July, 2013

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The Truth About Your Sales People #2 - They Can Get Better

Anthony Cole Training

'Regardless of where your sales people are on the bell curve, they can get better. My good friend at Alliant Insurance Services, Ron Stewart, shared this piece of wisdom with me in our very first meeting: "Just because they aren''t sick doesn''t mean they can''t get better.". Over the last 20 years at Anthony Cole Training Group, I''ve been privileged to work with thousands of sales people.

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GREATNESS IS JUST A CHOICE

A Sales Guy

'OK, if you’re feeling a bit apathetic or lazy right now, you might want to wait before you read this next post. It may make you feel bad about yourself and I think that’s secretly Dan’s objective. Dan Waldschmidt is an in your face, tell it like is, get with the program or get out of the way kinda guy and I love that about him. This story is awesome and brilliantly told.

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Powerful Questions to Qualify Sales Opportunities

Score More Sales

'Looking back, I remember thinking that Ron had some sort of memory problem. He was my sales colleague. We both were account managers selling millions of dollars worth of technology to a major aircraft company. Between us, we sold more than $30M a year of items selling for $20 or $100 or $5000 each. Ron and I would meet with various decision makers who were involved in a project that would involve thousands of the items we sold on one contract.

Sales 123
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Email Retargeting: Not Just For Websites & Display Networks Anymore

ConversionXL

'According to a survey of over 72 Million customers shopping on 86 retail sites, marketing data company, Custora has learned that Email is the number 3 source of customer acquisition. This is outpaced only by Organic Search with 15.8% of total customer acquisition – and CPC with 10% acquisition. In the last four years, Email has quadrupled it’s customer acquisition rate, reaching nearly 7% of total acquisition , making it a serious contender for where you should be focusing your ti

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AI Strategies for Sales Managers: How to Cut Down on Tedious Admin Work

What if you could help your sellers stop wasting 72% of their day on non-selling activities and focus on bringing in revenue? Incorporating AI in your enablement workflows can help you cut down on busy work, get projects done faster, and let your team (and you!) focus on making a bigger impact. We put together this guide to show you how to use AI to cut time and costs for projects, including collateral creation, development of training videos, and automating tedious processes.

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The Top 3 Reasons Why Salespeople Fail at Consultative Selling?

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan I have been teaching and writing for years that buyer-focused selling, a consultative approach to sales, is the best approach for differentiating, adding and being the value, maintaining and increasing margins and winning a larger percentage of opportunities. These days, I am just one of many who are spreading this message and even if we get through to only one leader at a time, we will eventually get most companies selling in a way that brings consi

Consult 103
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Stop Using Your Brain as Your CRM

The Sales Hunter

'I would be a rich person if I was paid a dollar each time a salesperson told me they don’t enter most information into their CRM system because they have a good memory and can remember. You must use your CRM system to its full potential or you are robbing yourself and your company of more success. Salespeople say they can remember info for one simple reason — they’re lazy and don’t want to go through the work of recording the information.

CRM 104

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Overcoming the Single Biggest Reason for Failure

A Sales Guy

'There is no more powerful player on the stage of life than failure. Real or imaginary, failure wields powerful influence. It falsely commands respect and it this unearned respect that tear at our dreams, goals, and hopes of accomplishment. Kelly does a great job of breaking down life’s archenemy. You’re gonna like this post. —————————-.

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If The Customer Doesn’t Want To Buy, Discounts Won’t Help

Partners in Excellence

'We’ve been working with a customer, diligently talking about their problems and concerns. Educating them about our solution. Trying to move them through our sales process. They’ve been interested, somewhat. They’ve met with us, asked us the right questions, perhaps given some buying signals, but things drag, the deal becomes stuck.

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10 Reasons Why Inside Sales Will Displace Field Sales Teams by 2015

Pointclear

'Josiane Feigon is President of TeleSmart Communications and author of the business bestseller, Smart Selling on the Phone and Online. To read an excerpt from her latest book, Smart Sales Manager , click here. To listen to a webinar on this topic, click here. Today’s “new normal” sales landscape has sales leaders scratching their heads, wondering about the best way to structure their sales organizations.

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A Rare Paragraph or Two About Making Successful Sales Presentations

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Geoffrey James contributed a terrific piece to Inc.com in May. I''ve criticized some of Geoffrey''s articles in the past but this one, 3 Reasons Why Most Presentations Fail , is really good. Basically, Geoffrey says that salespeople wrongly: Provide too many details about too many things. Talk about their history and clients instead of their prospects'' issues.

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Prepare Now: 2025s Must-Know Trends For Product And Data Leaders

Speaker: Jay Allardyce, Deepak Vittal, and Terrence Sheflin

As we look ahead to 2025, business intelligence and data analytics are set to play pivotal roles in shaping success. Organizations are already starting to face a host of transformative trends as the year comes to a close, including the integration of AI in data analytics, an increased emphasis on real-time data insights, and the growing importance of user experience in BI solutions.

