Strategic Planning and Management Insights

MARCH 20, 2023

SME Strategy is a strategy consulting firm that specializes in helping organizations align their teams and operations around a shared vision, mission, values, goals, and action plans. Our strategic planning services offer guidance on how a strategic planning facilitator can provide support in constructing an effective strategic plan that ensures your strategy is communicated and implemented across your entire organization.

Construction 98

Construction Leadership Facilitation Management 98

Customer Think

MARCH 19, 2023

Feedback is integral to employee management since it paves the way for improvement across roles and teams. Setting up a feedback culture in your company facilitates productivity, clear communication, and holistic growth in your workforce. Applauding efforts through positive feedback and respectfully offering constructive criticism boosts morale and helps employees improve.

Construction 119

Construction Facilitation Communication Management 119

The Center for Sales Strategy

MARCH 21, 2023

In sales, you need to understand the difference between an objection and an objective. Here are the four most common customer objections that a salesperson will encounter. Price Need Trust Time If a salesperson is being bombarded by these four questions throughout their initial meeting, then they most likely have more work to do. Simply put, the salesperson needs to spend more time preparing for the meeting, researching the client, and developing insightful questions to build trust and confidenc

Meetings 90

Meetings Sales 90

The SAMA Podcast

MARCH 19, 2023

Ready to be inspired? In this incredibly moving episode, Joe Machicote, the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Premier, Inc., reveals his formula for being extraordinary, so you can become the best version of yourself. Tune in as he shares his extraordinary insights on how to build stronger customer relationships by embracing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Account Management 80

Account Management Management 80

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.

Brooks Group

MARCH 21, 2023

View this week's video Success Begins With Emotional Maturity Winners in any venture are willing to be held accountable for their own actions and results. High-performing professionals in any industry have no desire to be part of the equation for failure. The success stories in sales are certainly no different. Organizations grow, proliferate, and expand when they are led by people who possess the emotional maturity to assume responsibility, rise to the level of authority given to them, and

Emotional Intelligence 91

Emotional Intelligence Sales Sales Training Organization 91

Upland

MARCH 23, 2023

Having trouble setting accurate sales forecasts or seeing close dates consistently sandbagged to next quarter? You might have a relationship problem. Forecast calls around the world follow a familiar structure. Regardless of the size of your company, the sales leader gathers sellers and runs them through the standard set of questions. These usually include: What’s the latest update?

Account Planning 195

Account Planning Sales Decision-making Sales Environment 195

Sales Readiness Group

MARCH 22, 2023

Hiring and onboarding new sales hires can be extremely challenging especially for sales managers who lead, manage, and coach an existing sales team. Focus on these five factors to increase your odds of success with new sales hires.

Onboarding 127

Onboarding Sales Sales Management Management 127

The SAMA Podcast

MARCH 19, 2023

There are a lot of nuances in industries. Yet engaging with your most strategic customers is the same across the board despite these nuances, and that's the beauty of the Strategic Account Manager. SAMA's Certified Strategic Account Manager (CSAM) program represents the highest mark of achievement when it comes to professional development for strategic and key account managers.

Account Management 104

Account Management Key Account Management Management 104

Customer Think

MARCH 22, 2023

Renowned architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist Buckminster Fuller said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” So what happens to a business or brand that can’t react to a changing model or environment?

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RAIN Group

MARCH 22, 2023

One of the first things sellers learn is to keep it simple. Yet when it comes to a particularly hot topic in our industry, sales leaders do anything but. Rather than apply the K-I-S-S principle to sales productivity, many leaders instead turn to technology, tracking, and top-down governance.

Government 115

Government Sales 115

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

Sales Readiness Group

MARCH 20, 2023

Many sales managers debate which is better — hiring for industry experience or hiring the “best athlete” (someone with limited industry experience and exceptional selling skills).

