Research and eBooks

Everybody wants more leads… And when it comes to getting more leads, content is king.

People buy from people. When you can forge a human-to-human connection and bring something of value to the table, you can create an opportunity.

Everyone loves throwing around the word “experience.” Buyer, employee, customer, insert-anything-here experience … Is it a platitude?

If you’re losing money on a product, what do you do? Do you rush to double production? No…?

Everybody’s got one. Maybe you spent tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on yours. Or maybe your son built it for free.

“Summer breeze, makes me feel fine…” may be the lyrics of a 1972 Seals & Crofts’ tune, but this summer seems anything but fine. This summer, the economy is uncertain and people are anxious.

It’s become a cliché almost instantly, but “the new normal” is so apt. Even if you were remote before, now every day is take-your-kid-to-work day.

The path to leadership is broken. We spend so little time developing leaders.

GUEST: Terry Lammers, Author | Co-Founder and Managing Member of Innovative Business Advisors

“More than 50% of US college graduates, regardless of their majors, are likely to work in sales at some point,” according to an article in the Harvard Business Review. Yet, how prepared are they to effectively communicate with executives? What will separate the outstanding salespeople from those who struggle and bumble along?

What’s on your company’s blog? Pet pictures? The company dodgeball tournament results?

When was the last time you really laughed at work? I mean genuine laughter.

With or without a pandemic, today’s world runs on video.

The uncertainty and challenges surrounding COVID-19 are impacting every business right now. Company leaders everywhere need to make difficult decisions quickly. This is no time for sentiment. Wait, no. Scratch that. This is actually the perfect time for sentiment.

If you’ve been within earshot of a classroom over the past century or two, you know the Industrial Revolution is what kicked off modernity.

Credibility gets you in the door. These days, as we rely even more heavily on virtual communication, it’s more essential than ever to have a solid, value-based credibility introduction. To establish credibility, you must focus on the other person and their issues. In time, this will let you determine the potential value you can bring to them. Credibility intros are used in prospecting the very first time you reach out, but they are also used throughout the sales cycle.

AI is a hot topic these days. Whether it’s in an incoherent tech-startup pitch or ominous warnings from scientists about a techno-dystopian future, everyone seems to be talking about it.

When you’re doing a puzzle, do you just pick up any random piece and start looking for one it fits with? Obviously not. Everyone knows you start with the corners! Prioritizing them makes the rest easy.

One thing I’ve always been fascinated by is the way most companies usually approach promoting sales reps to management.

I get it, there’s some natural friction between sales and marketing. It’s okay, though. It’s a healthy form of competition, a symbiotic relationship keeping both sides sharp.

Cybersecurity is always a fun topic. Everyone knows it’s important, but most only do the bare minimum to prevent attacks.

Technology is a boon to the sales profession. It helps automate, amplify, and accelerate. Tech tools can help us organize our day, research prospects, streamline outreach, and efficiently keep track of our progress. But, that said, our reliance on technology also makes it way too easy to hide behind a screen.

These days, it seems romance can only be found on dating sites.

There’s a piece of folksy, conventional wisdom everyone knows. It states: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

I don’t know how many of you have developed a TikTok addiction recently, but anyone with small children could probably spot the symptoms of the newest social media obsession. Even if you don’t have kids, you’re probably familiar with social media addiction. More than half of us use Facebook or Instagram every single day. Which means you can use social media to reach half of your market every single day. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? No one ever says they couldn’t use more leads.

Developing a more meaningful experience for your customers takes more than just first-party data. Imagine if you could uncover more pieces of the puzzle to create a holistic CX.

Prospecting is one of the most difficult tasks for sales professionals. It takes commitment and consistency – but, most of all, it takes patience. Salespeople are not always the most patient people in the world; we love to move things forward quickly to drive results. However, in the world of prospecting, patience and discipline will reap rewards.

Imagine you’re preparing for a meeting with a new prospect. What steps are you taking beforehand?

