March, 2013

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Predicting Sales Success: As SIMPLE as 1-2-3-4-5-6-7

Anthony Cole Training

Predicting sales success is something that many companies attempt to do, but they still struggle with forecasting accuracy. Over the last 10+ years, tools like SalesForce.com, ACT, SalesLogic and Base have been developed that provide capabilities for sales management and finance to gather data, gain insight, manage sales opportunities and predicit future sales success.

Finance 210
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How to Use Cialdini’s 6 Principles of Persuasion to Boost Conversions

ConversionXL

Back in 1984, Dr. Robert B. Cialdini wrote a book called “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” Since then, it’s been widely hailed as a seminal book on marketing, something that every self-respecting business shouldn’t be caught without. The most significant aspect of this tome was the highlighting of Cialdini’s 6 Principles of Influence , which were reciprocity, commitment/consistency, social proof, authority, liking and scarcity.

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Sales Forecast Accuracy, Demand Planning And Other Ramblings

Partners in Excellence

I’ve been involved in a number of conversations about my positions on Sales Forecast Accuracy recently. I wanted to share some thoughts provoked by those very good conversations. The Sales Forecast Is Not The Demand Plan! The demand plan is the basis for scheduling manufacturing (or service delivery). It ripples through the manufacturing schedule, inventory planning, shipping, procurement, supply chain management.

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The Indicators of Success – How Many Do You Have?

A Sales Guy

I saw this the other day and I thought it was great. I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t ask myself, as I was reading it, which of these indicators I possessed and which I didn’t. I had to account for how many I had on the left and how many on the right. Being as honest as I could possible be, I found I had more on the left than the right.

Growth 122
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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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Email for the Sales Force - How it Should be Used

Understanding the Sales Force

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan If you're anything like me, you get 300 emails a day and there simply isn't time to respond to it all during office hours. That is one of the reasons why working hours often begin in the wee hours of the morning and don't end until the late night television shows are over. Email does not replace phone conversations but it is a terrific tool for reaching many people with the same message.

Sales 118
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PowerViews with Dan Waldschmidt: Changing the Conversation

Pointclear

Joining me today is Dan Waldschmidt, founder of Waldschmidt Partners International. Dan's privately-owned firm specializes in executive strategy and business strategy. They've helped companies worldwide change the conversation and dominate their industry. Below, you can read highlights from our discussion or use the links to start the video from different parts of the conversation.

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Getting The Website Information Architecture Right: How to Structure Your Site for Optimal User Experiences

ConversionXL

What kind of content should you have on your site? How should you structure the menu? What should be the first-level menu items? One or two menus? What should the menu links be called? This post will give you the answers. Information architecture is no joke, yet overwhelming majority of businesses have structured their site using the IMO method – “in my opinion” While common sense is a useful tool and a lot of sites are very simple (e.g. 5 pages total), there’s a better w

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Don’t Cheat Your Customer By Not Closing

Partners in Excellence

My post, “But Will I Sound Too Salesy?” generated some interesting comments and discussions. A sentence from Dominic’s comment struck me. He shared an experience in a sales training class: “They thought the actual close suddenly transported them into the realms of a door-to-door encyclopedia salesperson, which they felt was suddenly grubby.” If we are doing the right job engaging customers in discussions about improving their business and achieving their goals.

Closing 121
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Content is Your SEO

A Sales Guy

Earlier this year I laid out the three key strategies I felt were most important to sales success in 2013. On that list I had content marketing. A good content marketing strategy will play a huge role in achieving 2013 quota for those companies who choose to commit to creating one. In spite of my emphatic belief that every sales organization needs a strong content marketing strategy, I’m still finding organizations focused on SEO and their static, “let us tell you how great we are

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Great Salespeople Can See the Pixels - The Rest Watch the Movie

Understanding the Sales Force

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Each morning my son and I build a story from the playlist we hear on the radio. Consider today's playlist from Sirius/XM's 70's station: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. I Wish. Skyhigh. Disco Lady. Diamond Girl. No Sugar Tonight. Could it be I'm Falling in Love. So the story goes that Lucy was up there in the sky with her diamonds and I just wish she hadn't been blown sky high because she's a Disco Lady who just loves those diamonds.

