February, 2025

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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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How Do I Earn Respect When Selling to People Who are Older Than Me? (Ask Jeb)

Sales Gravy

Ellie in Galveston, Texas, faces a scenario that many young sales professionals know all too well: How do you earn respect and project confidence when youre selling to people who are older and more experienced than you? Ellies question highlights a universal issue in sales. Whether youre dealing with age differences or expertise gaps, its easy to feel anxious if your buyer is decades older or has been in the industry for a long time.

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Your 4-Step Roadmap to Acquire New Customers

Brooks Group

There are two primary ways to grow a business: expand existing accounts or acquire new customers. If youre a sales leader focusing on winning new business, youre not alone. According to new research from The Brooks Group , the top three sales leader priorities in 2025 are: Increasing customer retention Strengthening margins Winning new business But sales leaders acknowledge there are obstacles to accomplishing these priorities.

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Nutshell Earns Spot on G2’s 2025 Best Software Awards for Sales Software

Nutshell

Today, Nutshell earned a spot in G2s 2025 Best Software Awards , ranking #32 on the Sales Software list out of 180,000 software contenders. As the worlds largest and most trusted software marketplace, G2 reaches 100 million buyers annually. Its annual Best Software Awards rank the worlds best software companies and products based on authentic, timely reviews from real users.

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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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Elevate Your Sales Team: Key Focus Areas for B2B Sales Leaders in Q1

The Center for Sales Strategy

As B2B sales leaders and managers, your role in guiding your sales teams to success is more critical than ever. With the ever-evolving sales landscape, it's essential to stay ahead by focusing on key areas that can significantly improve your team's performance.

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Latest Podcasts: Lessons on Sales Success

Force Management

Last month on the Revenue Builders Podcast, we shared lessons for sales professionals at every level. From jobseeking to securing your first C-level role, these episodes have something to offer for everyone. Learn the latest on AI for usage-based pricing models, recruiting successful teams, managing board member expectations and leading teams to accurate forecasting.

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The Cold Truth About Cold Calling (Money Monday)

Sales Gravy

A few weeks back, I was delivering a Fanatical Prospecting Bootcamp to a group of sales reps - all in their twenties. They had been assigned to me because their boss was tired of listening to their excuses about why they werent consistently picking up the phone and prospecting. When he brought me in, he said matter of factly, They wont pay any attention to me, but before I start firing people Im hoping you can get through to them.

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Winning Over Buying Groups: How to Sell to Multiple B2B Decision Makers

Brooks Group

B2B buying groups are larger than ever. Ten to fifteen years ago, a seller could huddle up with three or four decision makers and quickly decide on a purchase. Now, its like a packed corporate strategy meeting where every department sends a representativeeach with an opinion and veto power. Since 2010, the average buying group has grown from three to four decision makers to six to 10 according to research by Gartner. 77% of B2B buyers report their last purchase was complex, involving multiple st

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Manage Chat Agent Availability More Effectively

Nutshell

Nutshell’s Web chat enables visitors to your website to start a live chat with your team to connect right away and get the answers they needand enables your business to provide a better experience for visitors and generate more leads. With the most recent updates, chat agents can gain greater control over their availability and real-time insights into visitor activity.

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What's the Real Cost of a Bad Sales Hire?

The Center for Sales Strategy

Ask a sales manager about the most important decisions they make, and you will probably hear about exceeding budget, growing market share, or achieving year-over-year growth. While those decisions are critically important aspects of the job, and they require a great deal of attention, none of them can be accomplished without an even more important decision being made first.

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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 sales revolution: 5 critical skills for thriving in 2025

Mercuri International

Business is evolving faster than ever. Fierce competition, shifting customer behavior, accelerated innovation, automation, new technological solutions, and changing values are among the key forces driving this transformation. From a workforce perspective, this means companies must adapt to these changes. Here are some of the key takeaways from Mercuri Internationals fresh-off-the-press 2025 Future State of Sales Skills report, based on insights from 591 sales professionals globally, gathered thr

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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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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 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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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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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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Stop Experimenting, Start Executing: How CEOs are Using AI to Accelerate Growth

SBI Growth

CEOs are entering 2025 with cautious optimism. While many saw strong growth in 2024, they recognize that ongoing challenges in commercial efficiency and external risks could continue to weigh on performance. To address these concerns, CEOs are shifting their emphasis on artificial intelligence for operational improvements from an area of experimentation to a strategic necessity.

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Mastering Stakeholder Management

Whetstone

In strategic account management, the stakeholders you dont seeand the ones you misunderstandare the ones most likely to derail your success. Many SAMs focus on engaging with their primary contactsthe people they know bestwhile neglecting to map out all stakeholders who may influence the decision. This blind spot creates risk. A single overlooked blocker can turn a promising deal into a lost opportunity.

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How I Use Target Account Selling to Land My Dream Clients

Hubspot Sales

Two years ago, my sales pipeline was a mess leads ghosted after the first call, and I struggled to keep track of contacts with notes scattered across multiple tools. Desperate for a solution, I turned to target account selling a method Ive since refined into a system thats helped me land six SaaS clients in under four months. Drawing on my experience with brands like HubSpot and Zapier, Ill walk you through how it works.

