Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 15, 2025

Do you ever circle back, repurpose slide decks and proposals, become nostalgic, rewatch movies or TV series? Last week, I noticed that people are still using this archaic and overly simplistic sales qualifying process, and too many are still writing about the benefits of BANT (Acronym for Budget, Authority, Need, Timing).

Sales Process 173

Sales Process Lead Rank Lead Scoring Sales Qualified Lead 173

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

Understanding the Sales Force

APRIL 16, 2025

For example, if you sell capital equipment to the C Suite and you have a 2-year sales cycle for a 7 to 8 figure sale, the rate of conversion from dials to conversations to meetings could be 15 dials to 1 conversation and 10 conversations to 1 new meeting. That would be 200 dials for 1 new meetings booked – per week.

Pipeline 188

Pipeline Follow-up Conversion Outbound 188

Sales 2.0

OCTOBER 25, 2021

If you know someone that runs a business with a sales team, or they lead the charge themselves, have them take a look at the areas below for ways they can increase their sales. Improving even one of these areas could take their sales to the next level. Sales process efficiency. Sales time sucks. Sales management.

Territories 396

Territories Compensation Scale Decision Maker 396

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

Sales and Marketing Management

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

Automating sales and marketing activities lets you focus your human resources elsewhere. When your sales agents don’t have to spend hours creating proposals or prospecting, they can do more in less time. 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

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”. Don’t spend precious sales time on this.

Proposal 150

Proposal Hiring Decision Maker Case Study 150

No More Cold Calling

JULY 29, 2021

This broken link is to blame for sales teams’ biggest closing mistakes. “My This is the frustrated lament I hear regularly from sales leaders. But not closing sales is never the real problem. The problem is that sales reps neglect important activities during earlier stages of the sales process. It’s just a symptom.

Closing 409

Closing Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring 409

Sales 2.0

DECEMBER 3, 2024

I’ve started a new sales project, and I need some quick wins to show my clients that they made the right decision. If you’ve ever started a new sales job, or been given a new territory, you will recognize this scenario. A common sales scenario The setup for this project is a classic. Any proposals sent?

Scale 195

Scale Territories Face-to-face Construction 195

MTD Sales Training

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

You had a great sales interaction: Both you and the prospect were calm and comfortable. However, when you presented your proposal it seems as though everything became silent, time began to slow down and tension filled the air as you anxiously waited for the prospect’s decision. 1 – “Does that make sense for your business?”.

Closing 300

Closing Proposal Negotiation Benefit 300

The Pipeline

JUNE 17, 2021

I am proposing that you make it safe to miss a sales target. I have some research that makes this a great debate to have in your sales team right now. What hypothesis I am proposing is this: Ambition is key – investing energy in low balling targets will hurt you in the long run. Yes, you did read that correctly.

Top of Funnel 352

Top of Funnel Quota Proposal Lead Rank 352

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

The Pipeline

JULY 7, 2020

Sales pundits love to talk about change, and there is no shortage of opportunity brought about by the changes we face today. Most plans I have seen reward outcomes makes sense at first glance, typical for sales. He mapped out a successful sale, more accurate to say, he choreographed it. An approved proposal, $10 more.

Incentives 430

Incentives Incentive Commission Sales Qualified Lead 430

Sales 2.0

MARCH 12, 2020

In the sales realm I believe we may be about to see a big shift. It’s time for business owners and sales leaders to take action to make sure you can sell effectively if we enter a downtown. Don’t be surprised if more of your proposals go to “Neverland”. Shine a light on your sales environment. Hopefully not.

Top of Funnel 378

Top of Funnel Pipeline Follow-up Proposal 378

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

Sales Gravy

JANUARY 14, 2025

Eric in Lewiston, Maine, asks how to use last years data to create and accurate sales plans and evaluate software tools (like CRMs and ZoomInfo) to make those goals happen. Sales planning is vitalwithout a roadmap, youre just hoping your revenue targets magically come to life. Success in sales is about balance across the entire funnel.

Data 98

Data Tools Intent Data Top of Funnel 98

Understanding the Sales Force

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

Motivated buyer – something they want and need, but you still fall short of urgency, leading to a very long sales cycle. The three alternatives are: Nice to have and when it’s only nice to have, your opportunity will stall midway through the pipeline. You’ll keep trying but it won’t close.

Kana 188

Kana Benefit Margin Sales Qualified Lead 188

Hubspot Sales

JULY 30, 2024

Then, the game changed when I leveled up my sales email writing game with curiosity-provoking subject lines, strong body text, and compelling closing statements. Read on to hear my tactics for ending a sales email.e From there, initiating conversations and strengthening relationships with business buyers and influencers got easier.

Closing 122

Closing Quota How To Webinar Metrics 122

Sales and Marketing Management

MARCH 30, 2020

That is why Shapiro Negotiations Institute has taught for decades how to plan for successful sales and negotiations while maintaining and enhancing the relationship for future deals. If a goal of your sales team is to make better deals, faster and at better margins, then you must read (and follow) these five tips: . Use W questions.

Negotiation 279

Negotiation Margin Proposal Maximizer 279

Sales 2.0

OCTOBER 23, 2023

One of the areas of complex sales that I have seen soak up tons of time from entrepreneurs and senior salespeople over my years is writing proposals. And sad to say, not all these beautiful proposal documents ended up closing big deals. Now that we all have this new “intern” that can help with the proposal writing work.

