Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

Companies are spending more money on sales force evaluations, sales training, consulting, sales leadership development, sales process, infrastructure and sales recruiting services than 5 years ago. During 2009, only those companies with cash and a willingness to spend it - mostly mid-market companies - were hiring salespeople.

Sales Management 288

Sales Management Hiring Compensation Trends 288

SBI Growth

MARCH 4, 2013

Think about boosting your company’s bottom line by $10M a year. Your Company. Dig in to these questions to be sure: Process issues: Do recruiter incentives include speed to fill or low vacancy metrics? When a candidate is hired, they need to be onboarded to your company. They find leads themselves through prospecting.

Outsourcing Services 326

Outsourcing Services Hiring Lead Nurturing Demand Generation Targets 326

Salesmate

JUNE 4, 2021

One such practice is that of providing sales incentives to the salespeople. What are sales incentives? Call it what you will, incentives are what get people to work harder.” – Nikita Khrushchev . In simple terms, sales incentives are something that motivates your team to wake up in the morning and get to work.

Incentives 105

Incentives Incentive Compensation Motivation 105

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 14, 2025

When salespeople aren’t hitting quotas, companies need to hire more salespeople, which increases the cost of recruiting, salaries and benefits, not to mention the costs associated with hiring additional sales managers that won’t coach up their salespeople. This is problematic for more than the obvious reason.

Data 227

Data Hiring Compensation Quota 227

SBI Growth

OCTOBER 21, 2013

Incentive Programs. Does your comp plan incent behaviors that will get you to your number? A majority of reps focused on margin, and gave up prospecting for new accounts. He wanted the market to view his company as the place for ‘A’ players. Systems should be mobile friendly, allowing data to be entered while on the go.

Hiring 293

Hiring Ideal Customer Profile Margin Face-to-face 293

Zoominfo

MARCH 10, 2021

SaaS companies that use this method are defined by having sales teams in the field that explain the concept in depth in order to show the customer why such a high outlay is expected on their part. An active sales team can help educate your prospects and sell at non-discount rates. Enterprise Sales. ’ Avoiding Common Pitfalls.

Hiring 162

Hiring Company Enterprise Enterprise 162

Zoominfo

SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

In fact, 55% of customers say that they now trust companies less than they used to ( source ). The good news is, there are plenty of ways for your company to earn trust and loyalty from your customers, even in today’s busy marketplace. Then the prospect makes a purchase, and suddenly they’re on their own.

Loyalty 206

Loyalty Customer Incentives Incentive 206

SBI Growth

NOVEMBER 30, 2013

But depending on your company’s holiday policy, you may have as few as 15. How should the top sales leader in the company utilize this limited time? Isn’t this table stakes at your company? Are they adept at Social Prospecting? Take vacation when your customers and prospects take vacation. They are relevant.

Policies 303

Policies Incentives Incentive Channels 303

SBI Growth

MARCH 29, 2013

This Social Selling skill works with your customers and prospects. It also works with the peers and co-workers within your own company. Incentive Structure. Even when their virtual team has no monetary or organizational incentive to do so. When you give, others are more inclined to give back.

B2B 293

B2B Commission Incentives Incentive 293

Crunchbase

APRIL 6, 2023

When it comes to keeping sales reps happy and quotas attained, what worked over the past few years is no longer working One solution is the introduction of a sales incentive program that encourages reps to work toward a goal and receive recognition. A client of ours that sells hardware was having trouble driving revenue to a new product.

Incentives 98

Incentives Incentive Hiring Top of Funnel 98

No More Cold Calling

FEBRUARY 13, 2025

A sales strategy isnt about tools or trendsits about how your company attracts and serves customers. Yet, too many sales leaders fall into the trap of believing the latest digital sales tools or automation platforms will solve their sales prospecting problems. Marketing isnt a strategy. Emphasize mentorship and coaching.

Referrals 207

Referrals Face-to-face Sales Leadership Quota 207

SBI Growth

SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

Steve is a VP of The Americas of a large enterprise software company. Change the compensation plan to incent new logo growth by adding an accelerator. These are the common tweaks companies deploy. Why are reps not being taught how to generate demand in the new prospects? An Example. Improve new logo acquisition by 11%.

Compensation 325

Compensation Social Media Incentives Incentive 325

No More Cold Calling

JANUARY 16, 2020

I’ve been there—given a quota (usually without my input) and a list of client companies, and then told to “go at it” and do whatever it takes to get meetings. So, your first action is to SHOW your sales team your commitment to prospecting through referrals. Create company metrics. Yep, most of us are lazy and lack discipline.

