Trending Articles

article thumbnail

Quota Doesn’t Take a Summer Vacation (Money Monday)

Sales Gravy

Your quota doesn't take a summer vacation, so your pipeline-building efforts can't afford to either. This is a reality check. Summer is coming fast and if you dont get your pipeline positioned for success now, youll be scrambling come mid-July. The summer sales slowdown is a documented phenomenon across almost every industry. According to data from HubSpot, prospecting response rates can drop by as much as 25% between June and August.

article thumbnail

Three Questions to Answer When Building an Internal AI Operations Team

Force Management

As AI becomes even more prevalent in society and business, leaders are looking for ways to embed the new technology into their go-to-market motion. Gartner predicted in 2023 that 35% of CROs would establish an internal AI Operations team by 2025. These teams help to manage change, compliance and adoption to ensure new technology is used in a way that promotes the companys goals.

article thumbnail

7 Discovery Call Mistakes Successful Sales Reps Avoid — and What They Do Instead, According to Experts

Hubspot Sales

Discovery calls seem straightforward: learn about your prospect and present your solution. But in reality, they derail more often than they succeed. Ive been there watching a prospects energy fade as I talked too much, only to receive a polite well think about it before they disappeared forever. The truth? Most sales professionals unknowingly sabotage these calls and make predictable mistakes that kill rapport and crush their chances before the deal even begins.

article thumbnail

You Need Sales Coaching

Sales Gravy

Lets kill the myth: sales coaching isnt just for newbies or underperformers. Its for closers, leaders, and the ones who want moremore pipeline, more wins, more control over their career. If you're in sales, you need coaching. Period. This isnt feel-good fluff. Sales is a performance sport. Every high-performance athlete has a coach, and every inspiring performer has a mentor for a reason.

Sales 98
article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

How to Import LinkedIn Contacts to Your CRM (Step-by-Step Guide)

Nutshell

LinkedIn is an amazing social media platform for professionals to find new work opportunities and mingle with potential employers, employees, and business partners. Plus, its a goldmine for legitimate B2B contacts. However, if youre trying to prospect and close deals through LinkedIn, youll have a tough time of it. Thats because, as a social media platform, LinkedIn doesnt offer tools that make prospecting and selling much easier, such as automation and pipeline management.

CRM 87
article thumbnail

4 Sales Strategies for B2B Opportunities

Brooks Group

B2B buying and selling continues to present new challenges for sales leaders. As buyer preferences and behaviors change, you need to be aware of how this will impact your sellers and how you can adapt your sales strategies and tactics. In a recent Gartner webinar, CSOs: How to Effectively Adapt Your B2B Sales Strategies Chief of Research Robert Blaisdell shared new strategies to improve sales to B2B buyers.

B2B 87

More Trending

article thumbnail

Self-Awareness: The Hidden Sales Skill

Sales Gravy

Here's the brutal truth: Self-awareness is the ultimate sales skill. We obsess over skills like closing techniques, objection handling, and prospecting cadence. But self-awareness is the real make-or-break. Self-awareness is the lever that separates ethical, high-performance sellers from out-of-touch order takers. If youre not self-aware, youre leaving money on the table and damaging trust.

article thumbnail

Forget “Weathering the Storm.”

Luminas Strategy

It’s Time to Steer Through It With Your Customers We’ve been there. Sitting in leadership meetings, wrestling with the impact of economic shifts, feeling the pressure to make the right moves when the future feels anything but certain. It’s a familiar landscape for many B2B organizations right now. Inflation, tariffs, policy changes that are creating market volatility they don’t discriminate, and are forcing even the most well-established players to re-examine everything.

article thumbnail

Latest Podcasts: Secrets to Career and Revenue Growth

Force Management

Last month on the Revenue Builders Podcast, our guests had some wisdom to impart on being successful in roles from sales rep all the way to CRO and CEO. We heard stories and lessons learned from experienced leaders, divulging how to build relationships, work strategically, and position yourself for the next step in your career wherever you might be now.

article thumbnail

Navigating Difficult Customer Conversations: A Framework for Sales Teams

Brooks Group

Navigating Difficult Customer Conversations: A Framework for Sales Teams Tariffs, political tensions, and economic uncertainties are reshaping the business environment. Your sales professionals stand at the critical intersection between market challenges and customer relationships. The difference between retaining accounts and losing customers often comes down to how well frontline sellers navigate difficult customer conversations.

