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5 Reasons Why Sales Teams Miss Revenue Targets [+ How to Meet Them]

Hubspot Sales

Why are revenue targets so hard to hit? According to a 2023 survey of over 450 sales leaders, 91% of their teams missed quota that year. And even with revenue up in 2024 , reps are still struggling to meet their sales goals. To shed some light on the matter, Ill offer my personal insights on why teams are missing their targets. In addition, I reached out to other sales experts to hear what they had to say about setting and meeting revenue goals so you can take home some best practices from their

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Your Sales Depend on Your Messaging

Sales Gravy

How many times have you gotten to the meeting but your pitch fell flat? You went in guns blazing, thinking the hard part was over and youd land the dealbut instead you face-planted. Its not your product or your pricing. Its your messaging thats failing youand blocking you from a sale. A Framework to Tap Into Your Prospects Pain So whats missing? A framework that actually speaks to your prospects pain, builds urgency, and moves them toward a yes.

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Email is Broken—Pick Up the Damn Phone! (Money Monday)

Sales Gravy

If youve hung around me for longer than five minutes, youve heard me say that sales is about talking with people. The fact is, the more people you talk with, the more youll sell. The good news is that there are lots of people to talk with. The problem is, far too many salespeople have quit talking with people. Email Prospecting Has Suddenly Stop Working Instead they keep prospects and customers at arms length through asynchronous communication channels like email - especially when prospecting.

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Sales Coaching for Managers: 6 Best Practices

Brooks Group

Effective sales coaching can have a huge impact on your business. The biggest benefit is its contribution to revenue: Sales coaching boosts team performance, with real-time coaching increasing annual revenue by 8%. A structured coaching program can lead to a 28% higher win rate and 88% increase in productivity. Research from The Brooks Group shows a culture of coaching can make a difference in todays competitive market.

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5 Ways You Can Win Faster with Gen AI in Sales

Incorporating generative AI (gen AI) into your sales process can speed up your wins through improved efficiency, personalized customer interactions, and better informed decision- making. Gen AI is a game changer for busy salespeople and can reduce time-consuming tasks, such as customer research, note-taking, and writing emails, and provide insightful data analysis and recommendations.

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Latest Podcasts: Leading Complex Revenue Processes

Force Management

This month, the Revenue Builders podcast shared some detailed breakdowns of complex sales processes, growth stages and leadership challenges. Seasoned Chief Revenue Officers shared insights on how they create process rigor to ensure their organization handles high-stakes deals with tact to maximize returns. From complicated deal negotiations, to identifying influential champions, to handling your board of advisors, these episodes deal with some of the biggest execution challenges facing revenue

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How Vanguard, Verizon, and Spotify Apply a Product Operating Model at Scale

Planview

Organizations that adopt product-oriented approaches achieve faster delivery, better stability, and higher customer satisfaction. But what does a product operating model look like in practice and at scale? These on-demand sessions from the Project to Product Summit 2024 feature three distinct perspectives that answer this question. Vanguard and Verizon show how established enterprises can transition from project-based to product-centric models, while Spotify offers insights from a company that

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The President’s Club Vulnerability Paradigm (Money Monday)

Sales Gravy

No matter if you've had a great month, closed a big deal, or made it to the winner's circle at President's club, winning makes you more vulnerable to losing. A Winning Message for Sales Winners Last week I delivered a keynote at a large company's Presidents club event. It was fun! Great hotel. Tropical destination. People were upbeat and happy because they were celebrating success.

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Commercial Efficiency is the CEO's Greatest Growth Lever

SBI Growth

As CEOs move through 2025, understanding how to drive sustainable revenue growth while navigating declining go-to-market (GTM) efficiency remains a critical challenge. CEOs are tasked with delivering consistent revenue growth while facing unpredictable demand cycle and increasing costs of operation. Many CEOs are grappling with sales cycles increasing, mounting inefficiencies, and unoptimized commercial teams.

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10 Active Listening Techniques for Better Customer Communication

Brooks Group

Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, Zoom, Google Meet, and GoTo Meetingno matter what program youre using, videoconferencing has changed sales and opened up new opportunities. But if your sellers lack active listening skills , the platform theyre using wont matter. They might as well be using tin cans and a string. Its a basic truth of sales performance that boosting customer understanding leads to greater success.

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Nutshell partners with IT services provider Proactive Technology Management

Nutshell

At Nutshell, we want to make it as easy as possible for businesses to access and use the tools they need to grow. Thats why we built an easy-to-use CRM with powerful sales, marketing, and engagement features, and its why we partner with businesses that share our mission. Were excited to announce a new partnership with Proactive Technology Management , an IT services and support company based in metro Detroit.

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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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6 Common Objection Handling Mistakes You Need to Avoid, According to Experts

Hubspot Sales

Objection handling is one of the trickier, more grating aspects of sales life. Pushback is natural and often productive in a sales engagement, but in many cases, a piece of you is going to think, Oh, come on, when a prospect brings up concerns. In those instances, you cant lose composure and run the risk of making critical mistakes, but what can those "critical mistakes" look like?

