Partners in Excellence

MARCH 20, 2024

Our feeds are filled with hacks, prompts, “cheat sheets” offering things like, “What are key decision maker roles for this… ? What are qualifying questions… ? What are trends… ? ” I take these hacks, trying them out myself. How do I handle objections… ?”

Ideal Customer Profile 120

Ideal Customer Profile Revelation Decision Maker Face-to-face 120

Partners in Excellence

MAY 29, 2024

83% of customers not wanting to talk to sellers. ” We see this in all aspects of our lives. We see declines in engagement in so many aspects of our professional and other lives. Even in simple things like many of the purchases we make, we see and accept declines in quality and customer experience. Why do we settle?”

Education 108

Education Lead Rank Maximizer Survey 108

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 11, 2024

Very few people care enough to say, “Dave, you can do so much better… ” Jill and I share a common dream, how to make a difference—in the people/companies we work with, in our communities, and in society. In the past year, Jill has shifted her focus to a very important mission: What’s Really Possible?

Face-to-face 111

Face-to-face Sales Methodology Compensation Segment 111

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

It’s not just in our business lives, but permeates all parts of our lives. Pushing back and resisting, trying to change is tough. In business, we see the “de-humanizing” of so much of what we do. We leverage technology and other means to reduce our dependency on a stable, knowledgeable workforce.

Social Media 133

Social Media Face-to-face Margin Media 133

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 17, 2024

As much as we tire talking about the constancy of change, our jobs as sellers only exist because of change. As much as we tire talking about the constancy of change, our jobs as sellers only exist because of change. We want the customer to recognize and exploit a new opportunity, which mandates the use of our products and services.

Lead Rank 115

Lead Rank Analysis Incentives Incentive 115

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

AI is changing the world (“Wow, what an astute observation, Dave.”). The capabilities of the tools are evolving very quickly, our capabilities in using these tools are evolving much less quickly. It reduces what may have taken hours or even days to seconds. And it provides tremendous insight.”

Face-to-face 122

Face-to-face Journal Research Tools 122

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 12, 2023

We all know customer retention is important. Creating great customer experiences, making sure we deliver on our commitments, keeping them happy are critical. And most of the strategies seem built around customer retention. And most of the strategies seem built around customer retention. But are all of these enough?

Retention 129

Retention Maximizer Account Up-Sell 129

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 14, 2023

When one reads these articles, usually, the author is trying to sell the readers something. Hmmm, what am I missing? So what does this mean about selling? We use our personal buying experiences to support this. Customers increasingly want rep free buying experiences. There are all sorts of variations.

Retail 117

Retail Scale Margin Promotion 117

Nutshell

DECEMBER 22, 2023

Surveys are a fantastic way to gather unique data from your customers. Better understanding of customers: The data collected from your online survey tools can offer valuable insights about your customers and the customer journey in general. But you already know that, right? Take a look at 10 of the top survey tools below.

Survey 126

Survey Channels Google CRM 126

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 11, 2023

“We do not learn from experience, We learn from reflecting on experience.” This is such an important principle for all of us in selling and leadership, but somehow we seem so preoccupied with activity and busyness, we fail to take the time to reflect and learn from those. They don’t respond to our outreach.

Coaching 95

Coaching Quota Groups Data 95

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 27, 2024

We were prepping for a very difficult customer meeting this afternoon. As we discussed the situation, he described the difficulties this customer had created in the past, he talked about how unreasonable they had been, how they weren’t meeting commitments they had made to him. We only win when our customers succeed.

Conversion 101

Conversion Call-back Positioning Meeting 101

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 29, 2023

I’ve noticed a huge gap in how we equip and train our sellers, how we help them engage our customers in high impact conversations that focus on them and their problems, not pitching our projects. This gap became bigger with Challenger, as we equipped our people to provide “Insights.”

Analysis 119

Analysis Conversion Training Examples 119

SalesFuel

MAY 30, 2024

What do you want out of your first conversation with a potential customer? But, if you’re trying to be the most interesting person in the room, you’re doing it wrong. Still, the smartest shift to learning more is to ask appropriate questions. Occasionally, these fleeting exchanges add to our friendship network.