Referrals 328

Referrals Sales Management Hiring Scale 328

Crunchbase

NOVEMBER 9, 2021

Lead generation is pointless if it doesn’t result in a prospect and a conversion. Before we dive into how to drive conversions, let’s first unpack the difference between a lead and a prospect, and how to turn one into the other. Grow your revenue with all-in-one prospecting solutions powered by the leader in private-company data.

Sales Qualified Lead 111

Sales Qualified Lead Lead Scoring Lead Rank Prospecting 111

Zoominfo

MARCH 6, 2019

It’s common for companies to have a system in place to encourage referrals. Not every referred prospect will become a customer, but the increased conversation about your company and products will strengthen your brand and help maximize your reach. Choose the right incentives. Referrals boost brand awareness.

Referrals 197

Referrals Ideal Customer Profile Marketing Incentives 197

No More Cold Calling

APRIL 20, 2017

Here’s how to cure your prospecting problem. What’s to fear about prospecting? The marketing department mailed VHS tapes (yes, it was that long ago) about our new product to VPs of Sales at Fortune 1000 companies. That may seem absurd today, but it was a creative prospecting strategy in 1995. Surprised? Good question.

Cold Calling 249

Cold Calling Referrals Sales Qualified Lead Promotion 249

Hubspot Sales

MAY 22, 2018

Has your company ever considered/used a product like this before? If there's no real problem the prospect is trying to solve, there's no real reason for them to buy. Establish business pain (either from a known issue, or from a problem the prospect wasn't even aware of) before diving into other questions.

Prospecting 145

Prospecting Hiring Decision Maker Sales Qualified Lead 145

Sales and Marketing Management

OCTOBER 15, 2020

The following week, the company’s 90-plus employees were told they would be working remotely indefinitely, as it became clear the global COVID-19 outbreak made office settings unsafe. Phone2Action employees were appreciative of office breakfasts and all-hands happy hours that had become a staple of the company’s team-building efforts.

Incentives 227

Incentives Incentive Face-to-face Survey 227

Sales and Marketing Management

OCTOBER 29, 2018

This kind of content positions you as a thought leader in a given field or industry, does not contain a sales pitch, and should never mention your company or brand except as the source of the content. For example, if your company caters to clients in the finance industry, it behooves you to publish something in Forbes. Whitepapers.

Top of Funnel 237

Top of Funnel B2B Webinar Metrics Marketing 237

SBI Growth

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

The holidays are an obstacle to getting face time with prospects and customers to secure those last minute deals. Do not address risk at the company level. Offer a small incentive for closing these deals in Q4 (cash is always good). How do you know if these late stage deals will close in Q4? Q4 is difficult. Risk is personal.

Closing 303

Closing Lead Rank Lead Scoring Customer 303

Zoominfo

AUGUST 2, 2020

But have you ever stopped to think about where these companies get their data and what makes it better than the rest? As the name suggests, fit data helps find leads that are fit to be a customer for your company. Fit data helps marketers score and segment prospects into personas suitable to be in your customer base.

B2B 245

B2B Data Vendor Intent Data 245

Zoominfo

JUNE 10, 2018

Most of the time, when a prospect says, “I can’t afford it,” they’re not usually talking about price at all. You can talk until you’re blue in the face, but until your prospect sees your product in action, they won’t truly understand its value. If your prospect seems hesitant, ask questions of your own to get them talking.

Objections 239

Objections Case Study Face-to-face Study 239

Zoominfo

OCTOBER 18, 2018

Often, your product pages exist to simply introduce visitors and prospects to your goods and services—enticing them to learn more. If you include too much information at once, you risk losing a prospect’s interest. This requires some sort of incentive. In this instance, the incentive must be the value of your product.

B2B 203

B2B Case Study Ideal Customer Profile Study 203

Sales and Marketing Management

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

Companies should deploy customer-centric business models to deliver outcomes rather than just products. As companies adopt these models, the lines of sales and services begin to blur. They were also able to use analytical and predictive tools to determine which clients or prospects were most at risk and better develop mitigation plans.

SAP 207

SAP Compensation Face-to-face Analytics 207

criteria for success

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

If you’ve been a sales manager for a while, it's inevitable that one or more people – or even your entire sales team – will get into a prospecting or selling slump. 7 Sales & Prospecting Slump-Busters. Have everyone set an individual weekly goal for how many prospecting activities they will perform.