article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

What Is a Joint Venture? [+ How It Can Grow Your Business]

Hubspot Sales

I once worked with a client who completely changed the way I think about business growth. He ran a mid-sized tech company, growing steadily but slowly until everything suddenly took off. I asked him what changed. His answer? Joint ventures. That was the first time I really understood what a joint venture is a strategic partnership where two businesses combine strengths while staying independent.

article thumbnail

Using Data Analytics to Navigate Tariff Impacts on Your Product Portfolio

Planview

Some uncertainty is inevitable for product-driven organizations. To mitigate risk and maximize value, most organizations perform a comprehensive impact analysis before making any investment decisions. However, some impacts are easier to estimate than others. Microeconomic industry changes, such as demand fluctuations or predictable innovations, are relatively straightforward for example, automotive organizations can anticipate electric vehicle adoption with some precision, allowing portfolio ma

article thumbnail

Common Sales Training Implementation Challenges

RAIN Group

While our recent research on the state of sales training and continuous learning highlighted the clear benefits of highly effective sales training, it also revealed that many organizations struggle to achieve these results. As part of our survey of 242 sales professionals across various industries and regions, we asked respondents to identify the biggest challenges their organizations face in providing effective sales training and development for people in sales roles.

article thumbnail

4 Sales Success Factors for Economic Uncertainty

Brooks Group

Theres quite a bit of speculation about the prospect of an economic downturn, if not a full-blown recession. On-again, off-again tariffs and global tensions are hitting many industries hard. One thing is clear: Were seeing the end of one of the longest expansionary phases in recent history. According to Harvard Business Review, companies that weathered downturns successfully in the past (and even prospered) had three things in common: They acted early, had a long-term perspective, and focused on

article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

Hire Sales STARs by Asking Behavior-Based Interview Questions

SBI Growth

If you follow professional football, then you know that Shedeur Sanders was the big story of the 2025 NFL draft. For you non-football fans, Shedeur Sanders is the son of ex-NFL great Deion Sanders , who also serves as the head coach of the University of Colorado football team, where Shedeur Sanders played as the starting quarterback during 2022-2024.

Media 62
article thumbnail

Road Warrior Prospecting (Ask Jeb)

Sales Gravy

Kyle, a field sales rep from British Columbia is struggling with a common prospecting challenge: how to consistently prospect when you're constantly on the move. Kyle's situation likely resonates with many of you in outside sales. He described his typical daystarting at job sites at 7:30 AM, running between appointments, sending proposals from his truck, and working from Starbucks in between meetings.

CRM 75
article thumbnail

Enable Fast, Secure and Convenient Logins With Single Sign-On (SSO) in Nutshell 

Nutshell

When your team is working across multiple platforms and applications, they need quick and secure access to their data. An effective way for your IT team to oversee application access is through single sign-on (SSO), an authentication method that enables users to access multiple platforms with a single set of login credentials. Nutshells SSO and directory sync (DS) features enable your business to manage account access more easily and enhance CRM data security.

CRM 62
article thumbnail

What is price sensitivity? How it affects sales and profitability

PandaDoc

Every brand knows that pricing plays a major factor in purchasing decisions. Price is one of the most visible parts of any offer, and getting it wrong can cost more than just a few sales. A poor pricing strategy erodes trust, damages positioning, and undermines long-term brand growth. If the initial go-to-market pricing strategy is off, by the time the company makes an adjustment, damage is already done.

article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

How to Give Constructive Feedback to Managers

CMOE

Providing constructive feedback to your manager can feel like a daunting task. You are offering input to someone who holds significant influence over your career and daily work. However, considering that one in two employees leave their jobs due to poor management, giving feedback could be the key to improved job satisfaction and fulfillment. When given in the right way, managers often welcome feedback as an opportunity for personal and professional growth.

article thumbnail

Why Traditional Sales Training Fails and How Collaborative, Ongoing Learning Drives Real Results

SBI Growth

Sales organizations are investing heavily in sales training, yet the results tell a concerning story. Between 2021 and 2023, overall revenue growth rates dropped by 12% and the percentage of sellers achieving quota fell by over 4%, leaving only 56% meeting their targets. Despite spending more on training and resources, companies are receiving less in return, creating an urgent need to reassess traditional methods.

