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To compete in any marketplace, especially the competitive arena of financial services, advisors, producers, lenders, and relationship managers must have a strategy for success. The top 7% of salespeople, the elite producers, certainly follow a sales strategy and can articulate what they do consistently to find and develop client relationships. There are many ways to differentiate and compete but there are 3 key areas to developing a competitive sales strategy.
We walked by a brackish pond and one morning it appeared that two of the fish had babies. Not just a few babies. Not a lot of babies. There were two schools of baby fish which, at first glance, appeared to be underwater swarms of bees! There had to be hundreds of thousands of them! My first thought was to calculate the percentage of baby fish that would survive their first year.
Our family of three walked into a store where we were invited to recline in an amazing smart chair. It had every bell and whistle you could imagine in a $10,000 massaging recliner. Aggressive salespeople are no more effective than passive salespeople but if I had to choose one over the other I would take my chances with the aggressive salesperson and attempt to get them to tone it down.
Every year, a major Greek Festival attracts around 20,000 food and culture enthusiasts. The festival team diligently works with nearly 100 vendors to ensure the event runs smoothly. While all vendors are eager for business, many fail to fully understand the event's needs or follow up on the results. Post-festival, the organizing team conducts a thorough review of all purchases to determine which investments were worthwhile and which could be eliminated.
AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.
Now that half of 2024 has passed, your executive leadership team will likely want to start thinking about starting the annual planning process for 2025. However, to know how to move your organization forward with your goals for next year, we need to look at how things have been going so far. Understanding where your business is on its growth plan at present is the first step to achieving commercial success in 2025.
Is your sales team not making full use of its CRM system? A new approach to training can foster empowerment and adoption, boosting performance and your ROI. The post Overcoming Your Sales Team’s Resistance to CRM appeared first on Sales & Marketing Management.
Is your sales team not making full use of its CRM system? A new approach to training can foster empowerment and adoption, boosting performance and your ROI. The post Overcoming Your Sales Team’s Resistance to CRM appeared first on Sales & Marketing Management.
Sales pipeline maintenance takes effort and discipline, but the payoff in terms of increased efficiency, accuracy and revenue makes it well worth the investment. The post 6 Keys to Effective Pipeline Management for B2B Sellers appeared first on Sales & Marketing Management.
For years, there has been skepticism about whether top sellers can become great coaches. While promoting top sellers into frontline management positions has historically carried some risk, today’s top sellers are far better prepared to become great coaches.
It’s virtually impossible to MAKE someone like you. However, with practice, you can be an immediately likable person and in sales, that may be enough. Likability is among the most basic effective sales techniques, but it develops only with consideration for your prospect’s personality. Early life encounters and social interactions are the trial-and-error method of getting along with others.
As sales leaders, we've all noticed a shift in buyer behavior over the past few years. At The Center for Sales Strategy, we've been tracking this trend closely, and it's clear that the landscape has changed dramatically. Recent studies, including one from HubSpot , suggest it takes anywhere from 12 to 15 touches before a prospect is ready to meet with sales.
Speaker: Alexa Acosta, Director of Growth Marketing & B2B Marketing Leader
Marketing is evolving at breakneck speed—new tools, AI-driven automation, and changing buyer behaviors are rewriting the playbook. With so many trends competing for attention, how do you cut through the noise and focus on what truly moves the needle? In this webinar, industry expert Alexa Acosta will break down the most impactful marketing trends shaping the industry today and how to turn them into real, revenue-generating strategies.
Revenue operations (RevOps) professionals are an increasingly important voice on go-to-market teams, with analysts predicting 75% of the highest-growth companies will soon employ a RevOps strategy. The reasons are clear: RevOps pros are the experts in streamlined processes and consistent, sustainable growth. And one of the clearest ways to deliver that value is through evaluation of a company’s go-to-market technology stack.
As a B2B salesperson for companies like IBM and Open Text, scheduling in-person meetings or phone calls was often challenging, regardless of my prospect or client’s industry or business size. Then, the game changed when I leveled up my sales email writing game with curiosity-provoking subject lines, strong body text, and compelling closing statements.
By integrating AI insights with the nuanced understanding and empathy of human sales coaches, organizations can foster deeper connections, trust, and mutual respect among team members. The post AI is a Game Changer for Sales Coaching appeared first on Sales & Marketing Management.
Our family of three walked into a store where we were invited to recline in an amazing smart chair. It had every bell and whistle you could imagine in a $10,000 massaging recliner. Aggressive salespeople are no more effective than passive salespeople but if I had to choose one over the other I would take my chances with the aggressive salesperson and attempt to get them to tone it down.
Are you struggling with slow quoting cycles, complex product configurations, and disconnected data in your manufacturing/distribution business? This article will help. Learn how industrial companies are revolutionizing sales processes with an integrated platform that includes quoting, inventory, and service, providing real-time data and offline access for field teams.