Owning a service-based business is hard. Not only are you expected to be a master of your product, you’ve also got to be a professional at marketing and getting your service out there in front of people. And if you’re not careful, you can take the habits that you’ve had to establish in your beginning years as a scrappy start up and never grow past them.

Oftentimes, we forget that for the sales enablement function to really work, there has to be a little give and take. Of course, sales enablement’s purpose is to, well, enable sales. However, sales reps need to know that they can go to sales enablement for valuable insights and clarification.

Are you finalizing plans for your company’s sales kickoff meeting? While your vision is likely to include inspiration, learning, recognition, and team building, often sales kickoff events don’t live up to expectations. To top it off, Gartner research finds that B2B sales reps forget 70% of the information they learn within a week of training, and 87% will forget it within a month.

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Hiring for SDRs that hold out for the long haul, can be a daunting task. Maybe you’ve had bad luck in the past or have seen colleagues struggle to fill SDR roles. Even so, try not to feel discouraged if hiring SDRs is your responsibility. There are a few misconceptions that tend to sway our opinions about SDRs.

Loyalty is a critical component of any business.

What is in your power to control? As a sales representative, you may be stuck with a crappy territory or you may be waiting for R&D to release the latest product enhancements – neither are things you are able to change. Yet, there are plenty of variables that you can influence in order to make your quota.

The journey to compliance with recent privacy acts proves to be one of increasing complexity.

Many executives saw the rise of blockchain and cryptocurrencies as just a craze. Whatever it was, it was going to pass.

Empathy in sales has become a popular topic in recent years. Yes, it’s good to understand the emotional state-of-mind your prospect is coming from. It’s also useful to realize how their situation and challenges are affecting their decision-making.

Year-end is a stressful time for most of us in Sales. We’re racing to the finish line to try to meet – or hopefully exceed – our quota, and there are always variables that are beyond our control. I’d like to share three proactive strategies so you can stay on top of all the moving pieces, and close deals as expeditiously as possible.

As millennials continue to make up the majority of the workforce, it’s evident that they’re the group that’s least engaged in work.

Coaching is a critical component for the success of any sales organization. That’s why we often push front line managers to focus on coaching.

Sales is tough. It’s not an easy thing to figure out for any company. Especially, when that company is a MarTech company that is growing faster than they can implement systems.

You’re your worst critic, especially when it comes to seeing yourself on camera.

The bounce rate on requested demos on websites is 85%. That’s…wow. It’s a sign that 85% of people are fed up with filling out a form before finding out what they want to know about your product.

There is a cause and effect relationship between developing your people and your sales results. Although this may seem like a common sense statement, too many companies ignore the connection or don’t act on it. Our latest research survey, conducted by Training Industry, shows that 53% of individuals who work at companies that achieve high-revenue growth believe sales coaching is always or almost always effective.

B2B companies are missing out on a huge opportunity.They’re either not paying attention to it or don’t know how to apply it to their specific situation: Using inbound marketing principles to influence and grow their existing clients.

On the latest episode of the B2B Revenue Executive Experience podcast, we spoke to Gary Walter, President and CEO of Infutor Data Solutions, to find out what it takes to go from a family-owned business to a private equity-owned entity.

We’ve all been there…the company with the negative culture. The one where you’re afraid to raise issues to your boss. And the one where you secretly search for a new job.

If you’re in sales and you’re facing a day of prospecting, you’re basically ready to give up by 8:40 AM

Salespeople are hunters. We go after the big opportunity and land the sale. Sure, this hard work yields success, but winning new business is only one part of the equation. What are you doing to retain your customers after the initial sale is made? Does your organization have a “leaky bucket” model?

If 40% of registrants for a webinar show up, you’ve succeeded beyond your wildest dreams.

It’s not that sales and marketing are out-and-out fighting with each other. It’s more that they just won’t acknowledge that the other one exists. As if they don’t desperately need each other to achieve even the basic level of competence at their jobs.

You’d probably rate the importance of a sales presentation at 10/10.

