Bernadette McClelland

MARCH 18, 2013

'3 leadership lessons from my Nana. I have 45 first cousins on my Dad’s side of the family. My Dad is the middle child of 13 children. My nana was widowed when my Dad was only 7 (you can do the maths). Clearly she was a born leader. You can imagine 70 odd years ago the lack of resources this family would have had especially after my grandfather died without leaving a will, when hand me downs was the norm, barefoot was as common as daylight and sardines on toast or bread and dripping was a treat.

Fashion 358

Fashion Resources Lead Rank Lead Scoring 358

SBI Growth

MAY 31, 2013

'Some reps are convinced they can’t sell a new product. The next day, another rep does just that. Why is this? How can some reps be so effective and assertive, and others so passive? Confidence and belief are certainly big parts of the equation. The other part: exceptional storytelling. Here’s a great example: Rick, a sales rep with a wholesale coffee company, calls on a new prospect.

Infusion 335

Infusion Decision Maker ACT Follow-up 335

Steven Rosen

AUGUST 12, 2013

'By Steven A. Rosen. I just had a conversation with a sales executive who asked me “what is the role of the sales manager?” This executive was frustrated by poor sales and felt that the sales managers could be doing more to meet sales objectives. I agree that the sales manager’s goal is to meet or exceed sales objectives. On the other hand, the role of the sales manager is very different.

Hiring 335

Hiring Sales Management Coaching Objections 335

The Sales Heretic

JUNE 24, 2013

'Your company has too much money. I understand. It’s a common problem. Clearly, you need to get rid of some of it. But how? Marketing! But not just any marketing—it has to be bad marketing. Because good marketing is actually an investment—it will generate more sales, making you more money. And you wouldn’t want that, [.].

Marketing 329

Marketing Prospecting Company Sales 329

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Trends

The Pipeline

MAY 17, 2013

'The Pipeline Guest Post – Megan Totka. Customers are the lifeblood of any business, and attracting new customers while strengthening your relationships with existing ones is a constant challenge. The best way to do so, however, is a matter that often leaves your sales and marketing staff at odds. Your sales force is focused primarily on closing the deal and landing new customers, while your marketing department wants to nurture customer relationships before and after the sale.

Ideal Customer Profile 327

Ideal Customer Profile Social Media Customer Sales Management 327

No More Cold Calling

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

How to stop undermining your performance, and save your sales. Getting caught in the cyclone of a vicious sales cycle is a looming trap. Take one wrong step, and you’re pulled into the eye of the storm. Sales quotas loom, and we neglect the basics of customer interaction, respect, and basic sales behaviors. There’s no way out. My colleague, Andy Paul, author of Zero-Time Selling , clearly describes four sales traps that stem from bad habits.

Sales Cycle 315

Sales Cycle Lead Rank Lead Scoring Quota 315

Jeffrey Gitomer

JULY 2, 2013

'We''ve Moved! Update your Reader Now. This feed has moved to: [link] Update your reader now with this changed subscription address to get your latest updates from us.

Cold Calling 315

Cold Calling Loyalty Customer Service Customer 315

MTD Sales Training

OCTOBER 8, 2013

'I’ve had the privilege of working with many salespeople in my career and have seen a great number of successes gained by these highly-prized professionals. Sometimes, I’m asked what makes. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

How To 313

How To Sales 313

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 13, 2013

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Did you happen to see the movie Gravity? Early in the movie the two astronauts, played by Sandra Bulluck and George Clooney, lose communications with Houston. From that point on, they don''t stop talking to Houston, they don''t stop reporting in, they don''t change protocol. What they do change, is they add a phrase to the beginning of each message.

Decision Maker 313

Decision Maker Proposal Sales Cycle Exact 313

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Sales Management

Score More Sales

JULY 11, 2013

'Looking back, I remember thinking that Ron had some sort of memory problem. He was my sales colleague. We both were account managers selling millions of dollars worth of technology to a major aircraft company. Between us, we sold more than $30M a year of items selling for $20 or $100 or $5000 each. Ron and I would meet with various decision makers who were involved in a project that would involve thousands of the items we sold on one contract.

