The Center for Sales Strategy

AUGUST 3, 2021

In part, because smart companies are examining their talent and prioritizing their top performers. Although lowering, unemployment rates are still much higher than we’ve seen in recent years. However, don’t let that fool you; as you can see, it’s still a very competitive job market out there.

Trends 62

Trends Smart Company Guarantee Competition 62

Sales and Marketing Management

JUNE 1, 2018

Managers of sales and marketing teams are charged with coaching up individual team members, enhancing their skill sets and improving overall team performance. Storytelling has stood the test of time as a critical skill in sales and marketing?—?and and isn’t that our goal in sales?—?a But where to begin? It’s not about you.

Marketing 226

Marketing Telemarketing Scale Education 226

The Pipeline

DECEMBER 31, 2015

Sales and marketing teams also had unique silos. This is especially true of sales and marketing departments. Sales teams fail to see the value in marketing, while marketers see salesmen as lazy. Sales and Marketing Don’t Have to Go Head to Head. All this bickering is stealing from your company’s bottom line.

Sales Qualified Lead 120

Sales Qualified Lead Marketing Small Business Small Business 120

Babette Ten Haken

JULY 16, 2020

Also, when salespeople are more lucratively compensated to be client-acquirers, not client-retainers, they have limited post-sale attention spans. What happens when your company deconstructs what separates people functionally? Alternatively, what happens when your company reconstructs people integrally and cross-functionally?

Hiring 157

Hiring Retention Smart Company Compensation 157

Pipeliner

JULY 8, 2020

As the country starts to open up again, sales teams around the country are tentatively reaching out to customers to test their receptiveness. Whether it’s a salesperson on a shopping floor or sales executive on the brink of making a deal of a lifetime, salespeople rely heavily on one-on-one interactions with potential customers.

Skype 96

Skype Decision Maker Analysis Smart Company 96

Crunchbase

NOVEMBER 17, 2022

Any company involved in selling needs to decide where to center its efforts: outbound or inbound sales. Balancing outbound selling and inbound selling will enable you to prep your sales team to deliver the right strategies at the right moment. What are outbound sales? What are inbound sales?

Inbound 52

Inbound Outbound Ideal Customer Profile Strategy 52

Zoominfo

OCTOBER 4, 2019

But, in the rapidly changing sales and marketing landscape, it’s important to challenge the status quo. Enter, B2P (business-to-person) sales and marketing. Maersk, a Danish shipping company, began using social in 2011 to raise brand awareness and form stronger relationships with its customers. Keep reading!

B2C 100

B2C B2B Marketing Lead Rank 100

Engage Selling

JUNE 2, 2018

Smart companies today measure their lead acquisition cost, their marketing costs and their sales cost. But what about the overall cost to serve your customer? That often gets overlooked. And yet that’s precisely where you can see both the risk … Read More »

Smart Company 54

Smart Company Leads Customer Marketing Qualified Lead 54

Hubspot Sales

DECEMBER 16, 2020

From the sales floor to the makeshift home office set up, salespeople of all kinds in all industries have faced a myriad of challenges and roadblocks this year. Mintis Hankerson is a Senior Sales Manager at HubSpot. For Mintis, 2020 has been all about balancing empathy with sales achievement.

Real Estate 140

Real Estate Face-to-face Forecasting Hubspot 140

Sales and Marketing Management

SEPTEMBER 6, 2019

Smart companies saw the possibilities of cyber customer service from the beginning, and jumped right on that bandwagon. For the first time in decades, email and live chat support made it possible to quickly and easily communicate with a real person instead of a computerized menu or canned response.

Social Media 184

Social Media Outsourcing Services Customer Service Media 184

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 13, 2018

I just got my first “SMART Company Brief” from DecisionLink. It provides an in depth analysis of the company, including things like: Fast facts on them and their performance. At least until now. It’s an awesome document–I get these for our major accounts.

Smart Company 70

Smart Company Analysis Face-to-face Competition 70

The Pipeline

NOVEMBER 14, 2013

Pricing continues a key factor in winning or losing sales opportunities, and while few vendors take pride in being the low cost provider, at times it seems they set out to be just that, or they take few steps to avoid it being forced on them. By Tibor Shanto - tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca. Tibor Shanto'

Vendor 299

Vendor Margin Smart Company Buyer 299

Sales Hacker

JUNE 20, 2022

It is our job as leaders and sales professionals to prepare for such an eventuality. 10 key points for sales leaders. What I share with you below is a distillation of incredible advice from sales leaders and professionals, as well as my own experiences. Sellers don’t just look to their sales leader for reassurance.