Do ethics even exist in sales? Well, yeah, but it’s not exactly full of ethics and integrity, right?

Most people, if they had zero clients, would throw in the towel.

Typically, there are several main reasons a deal stalls. A would-be buyer fails to see how your solution solves their biggest business issue. You haven’t drawn a significant distinction between you and your prime competitors. Maybe you aren’t interacting with someone with decision authority. Then again, maybe they have purchasing power but do not see the value in your offering. Or, lastly, the purchase feels too risky for the company right now.

Advertising is an industry seeing a lot of change recently. Yet, ROI from advertising is one of the easiest ways to get traction. Especially, when you advertise on LinkedIn.

Content. Content. Content. Content is king. Content is everything. Content is what matters. Right?

Keeping employees around is not at all the same thing as keeping them engaged. Creating the right culture, setting goals, and motivating your teams requires so much more.

80% of content that marketers create is never used by sales. That’s like a knife to the chest.

July is prime vacation season for those living in the northern hemisphere. Days are longer, and life feels lighter. Prospects also tend to turn on the Out of Office auto-response on email and voice mail.

We are all looking for that next referral. Someone to say something nice about us. Someone to tell their friends how great our company.

In this complimentary one-hour webinar led by Julie Thomas, President and CEO of ValueSelling Associates, shares how best-in-class organizations target high-quality opportunities and what they do to continually requalify thro...

Most people don’t actually know how to use email marketing.

GUEST: Harry Maziar, author of Story Selling: Sage Advice and Common Sense About Sales and Success

Setting yourself apart from your competitors should be one of the first things you do regardless of what you are selling. People always want to know how you’re different, especially if you charge a higher price point.

One of the top challenges executives cite when asked what’s getting in the way of them hitting their growth goals is finding and feeding the top of the funnel.

One of the biggest choke points in companies is often not the sales reps.

The challenges of balancing work and personal life are . . . challenging.

What is one of the most important career-building skills to have in your arsenal?

At some point, every courtship reaches a pivotal moment. All that investment in getting to know one another boils down to one question: Are you ready to commit?

Do you want your future filled with your industry’s equivalent of Super Bowl rings? Then you better stop managing your people and start coaching them instead.

There’s a very fine line between success and failure. How do you ensure that you’re on the right side of it?

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” warned management icon Peter Drucker.

Leadership is a challenge with a diverse generational workforce requiring varying types of motivation and leadership styles.

In this complimentary one-hour webinar, Liz Roche, an Associate of ValueSelling Associates, Inc., shares how salespeople can leverage ValueSelling techniques and the ValuePrompter™ tool, alongside their marketing team’s A...

We claim to understand the importance of customer experience. Yet, too often we fail to truly internalize how customer experience affects buyer behavior, and impacts the way individuals interact with brands, with sellers, and with marketers.

Understanding the different culture types on your team is the key to improving productivity.

Are you spread too thin these days, working through leads from two broad-based ads and a major trade show? Are you having trouble prioritizing prospects because everything is given equal weight? Are you making cold calls without confidence because there isn’t enough time to do adequate pre-call research?

When you’re selling to the public sector, navigating the sales process is a lot like finding your way through the wilderness. There are a lot of odd rules and cultural expectations and it is an arena that is completely unforgiving of mistakes.

The power of public speaking should be an integral part of your sales and marketing strategy. Being a compelling speaker can position you as a thought leader and lead to more closed deals.

When a company is trying to figure out how to move its product and set itself apart from the competition, the first question in this process should not be, “how are we better than the competition?” But, “what is the customer trying to accomplish and what role can we play in enabling that?”

Your mother was wrong. You are not as unique as you think you are, and Chris Orlob, Senior Director of Product Marketing for Gong.io, which increases sales through science, can prove it.

There are times in a sales cycle when you realize your prospect has lost momentum and you sense that you are no longer on the same page. Perhaps they outright state they’ve lost the urgency to make a change, or worse, after a number of promising calls, you now get total silence.

In your business, be greater than a leader: be a hero.