September, 2015

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Your Sales Management Pitch to Hire Better Sales People

Anthony Cole Training

There isn’t a single sales manager, sales executive or company president that tells a prospective new hire that the compensation program is poor, there is a lack of support, the company does not occupy a strong position in the market and there is no chance for professional advancement!

Pitch 176
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Why Sorry Isn’t Enough and What People Really Want to Hear

A Sales Guy

What do you do when you f**k up? Do you apologize? Do you get defensive? Do you try to minimize it by avoiding the f**k up altogether? How do you handle it when you or your company screw up? There is only one way to respond when you make a mistake in sales or business, s**t in life, in general, and most people don’t do it right. The majority of people (a simple majority it seems) apologize.

Start-ups 144
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Trending Sources

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Ignorant No More: Crash Course on A/B Testing Statistics

ConversionXL

Reality check: the level of statistical literacy is pretty poor in CRO world. A major portion of your test results are probably invalid. While testing tools are getting more sophisticated, blogs are brimming with ‘inspiring’ case studies, and experimentation is becoming more and more common for marketers – statistics know-how is still severely lacking.

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Sales Slumps - What Causes Them and How to Fix Them

Understanding the Sales Force

During the course of a baseball season, both hitters and pitchers fall into slumps. In baseketball players slump with their outside shots and from the foul line. Football Quarterbacks go into passing slumps. Golf and Tennis pros have swing slumps. Tiger has been in a slump since Thanksgiving of 2009! (I'm sure there must be some kind of a slump that Soccer players can fall victim to but I don't know enough about soccer to weigh in) With slumps being so common, it shouldn't come as a surprise tha

Sales 111
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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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Negotiating Tip: Don’t Discount Your Price. Increase Your Value.

The Sales Hunter

Why would you want to cut your price? Just because your customer is looking for you to reduce your price does not mean you need to do it! Lowering your price is never a “one-time” event. It’s permanent. The money you give up is gone for good and, worse yet, you’ve established in the customer’s mind […].

Price 110
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Is Account-Based Marketing the Holy Grail for Lead Generation Nirvana? [PowerOpinions Part 1]

Pointclear

According to a report by SiriusDecisions, 2015 State of Account-Based Marketing (ABM), more than 60 percent of companies plan to invest in technology for ABM to better align sales and marketing over the next twelve months. Is ABM the Holy Grail to lead generation or just another black box solution destined to cost a lot of money, distract marketing and end up getting more bad leads to sales faster than ever before?

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An Unexpected Trait of The Truly Successful

A Sales Guy

I was talking to a young entrepreneur earlier today. We were talking about the progress she was making in her business. She’s killing it. Her most recent “big” win was a deal with the Red Sox. This girl is smart, driven and a hustler, and she’s done amazing things in a tough retail business. As we were talking, I couldn’t help but notice a very common theme in her dialog.

Retail 134
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How to Write Copy for More Than One Audience on a Page

ConversionXL

When you’re putting together copy for a website you may not have the luxury of only having to speak to one audience. In fact, you may have multiple audiences you need to address. Which means you’ve got a juggling act on your hands. Who is most important? What if both audiences require equal attention? How do you write copy that attracts more than one audience on a page without confusing your messaging?

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The Secret to Coaching Salespeople and Why It's So Scary

Understanding the Sales Force

if you have time to read only a single one of my articles this year, read this one on the great business disconnect that was published on LinkedIn. You won't be sorry. And if you want to see just how awful Microsoft's latest Office 2016 for Mac is, read this off-topic post here. I was speaking at the AA-ISP event in Boston earlier this month when I learned something very interesting about how sales leaders feel about coaching salespeople.

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10 Time-Saving Techniques for Salespeople

The Sales Hunter

Who among us doesn’t want to save more time, better use time and essentially get more out of our day?! Here are 10 ideas to get you started: 1. Check email using your smartphone. We delete messages much faster when we view them on our smart phone. A key problem everyone has is spending […].

Technique 108
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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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The Challenger Customer

Partners in Excellence

Several months ago, my friends at the CEB sent me a review copy of The Challenger Customer. Just reading the title, I expected an epic confrontation between Challenger Sales and Challenger Customers—perhaps a worthy follow up to the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight. I had images of challenger sales people and challenger customers squaring off with each other.

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Whacky Idea for Sales Management - Terminate Under Performers NOW!

Anthony Cole Training

I’m finally going to finish the book American Icon. It's the story of Ford and how Alan Mullaly helped the auto dealer regain its swagger. Time after time Ford and Mulally have to make tough decisions on underperforming business units and automobiles. If the car or unit isn’t performing, if the buying public is no longer buying and if the manager of the unit isn’t getting progress or growth – they get cut.

Growth 155
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Why You Shouldn’t Focus On Questions When Selling

A Sales Guy

Let me flip the script on you here. I want you to stop thinking about questions when it comes to selling. I don’t want you thinking about what you want to ask your prospects or customers. Try and abandon the notion of asking questions for just a little bit. Now that you’re not thinking about what questions you’d like to ask prospects and buyers, what are you focusing on?

Sell 122
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How To Visualize A/B Test Results

ConversionXL

You may be wondering, “why should I make my own visualization of my A/B test results?” Because the A/B testing tools in the market already provide you all the necessary tables and graphs, right? They tell you when an A/B test is significant and what the expected uplift is. So why bother? The thing is, these tables and graphs are comprehensible when you – a data driven analyst – take a look at them.

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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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Did You Know That There is a Season for Hiring Salespeople?

