Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 23, 2025

Win rates plummet, % making quota plummet, retention rates declining, sales cycles lengthening, deal size decreasing. The marginal cost of doubling activity through AI is virtually $0. Customers don’t want to talk to us, because we don’t talk to them about what they care about. But something becomes very clear.

Segment 123

Segment Maximizer Margin Up-Sell 123

The Pipeline

APRIL 17, 2013

As the competition heated up, and costs had to be cut to maintain operating margins, the two teams were collapsed into one that handled both product lines, there was still a clear line between hunting and development of accounts. Sales Process Sales Skills Tibor Shanto'

Demand Generation Agencies 296

Demand Generation Agencies Top of Funnel Territories Demand Generation 296

Understanding the Sales Force

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

Change in Buyer Behavior - behaviors are always changing and while it may be true that sales cycles are getting longer, there are only four buyer-side behaviors that can really impact sales outcomes: Relationships. I have written extensively on sales process and you can find more on that topic here.

Travel 251

Travel Decision Maker Insurance Insurance 251

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 21, 2014

OMG''s sales assessment is an executional sales assessment and scientifically shows not only if a sales candidate can sell, but whether or not they will sell and succeed - for your company, in a specific sales role, against your competition, at your price points, calling into your market, and from the challenges they''ll face.

Hiring 261

Hiring Groups Exact Face-to-face 261

Cincom Smart Selling

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

By using rule-based engines, AI-driven pricing models, and automated approval workflows, CPQ quote automation eliminates manual errors, accelerates sales cycles, and enables scalability for businesses managing intricate product catalogs and multi-tiered pricing structures. Manual vs. Automated Quoting: Whats the Difference?

Revenue 48

Revenue Scale Margin Lead Rank 48

Cincom Smart Selling

JANUARY 30, 2025

It serves as a crucial step in the sales cycle, bridging the gap between initial inquiries and finalized deals. This is vital in today’s competitive market, where delays or inaccuracies in quoting can lead to lost sales opportunities.

Lead Rank 62

Lead Rank Proposal Sales Qualified Lead Sales Cycle 62

The Pipeline

FEBRUARY 3, 2012

One approach that intrepid leaders can look to is too shrink the size of territories, based on a number of factors driven by deal size, length of cycle, nature of the offering (new or mature), is the focus margin or market share, is there opportunity for organic growth, or strictly competitive account growth, and others.

Pipeline 212

Pipeline Territories Harvest Cold Calling 212

SalesFuel

OCTOBER 31, 2024

As Market Research Director for a leading network-affiliated television station, I tagged along with account executives on sales calls. This was an effective sales strategy, as the sellers would present me to their prospects as a useful resource. By design, I became an integral part of the advertiser’s marketing team.

Strategy 59

Strategy Ideal Customer Profile Hiring How To 59

Sales and Marketing Management

DECEMBER 14, 2020

This makes all sellers “inside sellers,” which opens the door to improving their productivity, performance and cost structure, while also imagining how former field sales teams should be operating on a cadence versus an expense account. Marketing is the sales development team. All selling is inside selling.

B2B 199

B2B Revenue Top of Funnel Margin 199

SBI

JUNE 21, 2018

As a Senior Director of Sales Consulting at Oracle, Tod and his team of Sales Engineers and Solution Consultants support the sales team in their division and are responsible for onsite and remote demos. He had a mandate to decrease costs to improve profitability by increasing margins. Product Marketers.

Account Based Marketing 139

Account Based Marketing B2B Oracle Sales Cycle 139

Sales and Marketing Management

MARCH 16, 2018

When products don’t move smoothly and seamlessly between manufacturer and end-user, they become exponentially harder to bring to market. In 2018, businesses can’t afford to fall behind the market, and they can’t afford not to maximize their operational efficiency. Economic performance and commoditization of key markets.

B2B 195

B2B Company Hiring Discount 195

The Pipeline

OCTOBER 9, 2017

I recently sat in on an opportunity review, for what I would describe as a bit of a complex sale, but not rocket propulsion stuff. The rep in question was a solid B player, knows the product, market, and there were years he actually made quota. There were also critical questions he could not answer about multiple opportunities.

Scale 265

Scale Quota Margin Referrals 265

The Pipeline

APRIL 8, 2011

The Pipeline Renbor Sales Solutions Inc.s Stored in Attitude , Business Acumen , Guest Post , Marketing , Proactivity , Trust , execution. In a manner of speaking, we launched a militaristic marketing scheme that needed to succeed if we are to achieve any long term, sustainable peace and prosperity. December 2007.