Sales Qualified Lead 309

Sales Qualified Lead Opportunity Lead Rank Lead Scoring 309

Bernadette McClelland

AUGUST 20, 2013

'It’s a beautiful day and I can’t see. I don’t know whether you have seen the YouTube video clip titled The Power of Words link here but it is really quite powerful and a great lesson for us in our business and personal relationships. It portrays a man begging for money with a cardboard sign that says ‘I’m blind, Please help” and a only few people toss him coins.

Influencer 337

Influencer Proposal Analytics Conversion 337

SBI Growth

JUNE 5, 2013

'Sales Leaders miss or make the number one sales call at a time. Yet they typically don’t pay enough attention to each call. They look at each rep’s performance to quota. They review the pipeline. These are difficult to control. Sales leaders can control the quality of sales calls every day. Great single sales call execution will lead to great results.

Objections 335

Objections Coaching Follow-up Lead Rank 335

Steven Rosen

DECEMBER 17, 2013

'Guest Post by Jeff Shore: An excerpt from “Be Bold and Win the Sale” by Jeff Shore. Available from McGraw-Hill Business in January 2014. Several years ago my wife and I took swing dance lessons in preparation for our son’s wedding; we wanted to dance without looking foolish. (OK, I wanted to dance without looking foolish.) Learning to dance was uncomfortable and often frustrating but we eventually got to the point where we could pull off a few moves.

Face-to-face 316

Face-to-face Energy Twitter Follow-up 316

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SalesForce

The Sales Heretic

MARCH 19, 2013

I was meandering through a store recently when I came upon a display for a new electric toothbrush. The biggest, boldest words on the signage and the packaging were “New Quadpacer Mode!” I thought to myself, “Finally! I’ve been waiting my whole life for someone to make a toothbrush with Quadpacer Mode! I love Quadpacer [.].

Benefit 329

Benefit Marketing Sales 329

The Pipeline

DECEMBER 6, 2013

'The Pipeline Guest Post – Jeff Shore. Adapted from Be Bold and Win the Sale by Jeff Shore. Available from McGraw-Hill Business in January 2014. . In his (amazing) book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman touches on a fascinating concept that he calls, “The Law of Least Effort.” Kahneman states that, “…if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will gravitate to the least demanding course of action.

Energy 322

Energy Twitter Course Research 322

Bernadette McClelland

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

'Are you a ‘more or less’ person? You may be better at doing a task than I am. However, I am not less than you. Let me explain… 27 years ago a little girl from a broken home never got to know her dad because he chose not to include her in his life. Growing up she placed this man on a pedestal, hoping one day he might notice her and invite her into his world.

Influencer 337

Influencer B2B Opportunity Positioning 337

SBI Growth

JULY 21, 2013

'The sales field is suffering. Customers are suffering. Sales forces lack buyer-centered tools for success. When will Sales catch up with Marketing? Sales field alignment with the modern day buyer requires more than lip service. This blog is focused on the transformation of Sales to incorporate buyer-centered tools. CMO’s can help sales make the number in 2014.

Top of Funnel 335

Top of Funnel Marketing Decision Maker Infusion 335

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

SBI Growth

APRIL 27, 2013

'Read on to learn if your Reps today are right for the future. This post is especially for HR Leaders and Business Partners in support of sales. Sales personnel will also benefit from the indicators of obsolescence. These are available in the downloadable tool: The 13 Symptoms of Sales Rep Obsolescence. The Problem: The buying environment has dramatically changed.

Buyer Persona 335

Buyer Persona Networking LinkedIn Trends 335

SBI Growth

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

You don’t want a new job. You want to excel at the job you already have. To do that, you must outperform your peers and close more deals. So your success tomorrow depends upon your pipeline today. In today’s environment, a quality pipeline starts with LinkedIn. This post describes the Social Seller's strategy to grow their prospect list through LinkedIn.