Understanding the Sales Force

I live in the Boston area and there are some things that I know will always be true about the seasons. School buses start rolling in September, fall foliage peaks in October, the first freezing cold days arrive in late November, snow storms are routine by mid-December, the coldest, driest days are in January, the snowiest month is in February, the days begin to get longer in March, the snow has melted so that baseball can be played in April, flowers blossom and leaves appear on the trees in May,

Sales 103
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10 Things Top Performing Salespeople Do Regularly

The Sales Hunter

Without a doubt, there are things that top salespeople do in order to excel in their professional and personal lives. Top salespeople… 1. Plan their week and work their plan. 2. Do not allow email and other routine activities to consume their time or their mental focus. 3. Have a prospecting plan they follow […].

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Critical Selling Skills That Distinguish Top Performers

Partners in Excellence

Last week, Tim Ohai and I were talking about the future of selling. We got onto a discussion of the critical skills needed for high performers. I’ve continued to think about this over the past few days. I’ve narrowed things down to the top 3 skills critical for top performers. I’d like your take on it, because most sales training programs don’t seem to include these.

Sell 95
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Key to Successful Selling – Manage Your Players to These 5 Rules of The Game

Anthony Cole Training

I’m reading Fast Company magazine this morning and realize I don’t get out of it what I used to. It’s probably a combination of how I’ve changed, how our company has changed and how the magazine has changed. This got me thinking about articles I’ve ready about how selling has changed and the ‘keys’ to selling in today’s market.

Gaming 155
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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 know the difference between a good sales leader and a GREAT sales leader?

A Sales Guy

Do you know the difference between a good sales leader and a GREAT sales leader? [link]. What does a GREAT sales leader do that a good one doesn’t? If you’re lucky, you’ve worked for a least one GREAT sales leader, but have you ever stopped asked why she was GREAT and not just good? In most cases we will say it’s because they had vision or were good communicators or because they were great sales people, or because they are fun to be around or they were good motivators.

Sales 120
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5 Typography Tweaks For Better Web Design & Response

ConversionXL

As you almost certainly know, copy is what sells. That’s true in print, and it’s equally true on the web. A completely unstyled site with strong copy will sell infinitely more than a beautifully styled site with none. And since the average website is between 90 and 95% text, one leading expert wisely observes that “web design is ninety-five percent typography.”.

UX 118
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A Guaranteed Fix for Inaccurate Sales Forecasts

Understanding the Sales Force

The weather has become quite predictive - if you want to know what it will be like in say, an hour. Meteorologists are still fairly accurate within 24 hours but for the most part, especially where I live in New England, they are challenged to get it accurate beyond a day in advance.

Sales 102
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10 Reasons Prospects Won’t Engage With You

The Sales Hunter

Each week I get at least one or two emails or phone calls from salespeople asking for help in getting prospects to engage. Below are 10 reasons prospects fail to engage. Yes, there are more reasons, but I’ve found these 10 cover a lot of ground: You haven’t given them a reason. Your prospect […].

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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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Closing The Sale

Partners in Excellence

Earlier today, I was interviewed for an article on “Closing The Sale.” The article is in a publication focused on small business owners. As we concluded the conversation, the interviewer said, “Your answers were completely different than I expected.” I think too many of us–entrepreneurs and sales people, alike, have mistaken impressions of closing the sale.

Closing 94
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Don’t Close Sales!

Engage Selling

Did you just do a double take? Stop trying to close sales…isn’t that counter-productive to our sales success? You heard me right. Salespeople should not be attempting to “close” sales with clients. It’s all in the definition. Closing is something you do to a person. While it may just be a term, the language is completely […].

Closing 92
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Why You Need To Start A Sales Blog

A Sales Guy

If you’re serious about improving your status as a sales professional, if you’re looking for a way to put your career on the fast track, start a sales blog. A good sales blog is a competition killer. It’s a first class seat on the career fast track. Here’s why. Imagine you have a repository of hundreds or even thousands of your ideas, insights, processes and approaches to sales in a place where the world can access them.

Sales 118
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When To Do Multivariate Tests Instead of A/B/n Tests

ConversionXL

When should you use Multivariate testing, and when is A/B/n testing best? The answer is at once simple and complex. Of course, A/B testing is the default for most people, as it is more common in optimization. But there is a time and a place for multivariate testing (MVT), as well, and it can add a lot of value. Before we get into the nuances, let’s briefly go over the differences.

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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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Why Prospects Won't Talk with You and How to Fix it

Understanding the Sales Force

Would you put steaks and burgers on the grill before it was hot? Would a pitcher throw as hard as he could without first throwing some long-toss and then pitching 20-30 slower pitches? Would a runner sprint without stretching? If you were in a cold climate in the middle of winter and your car was parked outside overnight, would you shift into drive without letting the engine warm first?

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When You Can’t Close: 10 Questions to Ask Yourself.

The Sales Hunter

Have you ever asked yourself why you can’t close? I imagine you have. I know I have and I’d be willing to say there is not a salesperson out there who has not asked themselves that question. Here’s my quick checklist of questions you need to ask yourself when you can’t close a sale: 1. Is […].

Closing 104
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Just Good Enough Value Creation

Partners in Excellence

Thousands of posts are written about value propositions and value creation. By now, most people tend to say value is defined by the customer, though most implementations seem to be driven by what we think the customer should value. There’s also a lot written about differentiation, creating superior value, and exceeding customer expectations. There also seems to be a “silver bullet” aspect to value propositions and creation.

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Is This Problem Causing Your Team to Struggle?

Engage Selling

We can discuss sales strategies, ideas, tips and methods to no end. However, at times even the best salesperson struggles to achieve results not because of a weak strategy, but because of little to no focus on their productivity. Let’s cut to the chase. The best way to get your team to achieve true productivity […].

Product 92
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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