The Pipeline

JULY 9, 2019

Every journey has a beginning, middle and an end, and this is true for a buying cycle and sales cycle. And while it may work for Zen and motorcycles , in sales, it is not about the journey but the destination, the win. Each day is a building block of the sales cycles you’re currently travelling.

Travel 291

Travel Maximizer Microsoft Face-to-face 291

SBI Growth

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

It allows you to start off on the right foot in several ways: Approach prospects in non-threatening ways. Uncover a prospect’s actual wants and needs. When the buyer is truly just looking for general numbers early in the sales cycle. Tailor your message and provide the best solution possible. Trust Your Own Experience.

Closing 297

Closing Strategy Proposal Decision Maker 297

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 23, 2025

And that drives us to look at our prospecting and activity metrics. 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. We become obsessed with forecasts, pipelines, and their health.

Segment 123

Segment Maximizer Margin Up-Sell 123

Anthony Cole Training

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

Knows the compelling reasons to buy, or make a change - Top performers get into deep conversations that identify the root cause for the problems discussed by the prospect. Qualifiers do not fear rejection and are not concerned about if the prospect "likes them". It's okay if a prospect wants to think it over.

Hiring 185

Hiring Sales Qualified Lead InsideView Lead Rank 185

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 15, 2012

Prospects are more resistant; there is more competition. Margins are shrinking; sales cycles are taking longer. Salespeople rebel when their time is being wasted, not when they are being supported appropriately! Selling has changed; it has become much more difficult.

CRM 235

CRM LandSlide Margin Cold Calling 235

Understanding the Sales Force

OCTOBER 30, 2013

having a hard time telling if the prospect is interested (26%). And companies wonder why their sales cycles are so long, their closing percentages are so low and their margins are slip sliding away. not knowing who else is influencing purchasing decisions (49%). not having appropriate follow-up materials (17%).

Decision Maker 271

Decision Maker Survey Follow-up Margin 271

The Pipeline

MARCH 6, 2012

In these times of shrinking margins and diminishing returns, Mark’s insights will change the way you think about discounting, price, negotiating, and, above all, the all-important concept of value. Prospecting. Random Walk Down Sales Street. Sales Bloggers Union. Sales Compensation. Sales Cycle.

Pipeline 212

Pipeline Hiring Top of Funnel Cold Calling 212

Anthony Cole Training

OCTOBER 20, 2014

Today, I bring you THE ONE secret to getting your sales people to sell more, more quickly at higher margins. I will illustrate this “secret” based on my last 4 sales. Over the last years, when we project sales, our revenue projections are about 75% accurate. More Resources: Why is Qualifying Prospect So Hard eBook.

Insurance 163

Insurance Insurance Margin Hiring 163

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

SBI Growth

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

In sales terms, it’s not just improving your close rate, you’re improving everything that leads to more referrals, increased sales and reduced sales cycle length. The same Moneyballing logic can be applied to your own sales performance. The thought process isn’t to just “make more sales.”

Ideal Customer Profile 300

Ideal Customer Profile Lead Rank Lead Scoring Analysis 300

The Pipeline

OCTOBER 9, 2017

Building a base of knowledge and understanding with a given prospect, their objectives, hurdles, etc., Many of the “rushed over” deals, could in fact have been better, not just in immediate revenue and quota retirement, but upsells, referrals, and most importantly, margins and price integrity. takes time, with some more than others.

Scale 265

Scale Quota Margin Referrals 265

Anthony Cole Training

JANUARY 13, 2014

It caught my attention because 1) the use of a number , the use of the word improve and the phrase reduce revenue risk and 2) I’m constantly on the look out for information that may be of help to my clients and prospects. If you have a 120-day sales cycle, then move stuff out at day 121. So, I decided to take a closer look.

Sales Forecasts 190

Sales Forecasts Forecasting Margin Incentives 190

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 21, 2014

Benchmarking can be quite useful, as long as it doesn''t cause you to look at the wrong data, send you down the wrong path, or make the wrong decisions.

Hiring 261

Hiring Groups Exact Face-to-face 261

Cincom Smart Selling

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

Whats slowing down your sales team? Your reps are chasing leads and engaging prospects, but they are not able to close deals on a positive note. Pricing & Discounting Tends to override pricing rules, leading to inconsistent margins. Automates repetitive tasks, freeing up sales teams to focus on closing deals.

Revenue 48

Revenue Scale Margin Lead Rank 48

Cincom Smart Selling

APRIL 25, 2016

UK entrepreneur, James Caan, CBE, isolates three areas where profit margin can be addressed. But what about margin? CPQ also has a positive impact on margin by increasing the velocity of the sale, reducing the pricing and configuration errors made during a selling cycle and with reduced likelihood of manufacturing defects.

Margin 63

Margin Up-Sell System Discount 63

SBI

JUNE 21, 2018

He had a mandate to decrease costs to improve profitability by increasing margins. At the same time, he was seeing a jump in requests for demos as his qualified prospect pool was increasing. Seeing your demo resources stay stagnant or even shrink all while your sales teams and prospect pools are growing. What did he do?

Account Based Marketing 139

Account Based Marketing B2B Oracle Sales Cycle 139

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. Let''s discuss the degree to which each of these possible reasons may be the actual cause. No interest.

