Sales and Marketing Management

OCTOBER 23, 2020

Author: Jennifer Tomlinson and Olivia Hardy Proposals have always played a pivotal role in the sales process, but today they are more important than ever. With in-person meetings on the decline because of the coronavirus pandemic, your sales proposal now serves as a frontline sales rep. Include the essentials. Establish common ground.

Proposal 177

Proposal How To ROI Case Study 177

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 1, 2025

If you have a pile of files on your desk, a to-do list that is so long it must be scrolled to read, past-due proposals, and an empty pipeline, you are probably not very well organized, don’t manage your time very well, and likely behind on quota.

Sales Leadership 286

Sales Leadership Buying Cycle Coaching Proposal 286

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 16, 2025

But I long ago committed to becoming so good at prospecting that it wouldnt take much time, it wouldnt be frustrating or demotivating, and it wouldnt be exhausting and boring. When a salesperson commits to becoming great at prospecting, all of the conversion ratios change for the better.

Pipeline 188

Pipeline Follow-up Conversion Outbound 188

Cincom Smart Selling

APRIL 16, 2025

Now, theyre ready to take the deal to the next level and ask for a proposal. You open up your laptop and start drafting the proposal. After three hours of back and forth with the legal and finance team, your proposal looks like a Frankenstein monster-mismatched fonts and conflicting figures. Lets find out!

Proposal 48

Proposal Maximizer Scale Hiring 48

Hubspot Sales

JULY 15, 2024

Here's a look at the “clear strategy” I use to ensure I get the most out of my LinkedIn prospecting efforts. Ingram's Tested, 10-Step Process for Nailing Prospecting on LinkedIn Your LinkedIn profile is your first digital impression, and you don‘t want to waste your shot with a lackluster profile. Propose next steps.

Ideal Customer Profile 111

Ideal Customer Profile LinkedIn Prospecting Face-to-face 111

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

While the single most important thing for salespeople to achieve in a discovery call is urgency, you can’t tell a prospect that they have urgency, you can’t manufacture urgency, and you can’t fake urgency. I would be devastated) When these four factors are in place you have a scenario where your prospect must buy. .:

Kana 188

Kana Benefit Margin Sales Qualified Lead 188

Sales 2.0

OCTOBER 25, 2021

Prospecting : Companies routinely run cold calling prospecting processes that fail 99% of the time, with 1 in 100 calls getting a meeting. Smarter approaches to prospecting are needed. One of the main reasons for this low close rate is that sales people miss decisionmakers in the prospect company. Sales time sucks.

Territories 396

Territories Compensation Scale Decision Maker 396

Sales 2.0

NOVEMBER 21, 2023

In my last post I was ranting about how I hate proposals. My preferred solution to this is not developing proposals at all. I highly recommend not spending your time generating beautiful documents for every person that says, “send me a proposal”. It’s a surefire way to eliminate your prospecting time and have a sick pipeline.

Proposal 150

Proposal Hiring Decision Maker Case Study 150

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 15, 2025

Do you ever circle back, repurpose slide decks and proposals, become nostalgic, rewatch movies or TV series? Until there is an agreed upon compelling to buy, the prospect has no incentive to enter into any qualification conversation. When my son was small, he loved watching the same movies and shows over and over again.

Sales Process 173

Sales Process Lead Rank Lead Scoring Sales Qualified Lead 173

Cincom Smart Selling

MARCH 9, 2025

Introduction Selling products and delivering sales proposals that create customer value requires buyer and seller understanding of pain points, product and price. That process is quoting and proposing, and sales pros will tell you that knowing when and how to do this effectively is important. What is a Sales Proposal?

Proposal 48

Proposal Lead Rank Lead Scoring Customer 48

Hubspot Sales

JULY 22, 2024

I'm always saying, “Sound, well-structured business email templates are central to effective sales communication, initiating productive sales conversations, and sustaining relationships with prospects and customers.” They're typically sent following initial conversations, meetings, or proposals (shocking, I know.)

Ideal Customer Profile 111

Ideal Customer Profile Proposal Lead Rank Referrals 111

Sales and Marketing Management

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

When your sales agents don’t have to spend hours creating proposals or prospecting, they can do more in less time. Automating sales and marketing activities lets you focus your human resources elsewhere. The post 5 Ways Sales Automation Will Help Your B2B Company Thrive appeared first on Sales & Marketing Management.

