Holden Advisors

NOVEMBER 3, 2021

Not every company has a pricing department. Here we explain why they are incredibly important players in the price, cost, revenue equation. Recently, I was on a call with a prospective client who asked the following question: “What are the primary responsibilities of a pricing division? Is it setting the price or is it controlling discounts?”. Because pricing departments play an important role and many companies are without one—or only have a discount division—I thought it would be a good idea t

Procurement 369

Procurement Finance Construction Government 369

Upland

NOVEMBER 28, 2021

It’s not personal, but prospective customers don’t want to talk with sales reps. Sure, they may be happy to watch sellers’ slideshows and sit in on demos, but when it comes down to vetting a product and making an important B2B purchase, the word of someone paid to close the sale is only going to go so far. In an era of empowered consumers, this should come as no surprise.

B2B 195

B2B Sales Decision-making Organization 195

Software Sales Guru

NOVEMBER 22, 2021

One of my First Negotiations I’ve said before that a master negotiator makes sure his counterpart walks away from the table feeling like a winner. All savvy buyers are players, and they love negotiating, which they treat like a game. They enjoy it, and when they play with another trained player, it’s fun for them. It may not be fun for the seller. In fact, Read more.

Negotiation 147

Negotiation Software Software Sales 147

ClearPoint Strategy

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

Strategic planning tools, or models, are designed to help organizations’ develop their action plan to achieve their goals. There are a lot of strategic planning models out there. We know. Which is why we pulled together a list of 20 of the most popular ones and describe the scenario that they are most useful.

Stakeholders 145

Stakeholders Software Software Organization 145

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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.

Sales Management

Customer Think

NOVEMBER 12, 2021

I originally wrote today’s post for WixAnswers. It appeared on their blog on June 7, 2021. We know that the customer experience is important to the success of any organization. Customers are king, and they vote with their wallets – and with their fe.

Customer Experience 144

Customer Experience Organization 144

Engage Selling

NOVEMBER 5, 2021

I recently worked with a client on a new program and got the opportunity to interview a few of their sales managers. I wanted to identify what differentiated top performing managers from poor performing managers. There was one aspect, in … Read More » The post Don’t Make This Mistake with Your Sales Data | Sales Strategies first appeared on The Sales Leader.

Sales 143

Sales Sales Management Management Sales Leadership 143

Upland

NOVEMBER 28, 2021

Get more sales references without launching a traditional reference program. Even when organizations acknowledge their sales reference processes could be better, it can be an overwhelming problem to confront. Will it require new hires? New software? A big investment of time or resources? A well-oiled, traditional customer reference or advocacy program can be an organization’s strongest asset, but launching, revamping, or expanding a traditional program isn’t right for every organization.

Sales 195

Sales B2B Software Software 195

Software Sales Guru

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

Mobile Defense Plan When a salesperson believes the buyer has the money, and thus all the leverage, negotiating a deal feels insurmountable. This belief causes mistakes to happen, as the seller starts offering concessions in order to get a deal. Any deal. Instead of turning into a wimpy seller, learn to deploy the Mobile Defense Plan for sales negotiations.

Negotiation 147

Negotiation Software Software Sales 147

RAIN Group

NOVEMBER 17, 2021

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a silver bullet that would make you more successful in your sales efforts? Or if there was one thing you could do to really boost your sales results? Here’s the bad news: there’s no silver bullet. Sales success takes hard work and commitment, along with skill and savvy. There’s no shortcut to success.

Sales 143

Sales 143

Customer Think

NOVEMBER 13, 2021

The term “headless WordPress” has recently become popular. You’ve probably heard about it but aren’t sure what it means. WordPress is a large and incredibly complicated platform, yet it has limitations. It’s a full-featured tool for bloggers and developers with many options, but it doesn’t let you do everything. Consider the following scenario: Publishing content […].

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Publishing 143

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.

Engage Selling

NOVEMBER 19, 2021

I want to highlight three important questions that buyers are asking themselves right now. Knowing how to deal with these three questions will help you attract and retain more customers. 1. Should I Engage? The first question that buyers are … Read More » The post Your Buyer Is Asking Themselves These 3 Questions | Sales Strategies first appeared on The Sales Leader.

