April, 2014

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5 Keys to Building Successful Sales Teams - Performance Management

Anthony Cole Training

'Managing a sales team can be described as complicated, difficult, tough, impossible, thankless, endless. OR. you could make a case for and describe it as rewarding, exciting, challenging, critical for success, important, simple. So. which is it? From my experience, your answer will depend on: Your experience. Your bias towards the work required for success.

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Why Sales People Need to Stop Googling and Start Nimbling

Closing Bigger

'Social CRM and social selling are two terms which I have seen go from obscurity to mainstream business topics in the past 24 months. Jon Ferrara CEO and Founder of Nimble , an early innovator in social CRM and social selling technology, took time out of his schedule to share with us the latest innovations in the space. “Social selling is about inspiring and educating the customer as a trusted advisor.” - Jon Ferrara , CEO and Founder of Nimble.

CRM 145
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Yesware. Yes Please!

A Sales Guy

'You’ve spent 2 hours on that prospecting email. You desperately want this client. You’ve been chasing this company for a year now. You finally know they have a need. You know they have a big problem you can fix. You’ve gotten the CTO’s email address. She’s the person that can make the decision. Everything is teed up and ready to go.

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Onboarding Emails: What Happens After They Sign Up For Your “Free Thing”

ConversionXL

'Think about every lead magnet you ever signed up for. Of all of those free ebooks, courses & discount codes, how many of those companies did you ever actually become a customer of? How many of them do you still buy from? I don’t know about you, but judging by my own inbox, what happens after I hand over my email address is just… disappointing.

Price 126
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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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Are Inside Sales and Consultative Selling Mutually Exclusive?

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan I don''t write about Inside Sales as often as I should. After all, everyone else is writing about it, some bloggers are devoted to it, and if you read what the inside sales bloggers are writing you would think that inside sales is king. Of course, it is the king of the top of the funnel where everything begins, but with few exceptions, selling rarely ends in that department.

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6 Secrets to Sell More in Less Time

The Sales Hunter

'Do you know there are 6 things top-performing salespeople do to sell more in less time? The beautiful thing is anyone can do them. You don’t need special skills, but rather the discipline to make it happen. Here’s the list: Secret #1: Never end today until tomorrow is planned. Don’t allow yourself to start the […].

Sell 104

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“How Much Follow Up Is Too Much?”

Partners in Excellence

'I just got a great question, “How much follow up is too much?” The sales person was concerned about annoying the customer with too much follow up—even though the customer had requested the follow up. All of us face this challenge, we’re anxious to move forward, we want to know what’s happening, what the customer thinks, and where they are in their buying process.

Follow-up 100
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What You Don’t Know About Your Pipeline That’s Killing Your Sales

A Sales Guy

'What do your sales pipeline stages look like? How many do you have? Are they working, does your pipeline tell you what you need to know? If you’re like most sales organizations your pipeline stages are average. They do just enough for you to track sales, to manage opportunities and to provide a rough forecast. But, also like most sales organizations, when it comes to crunch time, when it comes to the end of the quarter, your pipeline fails you and you’ve missed your number again.

Pipeline 134
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Designing Your Website Flow To Meet Your Conversion Needs

ConversionXL

'The four different media tools for communicating with your customer on the web are text, graphics, moving images and sound – that’s it. Those are the only tools you have to explain concepts, convey emotions , and create an “experience” online. Take a step back & you see that what “converts best”, is really just how these elements are designed and combined to get a user into a “flow” state , where each click comes more naturally than the next.

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What the Sales World Can Learn from Marathon Participants

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Earlier this week the world was once again focused on the city of Boston and the 118 th running of the Boston Marathon. I don’t run but I know several people that do and the preparation for running this, or any other marathon, is daunting. This isn’t an event that one can take lightly. Consider the length of time that a runner must train to prepare for running a 26.2-mile race.

