Sat.Feb 16, 2019 - Fri.Feb 22, 2019

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9 Things Terribly Wrong With Sales Today

A Sales Guy

Sales is suffering from 9 brutal ills: The Bro Culture, Lack of Coaching Too Product-Centric Not enough sales people understand the game/rules of sales Too much reliance on selling tools. Not enough training in the industry/space Too much activity management Little respect for prospects and buyers time Not enough humility. Sales is the greatest profession in the world in my opinion.

Sports 150
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Is Your Current Sales Opportunity Real?

Anthony Cole Training

In this article, we discuss and identify the three main reasons why salespeople get duped into believing a specific opportunity will close and why some deals are not worth chasing. They are: Weak pipeline. Failure to ask tough questions. Afraid to pull the plug.

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Trending Sources

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How to Use Social Media for Market Research

ConversionXL

Social media isn’t a perfect source of market research: It’s not a representative sample and, for small businesses, it’s simply too small of a sample. But for large organizations, it’s still a critical one. Why? Because it includes your most passionate fans. It’s also a rare source of candid consumer opinion: 80% of social media posts are about ourselves, and those opinions and beliefs—expressed individually and within a community—are not interrupted or biased by participation in a formal

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Why Your Losing Customers

Women Sales Pros

Strategies to Increase Retention, Expand Relationships and Drive Referrals This week I moved my business from one of my long-time vendors – hired someone new. The new vendor is not any less expensive, does not have a better product and is actually slightly less convenient to work with in terms of availability and response time. So why did a move? Good question and an important one to know the answer to if you want to know how to succeed in today’s marketplace.

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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

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You Should Be Collecting At Least 100% Of Your MRR Each Month in Cash. Ideally, 110%+.

SaaStr

Cash collections is a topic we haven’t discussed much on SaaStr, but boy it can be important all the way until you have a CFO. And often after. What’s the issue? The issue is that most SaaS start-ups are terrible at collecting cash that doesn’t come from a payment gateway. Just terrible. – terrible at collections. start-ups without an A/R function often have $250k-$500k in uncollectible receivables. – metrics that break and don't make sense. starts to harm yo

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AI And Sales, What We Misunderstand

Membrain

Based on much of the press, much of it created by vendors of AI solutions, AI is the answer to all the problems we have with sales and marketing. We are presented a brave new world where we can engage the right customers, say exactly the right words at the right time, making sure we ask no more than 4 discovery questions, that our opening pitch (?) is no longer than 9.1 minutes, that….

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Five Ways Your LinkedIn Sales Message is Like a D**k Pic (guest post)

Heinz Marketing

Editor’s Note: What started as an email string complaining about bad sales emails became… this. It’s a stark comparison to say the least, but a handful of B2B buyers we showed a draft of this to agreed wholeheartedly. Special thanks to Marilyn Cox , a B2B marketing veteran and recipient of a constant barrage of sales pitches, for writing this for us.

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3 Ways to Start Every Sales Meeting the Right Way

Sales Hacker

There’s something so positive and energizing about kicking off a meeting. It’s the open door every salesperson craves. But that thrill is easily toppled. With one wrong move, you can get off on the wrong foot and put your entire sales process in jeopardy. A derailed meeting is a derailed process. How do you kick off a meeting well? Chatter away and smile until your cheeks hurt?

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Everything You Need to Know About Employer Branding

Hubspot

When a job seeker begins her search, one of the first things she's going to Google is this -- "Top companies to work for in 2019" or, alternatively, "Top companies in X industry.". It makes sense -- nowadays, a company's reputation matters more than ever. In fact, 86% of workers would not apply for, or continue to work for, a company that has a bad reputation with former employees, or the general public.

Promote 101
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Getting Past Gatekeepers

Engage Selling

Are you or members of your sales team having trouble getting past gatekeepers? It’s an obvious struggle.

Sales 101
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The Intersection of AI and Sales: Personalization Without Compromise

Speaker: Jesse Hunter and Brynn Chadwick

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.

