Sat.Apr 23, 2016 - Fri.Apr 29, 2016

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Like a Virgin! WOW’d for the very first time…

Bernadette McClelland

I’m 36,000 feet in the air as I write this and have just come off the back of a two day program on how to ‘ Think Like a Customer’. It’s a Friday night, I’m tired and just want to kick back for a couple of hours and unwind with a glass of wine and read. Instead, I’m writing this article because of what I have just experienced for the first time on a Virgin plane, but sadly have seen the pattern on so many occasions elsewhere.

Customer 174
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What You Won’t Learn From Books About Sales

DiscoverOrg Sales

Yes, I am aware a lot of you have spent dozens of dollars – maybe even hundreds – on sales books that intricately detail the savvy art of sales & persuasion. Honestly, they will only take you so far if you haven’t actually spent time talking with real-live prospects. Sure, a book can explain to you how to appropriately organize your day, or outline a strategy you can put to use , but it can’t help you develop the character – or grit – necessary to persevere through th

Hiring 168
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Effective Selling is Less about the Words and More About How You Say Them

Understanding the Sales Force

Two experiences this weekend support something I have been teaching for more than 30 years. Saturday, I walked up to the deli counter and asked the young woman for a quarter pound of imported provalone. She responded, "We don't have impourded, but we have some from Italy." I said that would be fine. Then she grumbled to a co-worker that this guy wanted "impourded" provolone and he explained that the Italian provolone was imported.

Sales 166
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Sales Productivity is more Than Just Technology

The Pipeline

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca . There is no shortage of productivity or enablement tools available to sales people and sales organizations. Many may be useful, fun to use, and allow sales people to do things they may not have been able to do in the past, not everyone gets the same level of productivity improvement, if any. Let’s start by defining productivity, the simplest definition from an execution standpoint is: The rate of output per unit of input.

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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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6 Ways to Separate Yourself from Your Competition

The Sales Hunter

What makes you different from your competitor? Why should a potential customer give you the time of day when they already have too much on their plate? There’s a reason why customers don’t see value in salespeople, because to be quite blunt, most salespeople don’t bring value. To many customers, there’s zero difference between […].

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Can Your Salespeople Articulate Value Or Does It Sound Like Magic?

Sales and Marketing Management

Issue Date: 2016-04-28. Author: Michael Harris. Teaser: Customers are not ready to believe in the viability of the salesperson’s product until they realize that they are out in the middle of the lake drowning in problems. Are your salespeople effectively contrasting the hell of not buying your product to the heaven of buying? Customers are not ready to believe in the viability of the salesperson’s product until they realize that they are out in the middle of the lake drowning in prob

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Sales Excuse Litmus Test and Cure

The Pipeline

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca . I had an interesting chat with a client last week. We were reviewing their progress on specific things we agreed on. She mentioned that she had not made progress on a specific task, and was honest enough to add “I am not sure if I am making excuses or if there are other real factors preventing me from getting it done.” While it may be easy to just default that they were just making excuses, that will do little to get them to change t

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Executive Sales Leader Briefing: Do Leaders Think Big Enough?

The Sales Hunter

Welcome to the Executive Sales Leader Briefing, a new blog series I am doing every Friday. If you want to receive the Executive Sales Leader Briefing in text form in an email early Friday morning before it is published on the website, go to this page to sign up or complete the below information: I […].

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Help is Here for Salespeople Who Find Themselves as the Underdogs

Understanding the Sales Force

You or your salespeople are on a call. Is it an uphill battle? Do you feel like you need some luck to win the business? Are you up against an incumbent - and your prospect is happy with them? Are there too many competitors - and you are having trouble getting noticed? Does the prospect claim to only care about price - and you aren't the lowest? Do they just want a proposal or a quote - and you feel like you need to provide it to them?