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It’s Time to Fire Your Cheap Customers

The Sales Hunter

'You know you aren’t making any money off the customer who became your customer when you were desperate during a slow period. Just because you made one bad mistake doesn’t mean you need to continue living it. If you do continue to do business with the low-price customer, the only thing you’re doing is continuing a bad thing. There are two ways to deal with the cheap customer you want to fire.

Customers 102
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Inside Sales Power Tip 121 – Shorten Your Message

Score More Sales

'Salespeople send email messages that are way too long most of the time. Sellers also leave long-winded voice mail messages. To top that off, we rarely leave specific suggested next actions that work. If you are in sales and have mastered the art of the brief, succinct message, consider yourself a Sales Rockstar or on your way to being one. Why do we say so much and send so much?

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Cooperation is for losers. Say wha?!

A Sales Guy

'So, we’re just about half way through the guest post series. I hope you are enjoying them. Today’s post is from Tim Ohai. I introduced you to Tim a few weeks in a Sunday Morning Blog post. I love Tim’s take on collaboration and cooperation here. What do you think? Is cooperation for losers? ————————-.

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Pipeline Stench

Partners in Excellence

'Here’s an idea for some clever software entrepreneur, add ”smell” to pipeline management software. Sometimes, I really wish we could “smell” our pipelines, we would be overwhelmed by the number of dead, stagnant, rotten deals and the resultant stench. (By the way, I will insist on a royalty from anyone adding this feature to their software.).

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Don't Let AI Pass You By: The New Era of Personalized Sales Coaching & Development

Speaker: Brendan Sweeney, VP of Sales & Devyn Blume, Sr. Account Executive

Are you curious about how artificial intelligence is reshaping sales coaching, learning, and development? Join Brendan Sweeney and Devyn Blume of Allego for an engaging new webinar exploring AI's transformative role in sales coaching and performance improvement! Brendan and Devyn will share actionable insights and strategies for integrating AI into coaching and development - ensuring personalized, effective, and scalable training!

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PowerViews with Lori Richardson: Small Sales Improvements Make a Profound Impact

Pointclear

'Joining me today is Lori Richardson, Founder and CEO of Score More Sales. Lori is a thought leader on the sales growth front and works with technology brands worldwide. She has worked with known companies such as Apple, IBM, and Siemens and has become a well-known sales leader. Below, you can read highlights from our discussion or use the links to start the video from different parts of the conversation.

Contact 97
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Top 10 Sales Leadership Tips From 2013 - So Far

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan On the heels of The Top 5 Sales Leadership Articles of 2013 comes the Top 10 Sales Leadership Tips of 2013. Each of these tips are excerpts from articles I wrote during the first six months of 2013. It''s not that cold calls don''t work; it''s that salespeople truly suck at making cold calls! Read Article.

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5 Reasons to Dump a Customer

The Sales Hunter

'We’ve all had at one time or another a customer we can’t stand. Come on… let’s be blunt and quit kidding ourselves about trying to like everybody. To be even more blunt, some customers just aren’t worth keeping! Are you with me? I have a feeling you’re saying, “Mark, you’re spot-on.” Here are 5 reasons I think it makes sense to dump a customer: 1.

Customers 101
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Inside Sales Power Tip 122 – Keep Your Focus

Score More Sales

'Looking back over my sales career I would have to say that my focus, for the role I had at any given time, varied due to a number of things – external and internal to the company I worked for. Those who follow the blog may have seen mention that I have worked with and for 21 sales managers during my corporate selling career – at a number of technology, distribution, and financial services companies as an inside sales rep or outside rep.

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How to Optimize Call Monitoring: Automate QA and Elevate Customer Experience

Speaker: Laura Noonan, Chief Revenue Officer at CallFinder + Angie Kronlage, Director of Program Success at Working Solutions + April Wiita, Vice President of Program Success at Working Solutions

Are you still manually reviewing calls? 🤔 It's time for a change! The traditional method of manual call monitoring is no longer cutting it in today's fast-paced call center environment. Industry experts Angie Kronlage and April Wiita from Working Solutions are here to explore the power of innovative automation to revolutionize outdated call review processes!

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Do You have Sales Deal DEBT? [Message to Sales Leaders]

A Sales Guy

'Deal debt is one of the most egregious management practices perpetrated on sales people today. Deal debt is the result of end of the quarter pressure sales leaders put on their sales team to pull deals into the current quarter that aren’t slated to close until the next quarter — all in order to make the number. Pulling future deals into the current quarter in order to make quota, is the same as borrowing money at exorbitant interest rates.

Quota 115
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Insight And Co-Creation

Partners in Excellence

'Yesterday, I was talking to one of the smartest sales executives I’ve ever met. We were talking about, what else, selling with Insight. His team had quietly been doing this for years–a very long time. When you look at the track record of success and growth, clearly both the overall organization is doing great things and his sales people are executing differently than their competitors.

Pitch 97
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Power Opinions - Experts Select Top Three Social Media Tools

Pointclear

'We have had over 30 PowerViews interviews in the past year and I thought it would be fun to ask our PowerViews alumni a question about social media. The question was: What are the top three social media tools (ranked in order) and why? Fourteen responders listed twenty total social media tools: I was surprised that only nine listed LinkedIn (though Jonathan Farrington listed it on the top, middle and bottom of his list of three—I only counted it once).