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First Impressions Count!

Partners in Excellence

One of the biggest issues we hear from everyone involved in sales and marketing is capturing the customer attention. Whether it’s that first communication, an email, text, or social engagement, that first phone conversation, or that first meeting. Getting that first contact or engagement is something nearly everyone struggles with. Given the difficulty we have with these first contacts, one would expect we would be driven to create the very best first impression we possibly could.

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9 Quick Tips To Better The Odds in Raising a Seed or Series A Round

SaaStr

Here are 9 simple tips that are easy to implement — and almost 100% guaranteed to impact your odds of raising seed or Series A funding: If your existing investors have a strong brand and aren’t positive on you, it can be much harder to raise. At a minimum keep them in the loop. Don’t just ignore them after they write a check. The converse is also true.

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How to Get an Appointment With Anyone in 3 Simple Steps

Hubspot

In order to sell someone, you first have to get them to book a meeting with you. And as salespeople know, this is far easier said than done. Reps make countless calls each day, hoping and praying that one of their prospects will pick up the phone. Finally, someone does -- and what do they say? "I'm too busy for this.". "Can you just send some information?".

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Pipeline Velocity: Why It Matters, How To Measure It and How It Helps

InsightSquared

Here in Boston, we love rowing. Every year thousands of us crowd around the Charles River to watch boats gracefully glide along the river as they race at the Head of the Charles Regatta. What most casual spectators don’t realize is all the components that go into making one of those rowing shells move as quickly down the river as possible (and it’s not nearly as graceful as it may look).

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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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How to Onboard New AEs

CloserIQ

New Account Executives are coming to your company with more sales experience than SDRs. So it’s tempting to think that the onboarding process just isn’t that important. In fact, it is still critical for AEs’ long-term success. According to a study conducted by Click Boarding , new employees who go through a formal onboarding process are 58% more likely to remain with the organization for three years or more.

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Sales Person As Sense Maker

Partners in Excellence

The world, both our customers and our own, is best characterized by turbulence. By this, I mean each of us, at least if we are paying attention, is pummeled by information overload/overwhelm, massive disruption, escalating change, increasingly confusing choices, increasing complexity, transformation, time compression, risk, uncertainty, and distraction.

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Exhibiting at Events is Expensive. Very Expensive. Here are 9 Reasons You Should Still Do the Top Ones.

SaaStr

It took me a while to understand the power of events and field marketing. One thing is clear — events are expensive. Putting on your own event is expensive — and complicated. Exhibiting at someone else’s event is expensive — and bounded. Events: Are They Worth the Big Expense? Got 100 Customers? Believe It Or Not, It’s Time for Your First User Conference.

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Set Yourself Up for Successful Prospecting: Truths 41-50

The Sales Hunter

Sales is not a destination; sales is a journey of continual learning. Throughout my many years of selling, I have been constantly gaining new insights and ideas. The discussion continues about whether sales is an art or a science. People are quick to point out the number of new sales tools created by advances in technology; however, all of this is just noise.

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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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10 Sales Prospecting Techniques That Work like a Charm Today

CloserIQ

No pipeline, no quota attainment. Prospecting is a vital aspect of sales success. Interestingly, there’s a bold shift away from a fundamental aspect of B2B pipeline generation: Cold calling. It’s turned into a full-on, anti-cold calling trend, which is not the right move in our books. Inbound enterprise buyers are a rarity, and you end up pursuing them with outbound sales prospecting.

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PODCAST 45: Key to Success in Sales w/ Brian Birkett

Sales Hacker

This week on the Sales Hacker podcast , we talk to Brian Birkett , the SVP of sales at LeanData. Brian is a long time sales executive and sales leader. He’s responsible for leading global revenue at LeanData. He brings a diverse background in sales management experience spanning from startups to large public companies in both field and inside sales.

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Bring the SaaStr Annual Learnings Back to Your Company — With SaaStr Pro!