Sales Automation 347

Sales Automation B2B Company Proposal 347

Sales 2.0

OCTOBER 9, 2020

I’ve got to put together proposals and update the CRM and make sure my current clients are taken care of and respond to emails from my bosses and other political stuff in my company”. It would be great to be seen as a subject matter expert by my buyers but I don’t have time to do that. Hey, but what if you had a team helping you?

Account 385

Account Social Media Scale Small Business 385

No More Cold Calling

JULY 29, 2021

Unless you address the broken links in your prospecting system, your sales reps will continue to struggle with closing the deal. Other reasons why salespeople fail to close sales include: The initial prospects were unqualified. This is not how you wow buyers, build relationships, and convert prospects into clients.

Closing 409

Closing Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring 409

MTD Sales Training

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

You had a great sales interaction: Both you and the prospect were calm and comfortable. You developed some rapport and the prospect showed some positive buying signals during the meeting. This question is simple and helps the prospect understand that what you have just proposed is, at worst, reasonable.

Closing 300

Closing Proposal Negotiation Benefit 300

Sales 2.0

MARCH 12, 2020

This includes your prospects. Don’t be surprised if prospects associated with these deals don’t respond to your team’s emails or phone calls anymore. Don’t be surprised if prospects associated with these deals don’t respond to your team’s emails or phone calls anymore. Your prospecting numbers may drop too.

Top of Funnel 378

Top of Funnel Pipeline Follow-up Proposal 378

Sales 2.0

DECEMBER 3, 2024

Any proposals sent? I’m looking for clues of any accounts where this salesperson made progress. Which accounts did he talk to? Which conversations went anywhere? What meetings were held? Could there be any “low hanging fruit” here–where I can swoop in for a quick close? This salesperson did leave a few clues behind.

Scale 195

Scale Territories Face-to-face Construction 195

Cincom Smart Selling

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

Quote and proposal software has generated a lot of buzz. Postings on social media, commentary from industry analysts, as well as user and vendor blog posts and white papers, all offer advice and information about automating the quote and proposal functions within the enterprise. Price, sophistication, and performance widely vary.

Proposal 48

Proposal Software Software Scale 48

Hubspot Sales

JULY 30, 2024

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. Aggressive, generic offers were just as fruitless, especially when the prospect hadn’t already confirmed their interest in what I was offering. (In

Closing 122

Closing Quota How To Webinar Metrics 122

Sales Gravy

JANUARY 14, 2025

If you havent defined clear performance metricslike call activity, lead generation, conversion rates, or daily prospecting targetsthen you dont really have a plan. Maybe you need to tighten up your proposals so more of them convert. Sales planning is vitalwithout a roadmap, youre just hoping your revenue targets magically come to life.

Data 98

Data Tools Intent Data Top of Funnel 98

The Pipeline

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Salespeople are preoccupied with closing; makes sense, that seems to be where the pay-off is for everyone, at times even the prospect. The average conversion rate of Proposals to Close. Number of prospects in Discovery that move to Proposal. I know I need four never spoken to prospects to close a deal.

Closing 292

Closing Quota Proposal Face-to-face 292

The Pipeline

OCTOBER 23, 2017

But many sales people cherry pick time, and use it to avoid things that have to be done, like prospecting for example. Regularly when I ask buyers why they didn’t prospect, or when they plan to prospect, I hear “I’ll get around to it when I have time”. Which may lead one to conclude that they do not want to prospect.

Banking 268

Banking Sales Qualified Lead Quota Proposal 268

Pipeliner

OCTOBER 25, 2024

Many people stress toward year-end, knowing that most prospects said ‘no,’ and fear losing their jobs by year-end. They are so surprised by the good nature of the call that they, too, pick up the conversation and often invite a proposal. However, do not give it a second thought regarding prospects and clientele.

Hiring 126

Hiring Follow-up Proposal Motivation 126

Sales and Marketing Management

SEPTEMBER 19, 2018

This is particularly critical when it comes to the proposal process, which can require sales and IT teams to complete extensive security questionnaires and demands that every piece of content used in pitches is current, approved, and compliant. The Risks Posed by the Proposal Process.

Proposal 251

Proposal Ideal Customer Profile Vendor Face-to-face 251

Hubspot Sales

AUGUST 21, 2023

There's a whole world of untapped potential around you — prospects you know would benefit from your product or service. That's where business proposals come in. A solid proposal can outline your value proposition and persuade a company or organization to do business with you. Know exactly what you need?