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Cultivate Professional Presence — Buyers Evaluate You

Sales Gravy

You nailed the pitch. The budget was there. The decision-maker was engaged. So why did the deal go cold? The problem might not be your process. It might be you. Before a prospect buys from you, they have to buy into you. Your professional presence sets the stage for every interaction. First Impressions Matter If you dont make a strong first impression, it wont matter how great your service is.

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How Leader Standard Work at Every Level Builds an Improvement Culture

Kainexus

In some organizations, the leaders who are good at putting out fires are considered the best managers. But what if, instead of putting out fires, leaders had the luxury to spend time on fire prevention? What if, when the rare flame was spotted, every leader was skilled in identifying and correcting the root cause? These conditions are possible with an approach called Leader Standard Work.

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Scaling the Unscalable: AI for Sales Coaching and Reinforcement

Brooks Group

AI is transforming sales. Consider these amazing statistics: 300 million weekly active users are sending over a billion messages daily on ChatGPT. ( Source: PCWorld ) 65% of respondents report that their organizations are regularly using generative AI (Gen AI), up from one-third last year. ( Source: McKinsey ) 83% of sales teams using AI saw revenue growth this year vs. 66% not using AI. ( Source: Salesforce ) In our recent webinar, How AI is Shaping the Future of Sales Training , sales experts

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2024, The Year of the Customer

2023's struggles fueled a shift: companies are ditching wasteful strategies in favor of data and AI-powered growth. Enter 2024, the year GTC takes center stage. Discover 5 ways a customer-centric approach unlocks new revenue and delivers lasting success.

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Unlocking Enablement Success in 2025

SBI Growth

Sales enablement leaders are facing an increasingly complex and evolving landscape. The modern buyers journey has evolved, proficiency gaps persist, and AIs role in sales continues to expand. In a recent webinar hosted by SBI in collaboration with Allego, Ray Makela, Managing Director of Talent Development at SBI, and Deniz Olcay, VP of Marketing at Allego, shared data-driven insights from SBIs 2024 Revenue Enablement Effectives Survey and Allegos State of Sales Enablement Report 2025.

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What’s a Business Credit Score Anyway? Here’s What You Need to Know

Hubspot Sales

I walked into the bank feeling confident about getting a loan to expand my business. I had my plan, financials, and a solid pitch ready. But the loan officer shook her head denied. The problem? My business credit score. I didnt even know I had one. A business credit score shows lenders, vendors, and insurers how dependable your business is. Factors like late vendor payments and limited credit activity were pulling my score down.

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Close Deals Faster With Nutshell Quotes

Nutshell

In sales, speed matters. Delivering quick, professional quotes impresses your prospects and gives your team a head start in winning the business. However, creating sales quotes can often be a slow, manual process when youre juggling external tools or spreadsheets. Thats why were excited to introduce Nutshell Quotesan integrated CRM quoting tool that eliminates those manual steps and helps your team close deals faster.

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Pre-sale Planning: Account Planning Use Cases

ProlifIQ

Pre-sale Planning: A Smarter Approach Account plans are often seen as time-consuming, cumbersome, and less valuable than other activities sales and business development teams could be focusing on. However, pre-sale planning positions your Business Development and Sales teams to engage target accounts in alignment with marketing strategically. A Proven Approach to Pre-Sale Account Planning After working with hundreds of B2B businessesfrom Health and life Sciences to Manufacturing, Telecommunicati

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1st, 2nd, and 3rd Party Intent Data: Which Is Right for You?

How do 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party intent data compare? 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party data each have specific advantages and disadvantages. It comes down to four factors: accuracy, cost, control and quantity. This infographic explains the pros and cons of each and helps you understand which one is best for meeting your business objectives. Intent data can be a great way to fill your pipeline and close more deals.

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Executives Trust Their GTM Strategy, But Not Their Data

SBI Growth

In a rapidly evolving commercial landscape, executives express confidence in their go-to-market (GTM) strategies, yet many lack confidence in the data and insights that build them. This paradox emerged as a central theme in SBIs latest invite-only CEO and CRO Growth Forums. Where top executives candidly discussed the challenges of data reliability, AI adoption, and tech stack optimization.

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My Deep Dive Into Conceptual Selling — Here's What I Learned

Hubspot Sales

Five years into my B2B marketing career, I noticed a pattern: The clients who said yes were the ones whom I understood not just their stated needs but their underlying motivations through conceptual selling. Like the SaaS founder I was working with who said they needed better analytics when what they really wanted was to prove their products value to skeptical investors.