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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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How Sell to My Customer When They Need to Sell to Their Customer First (Ask Jeb)

Sales Gravy

Ask Jeb: How to Sell When Your Customer Has to Sell First Welcome to another Ask Jeb segment on the Sales Gravy Podcast! Im Jeb Blountbestselling author of Fanatical Prospecting, Objections, Sales EQ, and INKED. In each of these special episodes, we shine a spotlight on your questions, challenges, and roadblocksoffering real-world advice from sales pros who are in the trenches every single day.

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How the Digital Revolution is Transforming Automotive Supply Chains

Planview

In the ever-evolving automotive industry, the efficiency and agility of a company’s supply chain can significantly impact its success. Traditionally, supply chains were linear and compartmentalized, heavily reliant on manual processes, paper-based documentation, and isolated systems. These traditional models present significant challenges in scalability, visibility, and collaborationfactors that are becoming increasingly critical as the industry faces growing demands for speed, precision,

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Leverage Your CRM Data for Even Greater Growth With Nutshell’s Suites

Nutshell

Your sales team needs marketing and engagement features to help keep leads and customers engaged. And the data in your CRM is the silver bullet for optimizing the way your company is already marketing your products and engaging with leads. Nutshells powerful features are now organized into three Suites to help your team simplify workflows, collaborate more effectively, and squeeze all the power out of your valuable CRM data.

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Navigating the Shift from Sales Manager to Coach

SBI Growth

As a sales leader, there is a time and place to be a manager, a coach, or both. Managers focus on operational tasks, ensuring the day-to-day activities run smoothly. A sales coach, on the other hand, works to develop the sellers and foster growth within the team. Each role is essential, but harnessing their full potential requires mastery in understanding when to step into each mindset.

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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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The Power of Data-Driven Sales Strategies for SMBs

ACT

Did you know sales strategies based on behavior insights and real-time performance data achieve a 20 percent higher sales productivity ? By going beyond basic customer data , the top sales teams create systems that capture every interaction, analyze customer behavior , and predict which leads are most likely to convert, making every sales dollar count.

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Inside the SPICED Methodology — Insights From the Sales Pros Who Use It

Hubspot Sales

A few years ago, I was in the market for a learning management system. While I was looking into the different offerings, I noticed that each arm of these businesses felt like a different company. The marketing side was fun and relatable. The sales team knew the product best but took a totally different tone. Reading different web pages felt like different experiences.

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Why Consultative Sellers Will Survive AI (Ask Jeb)

Sales Gravy

Marcin from Warsaw, Poland asks: What are the top sales trends shaping the future of sales? Our conversation ranged from the impact of AI to the growing importance of a consultative selling mindset in modern selling. Below, youll discover practical insights you can leverage to sharpen your competitive edgeregardless of what industry or region you sell intoand take advantage of these emerging trends.

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Advocating for Impact: Building a Case for Strategic Initiatives

AchieveIt

In business operations and strategy, its not enough to have great ideasyou need to advocate for them effectively. Whether youre leading a strategic initiative, pitching a new process improvement, or pushing for a shift in company priorities, the ability to build a compelling case is crucial. Mark Muston, Head of Business Operations & Strategy at Modern Health, joined The Strategy Gap podcast to share insights on making a persuasive argument, leveraging diverse perspectives, and treating lead

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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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Website Popups for Your B2B Business: Tips and Examples

Nutshell

Website popups have become a staple for B2B digital marketing teams, delivering opportunities for businesses to capture visitor attention, generate leads, and drive audience engagement. These interactive elements appear on your visitors’ screens, prompting them with information, offers, and more. They have proven to be an effective marketing tool in the B2B environment.

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5 Steps to a Successful Economic Development Plan (With Examples)

Envisio

Economic development plans are essential for sustainable growth, job creation, and a thriving community. Without a plan, communities are forced to react to external economic forces rather than proactively shape their future. Having a strategic roadmap ensures that economic growth is intentional, measured, and community-focused. A strong economic development plan considers: Population trends (growth or decline) Economic shifts (booms or stagnation) Workforce development and job creation Public-pr

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Mastering the Art of Sales Negotiation for SMBs

ACT

Imagine you take your kid to an amusement park. They want to get on the roller coaster, but you think it might be overwhelming for a 10-year-old. You suggest the carousel, but your child says its no longer fun. After some light-hearted debate, both of you reach a common ground and settle on the Ferris wheel. Now, replace the kid with a new lead. Heres how the selling process would pan out.

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Choosing a Business Model — Here's My Guidance Along with Thoughts From Experts

Hubspot Sales

In a previous role selling software, I gained insight into the importance of choosing the right business model. In an effort to appeal to the entire marketplace, from enterprise users to solopreneurs, our product was priced based on usagethe more API calls we had to handle for a customer, the bigger their bill. Unfortunately, selling the product without a minimum price created a situation where a majority of customers placed substantial demands on our support team while contributing very little

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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