November, 2013

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Top 10 Ways Salespeople are Selling in the Dark

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Did you happen to see the movie Gravity? Early in the movie the two astronauts, played by Sandra Bulluck and George Clooney, lose communications with Houston. From that point on, they don''t stop talking to Houston, they don''t stop reporting in, they don''t change protocol. What they do change, is they add a phrase to the beginning of each message.

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Put Your Phone Away, or Pay Up

No More Cold Calling

'Many professionals are now creating games and rules to ensure that technology addiction doesn’t disrupt their personal lives. Have you heard of phone stacking? It works like this: You and your friends are at a restaurant. You all put your cell phones in the center of the table. Whoever is the first to look at his or her phone pays the bill. Not a bad idea, considering the now-typical behavior in restaurants.

Banking 308
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14 Ways For Sales Managers To Improve The Quality Of Leads At An Exhibition

MTD Sales Training

'As a sales manager, you probably have the responsibility of manning your company’s exhibition stand. But like most sales managers I have met with over the years, it’s unlikely that you have received. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

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Is the day of the dinosaur salesperson over?

Bernadette McClelland

'Is the day of the dinosaur salesperson over? Salespeople who do not move with the times will lose their jobs. Period. If you are someone who has been in the same role, with the same accounts, selling the same products for years. If you are someone who tells the same stories, approaches customers the same way, thinks personal and professional development is for the woo woo people.

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Brick & Mortar Retail Relevance: How to Stay Ahead of the Curve

Speaker: Jay Black, Senior Account Executive

Let's set the record straight: in-store retail isn't dead - it's evolving! Faced with the digital age and the demands of omnichannel shopping, some retailers are thriving while others are struggling to adapt. Join Jay Black in this exclusive session as he explores the strategies that set successful stores apart, including: Crafting unique and unforgettable in-store experiences 🛍️ Mastering the art of retail demands 🛒 Navigating inventory challenges in today's climate 📦 an

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Why Generosity is Good for Your Sales

The Sales Heretic

'As a professional speaker, I travel a lot. Which means I stay in a lot of hotels. As a result, I have a lot of appreciation for how hard housekeepers work and how important tips are to them. At the conclusion of a recent stay, I had just left the room with my luggage when [.].

Hotels 303

More Trending

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It’s That Time of Year: “Call Me Back After the Holidays.”

Jeffrey Gitomer

'We''ve Moved! Update your Reader Now. This feed has moved to: [link] Update your reader now with this changed subscription address to get your latest updates from us.

Call-back 292
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How Frequently Does Fear Play a Part in Sales?

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan One of the many things that hold salespeople back, prevents them from reaching their potential, stops them from crashing through quotas, doesn''t allow them to exceed expectations and never has them succeeding beyond everyone''s wildest dreams is their fear of failing. Fear of failing doesn''t affect everyone that sells.

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A Clever Florists’ Marketing Ploy – Makes Your Sales People’s Job A Lot Easier

MTD Sales Training

'As sales people we just need a hook and some bait! What I mean by this is that we need something to work with – something to draw our potential customer in. We need an “in” We need. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

Marketing 304
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Tell Marketing They Can Keep Their Leads

No More Cold Calling

'You can’t depend on your marketing department to generate real leads. Do you really think marketing can qualify your leads? If so, you can forget about exceeding quota in 2014. Consider this example from Dan McDade, president and CEO of PointClear: The marketing department for one unnamed company generated more than 9,000 “sales leads” in a year, but only 1.28 percent were actually qualified.

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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

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The Worst Sales Advice Ever

The Sales Heretic

'There’s a lot of sales advice out there. Some of it is fantastic. Some of it is pretty good. And some of it is downright awful. One of the most common pieces of advice is so bad, it will often cost you the sale. What is it? And what should you do instead? Listen to [.].

Strategy 274
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Is BANT Helping You Lose Sales?