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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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5 Sales & Marketing Thought Leaders Weigh In on Inbound Marketing

Pointclear

'In January I wrote the blog: How to Diagnose if Inbounditis is Killing Your Sales Pipeline , which was published by DemandGen Report. In the article I assert: "A healthy, driven inbound marketing department is great, but over-reliance on inbound marketing (what I call ''inbounditis'') negatively affects the revenue backbone of any company. In fact, it makes the whole sales pipeline sick.

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Go Huskies! Go Sell!

Anthony Cole Training

'I’m normally one to watch a movie, read a book or listen to a song and tie it to sales and/or sales management. And, even though I use a lot of sports analogies, I rarely use sport stories or examples in my blog post or Sales Brew Newsletters. But given the recent victory by my alma mater, THE University of Connecticut, I want to share some observations about their road to the Final Four and eventual Championship.

Sell 147
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Inside Sales Is Only Great For Transactional Commoditized Products!

Partners in Excellence

'Not long ago, I was meeting with the top management team of large organization. They had traditionally, had a large field sales organization. The performance of the organization was OK, they were making the numbers, but increasingly challenged. Sales people were just overworked, stretched very thin. Volumes and expectations were increasing. The needs for recruiting and bringing more sales people on board were skyrocketing.

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Sales is Not A Lottery Ticket!

A Sales Guy

'Sales is not a lottery ticket. It’s not a way to get rich quick, sorry MLM world. Sales isn’t a sleazy chick looking to sell some old unsuspecting man a beater car to make some quick coin. That’s a crook. Sales is not a lay-over profession while you look for a job in your field, that’s lack of commitment. Sales is a profession for the skilled, creative and driven.

Sales 127
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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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How To Boost eCommerce Revenues With Upselling

ConversionXL

'According to Forrester research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru , product recommendations are responsible for an average of 10-30% of eCommerce site revenues. . Way back in 2006, Amazon reported that 35% of it’s revenues were as a direct result of it’s cross sales and upselling efforts. If you want to increase your Q2 revenues & you don’t currently have a upselling testing program in place, you need to read this.

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Is This an Example of Succeeding or Failing at Inside Sales?

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Yesterday I was in the office, preparing for the today''s formal introduction of Objective Management Group''s (OMG) award-winning, new and improved, fourth generation, Sales Candidate Assessment ( View the 25-minute Webinar here ) when the phone rang and I answered. Not only was it a cold call, but it was one I could write about - the best kind!

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Are Your Sales Suffering Because You've Picked The Worst Times To Contact Prospects?

Pointclear

'In the digital age, more and more communication takes place via email and text messaging, but a person-to-person conversation is still the most engaging way to contact a prospect and convert him into a customer. If your sales are down, perhaps you should reconsider your timing and preparation for making contacts. Why Cold Calling Still Works. Cold calling, contacting someone you don’t already to know, is one of the most effective ways to make a business connection because it’s so direct and per

Contact 102
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What is Wrong with the Telephone in Sales

Score More Sales

'It started innocently enough when I replied to my industry colleague and social selling advocate Jill Rowley via Twitter to something she asked me. I said, “let’s talk – by telephone” She responded by saying, What’s wrong with Skype or a Google Hangout? . It made me feel like the phone – the conventional phone, is being misaligned.

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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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Salesperson As Entrepreneur

Partners in Excellence

'When you think about it, sales people have an awesome amount of freedom–but also a huge amount of personal responsibility. In many senses, we really are entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs run their own businesses. They have goals, translated both to financial (revenue, earnings, growth), and strategic (share, market visibility, brand reputation, etc.

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Why Sales People Fail (Themselves)

A Sales Guy

'Sales people fail all the time. Depending on how you look at it, or who you ask, they fail more often than not. Sales people fail for two reasons, they fail themselves or the company fails them. Today’s post will address why sales people fail themselves. I’ll drop my 2 cents on how companies fail sales people in a follow up post. Sales people fail, because they simply fail themselves.

