2018

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Strategy Is Sexy, Execution is Boring

STAR Results

Business success is a function of brilliant strategies and excellent execution. How are your sales to date? Every sales leader I have spoken with could easily answer this question. I am sure you can as well. Here is a more challenging question: How well are you doing when it comes to strategy execution ? This is a much more challenging question and there is no easy answer.

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The Art of Asking Great Questions

Anthony Cole Training

Watch Sales Guy Unplugged: Are Your Sales Questions Courageous Enough?

Sales 178
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Trending Sources

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Problem-Centric Selling vs Product-Centric Selling: It’s Time We Change the Way We Sell

A Sales Guy

For years, I mean for most of modern day sales, we have been taught how to sell and pitch our products. The product has been at the center of all that is sales, and unfortunately, it’s a problem, and we need to stop. It’s not that we haven’t attempted to move away from product-centric selling, leveraging terms like; Trusted Advisor , or Consultative Sales, or Solutions Selling , but the reality has been these approaches have been little more than window dressing, in spite of so

Sell 162
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Show Me the Money! A Guide to Creating a Scalable Sales Compensation Plan

Openview

We’ve all heard Tom Cruise’s famous line from Jerry Maguire, but showing your sales team members the money is often a complicated equation. In this guide, you’ll find tips for designing sales compensation packages that yield results and actually scale. As most CEOs have discovered at some point, sales compensation is very often a delicate balancing act.

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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

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.

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10 Recent Neuromarketing Research Studies (and Their Real-World Takeaways)

ConversionXL

Neuromarketing assesses how our brain reacts to stimuli, not simply what we self-report in qualitative surveys. These are truths that our impulses write onto MRIs. Sometimes, as several studies below illustrate, those two systems—the conscious and subconscious—offer conflicting interpretations. Importantly, scientific knowledge is almost always built incrementally.

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Finally!  Science Reveals the Actual Impact of Sales Coaching

Understanding the Sales Force

You must have heard the joke that 73.6% of statistics are made up! I have read and even reported that sales leaders who coach their salespeople see a boost in revenue of around 27%. It sounds like a realistic number but I have not seen any science to back it up. Until now. Check this out!

Sales 130

More Trending

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3 Phrases You Need to Start Using With Every Single Customer

Jeff Shore

Ryan Taft. ?I am not a big script guy. I have never been. Sales scripts are typically written from the perfect world perspective. In other words, if customers acted exactly the way we wanted them to and if sales people were robots, then a script is bullet proof. But sales, my friends, is not a perfect world. I don’t know about you but every sales script I have ever been handed and told to use on customers, I read it thinking to myself “I would never say this.

Customers 130
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I Stopped Saying I am Sorry and You Might Want to Too

Women Sales Pros

As a woman it’s something many of us say so much as if it is a filler word, like “um” – apologizing for bumping into someone, for not holding the door wide enough, for seemingly no reason at all when we call, text, or email someone. I had a bad habit of saying the phrase, “I am sorry”. Here’s how I stopped saying it nearly 95% of the time. Most of the time I said I am sorry when I could say something else.

B2B 128
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Part 1: How to Walk Away from a Bad Deal

Sales Hacker

“It’s Like Deja Vu All Over Again”. Another quarter sales target just barely made. It was a close call. As you go over the numbers with your team you realize that trying to close a sale with XYZ Industries cost you a ton of time, almost made you missed your quota and almost cost you your job (maybe – you never know, but you suspect it). It’s not that you haven’t been down this path before.

Negotiate 127
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Sales Mastery or Sales Enablement?

Membrain

I've worked with thousands of salespeople in many different industries. Professional selling is changing rapidly with technology-driven automation and commoditization resulting in more than one-third of sellers losing their jobs in the coming years.

Sales 120
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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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SALES MANAGERS ARE STRUGGLING

STAR Results

I have said it before and I will say it again – SALES MANAGERS ARE STRUGGLING! Only 10-20% of Sales Managers are Crushing It! The rest are struggling to make their sales numbers. They find themselves overwhelmed, overstressed and lacking the tools and training to be the best they can be. Here is the question you need to ask yourself. Where does your region fall in terms of sales to quota this year?

Territory 238
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Go for the "No" Early in the Sales Process

Anthony Cole Training

One of the keys for more effective selling is going for the ‘no’ early in the sales process. I learned this concept years ago especially when I was vulnerable to ‘think it overs’ (TIO).

Process 177
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There are ONLY 4 Levers Sales Can Pull to Grow Revenue

A Sales Guy

It’s not uncommon for revenue to slide. It happens to all sales organizations at one time or another. Revenue being down isn’t the most difficult problem. Knowing why revenue is down and where to look is the biggest challenge. This post is gonna lay the four areas CSO’s/Heads of Sales should be looking if their revenue is on the slide. When sales are down there are only 4 levers leadership can pull to improve sales.

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How to Build Your Sales Operations Team from Scratch

InsightSquared

Sales operations has been around for quite some time, but lately the function has been gaining momentum. Instead of behind-the-scenes sales support, sales ops now acts as a strategic partner for sales VPs and leadership. It’s clear that sales ops plays a critical role in any organization, but creating your own sales operations team can be a daunting task.