The Pipeline

'By Tibor Shanto - tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca. For the longest time we were encouraged to use the BANT as a means of qualifying potential buyers, and I guess by extension shorten sales cycles and get more sales. When you think of the components of BANT > B udget, A uthority (to purchase), N eed and T imeframe, they all look sound and valid.

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Tactics vs. Strategy: The Distinction Makes a Difference

Sales and Marketing Management

'Issue Date: 2013-11-01. Author: Dave Stein. Teaser: Post-mortoms on failed sales training reveals common threads as to why companies are wasting their training budgets. The good news: the problems are correctable. Post-mortoms on failed sales training reveals common threads as to why companies are wasting their training budgets. The good news: the problems are correctable.

Strategy 259
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Some Truths (You May Not Like) About Relationship Selling

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan I''ve heard this stated so many ways and so many times. "Dave, you need to know that our business is all about relationships!". There are four possible relationship scenarios: Strong relationship and you have the business. Strong relationship but you don''t have the business. Lack of relationship and you have the business.

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Supercharge Your Sales: 5 Steps to Effortless Selling

Sales teams often lose precious time hunting for updated sales materials, while marketing struggles to keep these assets accessible and current. It's not just about managing; it's about seamlessly finding, presenting, and sharing critical sales content. All of this takes place within an intuitive, unified platform. Dive into Showell's groundbreaking content management realm.

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How Salespeople Use Their Weekends To Be More Effective

MTD Sales Training

'Pete Cashmore, the CEO of Mashable, spoke recently about what he does at weekends to ensure that he has a good work/life balance and prepares himself for the week ahead. The link to his article is. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

How To 304
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A Different Approach to 2014

SBI Growth

'As CEO, you feel like you have seen this movie before. Sales gets off to a fast start at the beginning of the year. Come Q4, that lead has evaporated and now sales is threatening to miss the number. They struggle to close deals. Excuses come from every direction. Your sales leaders will frantically try every trick in the book. The victims here are your potential customers who have to deal with a barrage of sales tactics.

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6 Things NOT to Do When Leaving a Voicemail

The Sales Hunter

'Voicemail messages are a powerful tool if done right! There are 6 things you should definitely not do when leaving a voicemail message, regardless of whether it is a prospecting voicemail or a message for your best customer. Definitely DON’T: 1. Speak with a bland voice. It’s amazing the number of voicemail messages I hear where the person leaving the message has zero energy and a totally bland voice. 2.

Call-back 263
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Leveraging Price Ratio To Win The Right Deals

The Pipeline

'By Tibor Shanto - tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca. Pricing continues a key factor in winning or losing sales opportunities, and while few vendors take pride in being the low cost provider, at times it seems they set out to be just that, or they take few steps to avoid it being forced on them. There are times when companies consciously use price as a temporary strategy to gain market share, or directly impact a competitor.

Vendor 299
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Redefining the CDP: 8 Data-Driven Designs for Successful Customer Journeys

In this guide, discover 8 use cases for how a customer data platform can tackle common challenges faced by marketing, commerce, service, and sales teams. With helpful diagrams and simple explanations in each use case, see how Salesforce’s CDP, Data Cloud for Marketing, powers personalized, real-time experiences across marketing, with capabilities that include: Optimizing ad spend Powering dynamic website content Increasing upselling and cross-selling Resolving service cases with marketing data B

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To Make a Splash, You Can’t Rely on a “Drip”

No More Cold Calling

'Inbound marketing will not fill your pipeline. Inbound marketing might seem like the magic formula for easy sales, but it’s not. It doesn’t close deals. It doesn’t qualify our prospects, and it certainly doesn’t set us up to make quota. Why? Buyers don’t take action because we “drip” on them. They don’t take action because we offer compelling content or happen to email them at just the right time.

Inbound 253
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Opinion: Why Sales Win Rates Have Reached an All-Time Low

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan One of the findings in the most recent Sales Performance Optimization Study , from CSO Insights, revealed that the win rate for deals has reached an all-time low. Does that surprise you? Does this represent a change in buyer behavior? Is it a result of more competition? Are salespeople less effective ? Is it the economy?

