Sat.Oct 12, 2019 - Fri.Oct 18, 2019

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The 5-Step Formula for a Reliable Sales-To-Service Handoff Process

Sales Hacker

Want happy employees, happier customers, and more revenue? The secret may surprise you… It’s as simple as a solid sales-to-service handoff. For several years, I ran account management at a marketing agency — a business model infamous for mismatched expectations and subjective quality of delivery. I’ve seen lots of good AND bad handoffs, and learned what to look for the hard way.

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The 3 Ds of Time Management

The Center for Sales Strategy

It’s no secret time management is one of the highest requirements for succeeding in sales. Consistent questions heard within the industry are, “What are some ways I can improve my time management?” and “How can I be more efficient?”. There are a multitude of strategies to help us be more productive, but they can be difficult to adopt because they force us to go against routines we’ve had for years.

System 77
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Unscalable: How to Build Relationships at Scale

Anthony Iannarino

Much of what I write here is going to be anathema to a particular variety of sales experts and those who read too much into the idea that relationships are no longer critical in sales. Much of the dominant opinion that relationships don’t matter in sales stems from the book, The Challenger Sale. But were you to ask the authors, they would tell you that “challengers” had the second-highest score on relationships, and it was just a smidge behind “challenging.

Scale 104
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The step-by-step guide to building an effective sales strategy

Zendesk Sell

In construction, it’s impossible to erect a building if you don’t have one critical document — a blueprint. Steel frames, power tools, and a team of builders are all important elements, but they’re useless if you don’t have a document to guide the process. Like a blueprint is essential for constructing buildings, you need a strategy as a manager to build a successful sales department — a step-by-step plan to help you and your team drive company revenue.

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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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Sales Compensation Planning: 5 Tips to Improve Performance in 2020

Xactly

Sales incentives are the number one driver of team performance. Improve your team's performance in 2020 with these five sales compensation planning tips.

More Trending

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Timing In Prospecting is a Mug’s Game

The Pipeline

By Tibor Shanto. At one time, I had a co-worker who had a bit of a problem with the horses. He always knew just the right horse, in the right race, cause “today was the day.” He handicapped it, and every day he knew why his timing was just right; each day, it was not. A lot of people in sales remind me of a conversation I had with Leon. They seem to be convinced that not only is sales about timing, but they have divined a way to leverage it to their advantage.

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Get in any door

Sales 2.0

When I started selling technology I was told to get to the office at 8AM so I could cold call CIOs and catch them before their assistants came in. When I did succeed in catching a CIO on the phone (one in say 50 dials) they nearly all dismissed me as a time waster. In fact, looking back on my efforts, I agree with them. I was a time waster. I didn’t have any knowledge of their organization and issues.

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The Pros and Cons of Following Sales Playbooks

SBI

The Pros and Cons of Following Sales Playbooks. When you think of a “sales playbook”, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? If you’re thinking of a plan or guidebook for your sales team to follow, you aren’t too far off. Most of us will agree that planning your work and working according to plan is a good idea. Yet not all sales workflows are created equal – there are some pros and cons to keep in mind before you decide whether a playbook is right for you.

Scale 101
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How Effective Listening Helps Build Customer Relationships and Close Deals

Sales and Marketing Management

Author: Rafael Lourenco When you work for a B2B company, it’s easy to assume that your customers and colleagues make their decisions based only on ROI and other data. However, the higher you move in the hierarchy of an organization, or the closer you get to sales activities, the more your day-to-day life becomes about interacting with people – colleagues, bosses, investors, board members, employees and customers.

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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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Get Your “Foot in the Door” with this Sales Cold Email Template

Zoominfo

Cold email is one of the most common and tested tactics in a modern salesperson’s repertoire. And yet, sales reps still look for ways to improve their sales email strategy. It’s not hard to see why — after all, only 24% of sales emails are opened ( source ). Fine-tuning your cold email strategy might not make your open rates skyrocket to 90%, but it can make a major difference.

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Sales Process and Why So Many Salespeople Lose Their Way

Understanding the Sales Force

Last night I was on Interstate 90, the MassPike, driving home from the airport in a wind-driven rainstorm. It was so bad I couldn't see the white lines that divide the three lanes nor could I see the Jersey barriers dividing the eastbound from the westbound traffic. It was almost as scary as the plane's rocky decent from 30,000 feet in gale-force winds last night or driving in a blizzard!

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Why Sales Is Not a Profession

The Sales Hunter

Recently, I had a discussion with a sales manager about how to connect with customers. This was no casual conversation; it was serious, because he was with a start-up company who had 18 months at best, to achieve critical mass. The sales manager knew me well from my work with him at a previous company. The longer the conversation, the more animated we both became.

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One Question to Close More Demos

Mr. Inside Sales

Have you ever gotten to the end of your demo and wondered how it was going to end? Wondered not only if the prospect was going to move forward, but also what it would take and how long that might take? If you have, then you’re probably missing one of the most important “pre-qualifying” questions you should be asking on each and every demo call before you launch into your actual presentation.

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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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8 Ways to Increase Landing Page Conversion Rates

Zoominfo

Your marketing landing pages may receive a ton of traffic – but are you converting those visitors to leads? For marketers, there’s nothing more frustrating than low landing page conversion rates, especially when it’s difficult to determine what the cause is. Likely there are many reasons why your landing pages may be suffering from low conversion rates.

