May, 2023

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Best Practices for Your First EVER Strategic Planning Process

OnStrategyHQ

Play Watch the video Q: What would be the best practical approach to implement the first-ever strategic planning process as a (medium-sized) 2,000-person company with 5 C-level executives and 12 managers? A: Give yourself enough time, do market research, and hire a consultant or follow a guide! Great question! Here are a few of the best answers from our Strategy Collaborative Q&A Session!

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8 Strategies for Getting More Out of Every Negotiation

Hubspot Sales

The ability to negotiate can bring you and your business tremendous advantages. Yet, many salespeople approach negotiations with trepidation. Part of the problem is that we rarely have the opportunity to practice. There are only a few occasions where we typically have the ability to negotiate, and they are usually high-stakes such as buying a house or taking a new job.

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Business Transformation Strategy: Breakthrough Ahead

Kainexus

Business transformation strategy is the comprehensive process of changing an organization's core operations, processes, culture, and capabilities to achieve specific goals or outcomes. The strategy aims to restructure an organization's fundamental approach to its business, often in response to new opportunities or challenges. Business transformation involves more than incremental improvements; it requires fundamental changes to an organization's operations, culture, and technology infrastructure

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Enablement is Hard. Do It Anyway.

Mike Kunkle

Purposefully orchestrating organizational performance improvement is difficult. It requires a wide range of knowledge, skills, capabilities, practices, and mindsets, as well as mental toughness, emotional maturity, and, often, the ability to influence without authority. It’s organizational behavioral change management, for sure, and requires both smart and hard work.

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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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For the Best Results Don’t Wing It. Follow A Process!

The Center for Sales Strategy

Have you ever tried to make chili by throwing all the ingredients together in a giant pot, stirring, and then slowly cooking all day? If you had, you’d know that is NOT the best way to cook chili! First, you brown the meat. And if you were an onion lover, then you’d add onions during this stage to get the most flavor. After the meat is browned and fully cooked, drain the fat (if healthy eating is important to you), and add the chili seasoning, followed by the rest of the ingredients, which could

Sales 106
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Sales Velocity Equation – 4 Levers to Success

Upland

Velocity is the speed of something moving in any given direction. At Upland Altify, we think about velocity a lot. So much so that we created this sales velocity equation to get sales teams moving in the right direction. That direction is revenue. How fast you get there depends on four key levers. Sales velocity vs deal velocity – what’s the difference?

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Price Conversation when Prospect Wants to Discuss Price Prematurely

Sales Readiness Group

In the sales world, pricing is crucial in determining whether or not a prospect will convert into a customer. However, discussing pricing prematurely with a prospect may not always be the best approach. Doing so can lead to a focus on cost rather than the value of the product or service. So, what should sales professionals do when faced with prospects who want to discuss price prematurely?

Sales 139
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Why building a custom CRM is almost always a bad idea

Nutshell

If your company has a unique sales process or sells a variety of products and services, it can be tempting to build a CRM from scratch. Theoretically, a custom CRM would include all the features your organization needs, none that you don’t, and would be tailored to your specific business in everything from the in-product terminology to workflows reflecting how your team sells.

CRM 127
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8 Mistakes That Destroy Credibility With Prospects (& How to Avoid Them)

Hubspot Sales

The average buyer in this day and age is shrewd — naturally skeptical of salespeople and having certain standards reps have to measure up to. That makes establishing credibility central to the success of any sales effort. But maintaining that kind of trustworthiness and legitimacy over multiple sales conversations can be easier said than done — a lot of reps run into hitches, hiccups, and human errors that undermine their credibility with prospects.

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5 Ways AI Will Help Sell More

The Center for Sales Strategy

Whether you think the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is Wall-E or The Terminator, the reality is that AI is going to change the way that you sell. According to Crunchbase, there are nearly 10,000 AI startups. 10,000 new AI companies in the last year are a staggering number of people focused on how AI can help your life, business, and organization.