Pipeline 216

Pipeline Meeting Webinar Metrics Strategy 216

Cincom Smart Selling

MARCH 13, 2025

CPQ software has revolutionized the way organizations manage complex sales cycles by enabling sales teams to quickly and accurately deliver tailored solutions to customers. Moreover, inconsistent discounting practices can erode profit margins and create distrust among customers.

Benefit 48

Benefit Discount Scale Margin 48

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 19, 2024

VCs are investing and have driven our market cap to hundreds of millions. Our sales cycle was about 15 months. CEO: What were the rough gross margins? Dave: Gross margins were about 75% CEO: Help me understand, if your Rule of 40 was 50, your growth was 200%, it means your EBIDTA was -150%. Do you want to grow?

Scale 139

Scale Hiring Margin Churn 139

Cincom Smart Selling

MARCH 9, 2025

Pricing: Applies real-time rules, discounts, and margin controls. How CPQ Works in Your Sales Tech Stack Unlike standalone spreadsheets or rigid ERP-based pricing tools, CPQ integrates seamlessly with: CRM Systems: Pulls in customer data for personalized pricing. Sales cycles are becoming shorter as buyers expect instant responses.

Tools 48

Tools Scale Comparison Discount 48

Janek Performance Group

APRIL 15, 2025

Imagine a company that consistently misses its revenue targets, struggles with cash flow and fails to capitalize on market opportunities. In many cases, the root cause of these issues can be traced to inaccurate or nonexistent sales forecasting. What Is Sales Forecasting? more likely to hit quotas.

Sales Forecasts 62

Sales Forecasts Forecasting Analysis Lead Rank 62

Sales and Marketing Management

JULY 9, 2018

At Bullhorn, we serve the global staffing and recruiting industry, which operates in a highly competitive environment with extreme margin pressures. This means fulfilling on promises made in the sales cycle to ensure the product works. So how can you, as a sales executive, increase your wallet share within existing accounts?

Account 196

Account Margin Industry Negotiation 196

SBI

NOVEMBER 1, 2018

It helps pre-sales (SCs) scale while keeping margins high. This shortens the sales cycle. Clients have cut their sales cycles by 68%. Garin: You will likely get your first demo built during the sales cycle so you can deploy to your sales team on day one. Engagement.

Groups 139

Groups Scale Sales Cycle How To 139

Hubspot Sales

APRIL 26, 2019

If it's a well-established problem you might still be creating replacement value, otherwise, your sale is likely transformative. This impacts your sales cycle, and the contract value you should target per deal. Unit economics are the costs and revenues associated with the sale of a single product or license.

Top of Funnel 136

Top of Funnel Retail Penetration Margin 136

The Pipeline

MARCH 2, 2012

As with all things worth doing in sales, there is some work involved, despite what some soothsayers will tell you, there is no silver bullet in sales. Hiring Sales Talent. Sales Bloggers Union. Sales Compensation. Sales Cycle. Sales eXchange. Sales Force Alignment. Sales Leadership.

Pipeline 237

Pipeline Twitter Lead Scoring Lead Rank 237

Cincom Smart Selling

APRIL 22, 2025

A sales strategy is your blueprint for consistent and scalable revenue growth. A strong strategy aligns your market focus, sales processes, tools, and team with long-term business outcomes. At its core, a sales strategy answers three questions: Who are we selling to? How are we positioning our value?

Revenue 48

Revenue Scale Strategy Lead Rank 48

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 12, 2013

Maximizing sales success, market penetration, and growth requires knowing your “sweet spot.” The biggest drain on sales performance is selling outside the sweet spot—trying to get customers whose problems we aren’t the best in the world at solving to buy. Or we are filled with wishful thinking.

Ideal Customer Profile 127

Ideal Customer Profile Margin Penetration Enterprise 127

Cincom Smart Selling

FEBRUARY 14, 2025

Align CPQ with Your Sales Strategy A CPQ system that operates in isolation from the broader sales strategy leads to misaligned workflows, inconsistent pricing approvals, and disconnected customer interactions. Implement automated discounting rules to prevent excessive price reductions that could erode margins.

ROI 48

ROI Maximizer Lead Rank Discount 48

Cincom Smart Selling

MARCH 29, 2025

In this article, we will take a deep dive into how quoting software enhances accuracy and accelerates sales cycles. These errors may result in overcharging, underpricing, or misquoting, all of which can harm customer relationships and reduce profit margins.