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The Waffle Cone and the Mass Production of Salespeople

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Do you remember when freshly made waffle cones became popular? Back then, you could smell the waffle cones from outside of a gourmet ice cream shop and the smell alone would be enough to get you in. Originally, it was quite novel, with only a few shops making those soft, tasty, and very aromatic cones which could hold SO MUCH MORE ice cream than traditional cones.

Product 95
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How to Improve Email Deliverability and Optimize Each Send

Learn how to optimize email deliverability and drive greater email ROI. What lands your email in the customer’s inbox? Understanding those factors, otherwise known as email deliverability, is critical to getting the most return on your campaign investments. But the “rules” around which factors land you in the spam folder aren’t always easy to keep up with.

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People Don’t Buy Price. They Buy an Outcome.

The Sales Hunter

'It doesn’t matter how cheap you are. Nobody is going to buy if they don’t believe what your offering is going to help them. If every purchase is based on an expected outcome, then is there really any reason to worry so much about price? No! Price is secondary to outcome. Price is not the primary issue. Let me put it into simple terms: If the value gained from the expected outcome is greater than the price, then the customer will buy.

Price 100
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Is Your Company Arrogant?

Score More Sales

'It dawned on me recently during a webinar when one of my co-panelists, the ever proper sales guru Jonathan Farrington spoke in his brilliant British accent, “Sellers are arrogant”. He went on to talk about how many companies are doing the same things over and over – not changing on behalf of our ever-changing customers. It caused me to wonder about my customers and the customers of this blog’s readers.

Clients 85
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This is NOT Another Sales Pitch — Yes it is!

A Sales Guy

'I got this email the other day. It’s not a joke. It’s a real email. I’ll let you read it, then I’ll share my two cents. Hi Jim, I’ll be honest, this is not “another sales pitch” from Sales Instead, I’d like to send you a 2-minute demo video of Gainsight’s Customer Success Management solution: [link]. We are VC backed ($9M Series A) by Battery Ventures and our key customers include Marketo, DocuSign, Xactly, Jive, Informatica, YouSendIt, etc.

Pitch 114
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Separating The Challenger Sales Person From Insight Delivery

Partners in Excellence

'Are “Challenging” and “Insight” synonymous? I had been mixing them together, but more recently have been thinking they may be but don’t have to be. Or actually, I’ve been thinking, “Does the Challenger sales person have to be the provider/teacher of the insights, or is she the orchestrator and manager of the process?

Pitch 96
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Brick & Mortar Retail Relevance: How to Stay Ahead of the Curve

Speaker: Jay Black, Senior Account Executive

Let's set the record straight: in-store retail isn't dead - it's evolving! Faced with the digital age and the demands of omnichannel shopping, some retailers are thriving while others are struggling to adapt. Join Jay Black in this exclusive session as he explores the strategies that set successful stores apart, including: Crafting unique and unforgettable in-store experiences 🛍️ Mastering the art of retail demands 🛒 Navigating inventory challenges in today's climate 📦 an

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BANT is Bunk, BS and Irrelevant - per Ardath Albee

Pointclear

'I really liked Ardath Albee’s blog on July 9, 2013— Why BANT is Bunk for Today’s B2B Buyer and not just because I agree with most of what she says. The blog is painfully honest, insightful and substantiated by facts. Here is a quick recap if you don’t have time to read the whole article: Salespeople need to think differently. BANT is among the reasons leads passed by marketing are considered low quality.

B2B 95
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Top 5 Sales Leadership Articles of 2013 - So Far

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan I found it difficult to select the top 5 articles because top 5 means different things to me. Most Popular? Best? Most Commented? Most Linked To? Favorite? Written in the last 6 months? Read in the last 6 months? I couldn''t narrow it down to a single article so I decided to go with the topics above. MOST POPULAR SALES ARTICLE.

Sales 92
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5 Secrets for Dealing with Customers Who Push Back on Price

The Sales Hunter

'If you’re wondering what the ultimate secret is for dealing with customers who push back on price, let me be upfront and say there isn’t any single secret. Rather it’s a collection of strategies when used at the right time with the right person can most likely lead to success. Notice I say “most likely lead to success.” I say that because the sales process is never perfect, despite how much people may want to benchmark results.

Price 97
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Inside Sales Power Tip 125 – Grit

Score More Sales

'You know that guy or woman on your sales team who is relentless? That person who possesses something that is driving them to succeed. Would you like just a little bit of that to help get you where you want to be? That seller who regularly runs into obstacles and they always seem to bounce back? How is it that they always seem upbeat and ready for another day of sales calls, e-mailing and researching seemingly impossible to reach prospects?

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How to Prove Marketing Value: Demonstrate Content ROI and Contribution to Sales

Every marketer knows how important it is to prove their efforts drive sales opportunities, but that’s easier said than done. When problems like sales and marketing misalignment, lack of data, and wasted efforts persist, marketers can’t measure, prove, or increase their impact on revenue at a time when demonstrating marketing value is critical. Using analyst and expert data, this guide to marketing impact and content attribution explains: How B2B buyers use content The most common types of conten