Conversion 105

Conversion Strategy Hiring Outbound 105

Partners in Excellence

MAY 25, 2024

I then try another approach, “If predictable revenue is a key underpinning of the SaaS business model, why are so many SaaS companies failing in meeting their goals? I then try another approach, “If predictable revenue is a key underpinning of the SaaS business model, why are so many SaaS companies failing in meeting their goals?”

Revenue 73

Revenue Ideal Customer Profile Scale Report 73

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

It’s no surprise, we have more demands on our time than we have time to fulfill those demands. For decades, technology continues to offer ways to improve our efficiency (and every once in a while, our effectiveness–but that’s a separate post). We change our minds and our positions constantly.

Meeting 121

Meeting Customer Service Buyer Positioning 121

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 22, 2024

Sometimes, I feel like a broken record talking about Customer and Business Acumen. Yet these same leaders complain about the ability to connect to prospects and customers. Yet these same leaders complain about the ability to connect to prospects and customers. I ask: “How does your customer make money?”

Customer 105

Customer Face-to-face Enterprise Enterprise 105

Smooth Sale

APRIL 16, 2024

Negativity hits each of us occasionally, and we wonder whether we will make a fool of ourselves or if there is a way past the situation to focus on what we most desire. Sometimes, walking alone is necessary to motivate our mind, body, and spirit to achieve new heights. We only have one life to live.

How To 120

How To Hiring Face-to-face Networking 120

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

But we attempt to make purposeful choices about how we invest our time This is what all the self-help books preach, and this is what we try to do to achieve our goals. What do I lose out on, if I choose to spend my time differently?” So we constantly make choices about how we spend our time.

Meeting 113

Meeting Study Groups Customer 113

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 6, 2023

Our product has these capabilities… ” They end it by asking to schedule a meeting or demo. These sellers never try to discover the problem, they assume the problem that supports their pitch. These sellers never try to discover the problem, they assume the problem that supports their pitch.

Face-to-face 113

Face-to-face Buying Cycle Customer Positioning 113

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 18, 2022

In this world, the ideal thing is the customer has educated themselves, is knowledgeable, may have a few final questions and issues (price is always the key one), and the customer makes a buying decision. We do everything we can to position our products favorably, but the reality is the customer has probably made up their mind.

Buyer 137

Buyer Face-to-face Groups Objections 137

Nutshell

MAY 20, 2024

There’s nothing worse than spending hours building a relationship with a lead only to discover months later that they don’t need what you’re selling. Table of Contents What is the sales discovery process? GET THE PLAYBOOK What is the sales discovery process? Download it today! Why is the sales discovery process important?

Sales Qualified Lead 71

Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring Leads 71

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 16, 2024

We are inspired by thousands of articles, podcasts, and videos–each offering the same answers to what we have to do to be successful. (I We know what we have to do, and, for the most part, each of us is well intended–we really want to do the things that cause us, our customers, and our companies to be successful.

Top of Funnel 108

Top of Funnel Funnel Pipeline Exercises 108

Partners in Excellence

MAY 10, 2023

One morning I was meeting with him, he had just returned from a trip, calling on customers and meeting with people in the branch offices in Boston. It was from a very important customer and was toughly competed. He met with the team to congratulate them on their success and to learn more about their strategies and how they had won.

Customer 90

Customer Proposal System Engineering 90

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

I’ve been reading some fascinating work on marketing, brand building, differentiation (Imagine ever learning something from marketers ) I listened to a fascinating webcast by Mark Ritson about Differentiation , take some time to listen to it. We look at how we (our companies/ourproducts) are different from the alternatives.

Banking 104

Banking Comparison Retail Trends 104

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

He was very focused on the customers and people he was prospecting. He researched others, understanding their roles and what their companies did, creating personalized emails. He researched others, understanding their roles and what their companies did, creating personalized emails. Let’s call him “Stephen.”

