The Sales Readiness Blog

AUGUST 12, 2022

In prospecting, the only thing worse than not setting a prospecting appointment is setting an appointment with the wrong prospect. Meeting with an unqualified prospect is a huge waste of time and can clog up your sales pipeline with bad opportunities.

Ideal Customer Profile 52

Ideal Customer Profile Meeting Prospecting Demographics 52

The Sales Hunter

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

Mark’s Insights on PROSPECTING. Mark’s Insights on PROSPECTING. Selling a Price Increase. 7 Sales Prospecting Ideas That Work. Here’s a list of 7 sales prospecting ideas you can use right now: 1. Give away prospects to others. You heard me — give away prospects. prospecting.

Motivation 275

Motivation Prospecting Hiring Ideal Customer Profile 275

Mr. Inside Sales

MAY 22, 2021

Mindset determines the actions you take, how you deal with adversity, how much you use good selling skills (and how much you invest in them), and how you adapt to the changing conditions around you. Think carefully, because nothing (in my experience) is more predictive of results than mindset. And a lot more! Get Access Today.

Face-to-face 178

Face-to-face Gatekeeper Decision Maker Licensing 178

Gong.io

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

Qualifying prospects is a critical step in the sales process. It keeps you from spending time on opportunities that are unlikely to convert. How do you determine if a prospect is a good fit for your products or services? It helps sales teams qualify prospects and determine if they have a high chance of converting.

Sales Qualified Lead 62

Sales Qualified Lead Ideal Customer Profile Prospecting Decision Maker 62

The Sales Hunter

FEBRUARY 8, 2012

Mark’s Insights on PROSPECTING. Mark’s Insights on PROSPECTING. Selling a Price Increase. How “Social Media” Can Be Part of Your Prospecting Strategy. I encourage you to read Lauren’s article and then actually apply some of the insights she offers to your business marketing strategy.

Social Media 189

Social Media Media Strategy Prospecting 189

The Sales Hunter

JANUARY 3, 2012

Mark’s Insights on PROSPECTING. Mark’s Insights on PROSPECTING. Selling a Price Increase. 5 Secrets to Get Better Prospecting Leads. There are 5 secrets used by top-performing salespeople to get better prospecting leads. The reason these are great prospects is simple. Client List. Testimonials.

Motivation 195

Motivation Leads Marketing Qualified Lead Prospecting 195

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 10, 2014

Let''s see, there''s prospecting, qualifying and closing, and then there''s.wow, this is difficult! The biggest changes since our original set of 21 Core Competencies in 1994 are the inclusion of categories that compliment our dashboards as well as the inclusion of Sales Posturing and Social Selling. They are marketing themselves.

Top of Funnel 309

Top of Funnel Social Selling Funnel Promotion 309

Partners in Excellence

JULY 14, 2023

We can spend a lot of time focusing on specific selling skills, for example questioning, probing, objection handling, presenting skills, closing skills. Some of the more advanced thinkers will focus on value creation or Business Focused Selling (which is another of my hot buttons.

Ideal Customer Profile 87

Ideal Customer Profile Pipeline Margin Construction 87

Klozers

APRIL 11, 2016

In the world of sales; Selling Skills can make the difference between a Rainmaker and a Bank breaker for most businesses. Analysing and testing these skills in sales people is difficult, as often they can appear pitch perfect in the office but never quite seem to get matching results in the field. 2) Closing New Business.

Selling Skills 20

Selling Skills Decision Maker Ideal Customer Profile Face-to-face 20

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 5, 2021

Perhaps the biggest thing that impacts our performance is we don’t know who our customer, we define our ideal customer in such vague terms that we waste a lot of time and brand equity on customers that we should never be selling to. We get prospecting outreaches from companies that should never reach us. A phone number?

Ideal Customer Profile 111

Ideal Customer Profile Customer Pharmaceuticals Microsoft 111

MTD Sales Training

APRIL 19, 2020

In addition, it states that “Sales reps can reach more customers with virtual selling or even reach customers in various geographical locations.”. Here are some ideas that will help when you are holding a virtual meeting with a prospect online. Don’t try to ‘sell’. The world has slowed down considerably, but not stopped yet!

Meeting 156

Meeting Face-to-face How To Call-back 156

Sales Management Plus -- SMP

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Identifying and sharing successful strategies across your team gives everyone an opportunity to improve, not just those who are already succeeding. Sales Activity Gap = # of opportunities closed by reps with the most activities – # of opportunities closed by reps with the least activities.