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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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Asking for Help is a Great Way to Get Information

Mr. Inside Sales

Everyone loves to be helpful. Because of this, you have a great opportunity to learn more about your prospects and clients if you learn how to ask the right questions at the right times. Here are some examples of how asking for help, at the right time, can give you a treasure trove of useful information you can use to position your product or service to the right person.

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Fishing/Selling – It’s an Exact Science… Kinda

Anthony Cole Training

I went fishing with a very good friend of mine from First Citizens Bank in NC and he took me to his favorite fishing hole - Lake James. Keith claims it is the most beautiful fishing lake in the country. I don’t know if it is - I’ve not seen them all, but this is one beautiful lake!

Exact 120
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HOW TO Increase Prospecting Results for Sales Leaders

The Sales Hunter

Have you thought about the impact you as a sales manager have on the prospecting results your people achieve? I’ve encountered far too many situations where the sales manager is blaming the lack of new customers on the failure of the sales team to prospect. This absolutely drives me crazy, because the results of […].

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5 Factors That Prevent You From Being A Sales ‘Nearly Man’

MTD Sales Training

One of my friends likes a flutter now and again. Oh, he’s not a bona-fide better, just someone who now and again enjoys taking the risk of seeing if his horse can beat the others. There’s one big problem. He always bets on the horse to place. When you place a bet on a horse to win, your bet pays only if your horse finishes in first place. When you place a bet on a horse to place, your horse needs to come in first, second or third place for you to win.

Study 120
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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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Digital Lift

Sales and Marketing Management

Issue Date: 2016-04-25. Author: Andrew Dennis. Teaser: For marketers, it’s one thing to pilot digital marketing programs. It’s another thing to entirely to build, deploy and maintain them. For marketers, it’s one thing to pilot digital marketing programs. It’s another thing to entirely to build, deploy and maintain them.

Marketing 120
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SMBs Unleash Your Intrinsic Motivation Through Social Selling

Increase Sales

Social selling for SMBs continues to be in the business and news. Sales experts and gurus continually write and speak about this “new way” to sell or to market. However, what many of these same experts fail to discuss is how social selling can unleash intrinsic motivation by working with instead of against the Theory of Self-Determination.

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Sales Motivation Video: What are You Going to Google Today?

The Sales Hunter

Do you have a thirst for knowledge? Are you perpetually curious? Successful people don’t stop at curiosity when something piques their interest. They actually track down more information. And Google can be one of the best ways to do that. Be the type of person who wants to keep learning, and you will find greater […].

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How Sales People Get Beyond First Base…

MTD Sales Training

Many sales people ask us for that ‘one thing’, the idea that will solve all their problems and enable them to hit their goals every time. The ‘magic pill’ if you like, that will make them their sales managers’ dream machine. Sorry, but there isn’t just one thing that will make you successful. But if there is one bit of advice that I can give you that will take your success further, it is this: ‘Do things that unsuccessful salespeople don’t’.

Education 120
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Gone in 8 Seconds: Overcoming Buyers’ Shrinking Attention Spans

Speaker: Jake Miller, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Allego

Buyers are savvier, buying teams are larger, and new research shows that buyers' attention spans have dropped to just 8 seconds. This means that the old approach of blasting buyers with email-heavy, generic communications no longer works. Instead, buyers need to be surrounded with relevant communications and personalized, self-service content throughout their journey.

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High Velocity Prospecting

Partners in Excellence

I’m a huge fan of high velocity outbound calls — at least when done well. Recently, I needed to buy a new car, my current car was coming off lease, I thought I’d take advantage of some of the end of quarter promotions. I did my research, narrowed down to a couple of different models, configured those models at the manufacturer’s sites (Build Your Car) to get an idea of pricing.

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Defining Sales Excellence: Can You Identify Your Top Performers?

Sales Result

Do you manage a team of sales reps with clear (or sometimes not-so-clear) over-performers and under-performers? Do you have a rep on your team who you wish you could duplicate? Are you able to weed the “A” players from the “C” players, and articulate why they fall in their respective categories? Simply put, are you able to define your Characteristics of Sales Excellence?