Travel 251

Travel Decision Maker Insurance Insurance 251

Nutshell

FEBRUARY 28, 2025

In sales, speed matters. Delivering quick, professional quotes impresses your prospects and gives your team a head start in winning the business. However, creating sales quotes can often be a slow, manual process when youre juggling external tools or spreadsheets. Need more information? Get started with Nutshell Quotes!

Closing 77

Closing CRM Margin Sales Cycle 77

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. Prospecting.

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. Syncing With the Buyer is Essential Your competitors have the same challenge.

Strategy 59

Strategy Ideal Customer Profile Hiring How To 59

Cincom Smart Selling

MARCH 9, 2025

The Problem with Traditional Quoting Imagine this: A sales rep gets an inquiry from a high-value prospect requesting a custom quote. Pricing: Applies real-time rules, discounts, and margin controls. Sales cycles are becoming shorter as buyers expect instant responses. Hours pass. The manager requests revisions.

Tools 48

Tools Scale Comparison Discount 48

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 19, 2024

Our sales cycle was about 15 months. I build prospecting machines, I hold my people accountable for high levels of prospecting and outreach. CEO: What were the rough gross margins? With gross margins of 75% you must have had monstrous sales/marketing expense. Dave: It was roughly 11 months.

Scale 139

Scale Hiring Margin Churn 139

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. Much easier to show value to a customer than to a prospect. As a sales person you should be able to take what you know from existing clients, and apply them to new prospects.

Pipeline 237

Pipeline Twitter Lead Rank Lead Scoring 237

SalesFuel

JULY 29, 2024

It’s never too late for sellers to improve the sales cycle. To improve the sales cycle, understand it One of the biggest roadblocks to a winning sales cycle is basic lack of understanding it. At its most basic definition, a sales cycle is the process used to sell to buyers and close deals.

Sales Cycle 52

Sales Cycle Ideal Customer Profile Hiring Negotiation 52

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

Sales and Marketing Management

DECEMBER 14, 2020

Will demos, for example, look more like an online trade show exhibit where buyers engage virtual sales presentations, video demonstrations and precise content based on a “choose your journey” approach? Sales training and enablement must become buyer enablement regardless of the channel and preferred buyer experience. Takeaway: ?Sales

B2B 199

B2B Revenue Top of Funnel Margin 199

The Pipeline

APRIL 8, 2011

Similarly in the market world, you have to entice a clientele base by promoting heavily without really striving for a high profit margin. Promote sales, throw out freebies, offer free shipping for certain orders. Prospecting. Random Walk Down Sales Street. Sales Bloggers Union. Sales Compensation.

Pipeline 216

Pipeline Meeting Webinar Metrics Strategy 216

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 12, 2013

But too often, I see organizations with poorly defined sweet spots, with sales people wasting huge amounts time on marginal deals or prospecting where they have no business. Too often, we’re dishonest with ourselves–hoping we are the best in the world, where we are really marginal.

Ideal Customer Profile 126

Ideal Customer Profile Margin Penetration Enterprise 126

MEDDIC

JANUARY 9, 2025

Revenue goals focus on the desired outcomes, such as achieving $1 million in sales, $500k gross margin, or acquiring 10 new clients. Activity goals, on the other hand, focus on the actions required to reach those outcomes, such as making 50 prospecting calls, delivering 4 demos or attending five networking events weekly.

Ideal Customer Profile 64

Ideal Customer Profile Lead Rank Lead Scoring Forecasting 64

Partners in Excellence

NOVEMBER 3, 2020

We measure a lot of stuff in sales. We have all sorts of pipeline metrics, activity metrics, prospecting metrics, account, territory, retention, renewal, mix, margin, and endless other metrics. Let’s imagine we have two sales people with very similar territories. She does need to prospect and build her pipeline.

Marketing Qualified Lead 148

Marketing Qualified Lead Churn Territories Pipeline 148

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

Hubspot Sales

OCTOBER 9, 2019

Plus, it can increase your sales. In a case study by Rain Group , a global sales training organization, they discovered that a client who went through sales training closed 15.2% more deals and the profit margin on sales-won improved by 12.2%. So, how can you improve your sales skills? Implement roleplay.

Film 144

Film Hubspot Sales Cycle Lead Scoring 144

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. Paying on gross margin. Some companies pay on profit rather than sales. 2) It encourages sales of certain product lines.

Compensation 145

Compensation Hiring Salary Commission 145

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

APRIL 22, 2025

Guided Selling This strategy leverages structured processes, tools, and readily accessible information to equip sales representatives with the guidance they need to navigate complex sales cycles effectively. Reps quote faster, errors decrease, and you protect margins while delivering a tailored experience at scale.

Revenue 48

Revenue Scale Strategy Lead Rank 48

Pointclear

JUNE 12, 2018

Most salespeople haven’t forgotten how to sell, so they don’t need retraining, they just need more qualified prospects. 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.

Forecasting 113

Forecasting Outsourcing Services Sales Qualified Lead Discount 113

Janek Performance Group

APRIL 15, 2025

Companies employ various sales forecasting techniques to predict future revenue. The optimal approach depends on factors like company size, industry, data availability and the complexity of the sales cycle. Generally, there are two main categories of sales forecasting methods qualitative and quantitative.

Sales Forecasts 62

Sales Forecasts Forecasting Analysis Lead Rank 62