Sales 126
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Unlocking Your Company’s Growth Engine w/ Conversion Rate Optimization w/ Sean Ellis

ConversionXL

'If you’ve heard of Dropbox , Eventbrite , LogMeIn or Qualaroo , you’re familiar with my work. I’m Sean Ellis & I’d like to tell you how Conversion Rate Optimization played a critical role as the growth engine for the companies I’ve worked with. I’m going to lay out the specific tests & processes I’ve used to grow these startups into incredibly valuable businesses.

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Benchmarking Salespeople Sounds Great but Has Many Flaws

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan You want to hire better salespeople, don''t you? And you''ve been told that if you use a sales assessment, you will be able to select better salespeople, right? And if you have a strong HR background, you may believe that benchmarking is a good first step. There are many uses for benchmarking in sales, and while the approach taken by most assessment companies helps them, it doesn''t really help you.

Territory 105
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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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PowerViews with James Obermayer: Sales Managers To Blame For Lost Leads

Pointclear

'My longtime friend and colleague James Obermayer has strong feelings about who is responsible for lost leads among salespeople. Jim, who is principal of a California-based sales and marketing consulting firm Sales Leakage Consulting, lays the blame squarely at the feet of sales managers, who aren’t putting the necessary pressure on their sales force to follow up on leads, he said.

Consult 102
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6 Ways to Prospect More Effectively With Email

The Sales Hunter

'Using email as part of your prospecting plan is a good idea — if you do it right! Here are 6 ways you can be more effective with your prospecting email: 1. Subject line Nothing will sink an email faster than a subject line. The subject line needs to be as powerful as the title of a […].

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Confusing Wants And Needs

Partners in Excellence

'Too often, both we sales people and our customers confuse wants and needs. They are similar but very different. The outcomes we get from selling to what our customers want, versus what they need are profoundly different. As sales people, we’re taught to understand customer needs–in reality, what happens is we focus on customer wants. When we sell to a customer’s wants, we are primarily focused on a “future state.” We and the customer talk about new things they w

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Why Sales People Fail (When the Company is to Blame)

A Sales Guy

'Yesterday, I talked about why sales people fail themselves. Today, I’m breaking down why sales people fail because of the company. Yes! Sales people fail because their company fails them. It happens all the time. The only difference between when sales people fail themselves vs when sales people fail because of their company — the company rarely gets blamed.

Quota 121
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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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How Personalized Marketing Can Increase Your eCommerce Sales

ConversionXL

'Marketing doesn’t end after you’ve attracted new users to your website. Marketing doesn’t end after you’ve made the sale. If you’re interested in increasing customer lifetime value , know the real journey begins after that first sale is made. Personalized marketing – messages and actions tailored to the visitor based on their previous viewing & purchasing behavior- is the key to all of this.

Retail 112
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Is There a Lack of Clarity on the Current State of Selling?

Understanding the Sales Force

'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Last week I wrote this article questioning the Death of SPIN Selling. Over the years I have questioned the impending death of other important areas like cold-calling, selling, sales process, salespeople and more. As we continue to discuss these issues and more like them, let''s think about why there are two camps - those who continue to prophecise the eventual death of salespeople and selling; and those who defend its existence and continued importan

Sell 101
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Tweet Less and Talk More

Pointclear

'Toss the technology. Relationships rule in sales. The Internet is the most powerful, life- and business-changing tool created in generations. But while technology has forever altered our sales processes, it won’t save our sales careers. It won’t solve our business-development challenges, nor will it improve our relationships with our customers. That’s our job.

Cold Call 100
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Inside Sales Power Tip 151 – Speak WELL

Score More Sales

'As a remote professional seller you use the phone continuously throughout the day. If you are not using the phone at least half of the time you are reaching out to buyers, then I hope you are using video conversations to a great extent. These two strategies – video-to-video or telephone allow for real connection. While being in front of someone is, in fact, the BEST way to communicate, a good two-way video conversation is the next best thing.

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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