SBI Growth

OCTOBER 4, 2013

This blog addresses how sales reps can ensure their quota is realistic and attainable. Many sales reps are forced to accept a quota that is neither. Over 65% of Sales Goals are driven by Executive and Corporate expectations. If their projections are unrealistic, so are the sales reps’ quotas. Bottom-Up Quota Setting.

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Quota Ideal Customer Profile Territories Demographics 306

Zoominfo

DECEMBER 28, 2020

By definition, buying signals are the actions potential customers take that indicate they’re close to making a purchase. They’re customers’ verbal buying signals—the cues your sales agent homes in on when talking to a prospect. Your marketing and sales teams need both. How to spot buying signals.

Lead Rank 309

Lead Rank Intent Data Closing Buyer Intent 309

Score More Sales

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

Sales Tips and Strategies to Grow Revenues. 5 Tips for Lead Nurturing to Grow Your Sales Funnel. As a seller you are working hard to create a full pipeline (funnel) and now that you have all of these companies and some actual sales opportunities on your radar, how will you bring them to closure? Consulting.

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Top of Funnel Lead Rank Lead Scoring Lead Nurturing 284

The Pipeline

SEPTEMBER 11, 2018

Like retail, B2B sales has some seasonal trends that tend to fool the also-rans while bringing opportunity to those willing to make the effort. Most sellers have no clue how long their sales cycle is. As I have shared before when you ask sellers how long their cycle is, most respond “depends.” Do The Math.

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Buying Cycle Sales Cycle Quota Retail 203

SBI Growth

OCTOBER 29, 2012

This post will help you test a redesigned sales compensation plan to ensure cultural fit. Plus, you’ll find advice on compatibility with other sales effectiveness drivers. Let’s suppose HR is fully engaged for redesign of a 2013 Sales Compensation plan. HR even brought in an expert compensation firm. What can be done?

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Compensation Hiring Incentives Incentive 253

SBI Growth

DECEMBER 29, 2012

If you are a Sales Rep in this reality, ask yourself these two questions: Is my new quota fair? To meet my new quota, how can I find buyers ready to buy? Sales Reps with fair quotas and BANT qualified buyers blow away their numbers. This truth was reaffirmed recently when I interviewed a software sales rep named Geoff.

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Quota Sales Qualified Lead Top of Funnel Lead Qualification 287

Hubspot Sales

JULY 22, 2020

Sales always has been, and always will be, about closing the deal. But, sales professionals cannot rely on cold calls and haphazard prospect visits if they want to meet their sales goals and make it into the top 10%. Sales Productivity Tools. HubSpot Sales Platform. Gamifier makes sales performance fun.

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Tools Closing Territories Hubspot 131

SBI Growth

NOVEMBER 21, 2013

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. 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. Best Practices.

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Decision Maker Buying Cycle Maximizer Top of Funnel 320

Score More Sales

MAY 16, 2012

Do You Have a Sales Funnel? Are you part of a B2B sales organization proactively looking each week at what deals are in your sales funnel (or sales pipeline)? You have a robust, helpful CRM tool that gives you several helpful reports which you can review each week, and lists you can easily pull up on a just-in-time basis.

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Opportunity Pipeline Hiring Top of Funnel 206

No More Cold Calling

AUGUST 16, 2018

Far too many sales reps do. Perhaps if what you’re doing isn’t working, new sales techniques are in order? McKinsey summarizes this challenge in “ The secret to making it in the digital sales world: The human touch.” The researchers write: There’s no doubt that digital is rocket fuel for sales organizations.

Fashion 219

Fashion Buying Cycle Cold Calling Survey 219

Zoominfo

MAY 25, 2021

Yet a similar phenomenon has already happened with another technology: sales and marketing automation. . But more than 30 years later, we are still talking about these same productivity gains — and automation remains elusive for many sales and marketing teams. Why has automation failed to gain traction despite its obvious promise?

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Marketing Decision Maker Telecommunications Lead Rank 252

SBI Growth

AUGUST 16, 2012

As a quota carrying sales rep, you have a number to hit. Sign up for the Tour to learn how your peers are promoting themselves and driving sales this year and next. The reality is that B2B buyers today will progress almost 60% of the way through the buying cycle before they ever engage a sales rep. Case and Point.

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Social Media Lead Rank Ideal Customer Profile Networking 290

Score More Sales

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

Many sales reps and sales managers commented and shared about the previous post on How Salespeople Goof Up on LinkedIn so we were compelled to share more ideas to help sellers do better. First, I wanted to share that our blog is up for an AWARD – as one of the top Sales Blogs at Top Sales World. Close More Deals.

