No More Cold Calling

MAY 3, 2018

Top sellers don’t wait. At least 57 percent of the buying process is complete before buyers ever contact your company. If you believe this widely quoted but ill-advised statistic, your lead generation techniques are doomed from the start. Stats like this suggest that buyers don’t really need salespeople anymore—that we should just wait around for prospects to do their research and then call us when they’re ready to buy.

Lead Generation 270

Lead Generation Lead Rank Lead Scoring Leads 270

DiscoverOrg Sales

MAY 8, 2018

“HOW THE %$#@ DID YOU GET THIS NUMBER? Take me off your call list!”. … Not really the cold-call response you’re looking for! But you’ve been pursuing this company for almost a year. You finally found a direct phone number for the perfect decision-maker – AND a hot tip that the company finally got funding in place to purchase a solution like yours.

Cold Calling 241

Cold Calling Prospecting Intent Data Intent 241

SBI Growth

MAY 7, 2018

Many CEO’s today lack confidence in their sales leaders to produce an accurate forecast. They have learned to apply algorithms to de-risk the number. This is a roller coaster ride that happens quarter after quarter of inconsistent forecasts. This problem.

Forecasting 218

Forecasting Pipeline Sales Strategy 218

No More Cold Calling

MAY 10, 2018

Don’t believe everything you hear about women. Women don’t speak up, don’t apply for jobs unless they meet 100 percent of the requirements, go unnoticed, and lack confidence. That’s why more of us haven’t broken through the glass ceiling yet. At least that’s what we’ve read in article after article. I’ve even written about how women in sales lack confidence.

Cold Calling 207

Cold Calling Influencer Study Call-back 207

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October Prime Day is usually an early sign of how consumer spending trends ahead of the holidays. This one was no exception. Our October Prime Day Report breaks down what’s working: the products flying off the shelves, the categories winning big, big brands, and the search terms defining demand. All brought to you via Similarweb’s Shopper Intelligence platform.

Trends

The Pipeline

MAY 8, 2018

By Tibor Shanto. I do a lot of work with organizations trying to improve their prospecting, and the piece they look to from me is the telephone component of a robust prospecting routine. The ones that do best are the companies where the leaders understand that they need their people using all tools available to them, not cherry pick the ones they like while ignoring the ones they don’t hate, like the phone.

Inbound 268

Inbound Call-back Cold Calling Objections 268

Sales and Marketing Management

MAY 28, 2018

Author: Cristina Gomez The war for top-performing sales talent has begun. By 2026, the number of open sales positions is projected to grow by more than 3 percent , putting the pressure on sales leaders and HR teams to attract top talent. In fact, according to CEB, now Gartner, sales leaders across the globe report sourcing quality sales professionals as a top challenge and priority for 2018.

Face-to-face 250

Face-to-face How To Salary Quota 250

DiscoverOrg Sales

MAY 1, 2018

Account based sales development is a sales process specifically designed for selling to enterprise companies. The process for selling into enterprise accounts differs from selling to small and mid-sized businesses: The key difference is that with account-based selling, reps sell to the account as a whole – in other words, instead of selling to individuals, they are selling to multiple stakeholders.

Account 276

Account Top of Funnel Decision Maker Segment 276

SBI Growth

MAY 30, 2018

Our guest today is Sangram Vajre, Chief Evangelist and Co-Founder of Terminus. Sangram is one of the 21 B2B influencers to watch by the B2B News Network. And many in the audience know Sangram as the founder of the #flipmyfunnel.

Account Based Marketing 273

Account Based Marketing Revenue B2B Networking 273

Zoominfo

MAY 13, 2018

It’s common knowledge that working in sales is hard. Yet—what most people don’t understand is the extent to which sales pressure can negatively impact an organization. Consider this: a recent survey ranked ‘sales account manager’ as one of the most stressful jobs in the US, with 73 percent of respondents rating the role as “highly stressful.” ( source ).

Hiring 258

Hiring Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring 258

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What if you could help your sellers stop wasting 72% of their day on non-selling activities and focus on bringing in revenue? Incorporating AI in your enablement workflows can help you cut down on busy work, get projects done faster, and let your team (and you!) focus on making a bigger impact. We put together this guide to show you how to use AI to cut time and costs for projects, including collateral creation, development of training videos, and automating tedious processes.

Sales Management

Understanding the Sales Force

MAY 30, 2018

I have written extensively about Sales DNA over the years and today we will view Sales DNA from the perspective of sitting inside of a chemistry lab. Sales DNA is the combination of strengths (or weaknesses) that support (or sabotage) the execution of sales process, sales strategy and sales tactics. Objective Management Group (OMG) measures and includes the 6 most powerful of those strands of Sales DNA in its 21 Sales Core Competencies.