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Please Join me at Sales Machine in NYC June 15-16!

The Sales Hunter

Salesforce and Sales Hacker have teamed up to create a conference experience that connects the top B2B sales professionals with the most innovative best practices and advanced new technologies. The two days are action-packed and consist of 8 massive keynotes and 16 actionable breakout sessions. No matter what size company you represent, what industry […].

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BANT Sucks, Brand You Is Critical, And Why We Need Better Sales People

A Sales Guy

I did a fireside chat for the Denver Enterprise Meet Up. I don’t know what came over me, but I was in rare form. I was fired up. I shared my thoughts on the state of sales organizations today. On the patheticness that is BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing). I talk about how salespeople struggle with finding true business problems and more.

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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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Inbound Works—Until It Doesn’t

Partners in Excellence

I’m a great fan of inbound marketing/demand gen approaches. What sales person wouldn’t be? It’s great to be able to talk to someone who actually is interested in your products and services! Before the first conversation, you have a context of their interests. You know marketing programs they’ve responded to, you know the content, which provides an indication of their interest.

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Four Ways CPQ Improves Profit Margins

Cincom Smart Selling

Everybody loves profits, right? The more profit, the better. Profit is the ultimate KPI. Really, it’s just about the only KPI that matters over the long term. Rock star executives talk profits, and they are paid outrageous amounts of money to move the profitability needle just a tick or two in the right direction. When profits go down, Wall Street gets nervous.

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5 Ways Senior Leadership Can Inspire a Top-Performing Sales Culture [SlideShare]

The Brooks Group

Developing a healthy sales culture starts at the top with senior leadership. Check out 5 ways senior leadership can empower a top-performing sales culture in this quick slideshow. 5 Ways Senior Leadership Can Empower a Top Performing Sales Culture from The Brooks Group. download. NOTE: Our sales training tools are designed to make your life easier. Use them to your advantage.

Hiring 67
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Can You Compete And Win In The 21st Century? [Quiz]

A Sales Guy

80% of people aren’t ready for the 21st Century. This means fewer job opportunities, lower salaries, fewer promotions, more failed businesses, and more for those not ready. The Information Age has ushered in a new era of success and with it a whole new set of skills. How do you stack up? Are your skills up to par for the 21st Century or are you part of the 80% of people who aren’t ready?

Salary 61
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Drive GTM Efficiency with Tech Stack Consolidation

Consolidating your tech stack is an effective cost-saving measure that drives GTM efficiency and adds value to your enterprise. With a cohesive, integrated tech stack, your revenue teams can deliver an excellent customer experience that sets you up to win faster than your competitors.

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Complex Or Simple Buying Process

Partners in Excellence

Over the past few months, I’ve been reviewing a lot of my thinking about business to business buying and selling processes, and how we achieve success in both. I’m not sure I’ve changed any of my position, but perhaps clarified some of my thinking. Hope you don’t mind my “thinking aloud.” First, probably some definitions are in order, so we are at least on the same page.

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Medical sales reps – what do they like most and least about their jobs

Sales Training Connection

Medical device sales reps. Ever wonder what medical sales reps like most about their jobs? MassDevice reported the findings from a survey of more than 1,400 sales reps in the 2016 Best Places to Work in Medical Sales survey. Take a look at what they found: 72% of those responding were satisfied or very satisfied with their job. Nonetheless, about one-half said they were actively seeking a new job.

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Sales Development Leaders Must Serve Two Masters, Masterfully

SalesLoft

For the best sales development leaders , or leaders in any field, the focus is on service. In the green years of a Sales Development Rep, it would bode well to explore this outlook in order to accelerate contribution to their organization, and set their career on the brightest path. But without specifics, these words of inspiration are just a bunch of platitudes… Here’s how to genuinely apply the perspective of service to the role of the SDR as sales development leaders: SDRs serve 2