Proposal 221

Proposal Social Media Media Decision Maker 221

Sales Gravy

OCTOBER 15, 2024

On this episode of The Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount Jr. and special guest Victor Antonio, renowned sales expert and author, dive deep into the world of sales, AI, and mindset. This shift makes human skills even more essential in later stages of the sales process.

Outbound 98

Outbound Lead Scoring Lead Rank Conference 98

Sales 2.0

OCTOBER 9, 2020

OK, maybe keep it a secret between us for now, but when you kill your sales quota and everyone starts calling you a Rockstar, you may want to let on (in the right circumstances). I can’t go spending money like this.”. But you have my blessing to become a small business owner. You don’t have to be just an employee. Build Your team.

Account 385

Account Social Media Scale Small Business 385

The Pipeline

MARCH 19, 2019

With regularity, most active sales trainers and I get the following question: “When is the best time to prospect?”. Either one leads to the same corner of no prospecting and any cross street in sales. Either one leads to the same corner of no prospecting and any cross street in sales. By Tibor Shanto.

Prospecting 306

Prospecting Proposal Cold Calling Quota 306

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 16, 2023

If they were anything like the bottom 56% of all salespeople, who don’t effectively follow a sales process, they would begin with step 4 so that they could quickly get to steps 7-9. Worse, the thing that occurs post presentation is almost always a proposal. But what will you propose?

Sales Process 227

Sales Process Decision Maker Proposal Follow-up 227

Sales Gravy

DECEMBER 29, 2024

As you'll learn in this Monday Money podcast episode and article, these goals are essential to helping you maintain sales discipline throughout your sales year. Maybe you want to be a sales manager, or if youre a manager, you want to be a director or VP of sales. You might want to go back to school for a degree or an MBA.

Face-to-face 98

Face-to-face Decision Maker Call-back Commission 98

Understanding the Sales Force

JANUARY 22, 2024

That exact same thing happens to salespeople on their sales calls. You probably ended the call with a mind-blowing, spectacularly biased perspective on your likelihood of getting the business and, if forty years in the sales development business has taught me anything, your perspective could be completely wrong. What did you miss?

Closing 220

Closing Proposal Discount Decision Maker 220

The Pipeline

FEBRUARY 4, 2020

Last week I saw a piece on LinkedIn, that questioned the accuracy of predictions about the future of B2B sales and selling made in the past decade. The piece pointed to a prediction by Forrester around 2015 about the size and nature of B2B sales in 2020. Is sales is making the most of their newfound time and resources?”

Revenue 370

Revenue Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank 370

Hubspot Sales

AUGUST 26, 2024

I remember it like it was yesterday — I was just starting out in SaaS sales, and I had identified a promising account I wanted to target. Sales requires a lot of skills you can only acquire from experience, but there’s one critical attribute you should start to hone on day one: persistence. How to Use AI for Sales Follow-Ups 1.

Follow-up 122

Follow-up Lead Rank Lead Scoring Leads 122

Sales and Marketing Management

MAY 7, 2021

In the new world of digital selling, it is critical that your request for proposal clearly articulates how your product meets the needs of your customer. appeared first on Sales & Marketing Management. The post Customer Expectations Have Risen. Do Your RFPs Rise to the Challenge?

Customer 270

Customer Proposal Meeting Marketing 270

Bernadette McClelland

MAY 22, 2022

When I was a sales rep in Corporate Australia, it was quite common to receive multi 5-figure commissions for selling certain solutions – and most often selling those deals involved a series of detailed stages: Your normal sales discovery calls. Proposal iterations and. Demonstrations. Workflow blue-printing. RE-IMAGINED.

Energy 448

Energy Commission Up-Sell Conference 448

The Pipeline

AUGUST 4, 2020

All well and good if you’re an ancient prophet without a quota, but in sales, it’s not good enough. In sales, we have to worry and plan for the next step well in advance. But the next play in a sale they have done before, and they are at a loss. And then the one after that, and all the rest of the 1,000-mile cycle.

Proposal 427

Proposal Objections Quota Closing 427

Jeffrey Gitomer

MARCH 19, 2019

Sales games are no different than sports games. You win more sales when you sell them at home. 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? The deal – What will you propose and when will you propose it? There are 10.5

Sports 250

Sports Scale Proposal Call-back 250

Sales and Marketing Management

MARCH 25, 2019

Author: Brad Soper, Andree Radloff and Mark-Daniel Rentschler What will sales divisions look like in the future? There are five developments that companies should pay attention to if they want to be competitive: Traditional sales forces will be cut in half. Sales will become too complex to stay a one-man show.

B2B 254

B2B Segment Ideal Customer Profile B2C 254

Understanding the Sales Force

AUGUST 31, 2024

In sales, it’s even easier to upgrade from the old technology of wasting time. I set it up on my phone in around the same amount of time it takes to splice a broken cable and I love the app. Dinger still gets appropriate feedback if he approaches a boundary but Halo sends it to me too and I can see where he is anytime I want.

Cold Calling 313

Cold Calling Call-back Follow-up Proposal 313