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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

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

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How Sales Reps Can Adapt to the Hybrid Selling Environment

RAIN Group

Have you met Morgan? A terrific sales rep. Except recently, Morgan has slipped out of the top tier of the leaderboard and I think I know why: she struggles to adapt to the new selling environment.

Sales 123
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Can customers tell you how to run your business?

Customer Think

If you put what’s important to them ahead of what you think is important for your business, and allow your imagination to take over, customers will begin to drive your business and ultimately, if you let them, drive your success.

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How to Build Rapport in Sales With 3 Simple Techniques

Sales Readiness Group

Capturing the attention and trust of your potential customers is a crucial aspect of successful sales. When you establish a strong relationship, you gain their respect, the willingness to value your insights, and the potential for long-term business. But the question is, how can you build rapport effectively?

Sales 133
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Integrating Your CRM With Social Media and Advertising Platforms

Nutshell

Does your company use a customer relationship management (CRM) platform ? If not, it’s definitely something to consider. A CRM can help you gather, store, organize, and analyze data about your customers, which then helps you improve your sales and marketing efforts. But that’s not all a CRM can do. It can also integrate with different tools, including social media and advertising platforms.

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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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7 Things You Should Never Say in a Negotiation

Hubspot Sales

Negotiation is a delicate balancing act. As a sales rep, you straddle the space between helping your prospect find a solution that works for them and protecting your company’s interests. By the time you’ve reached the negotiation phase of the sales process, you and your prospect have a common goal: getting your company’s offering into their hands. It’s a joint effort, and you should be working — not fighting — with your buyer to reach an ideal solution.

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Shut Up and Listen! 3 Reasons Why Salespeople Should Talk Less to Sell More

The Center for Sales Strategy

New business meetings are exciting. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of closing deals, showcasing your product, and convincing prospects that you have the perfect solution. You want to start selling, pitching your product, and showing off your brilliant product knowledge. DON'T DO IT! Just shut up and let your prospect talk. The secret to successful sales is not just about talking but also about mastering the art of listening.

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Liddell Hart’s 8 Maxims of Strategy

Flevy

Sir Basil Henry Liddell-Hart (October 31, 1895 – January 29, 1970) was a British strategist, historian, and one of the world’s foremost military thinkers. B. H. Liddell-Hart was a prolific writer and wrote extensively on military strategy and tactics. Liddell-Hart’s work titled “ Strategy ” is considered one of the most important works on military strategy of the 20th century.

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6 Simple Ways to Improve Your Email Marketing Strategy

Customer Think

Image source: Canva for free It’s no coincidence that the more knowledgeable you are about email marketing strategies, the better your results are. Below I’ll share some easy ways you can make your emails better. Sometimes, the smallest tweaks can get you spectacular results.

Marketing 137
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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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How to Motivate Your Sales Team to Reach Your Business Goals

Sales Readiness Group

As a sales manager, you want your sales team to be motivated and work toward achieving business goals. While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, understanding the six common factors that motivate salespeople can help you increase your sales team's motivation to achieve sales goals. In this article, we'll cover: What Is Sales Motivation? What Happens If Sales Managers Don't Motivate Their Teams?

Sales 133
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AI for Sales: How Artificial Intelligence Is Revolutionizing Sales Processes

Nutshell

It seems everywhere you turn these days, you hear something about artificial intelligence (AI)—how it’s disrupting industries, helping people be more efficient, and sometimes causing controversies. One thing’s for sure: It’s quickly becoming more advanced and widely available. You might be wondering, can you use AI for sales? And if you can, should you?

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4 Types of Stakeholders Who Will Sabotage Your Deal (& How to Counter Them)

Hubspot Sales

The more people involved in a buying decision, the less likely you are to close. Getting multiple stakeholders to arrive at a consensus is hard enough on its own, and bringing an additional decision-maker into the fold means adding a potential detractor to the mix. As you’ve probably seen first-hand, there’s normally at least one blocker in every company — and they can do a lot to sabotage your sales efforts.