Data 231

Data Groups Objections Sales 231

The Pipeline

MAY 15, 2018

By Tibor Shanto. Change is hard, and sales are all about change, and salespeople are always looking for the easiest way to get things done. Quite the mix! Add to that the fact that “change” is that it is constant, which would suggest that if you are in the business of peddling “change,” you should be inclined to change the way you work.

Education 222

Education Buyer Buying Cycle Objections 222

Sales and Marketing Management

MAY 23, 2018

Author: Kostas Chiotis Consumers are becoming increasingly swayed by social media posts when it comes to purchasing a product or service, making it a great platform for sales. Increasing sales via social media content, campaigns and outreach is really important part of a marketing strategy these days. But how do you convert your social media followers to purchasing customers?

Social Media 233

Social Media Channels Media Advertising 233

DiscoverOrg Sales

MAY 23, 2018

We hear a lot about sales and marketing alignment: How important it is for B2B, and how so few of us are doing it right. SALES: Marketing leads are crap. MARKETING: Sales is lazy. You guys take forever to follow-up on our leads – and you wonder why they don’t convert? [Rolls eyes.] SALES: They weren’t a good fit anyway. Why would we waste our time on leads that are never going to convert?

Lead Rank 257

Lead Rank Marketing Qualified Lead Lead Scoring Top of Funnel 257

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This guide is for leaders who recognize the importance of Salesforce but would rather trust a team of external experts to do the heavy lifting. Choosing the right managed services provider is a significant decision that impacts your business's efficiency and success. In this 10-minute read, you'll find 5 essential questions to ask any potential provider.

SalesForce

Connect2Sell

MAY 30, 2018

Can we talk about your sales process? It seems that every organization has invented its own sales process stages. Some of them are extremely complex; Others are as simple as three steps. Whatever your process looks like, the most important thing is to understand where your buyer is. You need to align your sales process with your buyer’s process to be relevant and to create value.

Sales Process 215

Sales Process Buyer Sales 215

Zoominfo

MAY 16, 2018

Digital marketing expert, Neil Patel , is a favorite here at ZoomInfo—and for good reason! Neil is a New York Times best-selling author, a leading online influencer, and he’s earned recognition from Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and Entrepreneur Magazine among many other leading publications. On top of that, Neil was named a Top 100 Entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a Top 100 Entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations.

Google Analytics 244

Google Analytics Top of Funnel Google Promotion 244

SBI Growth

MAY 10, 2018

Weeks and months of planning go into defining the optimal sales org design for your organization. Countless meetings and analysis comparing the benefits of hunter/famer, stratification, product specialization or other org designs. Time is spent defining the role SDR’s, Sales.

Analysis 214

Analysis Benefit Meeting Sales 214

The Pipeline

MAY 22, 2018

By Tibor Shanto. If you want a safe bet, always bet against the clowns who prophesy the coming decline in the ranks of salespeople, professional, or the usual types that call on you. For years people and “sales experts,” have been telling us that sales as a profession, was going to shrink dramatically and salespeople will be replaced by a host of more efficient and cost-effective alternatives such as automation, artificial intelligence, and more.

Lead Rank 212

Lead Rank Lead Scoring Sage Segment 212

Speaker: Brendan Sweeney, VP of Sales at Allego

Maximizing sales rep performance is no easy task. 📈 Traditional sales training methods focus heavily on the first few weeks in the sales role. Companies dedicate time, resources, and budget to onboarding new hires, only for them to forget what was learned in those first few weeks, lose motivation, and struggle to come to grips with their role.

Hiring

Sales and Marketing Management

MAY 18, 2018

Author: Maura McCarthy, Vice President, Communication Solutions, ITA Group, Inc. In today’s experience economy, more and more consumers prioritize doing over having. That includes all generations, not just millennials, as recent surveys indicate nearly 75 percent of consumers prefer to increase spending on experiences rather than physical possessions.

B2B 221

B2B Customer Social Media Face-to-face 221

No More Cold Calling

MAY 24, 2018

That bright, shiny object might be rustier than you think. If you’re researching the latest and greatest sales trends, you just might fall victim to the bright-shiny-object syndrome. Trends mean nothing unless you include your buyer in your research. Just because certain sales prospecting techniques are all the rage, doesn’t mean they’re right for you or for your buyer.