Lead Rank 89

Lead Rank Lead Scoring Leads Marketing Qualified Lead 89

Hubspot Sales

MAY 10, 2018

Bad sales advice is shockingly common -- and you don’t want to find out you’ve been misdirected the hard way. After all, every mistake means it’s harder to achieve your sales goals. I once worked for a manager who put a great deal of emphasis on activity metrics rather than actual sales results. 1) “Focus solely on activity.”.

Hiring 106

Hiring Hubspot Inbound Promotion 106

Cincom Smart Selling

MAY 8, 2024

Smart companies research target audiences thoroughly in order to tailor messaging: Develop specific persona profiles exploring both demographics and psychographics of ideal customers Identify optimal communication channels—email, web, mobile, etc. Clear, relevant communication is crucial for any company.

Ideal Customer Profile 62

Ideal Customer Profile Top of Funnel Customer Scale 62

Pipeliner

MAY 13, 2020

Recent studies show a whopping 84% of companies that have current hiring needs anticipate using executive recruiters to fill those roles. Executive recruiters deliver top talent to hiring managers attention that he would not have otherwise had access to, making companies substantially more competitive in the current war for talent.

Hiring 98

Hiring Trends Ideal Customer Profile Retention 98

Women Sales Pros

JUNE 7, 2019

In a time when it is increasingly difficult to have a truly unique product and to sustain it at a truly competitive price, the greatest advantage a company can have is its people. Buyers choose sellers that add value, and smart companies are responding accordingly. For them, the value of working with a seller just didn’t add up.

Lead Scoring 103

Lead Scoring Lead Rank Buyer Smart Company 103

Sell Integrity

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

This customer-needs-focused approach is often thought of in the context of the sales and service teams. Today’s customers expect more from the companies they do business with, and if they don’t feel valued, they have more options than ever to find what they’re looking for elsewhere.

Strategy 117

Strategy Customer Loyalty Coaching 117

Cience

DECEMBER 1, 2020

Your customers are one of your company’s most important assets. Although new sales are important, smart companies also focus on retention. Source: Bain & Company. Smart companies work proactively to make their customers feel seen and heard. That’s where sales and marketing automation comes in.

Retention 96

Retention Webinar Metrics CRM Ideal Customer Profile 96

LeadFuze

JULY 25, 2021

There are a lot of moving pieces to the post-sale process. Smart companies have realized that customer loyalty is the most powerful sales and marketing tool that they have. ” – Bill Price. Too many companies end their funnel right after acquisition. You likely already know a bit about the sales funnel steps (e.g.

Lead Rank 124

Lead Rank Lead Scoring Top of Funnel Churn 124

Cincom Smart Selling

JANUARY 27, 2015

Smart companies don’t have software initiatives; they have business initiatives that drive software purchases. The larger you become, the harder it is to keep track of dealers’ pipelines and forecasting your own sales. While a CPQ system can provide many sales functions, it doesn’t usually have a services module; but CRM does.

Scale 48

Scale Smart Company CRM Microsoft 48

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 21, 2019

Companies that prepare for and embrace the changes AI brings will thrive. Sales is traditionally a people-to-people business, but technologies like artificial intelligence are making expert sellers rethink the balance between human and machine. The need for automation in sales. The potential future of AI for sales.

Ideal Customer Profile 85

Ideal Customer Profile How To Churn Face-to-face 85

SalesLoft

FEBRUARY 13, 2017

86 percent of marketing and sales professionals stated that they have begun utilizing targeted account strategies. And smart companies are realizing that that success can also be seen in other parts of the company, particularly sales. This year we’re making it official. ” 1:45pm?—?2:30pm.

Account 52

Account Scale Account Based Marketing Hotels 52

Sales Training Connection

AUGUST 22, 2012

Schrage was exploring how smart companies increasingly recognize that their own futures depend on how ingeniously they invest in the future capabilities of their customers. Let’s look at Schrage’s key points and then translate it to the world of sales. Sales gets a seat at the innovation table.

Engineering 102

Engineering Smart Company Training Benefit 102

Sales Hacker

AUGUST 28, 2018

In the world of B2B sales, the conventional thinking has become especially stark. Post-sale, the numbers were equally stark. Given the growing importance of customer experience in today’s market, as well as the increased complexity of many B2B sales cycles , these numbers are a significant red flag. Still Thinking B2B vs. B2C?