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LinkedIn Referrals Buying Cycle Twitter 247

Zoominfo

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

You might not think that automatic sales dialers have that much to offer you. What Is A Sales Dialer? A sales dialer is pretty much what it sounds like: technology that automatically dials numbers for salespeople. You’re a sales representative. Here’s where the sales dialer comes in. You have hundreds.

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Closing Call-back How To Outbound 264

The Sales Hunter

JULY 23, 2019

Below is a list of 20 things I have found in common with the top 1% of all sales prospectors. To be great at prospecting, you don’t have to be born with the “sales gene.” Check out my video where I talk more about what it takes to be in the top 1% of all sales prospectors: As you go through the list, don’t just read it.

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Prospecting Buying Cycle Social Media Segment 242

Score More Sales

AUGUST 26, 2014

Did you know you’re missing out on sales opportunities by having a poor mobile company website? Many of our clients don’t take advantage of these tools yet though. Finally, start measuring this information (see tools above). Lori speaks, writes, trains, and consults with inside sales teams in mid-sized companies.

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B2B Revenue B2C Ideal Customer Profile 232

Zoominfo

SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

As a B2B marketer or sales professional you have a number of things battling for your attention at any given moment. Compared to B2C marketing strategies, B2B marketers and sales professionals rely on educating their audiences to gain more leads and conversions. Pick out the right email automation tool. Email Automation Tools.

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Prospecting Scale Lead Nurturing How To 262

SBI Growth

OCTOBER 23, 2012

This is a post for any Sales Leader considering or using a buyer-driven sales process. During many of our training events for a sales process rollout, we’ll get the question “So I should just identify the buyer’s stage and go from there?”. It’s tempting for the sales rep to give in. Who doesn’t want the quick sale?

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Customer Buying Cycle Software Software 293

Sales and Marketing Management

JANUARY 26, 2018

Your sales team knows this, and they spend the majority of their time nurturing the best accounts, following the classic 80/20 rule. Now, imagine if you could influence that complex internal buying journey much earlier - reaching everyone who could influence your project. Why shouldn’t marketing do the same?

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Account Based Marketing B2B Marketing Buying Cycle 236

Openview

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

AM: Your research indicates over 40% of millennials are either making the buying decisions or influencing them today. What does this mean for marketing and sales tactics? AD: That’s right, marketers and sales reps need to get ahead of the game and start to adapt to this new environment.

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Buying Cycle B2C Demographics Intent 76

Sales and Marketing Management

MARCH 26, 2018

Despite the plethora of martech and sales enablement technologies now on the market, most sales teams are still performing at sub-optimal levels. With all these new tools making a salesperson’s job easier, there’s no excuse for your sales team not to excel. Author: Peter Gillett, CEO and founder, Zuant. No more, no less.

How To 218

How To Face-to-face Sales Qualified Lead Lead Capture 218

SBI Growth

AUGUST 12, 2012

Are you dependent on the top 20% of your sales force to ensure that you hit quota? 78% of the Sales VPs we speak with are worried about the disparity of their team’s talent. At SBI, we often see Sales Talent disparaged as the result of an ineffective Sales Training program. Sales Skills Overview/Best Practices.

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Ideal Customer Profile Training Buyer Follow-up 244

Allego

JANUARY 9, 2025

Medical device sales reps face greater challenges than ever, making sales certifications an essential tool for success. Further, regulatory pressures, complex buying cycles, and the rise of digital technology have transformed the way sales teams must operate. Thats where sales certifications come in.

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Hiring Marketing Exercises Scale 62

SBI Growth

OCTOBER 10, 2012

Follow these steps and you will produce quality leads for the sales force: Develop your Buyer Persona(s). The last chance to get free tools and hands on in-depth information on these steps ends October 31st, sign-up now for our Make The Number Tour HERE. ). Inventory your content. Connect your content to your buyer persona(s).

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Sales Qualified Lead Buyer Persona Leads Marketing Qualified Lead 244

Pointclear

JANUARY 31, 2012

Tony also served in the role of Vice President in Sales and Marketing capacities for TRW, Knight-Ridder, and Compaq (HP). Read Tony’s blog Buyerology Now for insightful commentary on the impact of changing buyer behaviors related to sales and marketing today. He holds a B.S. in Business and an M.B.A. in Marketing Management.