Sales 142

Sales Client Relationships Communication Sales Leadership 142

Hubspot Sales

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

I'll preface these tips by mentioning that many sales teams struggle to hit quota during the holiday season — and those issues come from a lot of different angles, including: It's a shorter quarter with weeks-long holidays for prospects. Prospects take additional PTO during the holidays, in addition to company-wide holidays. Company-wide freezes — like code, website, purchasing, and budgeting freezes — tend to occur during the holidays.

Communication 142

Communication Prioritization Meetings Management 142

Upland

NOVEMBER 28, 2021

Struggling to get quality references is an all-too-common problem for B2B sellers. But the first step to a better sales reference future is acknowledging that the old way is broken. Getting relevant sales references on tight deadlines isn’t easy. Many organizations don’t have formal customer reference or advocacy programs at all. And for companies that do, these programs often can’t move or scale quickly enough to fulfill every sales reference request before prospects’ deadlines.

B2B 195

B2B Prioritization Customer Success Organization 195

Software Sales Guru

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

The Cost of Sales Discussing costs is a part of every sales cycle, and many sellers bring in the cost of the status quo to help justify the price. Yet we rarely look at our own costs to pursue leads that may never close. Think about all zombie accounts that hang out on your forecast for months or years that will never close. Pursuing them. Read more.

Sales 147

Sales Software Software Management 147

Advertiser: ZoomInfo

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

B2B

ClearPoint Strategy

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

Of the many strategic planning models that exist, the Blue Ocean Strategy could be considered the pacifist of the group. Based on an eponymously titled book , this strategy argues that “cutthroat competition results in nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool.” Companies should instead look for new market space and ways to reinvent the industry.

Innovation 135

Innovation Profitability Transportation Brainstorming 135

Customer Think

NOVEMBER 29, 2021

One of our podcast listeners, Jeanne-Claude, wrote about a problem he was having for a recent episode. I am writing about it here today because it is likely a problem some of you share. Jeanne-Claude’s problem is that his company offers a complicate.

Customer Experience 138

Customer Experience 138

Engage Selling

NOVEMBER 12, 2021

The ability to draw regularly from a deep well of confidence is a top predictor of successful performance. Experts know this and top-ranked salespeople do, too. But confidence isn’t just important at a personal level. It matters as much at … Read More » The post Believe With Trust: Building Organizational Confidence first appeared on The Sales Leader.

Sales 134

Sales Sales Leadership Leadership Management 134

Hubspot Sales

NOVEMBER 28, 2021

When you first start out in business, you can probably manage to keep all of your customers or clients top-of-mind … because you don’t have that many. At this stage, sticky notes are your best friend. As you become more established, your customer base grows. It becomes harder to keep every customer and prospect straight. Contacting them at regular intervals to follow up on something they plan to buy or have already bought gets trickier.

CRM 140

CRM Communication Decision-making Profitability 140

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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.

Meetings

Upland

NOVEMBER 28, 2021

Key traits of a winning sales reference pool. Prospective customers are in control of more of the B2B sales cycle than ever before. Contacting an enterprise sales rep is no longer a prospect’s first stop on the long road to making an important business purchase. In fact, Forrester reports that an average buyer completes about 70% of a B2B purchasing decision before ever contacting sales.

Sales 195

Sales Manufacturing B2B Decision-making 195

Jermaine Edwards

NOVEMBER 25, 2021

In 2016 I wrote a post on the five foundation steps for stakeholder management success in key account management, that was well received and guided lots of leaders. A lot has changed in those five years from new strategies and technologies, to of course the pandemic that completely changed the way we engage and serve our customers. Almost every business on the planet has been compelled to make adjustments, and in most cases transform the way they relate to their customers from an entirely virtua

Stakeholders 130

Stakeholders Decision-making Shareholders Key Account Management 130

SuperOffice

NOVEMBER 26, 2021

Driving people to your website isn’t the final goal of your marketing activities. It doesn’t matter how high your site traffic is, if you don’t know how to make the most out of every visit. While it’s impossible to turn a website visitor into a customer before they reach the decision stage of the customer journey, you are still able to impact the customer journey itself.

