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'Back a few years ago, when I was teaching my daughter how to drive, I tried to teach her good driving habits. One critical habit that I tried to help her recognize was to read the gauges, or what they call in aviation, complete a radial scan. I explained to her that, prior to taking off in a car, you’ve got to make sure that there isn’t a light on telling you that your air pressure is low or that there’s an engine problem.
'I thought this was an interesting infographic. As sales people, we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to communicate with our prospects and buyers. Therefore, it seems to me we might want to get it right. This infographic suggests nothing in the subject line get’s open the most. Well duh, any “Re:” suggests the recipient is responding to something they sent out earlier.
'As more and more business owners are learning about the benefits of the new version of Google Analytics (referred to as “Universal Analytics”) as well as the utility of Tag Management Systems (made even more popular by the release of the free Google Tag Manager), Peep reached out to me to write an article about moving an inline GA implementation to Google Tag Manager.
'Over the past several weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time talking and corresponding with lots of people on forecasts. An article I wrote several years ago, The Most Used, Useless Metric In Sales has been republished in several venues–creating some discussion. With clients, with people in email (Adam, thanks for reminding me), and others, there have been lots of discussions about forecasting.
AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.
'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan. Before I unveil the top 5 mistakes, you might be interested to know that last week, Top Sales World Magazine went from monthly to weekly. I was featured on the cover but I''m most hopeful that everyone will read Jonathan Farrington''s interview with me. He got me to be very outspoken about what''s taking place right now in our industry and I believe that everyone will benefit from reading it.
' What makes someone a great sales manager? What separates them from the rest? Based on 15 years of consulting with sales teams, I have concluded the below list of 15 factors are what the “best of the best” do to be a successful sales manager: 1. Realize their job is not to be a sales […].
'The Tale of the Fail - I have to give credit to Ron S. for this phrase. Ron was a senior sales management executive for one of our clients. It was his responsibility to make sure that his sales people were always improving and it was his belief that sales people improved by reviewing their experiences and the experiences of others. So, when he conducted post-call debriefs with his sales people, he wanted to hear about 2 things - the Tale of the Sale AND the Tale of the Fail.
'The Tale of the Fail - I have to give credit to Ron S. for this phrase. Ron was a senior sales management executive for one of our clients. It was his responsibility to make sure that his sales people were always improving and it was his belief that sales people improved by reviewing their experiences and the experiences of others. So, when he conducted post-call debriefs with his sales people, he wanted to hear about 2 things - the Tale of the Sale AND the Tale of the Fail.
'There is a big difference between knowing what to do and being able to do it. You know you have to connect with the CEO to get the deal closed, but can you? You know you have to grow your pipeline by 30% in order to make quota, but can you? You know you have to spend more quality time with the kids and the family, but can you? You know you have to save more money for retirement, but can you?
'This is the first of a two-part series on mobile conversion and how to improve it. It’s based on thousands of user tests conducted by UserTesting , the leading usability testing service for mobile apps and websites. If there’s a consensus about anything in the fast-changing mobile market, it’s the idea that mobile eCommerce conversions are lower than they are on personal computers.
'The answer to this question seems obvious, the customer experience, whether it is buying, post buying, or anytime they engage our company, is for the customer. It’s the experience they should have in every interaction with our organization. When they are looking for information, how do they find it? Is it meaningful, relevant, and timely? When they engage in a buying process, do we align with how they want to buy, creating value in each step of the process?
'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Well, it''s really happened now. I was following a discussion in the Hubspot VAR Group on LinkedIn , where the question posed to the group was whether or not the first sales hire should be a sales or a marketing person. [ Disclosure: Hubspot is a client of both Kurlan and OMG ; This blog is hosted on Hubspot''s terrific blogging and lead-gen platform and I was one of their very first customers back in 2006.].
Today’s buyers expect more than generic outreach–they want relevant, personalized interactions that address their specific needs. For sales teams managing hundreds or thousands of prospects, however, delivering this level of personalization without automation is nearly impossible. The key is integrating AI in a way that enhances customer engagement rather than making it feel robotic.
'This question comes up in many different forms, but the issue is the same. How should I talk about my competitor when asked by a customer? The quick answer I give to people when asked this question is, “No, you shouldn’t talk about them.” But I admit — that answer does come with some […].
'In case you missed my previous blog post, I talked about words of wisdom I learned from my dad, Ray Cole Sr. In that post, I covered: He’ll only do that once. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and again. He’s too dumb to pour p**s out of a boot even if the instructions are on the bottom. I started that post with the comment that I thought my dad could have been a good sales manager.
'If you missed Venture Beat’s post the other day on these stats you’ll want to go check it out, cause it appears we’ve ALL been duped. I’ve seen these numbers so many times I, like most people, have come to accept them as fact. Haven’t you? Although I don’t believe I’ve blogged about these numbers, I know I have verbally tossed them about with peers and customers.
'Here’s something scary, according to MECLabs & Magento’s 2014 eCommerce Benchmark, only 13% of those studied base their testing on extensive historical data. The sad part is, the same study found that in almost every revenue group – with the exception the $0-10k group – companies that test changes based on extensive historical data were proportionally the most likely to be more successful.
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.