Emotional intelligence (EI) has emerged as a critical skill set for effective sales leadership. The ability to understand and manage one’s own emotions and those of others can significantly impact a leader’s effectiveness, team performance, and overall sales success. Here, we explore the top five emotional intelligence skills that highly effective sales leaders possess and how these skills can transform their leadership approach. 1- Emotional Regulation Emotional regulation refers to
When you think about online checkout experiences, odds are retail comes to mind. But over the past several years, digital checkout for B2B has seen an explosion in growth. In late 2021, a Gartner study revealed that 83% of B2B buyers prefer placing orders or paying for goods through digital channels. B2B consumers want the same seamless, product-led experiences they’ve grown to love with their favorite B2C brands.
We want our people to take initiative. When they see opportunities to drive greater success, we want them to seize those opportunities. When they encounter a difficult customer situation, we want them to figure it out and resolve it. While we develop playbooks, processes, and methodologies to help our people perform and succeed, these can never anticipate everything that will arise.
Photo by Geralt via Pixabay (inspiration) Attract the Right Job or Clientele: Crazier Ideas Yield Originality and Better the Outcomes Businesspeople know from the start that it is vital to build a standout brand to differentiate themselves from their crowded playing field. Doing the same as everyone else will only have them facing the need to quit. But if quitting isn’t in the cards, unique and seemingly crazy ideas become vital for long-term growth.
AI is reshaping marketing and sales, empowering professionals to work smarter, faster, and more effectively. This webinar will provide a practical introduction to AI, focusing on its current applications, transformative potential, and strategies for successful implementation in your organization. Using real-world examples and actionable insights, we’ll examine how businesses are leveraging AI to increase efficiency, enhance personalization, and drive measurable results.
The future of sales engagement tools lies in their ability to adapt to the changing regulatory landscape while continuing to offer value to sales teams. The post The Rise and Fall of Sales Engagement Tools appeared first on Sales & Marketing Management.
Thriving as an entrepreneur is an extremely attractive concept for many, and you can see why — the thought of applying your passion, dedication, and savvy to create and profit from something truly yours is starry-eyed daydream material. With that said, entrepreneurship is anything but easy to navigate (a wild take, I know) — and the life of a business owner comes with a host of challenges, choices, potential pitfalls, and common hiccups.
It’s become the fashion to apply lean/agile manufacturing approaches to our selling and GTM strategies. There are some principles we can learn from manufacturing (just as there are some we can learn from design/development, procurement and other sectors). But after spending years working closely with manufacturing executives, going through “Black Belt,” lean, and agile training programs, I have serious reservations about the rigidity with which these principles are being applie
Ever feel like you're giving a killer sales pitch, but your prospect just keeps staring at the wall? The truth is a one-size-fits-all sales approach rarely works. Prospects have unique personalities, and understanding these differences can be the key to unlocking sales success. But how can you possibly tailor your approach to every single person? The answer is to adapt your sales style to match your prospect's personality type.
ZoomInfo customers aren’t just selling — they’re winning. Revenue teams using our Go-To-Market Intelligence platform grew pipeline by 32%, increased deal sizes by 40%, and booked 55% more meetings. Download this report to see what 11,000+ customers say about our Go-To-Market Intelligence platform and how it impacts their bottom line. The data speaks for itself!
As CRM systems get smarter with integrated AI functionalities, sales reps will do fewer manual tasks and be free to engage their prospects and their teams. The post CRMs are Getting Smarter and Humanizing Outbound Sales appeared first on Sales & Marketing Management.
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John Stamos is known as one of the most recognizable actors on the small screen. But now, he is working behind the scenes with newcomer streaming service, Zeam. He has been appointed its Chief Innovation Officer. And, the story behind this unlikely collaboration sounds ripped from a primetime script… How a Sitcom Star Becomes a […] The post John Stamos’ Latest Move?
Speaker: Jennifer Hodroge, Omni-Channel Strategic Leader, Forrester CX Certified
Marketers know that personalization is the key to engagement—but with limited budgets and time, how do you prioritize what, where, and how to personalize? Aligning your content, campaigns, and buyer experiences requires a deep understanding of customer needs. In this new webinar with expert Jennifer Hodroge, we’ll explore how to leverage insights and customer journey mapping to build personalization strategies that deliver real impact.
B2B customers express increased interest in completing the sales process without contact from a salesperson. Can we be certain that AI won't completely replace reps? The post Will Your Next Rep Be a Bot? appeared first on Sales & Marketing Management.
Do you want more clients to serve? Do you want to build your business? That’s the main topic for every advisor conversation that I have. Often advisors are looking for the “big thing” to make this growth happen. Yet, there’s a problem with that mindset: from what I’ve observed, there often isn’t a “big thing” at all. Instead, it’s the consistent and persistent activity that eventually pays off.
I was tempted to title this post, Selfishness. But I realized I’m not really describing selfishness. Being self centered, we are focused on our own needs, desires, goals and aspirations. Selfishness, by contrast, is that same focus, but at the expense of others. The selfish focus on win/lose. It’s toxic and cannot be tolerated in any environment.
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