SBI Growth
JULY 21, 2013
'The sales field is suffering. Customers are suffering. Sales forces lack buyer-centered tools for success. When will Sales catch up with Marketing? Sales field alignment with the modern day buyer requires more than lip service. This blog is focused on the transformation of Sales to incorporate buyer-centered tools. CMO’s can help sales make the number in 2014.
MTD Sales Training
OCTOBER 8, 2013
'I’ve had the privilege of working with many salespeople in my career and have seen a great number of successes gained by these highly-prized professionals. Sometimes, I’m asked what makes. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].
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Jeffrey Gitomer
FEBRUARY 19, 2013
Tweet Make a sale – that’s the easy part. Now comes the hard part: Doing everything else. Making the sale is not just the money and the victory. It’s also the foundation for a relationship – as long as the rest of the process flows as you have sold it. Here are the “beyond the sale” elements than make a relationship probable: Deliver. After a sale there is an expectation for delivery.
SBI
SEPTEMBER 25, 2013
'$44 Billion. That’s the amount of money that companies collectively spent on Content Marketing in 2012 [1]. According to recently published research from MarketingSherpa’s 2012 Lead Generation Benchmark Report, “the creation and distribution of unique, engaging content is becoming increasingly critical to the success of any online outreach program.” [2].
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.
SBI Growth
APRIL 27, 2013
'Read on to learn if your Reps today are right for the future. This post is especially for HR Leaders and Business Partners in support of sales. Sales personnel will also benefit from the indicators of obsolescence. These are available in the downloadable tool: The 13 Symptoms of Sales Rep Obsolescence. The Problem: The buying environment has dramatically changed.
SBI Growth
FEBRUARY 3, 2013
You don’t want a new job. You want to excel at the job you already have. To do that, you must outperform your peers and close more deals. So your success tomorrow depends upon your pipeline today. In today’s environment, a quality pipeline starts with LinkedIn. This post describes the Social Seller's strategy to grow their prospect list through LinkedIn.
Strategic Accounts Today brings together the best content for strategic account managers from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
SBI Growth
AUGUST 7, 2013
'Not all “A” Player sales reps were meant to be managers. If you’ve been in sales long enough, you’ve seen this mistake unfold. The newly promoted manager repeats behavior that made him successful as a rep. He neglects his skill development and sales initiatives. His team flounders. He tries to do it himself. Before the year is over, he’s back in the field or on the street.
SBI Growth
JANUARY 12, 2013
As the head of sales you can become overwhelmed with technology options. With limited time, how do you prioritize initiatives? We will discuss how your sales organization can prepare to utilize technology effectively. Many sales organizations are using new technology to automate broken processes. Why? They are looking for a quick fix. This leads to a lack of faith in the technology.
SBI Growth
MARCH 11, 2013
In B2B corporate environments, Social Selling gets a Sales Rep’s foot in the door. But the transition from a virtual conversation to a real opportunity is complex. During this transition, Reps are met with a wall of bureaucratic process and resistance. This article is for B2B Sales Reps who work in complex sales environments. I discuss how these Reps align themselves with the Buyer’s process to be successful.
SBI Growth
JANUARY 28, 2013
Your fiscal year just came to an end. Your top rep walked into your office, collected his commission check and resigned. He contributed 20% of your new revenue number last year. It was twice your next best producer. He made more money than your sales leader. He hit the top commission rate. Yet, he left. Why did you lose your top rep? Here’s a secret: It’s not all about the money.
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
SBI Growth
JANUARY 17, 2013
Recent enhancements to LinkedIn’s social network should be leveraged to generate leads. The new LinkedIn user profile offering is one of many recent enhancements. Engaging with these enhancements will drive Demand Generation. Sales teams know that social selling on LinkedIn will help make their number. The Marketing team can help support sales rep social sellers by growing their own networks.
SBI Growth
OCTOBER 1, 2013
'The Holy Grail of 2014 Planning: Marketing Contribution as a % of Total Revenue. 2013 is the last year executives accepted activity-level results from marketing. CEO''s don’t accept activity reports from Sales leaders without revenue results. Expectations of marketing accountability have increased to the level expected of sales performance. It’s easy to get caught up in reporting activity and miss the big picture.
SBI Growth
SEPTEMBER 11, 2013
'Gaining B2B prospects via LinkedIn referrals is the best way to succeed in 2014. Hands down. Don’t waste time on cold calls with a 1-3% appointment success rate (AAISP, 2012). Think investing in email blasts is better? Slightly better maybe, but still an unimpressive 4.4% open rate (Google, 2013). Still not convinced? Read the 3 Reasons why you aren’t getting enough quality referrals.
SBI Growth
JUNE 12, 2013
'Below is a letter of resignation. It was submitted by the head of sales at a client company of mine. If you have ever wondered “ why did the sales manager quit? ” this might be informative. I think the reasons this sales manager quit are typical, unfortunately. Replacing a sales manager takes lots of time and effort. You need to build a profile, conduct a search, perform interviews, on board, etc.
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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.
SBI Growth
MAY 30, 2013
'80% of CEO’s believe their brand provides a superior customer experience. Only 8% of their customers agree. -Bain & Co. CEOs have a problem. As a Sales Ops leader, you can help. Ease of doing business with your sales team is the linchpin of B2B customer experience. Sales reps are the face of the organization. Most often, however, they are shackled by internal processes that are time killers.
SBI Growth
AUGUST 14, 2013
'It’s getting harder for your sales reps to get at bats these days. It didn’t used to be that way. Not long ago, you could cold call and email your way to appointments. Now, it seems you have to fight to get into every deal. As a result, your sales team is missing out on revenue opportunities. Signs this is happening to you are: Customers and prospects are declining meeting requests.