Consult 112
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Prepare Now: 2025s Must-Know Trends For Product And Data Leaders

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.

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Optimism Is Required in Sales

Score More Sales

The first day of a new month in selling offers so much promise. For those on a calendar year, it is the beginning of the last month of the first quarter. Time to make things happen! You’ve dusted off the holidays and Winter doldrums and Spring is around the corner. Time to close some of that pipeline you have out there or crank up the efforts to further build your pipeline.

Sales 102
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Yoga for Jocks - Part 1

Anthony Cole Training

By Bob Wehrmeyer © 2013 Wehr Publishing. All Rights Reserved. I started doing yoga about 10 years ago and now I am a believer. I also like to lift weights, run and play basketball. Actually, I no longer really play basketball. I am more of a basketball watcher. But since I used to play basketball, I get to claim watching as a form of exercise. Generally, regular exercise is important to me, and I have been fortunate enough to make it a regular part of my life.

Gaming 189
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13 Unconventional Landing Page Strategies To Increase Conversions

ConversionXL

We talk about creating high converting landing pages , getting traffic that converts , and making the most out of your conversion points quite a bit here. But what we don’t talk about are outside of the box landing page strategies you can use to increase conversions right away. Similar to the banner blindness phenomenon, sticking to the traditional methods (like linking to your homepage from your Twitter bio) is extremely predictable from a new visitor’s perspective, and leads to what I call bra

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What’s Quality Have To Do With Sales And Marketing?

Partners in Excellence

Quality is a word I almost never hear in a discussion about selling. Sure, sometimes we sell the quality of our products and selling, but I almost never hear the discussion of quality in selling or marketing. It’s a sharp contrast to discussions I have with manufacturing, engineering, development, and even financial executives. Quality is an ingrained part of everything they do (at least in high performing organizations).

Pipeline 121
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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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Don’t Suffer From Premature Explanation?

A Sales Guy

“If you’re clients are heavy Mac users you’re gonna love this feature.” “If A/B testing is important to you, then your going to like this.” “If you’re losing to the competition then we can help you gain share.” “If defect rates are high, we can save you money.” “If you’re network is suffering from latency we can resolve that issue.” “If your AR are outstanding longer than 30 days our service can help you.&#

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This is How Sales Managers Should Coach Their Salespeople

Understanding the Sales Force

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Last week I posted an article that linked to two additional articles I wrote for EcSell Institute and Top Sales World. Speaking of Top Sales World, they just published a page showing all of the greats (I'm honored to be included) that have been inducted into their Sales & Marketing Hall of Fame in the past 3 years.

Price 105
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B2B Marketing & Sales Insights from Lori Wizdo of Forrester Research

Pointclear

I had the great the opportunity to interview Lori Wizdo , B2B marketing analyst at Forrester Research. Lori is a senior analyst with extensive marketing, sales, and operation experience in the information systems and software industries. In our discussion, Lori shared key insights into the B2B buyer's journey as well as marketing and sales alignment.

B2B 101
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Yoga for Athletes - Part 1

Anthony Cole Training

'By Bob Wehrmeyer © 2013 Wehr Publishing. All Rights Reserved. I started doing yoga about 10 years ago and now I am a believer. I also like to lift weights, run and play basketball. Actually, I no longer really play basketball. I am more of a basketball watcher. But since I used to play basketball, I get to claim watching as a form of exercise. Generally, regular exercise is important to me, and I have been fortunate enough to make it a regular part of my life.

Gaming 120
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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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Quick Course On Effective Website Copywriting

ConversionXL

Article originally published at Smashing Magazine. Many dismiss copywriting as something that ad agency people do. Truthfully, all of us need to pay close attention to copywriting if we want to achieve our business objectives. The goal of a “regular” text is to inform or entertain. The goal of Web copy (and ideally your website in general) is to get people to do something—to sign up, make a purchase, or something similar.

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Price Is Meaningless Until You Establish Business Value

Partners in Excellence

This afternoon, I was speaking with a salesperson for a start-up company. We were discussing one of the biggest deals they had ever gone after, both he and the company really needed this deal. Unfortunately, he was showing me the closing presentation after he had presented it to the customer. Two charts caught my eye. The first was the final chart–the deal chart.