article thumbnail

How Do You Make So Many Cold Calls? (Ask Jeb)

Sales Gravy

Tyler Goss, from Tampa has two critical sales questions: 1) How do we achieve those "crazy" prospecting numbers I talk about in my books? 2) When should a lead become a pipeline opportunity? In this podcast I break down these answers in plain English. When to Create a Deal: Finding the Sweet Spot There's no shortage of opinions on when to create a deal in your CRM.

article thumbnail

Nutshell’s Spring Product Roadmap 

Nutshell

This spring is bringing big updates across all three Nutshell Suites, designed to streamline your teams sales process, make your marketing efforts more effective, and enhance your engagement strategies. To see a complete list of everything on the roadmap and everything launched in Nutshell so far this year, see our Product Updates page. Now, check out whats on the roadmap for each Nutshell Suite this spring: Get the best of Nutshell with Sales, Marketing and Engagement tools!

article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

What is marginal revenue and how does it work?

PandaDoc

Selling additional products or services usually sounds like a good thing, but thats only true when every extra sale contributes to your overall bottom line. Unfortunately, keeping track of those numbers can get a little complicated. Marginal revenue can help by showing exactly how much additional income your business brings in from selling one more unit.

article thumbnail

Customer Value Proposition: 5 Pillars That Drive Purchase Decisions

Brooks Group

Understanding how your customers define value is essential. While sales professionals often focus on what they believe matters most, customers ultimately determine value through five key dimensions: quality, service, experience, delivery, and price. Lets explore each pillar and how you can use a value-based selling approach to meet customer expectations. 1.

article thumbnail

Pull the Pricing Growth Lever: Build a Profitable Pricing Strategy in 5 Steps

SBI Growth

67% of SaaS companies ignore value-based pricing , according to our latest 2024 State of SaaS report and research. They invest heavily in competitor-led or cost-plus pricing - and miss out on revenue opportunities as a result. From gaining a competitive advantage to strengthening unit economics, value-based pricing is a huge untapped growth lever. To pull it, you need to build an effective pricing strategy that aligns your company and business goals.

article thumbnail

3 Powerful Ways to Handle the “I’m In a Meeting!” Objection (Ask Jeb)

Sales Gravy

If you're doing any kind of cold calling or prospecting, you'll eventually hear this objection: "I'm in a meeting right now." Paul Wise, a heavy cold caller from Normandy, France targets product managers at software companies and says that nine times out of ten when he gets a decision-maker on the phone, they claim to be "in a meeting." Three Ways to Handle the "I'm in a Meeting" Prospecting Objection As I explained to Paul, how you respond in that moment can make or break your opportunity to mo

article thumbnail

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!

article thumbnail

AI-Powered Quarterly Business Reviews for the Rescue of Account Managers

DemandFarm

In my years working alongside account management and customer success teams, one thing has become painfully clear: the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) process is broken. Traditional QBRs demand hours of manual effort, juggling multiple systems, and aligning narratives, only to end up with a static presentation that barely scratches the surface of customer insights.

article thumbnail

Import All Your Products to Streamline CRM Setup 

Nutshell

If your organization manages lots of product or service SKUs, keeping up with the details can become a challengeespecially if youre also managing which products are connected with sales opportunities in your CRM. Nutshells new product importer tool makes it easy to import or update all your products and services at once, so you can spend less time on CRM setup and more time closing deals.

CRM 62
article thumbnail

Entrepreneurship through acquisition: When and why this innovation strategy works

Hubspot Sales

As a freelance writer, I constantly learn about new industries and how they work. Lately, Ive started to learn more about entrepreneurship through acquisition. In my former life as a Spanish teacher, private equity and acquisition entrepreneurship werent on my radar. Instead, I was more focused on learning to make the language more comprehensible. So, to learn more about how goal-oriented entrepreneurs can establish a new career path through business acquisitions, I knew I needed to talk to an e

article thumbnail

Sales Manager Training is Getting Left Behind and It's Hurting Performance

SBI Growth

Sales manager training is widely recognized as a key performance driver, yet many companies fail to invest in and deliver sales manager training programs regularly. In the latest episode of the Sales Readiness Podcast, our host Ray Makela sat down with Dave Lingebach, Senior Research Manager at SBI, to dive into the implications of providing dedicated frontline sales manager training.

article thumbnail

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