Distribution 52

Distribution Retention Sales Cycle Selling Skills 52

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 18, 2022

We toss the term around casually, but when I look at too many pipelines or prospecting programs, the ICP is not discernible. We have a tendency to try to sell to anyone. Are they the leaders in their markets, are the middle players, are they laggards? Filling our pipelines with the wrong opportunities lowers our win rate.

Ideal Customer Profile 48

Ideal Customer Profile Customer Pipeline Enterprise 48

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 3, 2022

Many have argued abandoning the Selling Process, focusing on the Buying Process, in the least we must align the selling process with the buying process. We even create charts of the stages customers go through, aligning them with our selling process. For example, Prospecting might be aligned with Problem Determination.

Analysis 117

Analysis System Selling Skills Buyer 117

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 31, 2022

There are several reasons, I think this is a critical selling skill and responsibility. It’s about figuring out how we might leverage that data to better understand the customer, how we might help them, and where we have opportunity to create value. We need to understand the data relative to other organizations (i.e.

Research 62

Research Outsourcing Services Ideal Customer Profile Data 62

Vengreso

JUNE 12, 2023

Prospects do not want to be sold to. Instead of reading like a resume (which does nothing to earn the trust of prospects because it appears as though sellers are seeking new opportunities), a branded LinkedIn profile should include buyer-centric messaging that reveals who they help, how they help, and who they’ve helped in the past.

Ideal Customer Profile 122

Ideal Customer Profile Decision Maker Travel Social Media 122

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 14, 2022

In our own organizations, we have to do with much less, many marketing and sales programs are being stopped or eliminated, all spending is being reassessed. And then the layoffs–we see reductions in marketing, sales enablement, sales ops, customer service headcount. They are focused on the basics of selling.

Outsourcing Services 131

Outsourcing Services Ideal Customer Profile Hiring Face-to-face 131

Highspot

JANUARY 9, 2024

It starts with prospecting for potential leads, then moves through to negotiation and closing the deal. Each stage requires specific selling skills to satisfy prospect needs. Objection handling: Sales reps address any concerns or doubts the prospect might have, showcasing their expertise and the value of their solution.

B2B 52

B2B Training Top of Funnel B2C 52

Hubspot Sales

APRIL 30, 2020

It listed information for all the prospects in my California territory including the company name, revenue figures, address, telephone number and — of course — the decision maker’s name and title. The training program, called "Professional Selling Skills," took a then-new consultative approach to sales. Preparation.

Sales Process 141

Sales Process Webinar Metrics Face-to-face Sales Qualified Lead 141

Vengreso

AUGUST 21, 2023

In the digital era, sales professionals need to embrace social selling training to remain relevant and successful. This equips them with vital skills to engage with prospects on their preferred social media platforms, building meaningful relationships that lead to increased revenue. Nurturing prospects.

Social Selling 52

Social Selling Training Outsourcing Services Top of Funnel 52

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

Yeah, I know many of you will say, “Well dugghhh, Dave, we know all about it and how important it is, after all, we’ve been selling for years… ” The reality, as I review pipelines, win/losses, deal strategies, the biggest challenges most people face is the opportunities aren’t really qualified.

Ideal Customer Profile 68

Ideal Customer Profile BANT Pipeline Margin 68

Sales Hacker

DECEMBER 9, 2022

Every organization needs to choose the markets and buyers they want to focus on, and concentrate their efforts on those buyers. Sales leaders often evaluate prospects and existing customers based on readily available information — order history, and firmographic data (company location, size, industry, etc). And the stakes are high.

Lead Rank 98

Lead Rank Territories Lead Scoring Quota 98

The Digital Sales Institute

FEBRUARY 9, 2018

Taking a sales skills course is the most purposeful route in enhancing a wide range of selling skills including cold calling, telephone sales, business development, closing, social selling, sales prospecting and sales presentations amongst others. Works hard to develop an understanding of the prospect’s needs.

Course 56

Course Selling Skills Social Selling Decision Maker 56

Hubspot Sales

MARCH 19, 2018

Top challenges facing salespeople in 2018 included: Creating a targeted prospecting strategy. Building the right sales skills. Creating a targeted prospecting strategy. The Challenge: Selling today requires more resources. And this means adopting a brand-marketing mindset. Understanding how buyers make decisions.

Ideal Customer Profile 143

Ideal Customer Profile Lead Rank Lead Scoring Decision Maker 143

Crunchbase

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

And now, due to the zeitgeist of COVID-19, more salespeople than ever are looking for the personal independence and career autonomy to sell what they want, when they want, from where they want. It’s time to rethink how to grow a sales team in a way that capitalizes on the realities of these new underlying market conditions.