LinkedIn 335

LinkedIn Pipeline Decision Maker Referrals 335

SBI Growth

JUNE 26, 2013

'Are your prospecting skills keeping pace with the market? Phone and email are losing their appeal. Now LinkedIn is the best way to reach your Buyer. To be effective on LinkedIn, carefully consider how you correspond with your extended network. Every word must be carefully chosen. You are selling yourself in order to sell your product. This article outlines how to write effective prospecting messages on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn 334

LinkedIn How To Ideal Customer Profile Networking 334

SBI Growth

AUGUST 7, 2013

'Not all “A” Player sales reps were meant to be managers. If you’ve been in sales long enough, you’ve seen this mistake unfold. The newly promoted manager repeats behavior that made him successful as a rep. He neglects his skill development and sales initiatives. His team flounders. He tries to do it himself. Before the year is over, he’s back in the field or on the street.

Construction 334

Construction Ideal Customer Profile Territories Compensation 334

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

JANUARY 12, 2013

As the head of sales you can become overwhelmed with technology options. With limited time, how do you prioritize initiatives? We will discuss how your sales organization can prepare to utilize technology effectively. Many sales organizations are using new technology to automate broken processes. Why? They are looking for a quick fix. This leads to a lack of faith in the technology.

Sales Methodology 335

Sales Methodology Hiring Forecasting CRM 335

SBI Growth

MARCH 12, 2013

Your ears should perk up when you hear of a major Google algorithm update. Marketing leaders immediately want to know if they were affected. Understanding the implications and knowing the go live date is your team’s priority. The faster you uncover any surprising change to search traffic, the faster you can be reactive or proactive. Be optimistic that the changes will favor you.

Strategy 334

Strategy Marketing Google Buyer Persona 334

Bernadette McClelland

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

'Follow the crumbs. We all remember the story of Hansel and Gretel and how the idea of leaving a trail of breadcrumbs would eventually allow them to find their way out of the forest. There are two pertinent messages that come out of this story: I have no idea why kids stories were so scary and. Following the trail of crumbs in business can lead us to bigger and better results.

Discount 334

Discount Conference Lead Rank Lead Scoring 334

SBI Growth

FEBRUARY 11, 2013

Over the last 18-24 months Sales Operations leaders have experienced Diminishing Authority. Diminishing Authority is easy to spot. The Chief Sales Officer is not relying on Ops to translate data into insight. Ops remains close to the CSO but marketing, finance and HR are more influential. Sales Ops has lost some of its credibility. Diminishing Authority has two root causes: Another department has collected superior data – Have your peers outpaced your evolution?

Collateral 334

Collateral Customer Service Data Buyer 334

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

SBI Growth

MARCH 11, 2013

In B2B corporate environments, Social Selling gets a Sales Rep’s foot in the door. But the transition from a virtual conversation to a real opportunity is complex. During this transition, Reps are met with a wall of bureaucratic process and resistance. This article is for B2B Sales Reps who work in complex sales environments. I discuss how these Reps align themselves with the Buyer’s process to be successful.

Buyer 333

Buyer B2B Lead Rank Lead Scoring 333

SBI Growth

MARCH 30, 2013

As a Marketing Leader, you hear Pinterest in the news. The key question is should we be using Pinterest ? Will it work for complex product/service offerings with 6+ month buying cycles? The answer rests with the target audience of your Ideal Customer Profile. Will your potential buyer consume content on Pinterest? To help you make a decision, let’s break it down below.

B2B 332

B2B Ideal Customer Profile B2C Marketing 332

SBI Growth

APRIL 16, 2013

'You are a B2B Sales Rep with a new product to sell. Do you know who your Buyer is? New company, new division, or new product, you must ask that question. This article discusses how Sales Reps define their Buyer as a Persona. I describe how to use LinkedIn as a source to create these Personas. Then I provide a Persona Builder tool to organize your effort.

Buyer Persona 332

Buyer Persona Buyer LinkedIn Outsourcing Services 332