Price 120
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Do You Sell Simply?

A Sales Guy

That pretty much says it. Now sit down with your manager, a peer or a friend and simply explain: 1) What are your customers problems? 2) Why does your product or service solve them? 3) How does your product or service solve them? If it was simple, well done. If it wasn’t, try again. Simplicity is a powerful tool that is grossly under utilized in selling. understand it well enough.

Sell 116
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Inc Magazine Misses on the 13 Traits of an Outstanding Salesperson

Understanding the Sales Force

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan I just read the 13 Traits of An Outstanding Salesperson , an article that appeared on Inc.com. As usual, I had several thoughts about this so, in no particular order. Note that it isn't " The " 13 traits; it's simply 13 traits, implying that there are others; It's also not "The Top 13" traits; These are not in any way, shape or form, expert opinions; Charisma ?

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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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Social Selling Power Tools – Interview with Kyle Porter of SalesLoft

Score More Sales

Recently I had the pleasure to interview Kyle Porter, co-founder and CEO of SalesLoft , a sales intelligence software company. Kyle and I first met when he came to Boston for B2B Camp Boston last year. Kyle is a co-founder of B2B Camp- an “unconference” for B2B sales leaders, CEOs, and sales professionals. Kyle is very enthusiastic and seems to really enjoy talking about selling.

Sell 97
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Email Prospecting: Three Opening Sentence Strategies to Get Your Email Read

The Sales Hunter

The opening sentence of your email should contain words like strategic , value , leadership , profit , trust , leverage , advantage and competitive. Getting a prospect to open your email is only the first step in email marketing. The second hurdle to overcome is to get them to actually read your email. Your first sentence will set the tone and determine if they will read more and ultimately engage.

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How Responsive Design Boosts Mobile Conversions

ConversionXL

Google is a strong advocate of responsive design. Mashable named 2013 “The Year of Responsive Design” But is responsive web design actually the answer to boosting mobile conversions? 2012 was a milestone year in the consumer devices market. For the first time since 2001, PC sales were lower that they were the previous year. Tablet sales are expected to top laptop PC sales for the first time in 2013.

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Are You Prepared To Have A Customer-Specfic Conversation?

Partners in Excellence

Insight is the word of the year. We are all being trained in providing insight–ideas about the customer’s business; how they might grow, opportunities they might be missing, how they might improve, how they might achieve their dreams and goals more effectively. If, we’ve done it correctly, we get the customer interested and the conversation begins.

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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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[Report] Social Selling Increases Sales Revenue

A Sales Guy

It’s almost here. The Social Media and Sales Quota Report will be released this week and boy are the findings interesting. Working with Barb Giamanco over at Social Centered Selling, we set out to find out what impact, if any, social selling, that is using social media as part of the selling process, had on revenue and quota attainment. The results are in and they are astounding.

Sell 115
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Harvard Business Review Blog Off Target on Sales Greatness

Understanding the Sales Force

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan This recent article in the Harvard Business Review Blog was as far off target as any I have ever debunked. Steve Martin lists 7 characteristics that he says differentiate great sales forces from good ones. His seven are: Strong Centralized Command and Control with Local Authority. Darwinian Sales Culture.

Sales 91
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How to Grow Sales on LinkedIn

Score More Sales

Sales and marketing experts Jill Konrath and Ardath Albee just announced a new e-book, Cracking the LinkedIn Sales Code which will help you better understand how professional B-2-B sellers are using LinkedIn to grow visibility, gain connections and ultimately grow revenues. We love to see the results published, because it is consistent with what we have been working with sales teams on for months.

Sales 95
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Hire A Salesperson Based on Their Attitude Not Their Skill

The Sales Hunter

Recently I was doing training session for a group of sales managers and we got on the topic of hiring and what are the qualifications of a good hire. For years I’ve always said hire on attitude not on skill. Too many sales managers think they can take shortcuts to making their number. They think if they suddenly hire a couple of salespeople who have great skills and knowledge of the marketplace, then everything will be great.

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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