Trends 105

Trends Hiring Scale Compensation 105

Gong.io

JANUARY 1, 2021

But first, here is how NOT to do it (and unfortunately how so many buyer personas are built): When marketing organizations are not sales driven, you end up with the above scenario. Marketing builds a buyer persona that is filled with a bunch of information that does not help sales do anything! Also, this is not a one and done exercise.

Buyer Persona 118

Buyer Persona Strategy Ideal Customer Profile Hiring 118

Mr. Inside Sales

JANUARY 4, 2016

In fact, this pressure is also felt in the accounting department, the marketing department, and everywhere else. As you speak with your clients and prospects this week, realize that they are all feeling this pressure as well. While this may seem like a bad thing, it can actually present a great opportunity for you.

Webinar Metrics 120

Webinar Metrics Selling Skills Resources Training 120

The Digital Sales Institute

MARCH 12, 2024

This approach allows the prospect to raise any objections or doubts that they have so the salesperson can handle them and get agreement. The Fear of Loss Close FOMO or fear of missing out selling capitalizes on a buyers fear of missing out to drive engagement, urgency, and action. What concerns do they have?

Closing 52

Closing Objections Buyer Proposal 52

Smooth Sale

NOVEMBER 12, 2022

Networking is front and center for building any business because it opens up new opportunities and leads. A networking event gathers people in an inviting space to provide new business connections and opportunities. These events help you increase name recognition and build prospective customer relationships. Plan Ahead.

Networking 78

Networking Social Media Hiring Promotion 78

Gong.io

AUGUST 10, 2022

Being a pushy salesperson who only focuses on their product’s features and benefits won’t get you very far in today’s market. That’s not great for them, but it presents an opportunity for everyone else. . For instance, a strong relationship with your buyer can help you discover opportunities you might have missed.

Consultative Selling 62

Consultative Selling ACT Cold Calling Buyer 62

Highspot

JANUARY 14, 2024

Initially viewed as a cost-effective selling strategy primarily for lower-value accounts, virtual selling has now gained favor for a broader range of opportunities. Skills You Need to Excel at Virtual Selling To excel in virtual selling, a blend of traditional sales skills and digital fluency is vital.

Quota 52

Quota Face-to-face Ideal Customer Profile How To 52

Mereo

MAY 19, 2022

He joins Mereo for a sales internship and will assist Mereo clients with their sales programs, as well as build on his prospecting, marketing and social selling skills. Sydnie is a rising senior at The University of Alabama, Huntsville , majoring in Digital Marketing.

Hiring 36

Hiring Social Selling Analytics Selling Skills 36

Increase Sales

JANUARY 11, 2013

Smaller firms, those (95.4%) do not have marketing departments because they cannot afford that expense. Prospecting is a marketing skill not a selling skill. Marketing must be handled by individual sales personnel. ” Any improvement in sales skills is self initiated by each salesperson.

Small Business 152

Small Business Small Business Outbound Inbound 152

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 3, 2022

So the selling process covers critical marketing, sales, and some customer experience activities. This broader view of the selling process is even more critical when we look at the increasing preference of customers to leverage digital tools in their buying process. These systems come with an embedded process and stages.

Ideal Customer Profile 90

Ideal Customer Profile System Up-Sell Sales Process 90

Women Sales Pros

DECEMBER 27, 2018

Time to apply the emotional-intelligence skill of reality testing and seeing things for what they are. The irony behind this selling scenario is that there are other salespeople at the company selling the same products and services — at full margin! They simply need to hire a pleasant person to take phone orders.

Hiring 93

Hiring Margin Selling Skills Discount 93

Hubspot Sales

OCTOBER 9, 2019

So, how can you improve your sales skills? Below, you'll learn how to develop your sales skills and improve your performance on your team. Sales training and professional development opportunities can keep your skills fresh. Getting comfortable breaking up with prospects. Challenging prospects on why they're stuck.

Film 138

Film Hubspot Sales Cycle Lead Rank 138

Gong.io

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

Remote sales or virtual selling is the process of prospecting, engaging, and closing deals from a remote location. Instead of traditional in-person sales meetings, the salesperson and the prospect are in different places such as their home or work. Why remote selling is the future of sales . Keeping prospects engaged.

Face-to-face 108

Face-to-face Decision Maker Lead Rank Pipeline 108