Sales 118

Sales Sales Management Management 118

The Center for Sales Strategy

MARCH 20, 2023

The digital revolution has changed how businesses operate, and the sales industry is no exception. In order to stay ahead of the competition, companies must deploy the latest sales tech stack to maximize their opportunities. A comprehensive guide to leveraging sales tech stack can help companies identify the most suitable technology for their business and unlock bigger opportunities.

Sales 96

Sales Digitalization 96

Customer Think

MARCH 20, 2023

Introduction The United States outsourcing statistics show that American corporations routinely send customer service and IT jobs offshore, where they can get the same outcomes for a fraction of the cost. Outsourcing is assigning internal business functions, workflows, or processes to an external company (third-party contractors or vendors) to increase efficiency & productivity.

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Zendesk

MARCH 20, 2023

The retail industry is under enormous pressure to change. Over the past few years, shoppers have moved from in-store to online and are now somewhere in between. And they expect the same level of excellent service on every shopping channel (even emerging ones like live-stream commerce). What does this mean for retailers? It’s no longer enough to offer great products.

Retail 98

Retail Customer Experience 98

Advertisement

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

Sales Gravy

MARCH 20, 2023

On this episode of the Sales Gravy Podcast, Jeb Blount sits down with celebrity chef and entrepreneur Vera Stewart, to learn how persistence and a "never take no for an answer" mindset help her build a business empire. Southern Home Cook Turned Nationally Recognized Celebrity Chef Vera’s entrepreneurial journey started back in her undergrad days, baking cakes and pies for her chemistry professor just to get a passing grade.

Advertising 91

Advertising Innovation Meetings Marketing 91

The Center for Sales Strategy

MARCH 22, 2023

Many organizations rely on sophisticated sales tools to automate sales activities, manage sales pipelines, communicate better with leads, close more deals, and improve their sales team’s performance. That said, some businesses still struggle with adopting software for sales. The reasons vary, but most of the time, it’s due to a disconnect between their AE’s and these innovative sales technologies.

Sales 92

Sales Innovation Sales Technology Software 92

Hubspot Sales

MARCH 22, 2023

Consulting, as a career, usually involves working with people to bring their ideas to life and guide them in the right direction. The success of many businesses hinges on how good their consultant is. These companies don’t make their consulting decisions lightly. If you’re a consultant looking for new opportunities, you should be actively networking.

Decision-making 88

Decision-making Media Brainstorming Meetings 88

Customer Think

MARCH 20, 2023

Customers spend their money on businesses that give them the value and attention they need. Satisfied customers are the cornerstone of repeat business, and one key to keep them coming back is maintaining regular communication. You’ve got to stay top of mind, and build that relationship.

Communication 87

Communication 87

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

QYMATIX

MARCH 21, 2023

Regular sales reporting is an important tool for sales planning, controlling and monitoring. In this regard, it is essential to reduce the effort of sales reporting to a minimum, while still reporting meaningful Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for the sales team and management. Sales reporting brings together subjective sales indicators from key account managers about their sales activities with the results of their particular customer contacts.

B2B 97

B2B Key Account Management Sales Profitability 97

The Center for Sales Strategy

MARCH 23, 2023

Most salespeople prepare very carefully for every client interaction. Your preparation will dictate whether you are granted face time for that first appointment (and subsequent appointments), and it will dictate how much information you are allowed to gather in a needs analysis meeting. But the nature of sales often leads us to focus on our own objectives when preparing; we want the appointment, or we want to learn about a specific objective a client might have that we know can translate into a

Meetings 80

Meetings Sales 80

Force Management

MARCH 23, 2023

Sometimes change comes in the form of a tidal wave: immediate, dramatic, and undeniable. More often, change happens slowly and steadily: hard to perceive until we’ve drifted so far from the shore that we can’t see where we started. Whether you’re trying to minimize “drift” that’s occurred within your sales organization over time or respond to the immediate impact of the turbulent economic environment, ensure you’re focusing on crucial aspects that enable your team to succeed.