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Sales Process Lead Rank Sales Qualified Lead Buyer 194

Score More Sales

MARCH 8, 2012

In order to be most productive with the sales opportunities in your pipeline there are a number of people you need to know well. You’re done in by lost sales, missed opportunities, misaligned goals, and “no’s” toward the end of a prospective customer’s long buying cycle. Some are obvious.

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Pipeline Referrals Channels Buying Cycle 203

Zoominfo

AUGUST 7, 2020

Have you ever answered a phone call from a sales rep that couldn’t remember the details of your account? A 360-degree approach to viewing and managing customer relationships supports efforts at every stage of the sales funnel. Sales reps, execs, and marketers have a singular record for every contact and account.

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Ideal Customer Profile Customer Lead Rank Top of Funnel 246

The Pipeline

FEBRUARY 13, 2018

As with any tool or process, the measure of success should be the end, the outcome, not the means, in this case, the apparatus, process and the reams of data many of the tools regularly and ongoingly spew out. Much of the call for, and reasons for automation, related to what has come to be called “inbound” sales.

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Prospecting Cold Calling Lead Gen Inbound 262

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 31, 2024

We have pipeline quality, win rates, sales cycles, average deal sizes dialed in. At one time, we were focused on reducing the buying cycle. Just because we have so much data and a myriad of tools with which to analyze the data doesn’t mean all of it is important or that we need to establish so many metrics.

Ideal Customer Profile 127

Ideal Customer Profile Top of Funnel Pipeline Lead Rank 127

SalesFuel

DECEMBER 5, 2024

This powerful tool to master sales is asking for a referral. This Master Sales Technique is Underutilized Salespeople report that only 30% of their clients have given them a sales referral in the past year. Referrals as a Sales Process The solution is to concentrate on referrals as a sales process in and of itself.

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Ideal Customer Profile Hiring Referrals Sales Qualified Lead 59

Allego

JULY 9, 2020

Sales productivity has never been more important, yet sales teams today face tougher obstacles than ever as the current crisis makes most in-person interactions impossible. Almost 90 percent of sales have moved to a remote model since the pandemic began, according to McKinsey. Managing Virtual Teams in a Changing World.

Hiring 159

Hiring Training Scale Collateral 159

No More Cold Calling

APRIL 10, 2014

Your scoring tool takes note of this, prompting other actions. It gets even worse: Automated tools enable us to develop ‘pseudo connections’ and influence without even being aware of what’s going on. Everything comes crashing in when we recognize that sales and marketing is about establishing human connections. Not really.

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Webinar Metrics Small Business Small Business Buying Cycle 209

The Pipeline

MARCH 23, 2017

I was reminded of this while I was reading a piece in the Harvard Business Review , titled: “ The New Sales Imperative ” by Nicholas Toman, Brent Adamson and Cristina Gomez, the CEB team behind the Challenger Sales and Challenger Customer. This has inadvertently added complexity to the buying cycle and process.

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Buyer Face-to-face Vendor Buying Cycle 185

Lead411

NOVEMBER 7, 2024

B2B Sales Process: 9 Steps to Avoid Failure Succeeding in B2B sales heavily depends on using data strategically to target the right leads, personalize outreach, and close deals efficiently. Prioritize Leads with Intent : Focus on prospects showing high buying intent, as they are further along in the buying cycle.

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Ideal Customer Profile Lead Rank Sales Process B2B 52

Allego

JANUARY 16, 2025

Managing a sales team is no small feat. From setting clear goals to inspiring sellers to deliver peak performance, knowing how to manage a sales team can make or break a sales manager’s success. Heres a look at the key responsibilities every sales manager must know how to do. But the effort is worth it.

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Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring Strategy 62

Sales and Marketing Management

MARCH 8, 2020

Technology is increasingly creating the tools your competitors are using to build new digital products and services that target and release latent demand and serve unmet needs. There’s no reason it can’t have equally powerful impacts on B2B sales and marketing, but it’s in its infancy, experts say. “AI CRM will become more predictive.?AI

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Top of Funnel Marketing Scale Forecasting 218

Pointclear

OCTOBER 10, 2011

If you’re in sales, you might think this is an odd question or you might have a stronger, more visceral reaction to the question—“Marketing doesn’t sell, we do!” The line between sales and marketing is becoming more blurred every day. Marketing now owns the top of the traditional sales funnel.

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Demand Generation Agencies Top of Funnel Lead Rank How To 219