Contract 119
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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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The Best Programming Languages for Digital Marketers

ConversionXL

In the world of data-driven marketing, more and more tasks require a bit of coding. You might need to add an extra parameter to your tracking code or pull raw data from Google Analytics. You may want to create a simple prediction—or automate a few repetitive tasks in your PPC campaigns. Or maybe you simply want to speak a common language with your developers so that you can brief them better and understand they may say, “This will take two weeks.” Regardless, knowing one or two data

SQL 134
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The Wrong Salespeople are Hired 77% of the Time

Understanding the Sales Force

94% of sales managers are optimistic about their salespeople. That's a very surprising statistic for a couple of reasons: 50% or more of their salespeople won't hit their quotas this year and haven't since at least 2008. Objective Management Group's (OMG's) findings from the evaluations and assessments of 1.8 million salespeople show that 50% of all salespeople are weak.

Quota 122
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The 14 Best Cold Calling Tips of All Time for Salespeople

Gong.io

Try googling cold calling tips and see what happens. Thousands of articles will appear. So, why can we credibly claim that the cold calling tips in this article are the best ones you’ll ever read? Simple: They are based on real data, not intuition. Let us explain. At Gong.io, we have the largest database of recorded sales calls in the world. We’ve analyzed this database of sales calls with AI to understand what’s actually working during sales conversations (and what’s not working).

Cold Call 123
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4 Things Causing Your Top Sales People to Bolt

Jeff Shore

By Amy O’Connor. Are you familiar with the old adage: people don’t quit companies, they quit people? This seems rather harsh, but often it is 100% spot on. While I know that there will always be practices within your organization that are out of your control, there are certain aspects of why you are losing good salespeople that are totally within your sphere of influence.

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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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Get More Women Applicants for Sales Roles – Carbon Black Video

Women Sales Pros

WOMEN Sales Pros is on the lookout for more great videos like the one I’m sharing below which makes the case for more women in sales and sales leadership at companies around North America. This one is from Carbon Black, a Boston-area cybersecurity solutions company. In this video, Senior Sales Director Susan An talks about her seven years at Carbon Black and addresses things like having a culture in the company around discussions around maternity leave and support for work-life balance – without

Sales 118
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Project Management And Sales?

Partners in Excellence

What’s selling have to do with project management? It may not be obvious, but strong project management skills are essential for top performing sales people—both for helping our customers buy and for effectively leveraging our own resources in the process. Think about it, a moment. Our customers have a project–not a buying journey.

Sales 116
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Solution Selling vs The Challenger Sale

Membrain

The Challenger Sale is essential reading for anyone in complex B2B selling and many enterprise sales organizations are embracing the concepts.

Sell 117
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Is Your Buyer Part of the Solution?

Engage Selling

You need to know what’s going on in the minds of your buyers when it comes to the solution you’re offering. Confused about what this means, exactly? Let me explain.

Clients 112
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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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9 Strengths of Consultative Sellers

Anthony Cole Training

“It’s not you, it’s me!” I love that scene from Seinfeld.

Consult 172
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Gap Selling – Available for Preorder

A Sales Guy

Well, it’s finally arrived. Gap Selling is available for pre-order on Amazon. The most relevant, impactful and insightful sales book since The Challenger Sale: No blue suits, blue shirts, blue ties or blue sheets. No gimmicks or tricks. No 90’s selling tactics. No, not your dad’s sales book. Gap Selling is selling for the 21st century.

Sell 140
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46 Bad Ass Sales Podcasts Every Sales Professional Should Follow in 2019

Sales Hacker

The path to sales enlightenment requires continuous self-learning, but there’s a real problem. Salespeople are BUSY. With the insane rise of text based content, we understand that not all salespeople have time to sit and read articles. That’s why we’ve rounded up the complete list of best sales podcasts to turbocharge your journey to achieving sales mastery.

Cold Call 111
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10 Ways to Add Value to Your “Thank You” Page

ConversionXL

If you’ve ignored the design and content of your “thank you” page, you’re neglecting: Recent purchasers. New leads. These are some of the highest value segments of an online audience, yet what most sites decide to show them is an afterthought. Whether you’re confirming access to a PDF download or thanking someone for a four-figure purchase, there are ways to add value for users—and get more value for your business.

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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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Where Can You Find the Best Salespeople?

Understanding the Sales Force

Maybe you drink the finest wines, stay at the most luxurious hotels, dine at the best restaurants, purchase the best brands and drive the fanciest cars. Or not. Either way, you'll at least want to know where you can find the best salespeople in the world, right? To accomplish this I looked at data from the most recent 435,000 sales evaluations and assessments from Objective Management Group (OMG) and broke it down into 6 regions of the world.

Territory 117
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7 Ways to Build Rapport in Sales and Connect with People

RAIN Group

Consider this: a CBS News / New York Times poll asked, "What percent of people in general are trustworthy?" 1. The answer: 30%. We're all pretty skeptical, right? Not necessarily. At the same time, the CBS News / New York Times poll asked a similar group the same question, but with a slight difference. "What percent of people that you know are trustworthy?".

Trust 111
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7 Productivity Hacks to Make You a Great Salesperson

Jeff Shore

By Amy O’Connor. ?Ever wonder how those great salespeople outperform everyone else year in and year out? I mean, seriously, they don’t seem that great do they? They aren’t any smarter than you, any more talented than you, any harder working than you, and they sure as heck aren’t any better looking than you – so what gives? Here’s what gives. They are hacking their way to more sales while you’re still stuck in the same old rut you’ve always been in.

Product 128
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25 Inspirational Quotes for Sales Reps and Leaders

Women Sales Pros

There are lots of motivational quote lists but none that we know of which are all quotes from women. Why all women? The women listed below are all great role models for other women (and men) building sales careers. Sellers (and sales leaders) have a challenging role. If you are a seller, you deal with rejection and you help people and companies make changes for the better.

Sales 118
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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.