Ideal Customer Profile 122

Ideal Customer Profile Face-to-face Trade Show Prospecting 122

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 9, 2023

It was such a fun conversation, we focused on how we increase our effectiveness and impact through deeper understanding of our customers/prospects. Sam Coit summed it up well with the comment, “Understanding how different roles think and feel allows us to better cater our approach and offer the most possible value.”

Ideal Customer Profile 111

Ideal Customer Profile Customer Scale Face-to-face 111

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

” All of what I see from sellers leveraging ChatGPT and similar tools are well written, most are unimpressive. Before I dive into this discussion, I do recognize we are in the very early stages of learning how to exploit these tools for greatest value. Let me dive into what that means. Or are we misusing them, tragically?

Engineering 113

Engineering Ideal Customer Profile Lead Rank Airlines 113

Partners in Excellence

MAY 22, 2023

We use discovery to understand the customer’s needs, problems, requirements. Our focus on discovery is making an assessment, “Does the customer have needs and requirements that our products address, do we think we might have a strong possibility of competing and winning. But what about the customer?

Proposal 117

Proposal Education Resources Customer 117

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 25, 2024

We don’t have a set agenda, we talk about what we are seeing, usually it’s me whining about the state of professional selling. Our focus on beating the competition diverts our ability to drive substantively higher levels of performance, value creation, growth, and revenue through helping the customer solve their problems.

Competition 112

Competition Customer Buying Cycle Vendor 112

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

David, my team and I would love to get the chance to learn more about your company. The author started with the concept she had been taught, “Make it about the customer, tell them how you want to learn more about them, their strategies, and challenges.” What do you say? It’s just an example.

Company 106

Company Ideal Customer Profile Scale Construction 106

Smooth Sale

MARCH 21, 2024

Our guest blog offers innovative marketing techniques you may have yet to try but can help you connect with your target audience and elevate your brand. Whether you’ve succeeded with these traditional marketing techniques or are looking for a different approach, trying new marketing methods can be helpful.

Trade Show 91

Trade Show Marketing Social Media Referrals 91

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 7, 2024

and I don’t want to seem like I am micromanaging…… ” And I get a lot of, “Most of our meetings are on Zoom or Teams, that doesn’t seem it would work too well… ” As a leader, I have always biased my time to working with my people and supporting their efforts in working with their customers.

Face-to-face 111

Face-to-face Call-back Meeting Coaching 111

Alice Heiman

JUNE 5, 2024

“When I took a bite out of our Oreo cookie, I was like, okay, this is real,” Grayson recalls. They refined their offerings based on customer feedback, ensuring their cookies always arrived intact and delicious. And we succeeded on the first try,” Grayson notes about their packaging efforts.

Ideal Customer Profile 62

Ideal Customer Profile Scale Cold Calling Social Media 62

Smooth Sale

MAY 29, 2024

Photo by Geralt via Pixabay Attract the Right Job or Clientele: How To Make Your Business More Eco-Friendly To better preserve our planet for future generations, we all need to do our bit to tackle issues like climate change, deforestation, and pollution. Our guest blog offers insights on how to make your business more eco-friendly.

How To 78

How To Energy Nonprofit Transportation 78

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 29, 2024

The seller identified an issue he thought was impacting our company. We think you can be doing better……” Intrigued, it was an important issue (it always is for small businesses), I responded, “What causes you to say we face that issue and can do better? What have you seen that tells you we need to improve?”

Conversion 81

Conversion Microsoft Face-to-face Google 81

Partners in Excellence

JUNE 14, 2023

It’s the basis for continued learning and development in any subject area, domain, or profession. Foundational knowledge is the set of basic building blocks upon which we build our skills and abilities to perform. The ability to read, write, do basic mathematics, reason are critical to our ability to participate in society.

Hiring 76

Hiring Face-to-face Selling Skills Objections 76

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 15, 2023

We often gauge the quality of our conversations by the responses we get in those conversations. I have learned to gauge the quality of the conversation, the quality of engagement by the questions the people are asking. While I have created extreme examples, actually too many of our conversations tend to resemble this.

Lead Rank 113

Lead Rank Discount Conversion Lead Scoring 113