SaaStr

Wondering how to bring SaaStr learnings into your company? We’ve got the answer! We’ll train your team in the very top lessons of SaaStr. How to drive deal size up! How to decrease churn! How to sell more a solution, and less of a tool! We’ve curated 100+ of the top SaaStr lessons, along with easy-to-learn-from 3 minute videos from our top speakers, all into one product — SaaStr Pro!

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5 ways your salespeople are failing your prospects

Membrain

How many sales have you lost even though you knew you were the best choice for the customer?

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The GTM Intelligence Era: ZoomInfo 2025 Customer Impact Report

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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The Sales Motivation Myth You Need to Stop Believing

RAIN Group

This RAIN Group article was originally published on the LinkedIn Sales Blog. Some sales leaders believe that a quota and an attractive compensation plan are enough to ignite the hustle, passion, and intensity in a seller. It makes sense they think this way given recent Harvard Business Review articles with titles like "Motivating Sales People: What Really Works" that focus 100% on compensation.

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Win/Loss Reviews

Partners in Excellence

One of the key questions I ask when I meet with sales executives and sales people is, “What causes you to win, what causes you to lose?” Often, I ask to see any data and analysis they have on wins and losses. A couple of things happen: Surprisingly, people don’t know the answers. Yes there are anecdotes, “We were involved in this situation… ” They are either the single greatest success or the single greatest loss.

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3 Ways Great Teams Acquire Budget for Digital Sales Transformation

SalesforLife

You can argue that all investment funds are difficult to acquire from the CFO – but purchasing services like sales training to improve performance and consulting companies is a tough sell internally. I get it. Remember the CFO is also not a seller, and doesn’t always understand that sales skills are sharpened like a knife, not turned on/off like a blender.

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B2B Reads: Humanity, the Cardinal Sin, and Getting Leads Unstuck

Heinz Marketing

In addition to our Sunday App of the Week feature, we also summarize some of our favorite B2B sales & marketing posts from around the Web each week. We’ll miss a ton of great stuff, so if you found something you think is worth sharing please add it to the comments below. 4 Ways Companies Can Bring Humanity Back to Business. Sales and marketing don’t have to be a numbers game, humans need connection.

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AI in Marketing & Sales: Today’s Tools, Tomorrow’s Potential

Speaker: Kevin Burke

AI is reshaping marketing and sales, empowering professionals to work smarter, faster, and more effectively. This webinar will provide a practical introduction to AI, focusing on its current applications, transformative potential, and strategies for successful implementation in your organization. Using real-world examples and actionable insights, we’ll examine how businesses are leveraging AI to increase efficiency, enhance personalization, and drive measurable results.

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7 Steps to a Creative Sales Contest Even Your Prospects Will Love

Sales Hacker

Warning: This is not your average sales contest. We’re not going to talk about making the most cold calls, setting the most meetings, or closing the most deals. The most creative sales contests focus on increasing other, less run-of-the-mill outcomes. That’s what makes them creative! In this case, we are going to talk about a sales contest that builds stronger relationships and accelerates deals.

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Never Respond To An RFP That You Didn’t Write!

Partners in Excellence

At a kickoff meeting earlier this week, I was having a disturbing conversation with a group of sales people. It seemed a big part of their “prospecting,” was trolling customers for RFPs and RFIs. I probed them on this, their response was, “It’s so easy, these are people who already want to buy, they’ve put together their requirements, all we have to do is just respond to the RFPs!

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What Is Sales?

The Sales Hunter

Sales leadership is nothing more than interacting with others to make a positive impact. We can break it down even further and say that sales leadership is just people connecting with people. Sales and leadership are one and the same. Sales is only as complicated as we want to make it. I feel like we too often over complicate it and then wonder why our customers aren’t buying.

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How to Drive Sales Performance in Three Simple Ways

Selling Power

Here are three key actions every sales leader can take to accelerate and maintain strong sales performance in a tough sales environment.

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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