Prospecting 105

Prospecting eBook Lead Rank Lead Scoring 105

No More Cold Calling

JANUARY 31, 2025

These pain points hurt team morale and your bottom line: Pain Point #1: Your team struggles to get meetings with prime prospects. Prospects dont know you, dont trust you, and dont want to take your call. When your reps are introduced to prospects by a trusted connection, they no longer start the sales conversation as strangers.

Referrals 156

Referrals Scale GoldMine Pipeline 156

Pointclear

FEBRUARY 7, 2018

Not only does this single-criteria measurement perpetuate the downward spiral represented by most companies’ poor sales results, it also reduces ROI on short- and long-term marketing and sales investments. Which of these scenarios do you want to bet your company on? Take a look at the following cost per lead comparison.

Cost per Lead 204

Cost per Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring Marketing Qualified Lead 204

Zoominfo

MARCH 19, 2018

Social selling is a sales technique that leverages social networking sites to identify prospects, build relationships, and ideally, close more deals. It provides an advanced search option to find your ideal buyers, based on specific criteria such as job title, company size and more. ZoomInfo ReachOut. LinkedIn Social Selling Index.

Social Selling 227

Social Selling Tools Lead Rank Lead Scoring 227

Zoominfo

JULY 1, 2018

30% of companies say their social selling training needs ‘a complete overhaul’ ( source ). Social sellers realize a 66% greater quota attainment than those using traditional prospecting techniques ( source ). That way, you’re armed and ready to respond to prospects who may already be influenced by online reviews.

Buyer 190

Buyer Social Media Social Selling Incentives 190

Zoominfo

MAY 13, 2018

Start small, and expand your incentive program as you learn and grow. Think about this way, if you don’t make prospecting a daily habit and only focus on the deals at hand, how will you meet your goals next month or the month after that? Look into prospecting tools. Do yourself a favor and build up your pipeline as you go.

Hiring 258

Hiring Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring 258

Sales and Marketing Management

MARCH 19, 2018

Author: Matthew Sunshine More than 40 percent of salespeople claim that lead prospecting is often more difficult than qualifying and closing the actual deal. It’s easy for prospecting to get pushed to the back burner, especially when dedicated time isn’t set aside for the task. Don't be like those companies.

Sales Qualified Lead 221

Sales Qualified Lead Marketing Qualified Lead Leads Lead Generation 221

No More Cold Calling

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

The first is Sue, a successful field sales manager in a tech company. And while high-tech might still be a male-dominated industry, that doesn’t mean women aren’t welcome in most companies. She’d been there … as a customer of incentive compensation and a lover of performance management. The Not-So Technical Sue.

Cold Calling 266

Cold Calling Loyalty Account Intent 266

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 14, 2014

Salespeople with a lack of Commitment don''t have the incentive to change. It''s a conversation that different from what most salespeople are having with their prospects and it relies heavily on effective listening and note-taking skills. They are conditionally committed. Not really.

Consultative Selling 257

Consultative Selling Training Conference Coaching 257

DiscoverOrg Sales

NOVEMBER 27, 2017

Target your best-fit prospects. In order for your message to be relevant, it has to speak to a prospect’s specific situation. And no one has resources to waste on poor-fit prospects. Find look-alike companies. Engage these good-fit prospects via email, PPC ads, or social media. Run re-marketing ads to free content.

Lead Rank 196

Lead Rank Marketing Qualified Lead Sales Qualified Lead Top of Funnel 196

Zoominfo

JUNE 25, 2021

Number of emails sent helps companies understand the number of prospects discovered per number of emails sent. It also helps assess prospect interest in messages sent by your team. and appointments made with prospects. Customer acquisition cost tracks the amount it costs your company to acquire a new customer.

Sales Qualified Lead 227

Sales Qualified Lead Top of Funnel B2B Lead Rank 227

Sales and Marketing Management

JUNE 26, 2018

I like to think most people want both their company and themselves personally to succeed. Our experience with sales incentive programs demonstrates answering these five questions in a way that satisfies salespeople will not only align their goals to yours, but dramatically increase your sales results. What is it you want me to do?

Incentives 174

Incentives Incentive Compensation Lead Rank 174

Zoominfo

MAY 20, 2021

That statistic alone offers an incentive for brands to take a closer look at their email marketing strategy and to maximize return. You can engage prospects throughout the customer life cycle. At this stage, email is used to welcome new prospects at the beginning of the purchase journey who have filled out a form on your website.

Email Marketing 264

Email Marketing Benefit Webinar Metrics Marketing 264