Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 24, 2022

While you're alone with your group at the front door and until you reach your table you must wear your mask. However, there is a sales equivalent to the stupid restaurant masking requirement and that is what we will discuss in today's article. Have you or your salespeople ever been told by a prospect that they can't:

Airlines 334

Airlines Prospecting Policies Groups 334

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 14, 2025

I read the majority of the reports, studies, white papers, and books related to sales development because others in the field might stumble onto a trend, an insight or a statistic of which I was not aware. That’s why I downloaded Xactly’s 2025 Sales Compensation Survey. This is problematic for more than the obvious reason.

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Data Hiring Compensation Quota 227

The Pipeline

JULY 16, 2019

For sales, that common purpose something other than an “enemy.” The common goal in sales is winning your prospect’s prospect. Again, this makes the people your prospect is trying to win, your responsibility as well. Our prospects’ buyer’s objectives and requirements are the common and crucial factor.

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Prospecting Trade Show Objections Buyer 284

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 13, 2024

Sales leaders accomplish the same thing when they prepare a salesperson with powerful messaging and talking points. Moses returned to God and spoke of this obstacle, or in sales terms, objection: There was internal competition! As with God and Moses, both sales coaching methods should have a role-play component.

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Coaching Hiring Scale Sales Leadership 194

The Pipeline

JULY 29, 2020

Voicemail is a great example in sales, there are as many opinions as there are pundits. It’s about voicemail for buyers vs. voicemail with prospects. Before voicemail, 1979, when we sold directly one-to-one at one time, synchronously, even when selling to a group, direct. More callbacks lead to more prospects.

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Buyer Prospecting Call-back Cold Calling 289

Zoominfo

JANUARY 23, 2021

If your sales pipeline is colder than a Siberian spigot in January, it’s time to rethink your sales prospecting techniques. Here’s the thing though, reps need actionable techniques and tips to make their prospecting systematic, smooth, and, of course, profitable. What are Prospecting Techniques? Let’s jump in.

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Ideal Customer Profile Prospecting Cold Calling Decision Maker 264

Zoominfo

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

Want prospects to respond with lightning speed? It’s time to activate the triple touch sales tactic. What is the Triple Touch in Sales? The triple touch is a tactic that salespeople use to engage prospects. Here’s the thing, if you’re in sales, you know that getting B2B prospects’ attention is tough.

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Prospecting Top of Funnel Decision Maker Sales Qualified Lead 237

No More Cold Calling

FEBRUARY 28, 2025

Discover how a broken approach to social selling can damage your sales reputation, costing you business referrals and lost revenue. Social sellers do their homework, using their LinkedIn networks to gain insights, build sales trust , and make connections. The second you respond, you get a generic sales pitch.

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Referrals Social Selling Networking LinkedIn 177

Zoominfo

MARCH 12, 2025

Sales leaders need to make sure that every interaction counts and that means understanding which accounts are the best fit, when to reach out, and how to solve customer challenges. 70% reduction in data inaccuracy , saving time and effort for reps 1,100+ hours saved from manual data enrichment, allowing sales reps to focus on closing deals.

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Pipeline Ideal Customer Profile Marketing Sales Qualified Lead 130

The Pipeline

NOVEMBER 15, 2020

Not the right question, reaching someone is a single point on a continuous prospecting journey. Many of those distractions impact our prospecting, making the challenge of a full pipeline even more critical. Which is why Sunday is crucial to your prospecting success. Hard to do when the world is unfolding around you.

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Prospecting Call-back Quota Objections 241

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

I began debunking sales articles when the first ones predicting the death of selling appeared circa 2008. Later, articles predicting the end of selling became both more prolific and more specific including the certain death of: Solution Selling Cold Calling Consultative Selling Sales Process SPIN Selling and more.

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Top of Funnel Positioning Scale Inbound 409

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 30, 2023

Team Photo of the American League Champion 1967 Boston Red Sox I frequently write about taking a consultative approach, where listening and asking questions are the keys for successful sales presentations. Salespeople must differentiate between what is important to their prospects and customers, versus what is important only to them.