Proposal 98

Proposal Examples How To Social Media 98

Bernadette McClelland

MAY 22, 2022

Proposal iterations and. And to those of you for whom this rings a bell, I am going to challenge you to be more aware of the language you use around selling, prospecting, negotiating, asking for the business and achieving (or overachieving) targets and encourage you to reassess your wording as a first step. Demonstrations.

Energy 448

Energy Commission Up-Sell Conference 448

Sales Gravy

OCTOBER 15, 2024

Value-Based Selling: One of the major challenges in sales is convincing prospects to see beyond the initial costs and focus on the long-term benefits. Attendees can network with peers, gain insights from successful speakers, and improve productivity, prospecting, and sales pipeline strategies.

Outbound 98

Outbound Lead Scoring Lead Rank Conference 98

The Pipeline

JANUARY 26, 2021

As we have explored in a different context, the answer is not always more prospects. This will allow you to generate more revenue without necessarily having to add volumes of prospects. The less proposals you need to generate, or people going through Discovery, the more time you have to focus on improvement initiatives.

Churn 310

Churn Quota Margin Exercises 310

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 31, 2024

Here are the first twenty time-wasting tail-chasing things that came to mind and they all reflect some degree of lack of commitment, lack of discipline, lack of consistency and excuse making: Getting Ready to make calls but not actually making calls Making cold calls but not improving with each one Not following a world-class, best-practices sales (..)

Cold Calling 313

Cold Calling Call-back Follow-up Proposal 313

Understanding the Sales Force

JULY 17, 2019

The first contractor got a proposal to us within a few days, the second contractor got a proposal to us later the same day and the third contractor gave us a price on the spot. Certainly, responsiveness is not the only criteria that prospects weigh as part of their decision-making process.

Scale 239

Scale Proposal Referrals Objections 239

Hubspot Sales

AUGUST 26, 2024

For the other 98%, you’ll need to follow up again and again, communicating key selling points and differentiators, overcoming objections, and most critically, delivering as much value as possible to the prospect. It’s a time consuming but necessary process, which means mastering the AI sales follow-up can be a game-changer.

Follow-up 122

Follow-up Lead Rank Lead Scoring Leads 122

Sales Gravy

FEBRUARY 4, 2025

Im Jeb Blountbestselling author of Fanatical Prospecting, Objections, Sales EQ, and INKED. By helping them present stronger bids or more compelling proposals, you become integral to their success. Im Jeb Blountbestselling author of Fanatical Prospecting, Objections, Sales EQ, and INKED. Identify these patterns.

Customer 80

Customer Licensing Proposal Government 80

Jeffrey Gitomer

MARCH 19, 2019

If you knew you could win 75% of the prospects you pitched, you'd do it, wouldn't you? How many of your prospects, who you want to become customers, get an invitation to play the championship game (the sale) at your ball park? Your strategy should be to make the preliminary call at the prospect's place of business. There are 10.5

Sports 250

Sports Scale Proposal Call-back 250

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 22, 2024

They’re having a great conversation, the prospect needs what you have, there is money available, you’re with the decision maker, and you start making some assumptions about how good this opportunity looks. So you ended the call and went to work on your proposal, an hours-long proposition in futility.

Closing 220

Closing Proposal Discount Decision Maker 220

The Pipeline

JULY 7, 2021

No doubt we all want greater quality prospects, than just more things in the pipeline. But there is no denying that a lack of quality prospects leads to the same poor results. Simple questions, like of ten prospects who enter Discovery, how many will take a proposal. That reality leads to an uncomfortable choice.

Discount 361

Discount Quota Sports Objections 361

The Pipeline

MAY 14, 2019

Let’s look at prospecting. When someone has a lull in their pipeline, managers will tell them to prospect more. certainly more than repeating the “prospect more” mantra. As they get to $33,000, it reduced the number of prospects they need to get to quota. Less prospecting. What Do You Really Mean?

Sage 313

Sage Quota Coaching Proposal 313

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 16, 2023

They completed the sales call, but they didn’t do discovery and failed to uncover any compelling reasons to buy, they didn’t thoroughly qualify the opportunity, they probably failed to reach the decision maker(s), and more importantly, the impression they left on their prospect was shaky (wobbly) because they failed to differentiate.

Sales Process 227

Sales Process Decision Maker Proposal Follow-up 227