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How to Find New Sales Leads in a Difficult Market

The Center for Sales Strategy

As a sales team in the business-to-business (B2B) space, finding new leads is a never-ending challenge. In a highly competitive market, it's essential to be creative and use unique approaches to stand out from the crowd. In this blog, we will explore some unconventional ways to find sales leads that will help you get ahead of the competition.

Marketing 105
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The 2023 Supply Chain Crystal Ball: Challenges and Solutions

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.

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Internal & External Analysis

OnStrategyHQ

What is an Internal and External Analysis? An internal and external analysis is simply looking at your organization’s current performance from an internal and external perspective. The output of completing an internal and external analysis – also known as a strategic analysis – is to have a clear picture of your organization’s current state. How does a strategic analysis fit into strategic planning?

Suppliers 105
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Five Ways to Make Your Email Marketing More Personal

Customer Think

Source: Canva The more you understand email marketing, the clearer picture you see that it’s really about personal connections. Whether a list is small or massive, your most imperative task is strengthening the relationship with your subscribers. You’ll please your customers, and you’ll enjoy more effective marketing.

Marketing 133
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Counter Negotiation Tactics to Use When Buyer Makes the First Offer

Sales Readiness Group

One frequently discussed issue by negotiation experts is when you should make the first offer in a negotiation. Conventional wisdom is to never make the first offer in a negotiation. After all, by making the first offer, you risk "showing your cards" too early and leaving money on the table. On the other hand, there are many cases where it is to your advantage to make the first offer.

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How CRM Software Impacts Customer Engagement

Nutshell

It’s easy to assume that once you’ve turned someone into a customer, your work is done. But that’s simply not the case. To keep them a customer, you must continue to engage them. If you don’t, there’s a good chance they’ll eventually leave. For that reason, you’ll want to measure customer engagement continuously. You’ll want to monitor the impact on customer engagement that your customer relationship management (CRM) platform has by: Tracking customer interactions Analyzing customer data Measuri

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The Truth About Sales Agility: Separating Fact From Fiction

Speaker: Michelle Vazzana

Every sales organization wants their sales force to be agile. Why? Because the world is rapidly changing, becoming more complex, and making the salesperson’s job harder. Organizational leaders are unsure of the best way to equip sellers to succeed in this new reality. Should they change their sales methodology? Should they adopt better technology tools?

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6 Ways to Communicate Impact in Sales

RAIN Group

You’ve worked on building rapport with your prospect and you’ve uncovered their aspirations and afflictions. The question then becomes, "So what?" If your afflictions don't get solved, so what? What won’t happen? Will they get worse? How will they affect the bottom line of your company, division, or department? How will they affect your life?

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A Sales Structure to Maximize Revenue Potential

The Center for Sales Strategy

In the fast-paced and competitive business landscape, an effective sales structure is crucial for organizations to achieve revenue targets and drive growth. However, many companies face challenges in designing a sales structure that aligns with their objectives and maximizes their sales potential. Typically, when it comes to sales structure, common challenges may include inconsistent performance, misaligned roles and responsibilities, or too many people on the team not achieving their overall re

Sales 104
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20 Executive Assistant Interview Questions

Hubspot Sales

How do you prepare for a test when you don’t know what questions they’ll ask? Preparing for a job interview is somewhat of a guessing game. Fortunately, most hiring managers stick to many of the same executive assistant interview questions and themes. An executive assistant (EA) is by nature a personal job where fit is essential — I know because that was my first job out of college.

Software 103
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Four Trends That Matter to Customers and How Brands Can Resonate

Customer Think

We’re living in a time of transformation. As is such, it should come as no surprise people are critically evaluating what type of future they want to create and be a part of. While trend reports are a valuable tool for better understanding customers, business success relies on much more than recognizing the trends.

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Negotiate Larger Deals More Quickly

What if there was a better method of changing the conversation with your customer from delivering pricing to delivering value solutions? A method that would help keep you in control, manage the uncertainty, and close larger deals more quickly for you and your company? There is.