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Sales Follow-up Groups Prospecting 358

Understanding the Sales Force

MARCH 20, 2024

Although this is an article about sales process, the first two paragraphs have more to do with religion than sales. I’m sure by now you’re thinking, but Dave, what the heck does that have to do with sales process? Similarly, many prospects are also non-believers in your product or service.

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Sales Process Sales Methodology Decision Maker Pipeline 348

The Digital Sales Institute

OCTOBER 25, 2024

Outbound sales prospecting insights that will assist any salesperson to connect and engage with target prospects in their sales activity. Our outbound sales prospecting course isn’t a mere refresh of past strategies; it’s a modern take on what it takes to win new customers.

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Outbound Top of Funnel Prospecting Sales Qualified Lead 52

Zoominfo

JANUARY 19, 2021

Landing pages have a vital, singular purpose — encouraging visitors to begin the sales cycle with a brand. And that content is a gateway to a possible sale. After users go through with a landing page, there should be a clear path to the end — an action that brings them into your sales funnel. They both need this engagement!

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Prospecting Marketing Top of Funnel Segment 246

Zoominfo

AUGUST 8, 2024

To be successful, sales professionals need to be experts in many different areas at once: their product’s strengths and weaknesses, their prospects’ pain points and needs, and the broader economic and competitive landscapes. To give sellers a fighting chance, sales leaders need to build an effective, flexible sales enablement program.

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Sales Enablement Strategy Scale Hiring 130

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 5, 2021

At Objective Management Group (OMG), one of the 21 Sales Core Competencies we measure and report on also tends to confuse salespeople, is the cause of frequent pushback, but has thirty-five years of cumulative science to support the finding and our conclusions. For example:

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Guidelines Closing Call-back Report 390

Sales and Marketing Management

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

Author: Leeatt Rothschild Virtual sales meetings have become the norm as a result of COVID-19. However, many sales reps may find themselves unsure of how to best lead a meeting with prospects over video. Here are four actionable tips to help you lead more successful virtual sales meetings and ultimately earn more new business.

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Sales Meeting Meeting Nonprofit Face-to-face 317

Sales 2.0

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

Here are some recent real numbers from the front lines of selling that sales expert KD Dorsey just shared. And with generative AI taking hold in the sales and marketing professions, these numbers will only get worse, as more emails are generated, and buyers get even more inundated with unsolicited messages.

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Conference Cold Calling Referrals Social Media 195

Sales Gravy

JANUARY 30, 2025

In this conversation with Jeb Blount bestselling author of Fanatical Prospecting and Sales EQ, and the founder of Sales Gravy motivational speaker and co-founder of The Constance Group Brian Parsley shares insights into embracing conflict, staying mindful, battling internal doubt, and communicating effectively.

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Lead Rank Lead Scoring How To Call-back 94

Janek Performance Group

DECEMBER 24, 2024

Sales training can be a significant investment in your sales team. Here are a few guidelines for organizations to boost the effectiveness of their sales training: Create a Culture of Training and Coaching Establishing a culture of training and coaching is one of the most significant things a company can do to achieve success.

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Training Hiring How To Retention 118

No More Cold Calling

JULY 13, 2021

There are two parts to the sales process: Part One: Getting meetings with decision makers. You get an introduction to your prospect, and you get a meeting with the decision maker. The biggest challenge for sales teams is seller access , according to Gartner’s recent report, The Chief Sales Officer’s Leadership Vision for 2021.

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Decision Maker Referrals Sales Qualified Lead Marketing Qualified Lead 401

DiscoverOrg Sales

MARCH 27, 2018

When it comes to sales and marketing, building a prospecting list of target accounts and contacts may feel like a good place to start, but identifying the Total Addressable Market should come first. This solution uses your own company data to build reliable market boundaries and sales goals. Bottom-Up market size.