SBI Growth
JANUARY 16, 2013
The market is changing. The Social Seller is replacing the traditional prospector. Gone are the days with four hour time blocks to dial for dollars. Successful Reps now spend their four hours taping into social networks to win business. Why? Because Buyers spend more time online, gathered around their social networks. Today's Buyer finds influence in Twitter and LinkedIn, not their email or voicemail.
SBI Growth
JANUARY 8, 2013
Why do my customers buy? What drives their buying behavior? When do they make their decision to purchase? These questions are the Holy Grail of sales and marketing. Answer them and you’re on your way to a great year. For the marketing leader struggling to produce leads , mapping the buyer’s journey is priority #1. A Buyer Process Map will focus your marketing efforts for maximum demand generation.
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.
SBI Growth
JANUARY 31, 2013
I’ll send an SOS to the world. I’ll send an SOS to the world. I hope that someone gets my. Message in a bottle. Sting (Song: Message in a Bottle). Does your messaging strategy feel more like an SOS strategy? Is it a strategy built on hope? We have all been there. Your team has developed a messaging strategy. You exit the meeting with a plan to move forward.
SBI Growth
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
As a Marketing Leader, you pay attention to the competition’s marketing and lead generation tactics. But how close of an eye do you have on them? Do you actively monitor and research? Most of you are nodding your head yes. Let’s dig deeper. Are you monitoring how the buyer is interacting with the competition? This is often overlooked. I’ll offer a tool to help you identify competitive gaps across many areas.
SBI Growth
SEPTEMBER 28, 2013
'A recent study by CEO.com shows that 70% of Fortune 500 CEO’s are not on Social Media. LinkedIn, the leading social network for business professionals, shows an 11% growth rate in CEO presence. This is by far the greatest CEO presence of all social platforms. Ignore this trend, and run the risk of being left behind by your peers. In addition, 45% of all LinkedIn users can make a business decision.
SBI Growth
MAY 26, 2013
'My professional life is focused solely on helping the VP-Sales “Make the Number.” I’m amazed by the continuous misdiagnosis made by Sales Leaders. Sales Leaders often focus their energies on one person – the Account Executive (AE). This is a huge mistake. This article will discuss why your focus needs to extend beyond the AE. At times, other team members are to blame for lost deals.
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.
SBI Growth
AUGUST 16, 2013
'In this post we will discuss Agile Sales. Agile sales is an approach that can help you keep pace with your customers. A few months back I wrote a post about becoming an Agile Sales Leader. Now it is time to make the entire sales organization agile. Let’s start with the definition of agile sales. Agile is not a process! The Agile sales approach places the customer buying experience above everything else.
SBI Growth
APRIL 15, 2013
'You’ve invested in the technology. You’ve trained the entire sales organization. The sales process is finally out in the field. Will your efforts get the best possible return? Rolling out a new sales process is tough work. For Sales Operations, it’s one of the most important projects you’re responsible for. The risk is high because the money and time invested is significant.
SBI Growth
AUGUST 17, 2013
'The need for transformational change is the reason they brought you into the organization. The CEO realized it was time to reinvent the Marketing organization. Whether it’s a newly hired CMO or the annual planning process, this is the time when transformational change is mapped out. The key to marketing transformation is creating a measurable, customer-centric, market-driven organization.
SBI Growth
JULY 14, 2013
'There’s no denying that in sales, talent is a key differentiator. The same goes for pro athletes. The majority of your “A” players are talented. They hold themselves accountable and have the competencies required for success. However, even the most talented will fail if they''re put in the wrong environment. Even the best NFL quarterbacks. Today’s post is about how Sales Ops can create conditions that enable success.
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?
SBI Growth
SEPTEMBER 26, 2013
'This post is written for Marketing Leaders who describe themselves as students of the craft. You are exposed to hundreds of pieces of content a day. You find yourself having no time to figure out what is relevant vs. noise. You are competitive and want to outmaneuver your competitors. Let me net it out for you. These tips represent best practices from leading Sales & Marketing organizations.
SBI Growth
FEBRUARY 21, 2013
To outperform their peers, Social Sellers use LinkedIn as a sales tool. They use their profiles to demonstrate value and build trust with the Buyers. Their LinkedIn profile becomes an integral part of their personal brand. In this article I outline 4 principles of an effective LinkedIn profile. Then I provide a LinkedIn Profile Writing Guide to help perfect your own profile.
SBI Growth
OCTOBER 3, 2013
'Planning for 2014 requires a fresh look at the metrics that will determine success. As noted by my colleague Vince Koehler, Marketing has adopted new capabilities. These capabilities force Marketing to transition to new metrics for determining effectiveness. Similarly, sales reps and managers require a new set of capabilities. Sales Operations must transform its reporting to track these key capabilities.
SBI Growth
DECEMBER 25, 2013
'A top trend in B2B marketing is the adoption of the Marketing Operations role. Not surprising, International Data Corporate (IDC) weighs in this month. On Dec 17 th , IDC released its top 10 predictions for CMOs. Below is the excerpt from their press release. The Top 10 Predictions are: The CMO role becomes "open for definition" as today''s CMO job description becomes considerably more complex and critical.
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Your buyers’ lives, preferences, and expectations have changed. Over two-thirds of buyers prefer remote or digital interactions — and they expect those interactions to be substantive and valuable. They hold sellers to a high standard, and that means the buying experiences of the past — in-person meetings, transactional conversations, and linear sales funnels — no longer deliver.
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