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Critical Thinking Skills Examples to Boost Your Credibility

Connect2Sell

At the risk of sounding preachy, we’re continuing what we started last week in the CONNECT2Sell series on Critical Thinking. Last week, we looked at truth as an absolute standard that buyers demand. This week, it’s a similar take on credibility because that, too, is in short supply (at least according to buyers!).

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Ease Compliance Woes with Better Data Management Processes

Sales and Marketing Management

Author: Ben Thoren This past May marked the one-year anniversary of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a data privacy regulation that has had a significant impact on the way enterprises process and store personal data. With this particular regulation and others like it being enacted across the globe, data privacy has become a mission critical priority.

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Asking for a pay rise, differentiate from the competition

MTD Sales Training

Episode 37: Asking for a pay rise, differentiate from the competition, quote from Jill Konrath. In this episode we take a look at how you can prepare for and confidently ask for a pay rise. Our skillspill identifies the best ways to follow up with customers. And our Inspire Me quote comes from Jill Konrath. Take a look at this episode on [link]. The post Asking for a pay rise, differentiate from the competition appeared first on MTD Sales Training.

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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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Get Your Foot in the Door with these Sales Cold Email Templates

Zoominfo

Cold email is one of the most common and tested tactics in a modern salesperson’s repertoire. And yet, sales reps constantly look for ways to improve their sales email strategy. It’s not hard to see why — only 21% of emails from email campaigns are opened. Fine-tuning your cold email strategy might not make your open rates skyrocket, but it can make a major difference.

Scale 113
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9 Insider Tips for Closing More B2B Sales

Hubspot Sales

It’s no secret that selling to other businesses is tricky. You simply won’t succeed if you don’t take B2B selling for what it is: a high-stakes selling game that requires an entirely unique approach from direct-to-consumer selling. Before we dive into the insider tips, let’s get crystal clear on what B2B selling entails. When done right, B2B sales have the potential to be both extremely lucrative and deeply rewarding.

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Mr. Play It Safe Always Loses

Grant Cardone

Trying to avoid danger in a world that is filled with it is impossible. Bad things happen to good people every day. Sometimes you lose money before you make money. Customers betray you for the competition. Your spouse leaves you. Employees screw up. The stock market will not coddle you and the economy punishes good people and bad people alike. By being careful and trying to avoid danger, people actually spend their lives in danger.

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Prospecting Dress Rehearsal and Warm-ups

The Pipeline

By Tibor Shanto. Some may not like to say it, but there is a lot of theater in sales. Sometimes drama, sometimes comedy, at times tragic, but sales is a performance art. Once you accept that, it becomes easier to accept some of the up-front work, rehearsal and more that goes into a successful sale. Practice, warm-up, dress rehearsal and all. Much like actors warm up physically before each performance, so should professional sellers.

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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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Setting Sales Managers to Fail

Engage Selling

Are you setting your sales managers up to fail? A few years ago, I met an executive running sales teams who had recently been promoted to the role. He gave new meaning to the term “hands off.

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15 Key Integrations Between CRM & Your Other Business Processes

Hubspot Sales

If you are getting acquainted with your CRM software and are impressed with how it functions independently, allow us to introduce you to your new favorite feature — integrations. While CRM software is powerful on its own, integrating your CRM with other tools across your sales stack makes your job so much easier. Ideally, your CRM should serve as the core hub to all of your sales activities, and integrations serve as the supporting cast making your central software even more powerful.

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A fresh perspective on the Challenger Sale research

Membrain

First published in 2011, “The Challenger Sale” must be one of the most widely-read sales books of the past decade, and with good reason. Together with its successor “The Challenger Customer” (which I believe is an even more influential book), it served to introduce powerful new perspectives about today’s increasingly complex B2B sales environment.

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Productivity May Not Be What You Think It Is

Anthony Iannarino

One of the reasons you might not be as productive as you want to be is because the idea isn’t well defined. Many people who believe they are productive, are not. Not To-Dos. It is not crossing off tasks off a to-do list. No matter how many tasks you complete during a given day, you still may not have been productive with your time. You might have cleaned your desk and cleaned up the files on your desktop before you started work.

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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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Deal Strategies, Helping The Customer Buy

Partners in Excellence

Recently I wrote, “ What If We Kept The Target Close Date Sacred ?” It focused on improving our pipeline management, discipline, and integrity. But the way we address these issues is in our deal strategies and how we engage the customer in each deal. Most of the time and too much of our training focus on the things we must do to sell our solutions to the customer.

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Startup sales: Should you sell the future vision or the current reality of your product?

Close.io

As a founder, you have a vision for the potential of your startup. You have a successful company with a team of amazing people. You’re working on an awesome product that solves your customers' needs better than anything else in the marketplace, and your customers love you. Then, you open your eyes and look at what’s there, now, in reality: a struggling startup, a crude and buggy first version of a product.

Scale 91
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Podcast 120: Future Proofing Your Sales Career With Anita Nielsen

John Barrows

This week we have Anita Nielsen on the podcast. The Author of “Beat The Bots” has lots of thoughts on how sales is changing and the increasing role of technology in the profession. The average sales rep needs to change, because simple sales activities can become automated in years to come. Along with this, Anita tells John how she advises reps on future proofing their careers and learning an essential sales skill, empathy.

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