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Lead Rank Marketing Hiring Vendor 162

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 1, 2020

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Yesterday, I received two assessments for the same candidate: one from Objective Management Group (OMG) and one from Caliper. Caliper's is a personality test adapted for sales. Caliper's is a personality test adapted for sales. The candidate scored 60% on Caliper and 92 on OMG.

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Comparison Lead Rank Lead Scoring Hiring 319

Sales and Marketing Management

OCTOBER 10, 2018

But for business, AI is having an early transformative effect on sales and marketing by helping people make better decisions and serve customers more effectively. Why AI Is Poised to Transform Sales. The sales function is uniquely well-suited to be transformed by AI tools. It helps farmers safeguard crops from disease.

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Case Study Analytics CRM Study 319

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 21, 2023

I’ll explain how to always respond appropriately to Your Prospect. This is exactly what salespeople go through when a prospect pushes back, objects, displays lack of interest, or attempts to end the call. You are in your head instead of focused on what your prospect is saying. Your mind is wandering.

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Prospecting How To Call-back Objections 177

Hubspot Sales

SEPTEMBER 12, 2024

Very rarely did a sale require just a single signature, which meant the sales process and accompanying assets needed to be built around a variety of personas. Very rarely did a sale require just a single signature, which meant the sales process and accompanying assets needed to be built around a variety of personas.

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Hubspot B2B Buyer Data 116

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 3, 2022

If you think about territory sales or sales into a specific vertical, reps should be calling on the same customers and prospects all the time. Weeding is like playing the arcade game wack-a-mole where you pull the weed, use a weed wacker, or poison the weed on Monday and two more weeds appear in its place on Tuesday.

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Sales and Marketing Management

JANUARY 14, 2019

One thing many businesses with collection issues have in common is that they focus too strongly on making a sale, and not strongly enough on improving their sales process. Focusing on your sales process and the negotiation skills that your salespeople need can help improve your bottom line. Practice Active Listening.

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Negotiation Sales Process Strategy Discount 292

No More Cold Calling

OCTOBER 1, 2021

I’m embarrassed by the bad sales behavior that blasts us every day. Obviously, I’ve never been a fan of cold calling, but now the uninvited sales pitches are multichannel. LinkedIn invitations to connect from people who immediately send you a sales pitch. Rude, rude, rude sales behavior. Sales Reps Not Closing Sales?

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Referrals Decision Maker Cold Calling Social Media 316

Zoominfo

JULY 24, 2020

In theory, your sales and marketing departments should be the best of friends. What if I told you that misalignment between sales and marketing technologies costs B2B companies 10% of revenue or more per year? Why is Sales and Marketing Communication Important? Sure, it’s a problem, but your company is doing well.

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Top of Funnel Marketing How To Funnel 301

Sales and Marketing Management

FEBRUARY 19, 2018

Next time you prospect a company, add a board member. You are not going to close an entire enterprise deal without a roller coaster of a decision maker, trial by fire in a committee, group think, emotion or crisis mode. When you're at work, prospect incessantly. This sales thing violates a lot of psychology. Don't you!

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Call-back Negotiation Decision Maker Sales Qualified Lead 329

Adaptive Business Services

OCTOBER 23, 2024

They have also introduced a number of innovative features that can be leveraged to increase your prospecting effectiveness and this includes on LinkedIn and other social networks. Once qualified, they could be turned into a potential deal and placed in a Sales Pipeline. Nimble CRM is a fully featured platform at an affordable price.

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LinkedIn CRM Prospecting Lead Qualification 62

Understanding the Sales Force

DECEMBER 16, 2019

FOUR: Effective Selling requires a well thought-out sales strategy, sales process, sales methodology and appropriate sales tactics. FIVE: Salespeople can be easily sabotaged by weak Sales DNA. NINE: Salespeople must be motivated enough to overcome challenges, competition, negativity and difficult prospects.

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Pharmaceuticals Sales Methodology Influencer Motivation 232