Travel 251
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How To Progress An Indecisive Prospect

MTD Sales Training

'One of the most difficult conversations you’ll probably have is the one where the prospect can’t make their mind up, is indecisive or doesn’t know how to make a commitment. Mainly, [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

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The Sales Call Preparation Technique your Team Needs to Know

SBI Growth

'Soon you will receive your quota for next year. As a Sales Leader you''ll ask, “How can I make this number?” This article will help you make quota one sales call at a time. W e are going to discuss a simple sales call preparation technique. Sales Leaders that implement it will get better results. Sales people don’t typically do a good job preparing for tough questions in calls.

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How to Leverage Intent Data for Better Outcomes

Speaker: Susan Spencer, Principal of Spencer Communications

Intent signal data can go a long way toward shortening sales cycles and closing more deals. The challenge is deciding which is the best type of intent data to help your company meet its sales and marketing goals. In this webinar, Susan Spencer, fractional CMO and principal of Spencer Communications, will unpack the differences between contact-level and company-level intent signals.

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Motivate Yourself by Motivating Others

The Sales Hunter

'One of the best ways I’ve found to motivate myself is to spend time motivating others. When we focus on helping others succeed, it is amazing how it rubs off and winds up impacting us. Putting effort into someone else requires focus and attention. If you think about it, these are two requirements when it comes to motivation. Being motivated means you’re focused and giving a significant amount of attention to a dedicated outcome.

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Changing The Cycle Of Sales Abuse – Sales eXchange 225

The Pipeline

'By Tibor Shanto - tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca. Many sales managers are in the wrong job, and for the wrong reasons, the intentions may have right, even noble, but outcome serves neither in individuals in question, the companies and customers. It is a familiar cycle, they were truly excellent reps, and consistently exceeding the most challenging quotas, liked by their peers, management and clients, and their reward was an invitation to management.

Hiring 285
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You Are the Ultimate Sales Technology

No More Cold Calling

'Technology is fantastic, but it will never replace a great salesperson. You are the ultimate sales technology! As a buyer, I don’t care how your technology works until I know what it can do for my business. The same is true for your prospects and clients. Over the last 30 years, I’ve seen technologies come and go. Many of them have contributed to the effectiveness of salespeople, but none of them has managed to replace us.

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Sales Candidate Shortage - More Proof That Sales Isn't Dead Yet

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan As you probably know, many people have been writing premature obituaries about the impending death of selling. Of course, that''s been going on since at least 2006 when I posted my first rebuttal to this silly claim, and as recently as last month when I posted my latest rebuttal. It''s being perpetuated by extremist marketers who are claiming that inbound will become the be-all end-all.

Hiring 246
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Contact vs. Company Intent Signal Data

Contact and company intent data both have their advantages. Contact-level intent leads can be acted on immediately to reach active buyers, while company-level leads improve outcomes for account-based marketing and other programs. This infographic unpacks the advantages of both contact and company data and gives details about how B2B marketers can benefit from both.

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5 Ways Your Existing Clients Can Help Boost Your Business – Infographic

MTD Sales Training

'Our existing clients can be of great benefit to us when trying to boost our sales. They can have a load of potentially new or repeat business, be able to refer you, become a joint venture partner. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

Referrals 288
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CMO: Enable Reps with the Right Content at the Right Time

SBI Growth

'Sales reps want solid materials to support them in sales campaigns. Today this means having the right content at the right time. Having the right content enables the sales rep to have the best chance to make a sale. How does this happen? It starts with the Marketing departments buyer centered marketing strategy. In this post, I’ll discuss 5 critical actions that need to take place to enable your sales force.

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An Agency Presentation that Surprised Me

Pointclear

'James Obermayer, Executive Director and CEO of the Sales Lead Management Association and President of Sales Leakage Consulting is a regular guest blogger with ViewPoint. The agency came with all the right people: the creative director looked appropriately creative, the account manager appropriately agreeable, the agency founder and CEO appropriately serious and driven by a combination of the other two.

Report 252