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How a Growth-Oriented Mindset Can Help You Sell More

Sales Gravy

Youre stalled. Youre stuck. Youve plateaued. No matter how you put it, youre seeing your sales hit a rut. And lets face it, youre in a rut, too. So, how do you pull yourself out of it? The answer: invest in yourself. The Power of Personal Development In sales, it's easy to get caught up in the grindcalls to make and deals to close. But if you dont make time to invest in yourself, sooner or later, youll hit a wall and fall into a rut.

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Contracted pricing CPQ: what it is and how it works

PandaDoc

In business, consistent relationships between suppliers and buyers can make operations easier for both parties. Vendors gain a consistent customer and buyers have a trusted source for a specific selection of products or services. As these relationships deepen, partnering companies will often agree on contracted pricing, a pre-negotiated price structure that applies over a defined period.

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How to Leverage Intent Data for Better Outcomes

Speaker: Susan Spencer, Principal of Spencer Communications

Intent signal data can go a long way toward shortening sales cycles and closing more deals. The challenge is deciding which is the best type of intent data to help your company meet its sales and marketing goals. In this webinar, Susan Spencer, fractional CMO and principal of Spencer Communications, will unpack the differences between contact-level and company-level intent signals.

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AI Is Only as Good as the Data It Works With

Arpedio

The Power and Pitfalls of AI in Sales AI has the capability to analyze vast amounts of customer data, uncover patterns, and recommend the next best action. It can enhance account-based selling by identifying trends, surfacing insights, and optimizing engagement strategies. However, AI can only provide value if the underlying data is reliable. If data is outdated, incomplete, or stored in multiple disconnected systems , AIs recommendations will be flawed.

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B2B Account Planning Best Practices for Enterprise Sales Success

Revegy

When it comes to enterprise sales, driving real success goes far beyond chasing quick wins. Rather, it’s about building sustainable, long-term relationships with your top accounts through a well-formed and strategic approach. For enterprise sales teams, implementing strategic account planning can lead to some serious wins. This is because when you reach an in-depth understanding […] The post B2B Account Planning Best Practices for Enterprise Sales Success appeared first on Revegy.

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6 Essential Entrepreneur Skills and How to Build Them, Straight from Businesses Leaders

Hubspot Sales

My first job out of college was one I made up. People become entrepreneurs for lots of reasons , and for me (like most) it was the flexible hours. Armed with an English degree and a basic knowledge of marketing, I started a small agency creating written content for anyone who needed it. I built a book of business by relying on my network and a surprisingly reasonable number of targeted cold emails.

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How to Find Time to Cold Call So Your Pipeline Doesn’t Run Dry (Ask Jeb)

Sales Gravy

Matt from Grand Rapids says, If I dont make my cold calls, our pipeline will go dry. He is juggling everything from operations to customer service escalations, all while trying to generate fresh leads through cold calls. Sound familiar? In this Ask Jeb segment of the Sales Gravy Podcast I walk Matt through practical strategies to carve out time for prospecting and target the right prospects so that he can keep his sales pipeline fulleven while being pulled in a dozen directions.

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10 Ways to Leverage Buyer Signals and Drive Revenue

In today’s ultra-competitive markets, it’s no longer enough to wait for buyers to show obvious signs of interest. Instead, sales teams must be proactive, identifying and acting on nuanced buyer behaviors — often before prospects are fully ready to make a purchase. In this eBook from ZoomInfo & Sell Better, learn 10 actionable ways to use these buyer signals to transform your sales strategy and close deals faster.

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The Employee Coaching Process from Start to Finish

CMOE

The benefits of investing in employee development have never been more obvious, with recent research showing payoffs like dramatically improved employee retention and an 11% increase in profits. While employee development is a multifaceted process, coaching is one of its most essential and versatile elements. Employee coaching is a strategic tool that can significantly enhance individual and organizational performance.

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AI-Powered Account-Based Selling: What’s Changing in 2025?

Arpedio

The New Era of Account-Based Selling Account-based selling (ABS) has always been about precision focusing time and effort on the accounts that matter most. But in todays fast-paced B2B landscape, traditional approaches are no longer enough. With rising customer expectations, an overflow of data, and increased competition, sales teams need a smarter way to engage and convert high-value accounts.

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How Continuous Improvement Powers Operational Excellence in Healthcare

Kainexus

Healthcare leaders are increasingly striving to embed the principles of operational excellence and continuous improvement in their organizations. While these concepts are closely related, it's crucial to understand that continuous improvement is a key pillar of a broader operational excellence strategy. Together, they empower clinical and operational staff to deliver safe, high-quality, reliable care and drive sustainable success.

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Lead Scoring Tactics That Actually Work: 4 Lessons from HubSpot’s +$30 Billion Growth Strategy

Hubspot Sales

Every sales leader has been there: Your inbox is seemingly flooded with leads, but your pipeline feels emptier than ever. Marketing keeps sending you qualified prospects, yet your sales reps are stuck wasting valuable time sifting through them, trying to figure out whos actually ready to make a move. The issue isnt the number of leads; its knowing which ones are worth your reps time.

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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