

Here Are the Best Days & Times for Product Demos

Zoominfo

Key Takeaways: We analyzed more than 100K product demos to find the most productive days and times. Thursdays between 2-4 p.m. have the best chance of a completed demo. Fridays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. are 2nd best. Thursdays are the best overall day for a completed demo. 2-4 p.m. Eastern is the best two-hour time window. Best Demo Days & Times: Here’s What the Numbers Say If you sell software, you know how persuasive product demos can be as a sales tool.

Software 130
article thumbnail

Beyond the Basics: How to Develop and Retain a Top-Performing Sales Team

Speaker: Brendan Sweeney, VP of Sales at Allego

Maximizing sales rep performance is no easy task. 📈 Traditional sales training methods focus heavily on the first few weeks in the sales role. Companies dedicate time, resources, and budget to onboarding new hires, only for them to forget what was learned in those first few weeks, lose motivation, and struggle to come to grips with their role.

article thumbnail

Sales Manager Training: How is it Different from Leadership Training?

SBI Growth

Leadership training is a core part of professional development in many organizations. It teaches leaders across departments how to manage teams, foster collaboration, and achieve business goals. But when it comes to front-line sales managers, general leadership training often falls short. Sales managers face unique challenges that require specialized training tailored to their roles.

Training 156
article thumbnail

The Biblical Sales Force Part 2 – On Boarding and Coaching Salespeople

Understanding the Sales Force

As I wrote in September, I’m reading the Bible from beginning to end for the first time. I created an analogy for my first article when I wrote about scaling, hiring and firing salespeople , based on what I read in Genesis. Today’s article is about on boarding and coaching salespeople, an analogy I created from what I read so far in Exodus.

Coaching 194
article thumbnail

Building a High-Performance Sales Team

Anthony Cole Training

When asked, most sales managers say that one of their greatest challenges is their ability to motivate salespeople. If a sales manager can figure out what makes their salespeople “tick,” they can help them hit their goal numbers. Motivation seems like hard work because nearly every salesperson values different things. However, there are several steps a sales manager can take to establish a motivating environment for salespeople in order to build a high-performance sales team.

article thumbnail

The Art of Selective Selling: Mastering Sales Strategy in Diverse Markets

Sales and Marketing Management

As more companies begin to sell globally, mastering sales in diverse markets requires a focus on key strategies, with a particular emphasis on being selective and strategic when making both career and client choices. The post The Art of Selective Selling: Mastering Sales Strategy in Diverse Markets appeared first on Sales & Marketing Management.

Strategy 156
article thumbnail

How to Optimize Call Monitoring: Automate QA and Elevate Customer Experience

Speaker: Laura Noonan, Chief Revenue Officer at CallFinder + Angie Kronlage, Director of Program Success at Working Solutions + April Wiita, Vice President of Program Success at Working Solutions

Are you still manually reviewing calls? 🤔 It's time for a change! The traditional method of manual call monitoring is no longer cutting it in today's fast-paced call center environment. Industry experts Angie Kronlage and April Wiita from Working Solutions are here to explore the power of innovative automation to revolutionize outdated call review processes!

article thumbnail

The Sales Leadership Framework Behind Multiple $100MM ARR Orgs

Sales Hacker Training

Hello and welcome to The GTM Newsletter – read by over 52,000 revenue professionals weekly to stay up-to-date and scale their companies and careers. GTMnow is the media brand of GTMfund – sharing go-to-market advice from the top 1% of revenue operators including the 350 executives behind the fund, news, and our viewpoints from working with hundreds of portfolio companies.

article thumbnail

AI Sales Assistants: The Next Great Sales Software Tools

Zoominfo

Reaching the right prospects at the right moment is often the difference between closing a deal and coming in second. And in the age of AI-assisted sales, what was once a long process of research, targeting, and crafting outreach has now become remarkably fast. But today’s top AI sales assistants don’t just help sales teams work faster — with the right data, AI helps sellers make smarter decisions.

Software 130
article thumbnail

Boosting Commercial Efficiency with Customer Success Management and AI

SBI Growth

In this podcast episode hosted by Mike Hoffman, Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, the two discussed Customer Success Management and the implications of involving AI. In many cases, organizations have the reached the point of requiring a reevaluation of their current go-to-market (GTM) strategies due to lack of productivity.

Customer 156