Prospecting 196

Prospecting Social Media Trends Face-to-face 196

The Sales Heretic

MAY 22, 2018

Every sales manager I’ve ever talked with has agreed on one thing: The single biggest challenge salespeople have is closing the deal. There are two reasons closing is such a big problem. One is psychology. The other is physics. PHYSICS?? That’s right, physics. Let me explain. First, the psychology part. When we’re selling (and especially [.].

Closing 193

Closing Sales Management Objections Sales 193

Zoominfo

MAY 10, 2018

Under constant pressure to meet quota, productivity is at the forefront of every sales rep’s mind. Yet, regardless of the many sales productivity tips and tricks published online, 65% of B2B organizations say they still struggle with sales productivity ( source ). Although the sales productivity quandary can be attributed to many different factors—it’s largely due to bad habits formed after years of sales experience—bad habits you’re likely not even aware of.

Cold Calling 236

Cold Calling Top of Funnel Direct Mail Referrals 236

Speaker: Laura Noonan, Chief Revenue Officer at CallFinder + Angie Kronlage, Director of Program Success at Working Solutions + April Wiita, Vice President of Program Success at Working Solutions

Are you still manually reviewing calls? 🤔 It's time for a change! The traditional method of manual call monitoring is no longer cutting it in today's fast-paced call center environment. Industry experts Angie Kronlage and April Wiita from Working Solutions are here to explore the power of innovative automation to revolutionize outdated call review processes!

Call Monitoring

SBI Growth

MAY 25, 2018

Should you cover the entire market or double down on your sweet spot? You’re a CEO who just missed the quarterly number for the 3rd time in a row. You know what happens next. You are on the hook to.

How To 204

How To Marketing Segment Campaigns 204

The Pipeline

MAY 3, 2018

By Tibor Shanto. In disruptive time you need to take a disruptive approach to learning and adopting, One method that allows you to better understand something you have been close to for some time is to look at it through a new set of filters. Not as hard as you might imagine, if you are willing to let go and assume you were doing something entirely different but required similar thought, analysis and decision process.

Airlines 206

Airlines Sports Health Care Analysis 206

Sales and Marketing Management

MAY 3, 2018

Author: David Sill, DiscoverOrg As sales and marketing professionals try to navigate a world increasingly crowded by new technology, which can admittedly automate and streamline many aspects of our work, sometimes there is simply no replacement for making a human connection. Yet, if you research cold calling on the internet, you’ll find blog posts, articles and essays all preaching the death of the cold call.

Cold Calling 220

Cold Calling Survey Education Research 220

Understanding the Sales Force

MAY 7, 2018

Whichever way you turn, wherever you look, and whatever you listen to there is data. Polls, surveys, metrics, analytics, analyses, white papers, graphs, charts, infographics, tables, spreadsheets and more. There is data everywhere. 5 of my last 10 articles were based on data and I know that my regular readers love the articles that are based on data so I am writing about data again today.

Data 192

Data Closing Survey Analytics 192

Speaker: David Nisbet, Everett Zufelt, and Michaela Weber

Once upon a time, in the vast realm of online commerce, there lived a humble checkout button overlooked by many. Yet, within its humble click lay the power to transform a mere visitor into a loyal customer. 🧐 💡 Getting checkout right can mark the difference between a successful sale and an abandoned cart, yet many businesses fail to make payments a part of their commerce strategy even when it has a direct impact on revenue.

Sales

Openview

MAY 30, 2018

We’ve all heard Tom Cruise’s famous line from Jerry Maguire, but showing your sales team members the money is often a complicated equation. In this guide, you’ll find tips for designing sales compensation packages that yield results and actually scale. As most CEOs have discovered at some point, sales compensation is very often a delicate balancing act.

Compensation 147

Compensation Top of Funnel Commission Lead Rank 147

Zoominfo

MAY 17, 2018

Are your sales forecasts tied to reality? Is sales forecast accuracy more of a pipedream within your sales organization? Does the speed of your sales pipeline resemble molasses? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re not alone. In fact, less than half of all forecasted sales opportunities actually result in a sales win. Just under a third result in a competitive loss, and nearly a quarter result in the prospect deciding to do “nothing” ( source ).

Sales Forecasts 232

Sales Forecasts Forecasting Pipeline Scale 232

SBI Growth

MAY 3, 2018

You just reviewed the final management consulting presentation. You and your team buy into their recommendations and the evidence used to justify the approach. Owners are assigned for each deliverable and you should start seeing results in less than 3.

Tools 199

Tools Strategy 199