Software 48

Software Software Discount Lead Rank 48

Hubspot Sales

OCTOBER 16, 2017

According to RepHunter , 20% to 40% of gross margin (sales minus direct expenses) is standard. Variable comp is determined by: How complex the sales cycle is. On the other hand, this structure doesn’t take into account market penetration or quantity of opportunities. Paying on gross margin.

Compensation 145

Compensation Hiring Salary Commission 145

MEDDIC

JANUARY 9, 2025

Remember, a written plan isnt staticit evolves as your market and goals do, always rooted in the deeper purpose that fuels your success. Revenue goals focus on the desired outcomes, such as achieving $1 million in sales, $500k gross margin, or acquiring 10 new clients. Sales Cycle. Shorten your sales cycle by 30%.

Ideal Customer Profile 64

Ideal Customer Profile Lead Rank Lead Scoring Forecasting 64

The Pipeline

MARCH 13, 2018

As a manager or sales leader now is the time to review the line-up and make any changes you hope will impact this year’s results. Here is what is known: The average length of an individual rep’s sales cycle. I know that the Lagging Indicators such as revenue, number of sales, margins, etc.,

Hiring 197

Hiring Lead Rank Lead Scoring Margin 197

Sales Hacker

JUNE 14, 2021

Sales and marketing teams start their account-based sales (ABS) and account-based marketing (ABM) programs with strategic intentions. They target those that are in-market and those that should be showing intention. They start worrying about how many touchpoints are sales and marketing hitting.

Account Based Marketing 111

Account Based Marketing Top of Funnel Ideal Customer Profile Account 111

SBI

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

We call it Sales Tech Simplified. This week I interview Russ Chadinha , Senior Director Product Marketing of Model N Revenue Cloud. It is the primary objective for CEO’s and for Sales and Marketing executives. Nancy: What are some of the challenges your solution solves for Marketing/Sales?

Revenue 131

Revenue Lead Rank SAP Maximizer 131

HeavyHitter Sales

NOVEMBER 24, 2013

The challenges sales organizations face is dependent upon the stage of their development. The top sales challenge in the Build stage is creating sufficient sales coverage to push the product into the market. The Cull stage challenge is to revitalize a demoralized and marginalized sales force.

Trends 124

Trends Lead Rank Scale Inside Sales 124

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 27, 2019

Related Posts: The Killer Closing Technique Compressing The Sales Cycle Do You Know The Answers To These Three Questions? Once the customer has identified an issue, they can start to identify the consequences of not addressing the issue. If you don’t know the answer to this, you don’t know how to win the deal.

Margin 123

Margin Retention Sales Cycle Up-Sell 123

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

To be effective, the sales process has to do these three things for the sales person: Help win more business! decrease sales cycle time). increase margin or average transaction value). If the sales process doesn’t do this for the sales person, then the sales person should refuse to use it!

Sales Process 120

Sales Process Margin Vendor Sales Cycle 120

Pointclear

JUNE 12, 2018

Also, getting a new sales manager at mid-year won’t have an impact until the following year. Offering discounts in the last quarter savages the margin and seldom solves the revenue shortfall. Why it Matters: “In B2B, most companies have sales cycles longer than three months. How to Shorten the Sales Cycle. [i]

Forecasting 113

Forecasting Outsourcing Services Sales Qualified Lead Discount 113

Cincom Smart Selling

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

A well-trained sales team can navigate the system effortlessly, configure products accurately, and apply pricing rules without errors. Without the right training, inefficiencies and mistakes can slow down the sales cycle, leading to lost opportunities. 5- Is CPQ training relevant for all types of sales teams?

Training 48

Training Closing Discount Lead Rank 48

Cincom Smart Selling

APRIL 11, 2025

With quoting tools available in the market, organizations can generate sales quotes in minutes with higher accuracy and shorter turnaround time. Adopting a quote tool can help sales teams to focus on higher value tasks that can have a direct impact on enhancing customer experience.

Tools 48

Tools How To Lead Rank Hubspot 48

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 31, 2013

Do we have problems closing (late cycle losses)? How Do We Compress Our Sales Cycle: As with the previous point, the pipeline gives us a macro view of what’ happening with our sales cycles. For example, with one client, Proofs Of Concepts were very critical in the sales cycle.

Pipeline 119

Pipeline Top of Funnel Revelation Sales Cycle 119