Sales 63

Sales Organization Sales Leadership Leadership 63

Customer Think

MARCH 22, 2023

Source: Kogan Page Most marketers will readily acknowledge that effectively using metrics, analytics, and data has become critically important to successful marketing. Companies can now access a huge amount of data regarding the behavior.

Marketing 78

Marketing Digitalization 78

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.

Negotiation

Jeb Blout

MARCH 23, 2023

You landed the first appointment, conducted good discovery, developed relationships with stakeholders, and advanced your opportunity step by step through the pipeline and now it is time to present your sales proposal. The moment of truth. Sometimes you’ll only get one shot to stand out and close the deal so you need to make it count. The Power of an Effective Sales Proposal An effective sales proposal presents a compelling business case for why your product or service is the best solution

Value Proposition 59

Value Proposition Sales Decision-making Stakeholders 59

Showpad

MARCH 21, 2023

It’s likely your organization has access to plenty of meaningful analytics that can provide critical insights into your business, customers and competitors. But do you apply your data findings to make insight-driven decisions ? When you don’t act on your data, you waste resources, miss revenue opportunities and decrease profitability. Yet many businesses continue to let data sit idly by without taking action.

Decision-making 59

Decision-making Profitability Organization Marketing 59

Zendesk

MARCH 24, 2023

Reducing customer service costs while still providing a five-star customer experience doesn’t happen by magic. Find out how tailoring your customer service into tiers can solve this challenge. The post How to cut digital customer service costs in financial services appeared first on Zendesk.

Financial Services 52

Financial Services Digitalization Customer Experience 52

Customer Think

MARCH 20, 2023

Picture this: you’re at a cute new boutique and you’ve found the perfect gift for your best friend. You go to pay and it’s cash-only – and you don’t have cash. There’s an ATM just outside but it doesn’t look secure. So you put the gift back.

Digitalization 69

Digitalization Marketing 69

Advertiser: ZoomInfo

In times of economic uncertainty, account-based strategies are essential. According to several business analysts and practitioners, ABM is a necessity for creating more predictable revenue. Research shows that nearly three-quarters of marketers (74%) already have the resources needed to build successful ABM programs.

Marketing

ACT

MARCH 22, 2023

Startups play a crucial role in economic growth and prosperity. In 2020, the global startup economy created nearly $3 trillion in value. From encouraging tech innovation to creating new employment opportunities, startups are a key pillar of modern society. Nevertheless, running a startup is like completing an obstacle course. From limited workforce to cash flow restrictions, most founders find their paths filled with roadblocks.

CRM 52

CRM Marketing Small Business Facilitation 52

AchieveIt

MARCH 22, 2023

Corporate strategic planning is essential to businesses and one of the basics of a business plan. It allows you to proceed toward your objectives with direction and focus. However, setting strategic goals is more complex than writing them down during a board meeting. The process requires careful evaluation and analysis to garner the best business results.

Software 52

Software Software Communication Organization 52

Zendesk

MARCH 24, 2023

Financial services are at a pivotal point in the industry. The meteoric rise of NFTs and cryptocurrency has given way to rumblings of a pending recession, with the collapse of several notable banks in recent months. As we emerge from the pandemic, some things haven’t changed: virtual work is the new normal. Many employees are still remote, and customers expect to connect with your company on their mobile devices.

Financial Services 52

Financial Services Banking Customer Experience Media 52

Customer Think

MARCH 22, 2023

Have you ever considered owning a trailer rental business? If you’re someone who loves to drive and has a passion for entrepreneurship, starting a trailer rental business can be a profitable venture. With the right strategy and planning, you can earn a good income while being your own boss.

Profitability 64

Profitability 64

Advertisement

Contact and company intent data both have their advantages. Contact-level intent leads can be acted on immediately to reach active buyers, while company-level leads improve outcomes for account-based marketing and other programs. This infographic unpacks the advantages of both contact and company data and gives details about how B2B marketers can benefit from both.

B2B