'I wish I was making this stuff up, unfortunately, the incredibly bad practices of too many on LinkedIn are far more intriguing than anything I could make up. This morning, I get two LinkedIn messages from the same individual. The first was a InMail–it had something to do with effective use of LinkedIn InMails, and email marketing, but he wanted to talk to me about a product he is selling to do this stuff.
'I enjoy reading and reviewing books. Recently, someone recommended a book co-written by Tim Hurson and Tim Dunne called, Never Be Closing: How to Sell Better Without Screwing Your Clients, Your Colleagues, or Yourself. Initially I did not care much for the title, much less the sub-heading, as I suspect the number of people motivated by “screwing their clients” is hardly anything to write home about.
' Too many salespeople complain that the only thing they ever hear from their customers is their prices are too high. To these salespeople, the only thing holding them back from making more sales is their company’s unwillingness to be more flexible with price. The argument the salesperson makes is that the competition has never […].
'A guest blog by Walt Gerano, Sales Development Expert. Welcome to the final in the series, Tale of the Fail. Will Rogers said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”. Well, he was right. Welcome to my train wreck. If you have been following the last couple of blogs posts, you have seen Tony and Mark talk about the reasons we let one get away from time to time.
Speaker: Jay Allardyce, Deepak Vittal, Terrence Sheflin, and Mahyar Ghasemali
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.
'A Sales Guy Recruiting is in the market for a new ATS (applicant tracking system). We’ve reached out to several of the leaders in the space and I have to tell you, if their sales organizations and approaches are any indication of the type of company they are, I’m in a lose lose. One company in particularly, and ironically it’s the front runner, has been the most egregious in their incompetence.
'A couple weeks ago, we dug into internal site search & found that in some cases , searches performed by only 10% of the site’s total traffic made up nearly 40% of the companies overall revenue. Then we went into my 3 favorite methods for increasing conversions by improving the search experience. But we’ve only just scratched the surface.
'The other evening, I was relaxing, watching something on Netflix. It was a mystery thriller, with quite a complex plot that had taken some very interesting twists and turns. I was a two thirds of the way through the movie (70% to be precise), when my wife joined me. She had been busy doing some things, but when she sat down, she immediately started asking: What’s happened?
'Are you interested in learning more about B2B mobile marketing? If you’re like many people, you can think of a lot of ways B2C companies use mobile marketing. But if you work in the B2B world, then you might be stuck trying to come up with B2B mobile marketing ideas. The good news is that B2B mobile marketing can be every bit as useful in the business marketplace as it is in the consumer marketplace.
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!
'Do you think your personal social media accounts have no impact on your sales career? Guess again. Customers are using the internet more and more to decide who they want to do business with. And they aren’t just researching companies. They are researching salespeople. Your social media reputation matters. I wish you could do […].
'I think my dad would have been a good sales manager, not a great one, a good one. In today’s world, he would have been a little too harsh with the coaching and discipline and certainly he would have struggled with political correctness. Raymond Fredrick Cole Sr., would have been 83 this past Monday. He died almost 7 years ago. I still miss him. My dad was a foreman on a blueberry farm in Hammonton, New Jersey.
'You know how much I love creative s**t. I could talk for hours about creativity AND how creativity is the difference between winning and losing. Creativity is the s**t and the cats over at On24 have lit up the creativity Christmas Tree with this funny and creative video. How to Webinar! Not only is it creative, but it’s not boring. Most companies are boring.
'Reducing churn is critical to the success of your SaaS company. David Skok, who is a must read for all startups , explains that as a SaaS company grows, the size of the subscribers/customers/users who no longer do business with the company will also, organically, grow. This equates to a loss of revenue, which requires more and more signups from new customers just to replace what you are organically losing every month.
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!
'We all have them, we know what they look like. They’re stuck. We look at aging reports and see them staying in the same stage of the pipeline, not moving forward, getting older, moldier as time passes. Sometimes, I see entire pipeline’s clogged up with stalled deals–I feel like calling “Roto Rooter.” The longer a deal is stalled, the less likely it’s going to happen.
'Is it necessary to pre-qualify inbound leads? That’s the overarching question I recently presented to a panel of industry experts. Over the course of this three part series, you’ll hear from 15 leading voices in the world of sales, marketing and lead generation, as they share their insight in response to the following questions: Are companies wise to invest money and time to pre-qualify inbound leads from marketing automation systems that have been assigned a “perfect” l
'Are you using social media the right way in your sales process? Unfortunately, many salespeople are not! I meet too many salespeople who spend too much time trying to communicate with prospects and customers through social media – when they really need to be reaching out to those people on the phone or in person. Be […].
'A guest blog by Mark Trinkle, Sales Development Expert. As the quote says, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”. My blog post today is another in the series of posts about The Tale of the Fail – sales lessons we can all learn from sales that we have lost. One of the most distinguishing traits of successful sales people is that they always learn from the mistakes they make in selling.
ZoomInfo customers aren’t just selling — they’re winning. Revenue teams using our Go-To-Market Intelligence platform grew pipeline by 32%, increased deal sizes by 40%, and booked 55% more meetings. Download this report to see what 11,000+ customers say about our Go-To-Market Intelligence platform and how it impacts their bottom line. The data speaks for itself!
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