Buyer 79

Buyer B2B B2C Survey 79

Factor 8

AUGUST 8, 2019

If you’re growing or starting up a team, you’re wise to spend time researching the type of rep that will best suit your sales process, talent pool, and customer preferences. And if you’re researching roles in sales, even better. Let’s dig in – starting with the top of the sales funnel or beginning of the buying process.

Inside Sales 31

Inside Sales Hiring Lead Rank Top of Funnel 31

The Brooks Group

APRIL 23, 2014

To build a great sales team, a meaningful and consistent sales management process must be in place organization wide. The 8 Components Of A Best-In-Class Sales Management Process. Recruitment – Regardless of industry, recruiting top sales performers is the very cornerstone of any sales management process.

Hiring 40

Hiring Sales Management Smart Company Construction 40

Mindtickle

JULY 2, 2016

Tweet This: Smart companies have realized that customer loyalty is the most powerful sales and marketing tool that they have. Tweet This: Just one phenomenal customer experience can make a world of difference when it comes to word-of-mouth promotion. Karl Wirth , Founder & CEO at Evergage.

Customer 52

Customer Loyalty Microsoft Smart Company 52

Mindtickle

JULY 2, 2016

Tweet This: Smart companies have realized that customer loyalty is the most powerful sales and marketing tool that they have. Tweet This: Just one phenomenal customer experience can make a world of difference when it comes to word-of-mouth promotion. Karl Wirth , Founder & CEO at Evergage.

Customer 52

Customer Loyalty Microsoft Smart Company 52

Pointclear

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

Smart companies will increasingly be "brand butlers," focusing on how they can help their customers or prospects to make the most of their daily lives (versus the old model of selling them a lifestyle). Be a voice of trusted reason in your industry, about whatever problem it is that your service or product solves.

Trends 180

Trends B2B Social Media Marketing 180

SugarCRM

AUGUST 19, 2019

Here’s our take on the four most important trends driving sales in the manufacturing sector right now. The growing use of remote data sensors – or smart sensors – to enhance the capabilities of existing equipment is a great example of how smart companies are applying IoT technology at minimal cost.

Trends 20

Trends SugarCRM B2C CRM 20

Braveheart Sales

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

Of course, smart companies play the arbitrage game: When costs are rising, pass along the price increases as quickly as you can while you try to delay accepting the cost increases from your suppliers as long as possible. However, if your higher cost inputs are commodities, freight, energy, etc.,

Margin 40

Margin Insurance Insurance Energy 40

The Brooks Group

APRIL 1, 2016

As sales leaders, we are inspired by leadership books, seminars, and articles, but when it comes to translating that inspiration into new behaviors, we often hit a roadblock. . An average strategy well executed will always outperform a superior business strategy which is poorly executed. .

Closing 63

Closing Smart Company Exercises Intent 63

The Brooks Group

OCTOBER 18, 2010

Part of our mission statement at The Brooks Group is to help our clients build Sales Cultures. What’s a sales culture.” The sales department must be or have the potential to be profitable. If there's no profit derived from the sales department, it's hard to justify its existence. Aggressiveness is rewarded in sales.

Collateral 40

Collateral Enterprise Enterprise Smart Company 40

SBI

JUNE 10, 2015

This post is part of a series of Executive Interviews of top sales and marketing solutions company executives. What problem/s are you solving for sales and/or marketing organizations? What problem/s are you solving for sales and/or marketing organizations? Decision makers know there’s no silver bullet to increase sales.

Up-Sell 50

Up-Sell Decision Maker Revenue Closing 50

The Brooks Group

AUGUST 10, 2012

It's part of a series of webinars celebrating this, our 35th year in the Sales Training Business. The bottom line is this: From a sales organization's perspective, it's impossible to respond accurately to an RFP if you are not given any context. Sales Performance Improvement

How To 40

How To Proposal Decision Maker Webinar Metrics 40

Klozers

JUNE 5, 2014

The recent increase in the number of Online Reputation Management companies validates this, however smart companies have learned some simple strategies and techniques on how to deal with the Customers From Hell, and try to catch them before the problem escalates, let alone they post anything negative online.

Ideal Customer Profile 50

Ideal Customer Profile Customer Social Media CRM 50