B2B 128

B2B B2C Decision-making Advertising 128

Customer Think

NOVEMBER 5, 2021

Among the many challenges customer experience (CX) professionals face, often the most difficult is how to engage cross-functional and multi-level support. Beyond support for specific projects, there is a crucial need for ongoing sponsorship of the CX program, even as new areas of focus develop for the organization. Throughout my career I’ve had the good […].

Customer Experience 138

Customer Experience Organization Leadership 138

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.

Sales

SBI Growth

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

Both CEOs and staffing firms shared that despite planned headcount additions, they are struggling to fill open roles, with the number of posted sales roles growing by 65% since early 2021. Further complicating sales leaders’ efforts to hit quota, on average, surveyed leaders are operating with 31% of sales capacity that’s either open headcount or in year 1 on the job, indicating partial capacity at best.

Acquisition 127

Acquisition Organization Sales 127

Hubspot Sales

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

Pricing the products or services you’re selling to another business can be challenging. Saying “Ok I’m going to charge $5 for this is nice” sounds nice, but you don’t want to lose out on valuable revenue, especially since you’ve likely put hard work and time into creating what you sell. When selling B2B, it’s critical to understand the characteristics of the business you’re selling to, and also what’s most important to your business based on what you’re selling.

B2B 130

B2B Profitability Retail Marketing 130

Upland

NOVEMBER 28, 2021

If your sales reference program needs a boost, the prospect may be daunting. Do you need to invest significant resources to build out an entire customer advocacy program, complete with its own dedicated staff? It’s not a bad option if you have the time and resources, but it’s also far from the only one. Companies primarily focused on delivering targeted sales references during sales cycles should consider a lightweight reference app that’s explicitly built for B2B sellers.

B2B 195

B2B CRM Sales Organization 195

EcSell Institute

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

Why coaching by example and answering the ‘why’ makes the most impact on student-athletes.

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Speaker: Olivia Montgomery, Associate Principal Supply Chain Analyst

Curious to know how your peers are navigating ongoing disruption? The supply chain management techniques that dominated the last 30 years are no longer supporting consumer behavior or logistics and manufacturing capabilities. So what’s working now? What should your plans for 2023 include? By researching the supply chain challenges and solutions that businesses – especially small and midsize businesses – are currently experiencing, we’ve learned what’s working and what’s not.

Supply Chain

RAIN Group

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

Some buyers are conditioned to try certain tactics to lower your price. Maybe they've read about negotiation in books or were trained to use pressuring strategies.

Negotiation 124

Negotiation Sales 124

Customer Think

NOVEMBER 9, 2021

As a chief marketing officer (CMO) or senior B2B marketing professional, there are few things as satisfying as earning and maintaining the trust of your CEO, and for that matter, the rest of the executive team. Conversely, if you do not have this trust, your professional life can be quite painful. In my career, I’ve […].

B2B 137

B2B Marketing Digitalization Leadership 137

Engage Selling

NOVEMBER 26, 2021

As a sales coach and trainer, I talk a lot about why you must make value-based selling the focus of your work. Your ability to master this skill determines whether you’ll consistently be successful in today’s marketplace—yes, that much is … Read More » The post Intangible Benefits Aren’t first appeared on The Sales Leader.

Sales 121

Sales Communication 121

Hubspot Sales

NOVEMBER 26, 2021

Discount pricing is borderline omnipresent. We've all seen retail outlets offering sale prices or "buy one, get one free deals" — and for good reason. When done right, the method can drum up quick interest in your business, foster customer loyalty, and pay off in spades. But there's no guarantee that leveraging it will be effective. These kinds of strategies work better for certain businesses than they do for others — and you run the risk of undermining your company's reputation and losing out o

Retail 126

Retail eCommerce Profitability Construction 126

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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

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