Just as in basketball, the top players on your sales team wouldn’t be able to perform their best without support players backing them up. And, according to research by consulting company McKinsey, about half of the people in top-performing sales teams are in support roles. McKinsey analyzed sales data...
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Hiring the right people for your sales team is critical to your ability to keep your company growing. That’s why sales managers are constantly trying to groom their current team — or hire replacements for underperformers — by analyzing what it takes to be a top-performing sales rep. It appears...
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How’s your pipeline? As you already know, generating high-quality leads is among your top concerns and, sometimes, toughest challenge in B2B sales. And, more than likely, you’re aware of the importance of creating content and building relationships with your customers. But if your results have been sluggish lately, take...
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The B2B marketing strategies that seem to be working for you today could very well completely falter in a couple of tomorrows. With innovative technologies being introduced daily, consumers will continue to change their habits. And you don’t want to be the sales team that’s trying to catch up....
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Using social media to gain traction in B2B sales doesn’t need to be limited to LinkedIn and Facebook. In our last post, we offered 3 of 5 tips to get you started on using Twitter to boost your network. With more than 300 million active monthly users, Twitter can...
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When it comes to using social media for business sales, most people automatically think of LinkedIn and Facebook. If you haven’t already, consider adding Twitter to the mix. Twitter, which has more than 300 million active monthly users, can open the door to plenty of potential contacts, business insights,...
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Creating webinars is a powerful way to stay ahead of the competition in B2B sales. Multiple studies have proven that webinars are effective and more companies than ever are incorporating them into their marketing campaigns. According to a survey from Demand Gen Report, 62 percent of US B2B marketers...
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More than likely, you’re already familiar with most of the business-as-usual B2B sales strategies. Now it’s time to incorporate new digital strategies if you want to keep up with and surpass the competition. Sometimes change is tough; people like using the tactics they are comfortable with. However, with the...
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Are you prepared for the shift from physical to digital in the B2B sales industry? According to a recent Bain & Company survey, only 12 percent of large technology or industrial companies are. Buying and selling cycles are becoming separate entities due to the large amount of information available...
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It’s no surprise that each day more and more consumers of all ages are heading to the Internet to do their shopping. It’s no wonder that B2B buyers are going there too. Actually, 94 percent of B2B buyers are making their purchase decisions after doing research online, according to...
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It’s no secret that most sales reps hate cold calling. It’s probably their least favorite task. Why is it so painful? Here are three common pains that hinder B2B phone prospecting: It’s inefficient. Traditional cold calling takes time, limiting reps to only 47 calls a day, on average. It’s...
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We live in a world where we see plenty of “Blank-as-a-Service” technologies developed for every industry, function, department, etc., and sales is no stranger to its fair share of sales technologies that are designed to help your sales team close faster. While many help alleviate pain in the proposal...
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With technology upending the B2B sales industry, it’s apparent that the one trait all sales reps need is the ability to adapt. Prospective customers have gone rogue for the most part — eliminating the need for a sales rep throughout the majority of the sales process. As a survey...
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When producing content to help your company win sales, more than likely you’re looking to your marketing team to handle the bulk of those responsibilities. Perhaps, you should be looking to your sales team instead. Well, at least, as part of a collaborative effort. According to a study by...
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Whether you adhere to Malcolm Gladwell’s highly touted 10,000-hour rule, believing it’s the key to gaining expertise in any particular area, pretty much everyone can agree that regularly practicing a series of good habits can eventually hand you the tools to be successful. While the 10,000 rule has recently...
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OK, so how’s your pipeline? It’s a question that every sales rep encounters on a regular basis, whether they’re uttering that question to themselves during a moment of self-reflection or they’re hearing it from their manager. Having a healthy pipeline is essential to any successful sales strategy. But just...
Read more![The Mysterious Mind of a Sales Manager [Infographic]](https://i2.wp.com/monsterconnect.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/The-Mysterious-Mind-of-a-Sales-Manager-Infographic.jpg?resize=880%2C470&ssl=1)
Understanding your sales team and how they work is imperative to ensuring you provide them with what they need to succeed. Understanding the mind of a sales manager is even more important. Mindflash created this interesting infographic on the “Mysterious Mind of a Sales Manager”, where they graphically depict the...
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Getting employees to adapt to change always has been a challenge for team leaders and managers. As Harvard Business Review points out, it’s human nature to resist change — with reasons ranging from feelings of inadequacy and uncertainty to loss of control. However, in the sales industry, failure to...
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If you’ve been around in the B2B sales industry for 5 years — or even just a couple — you already know how much the landscape has been changing. Sometimes, it seems new tools, strategies, and techniques are coming so fast they appear to be whizzing by in a...
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Although it obviously has six letters, “change” has a reputation of being a four-letter word in most workplaces. You mention changes to your team in a group huddle, more than likely you’ll see expressions ranging from trepidation to outright rejection. You mention changes to your team in a group...
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With the emergence of so many changes in technology and consumer behavior, the traditional sales model of cold calling surely must be dead. Right? Not necessarily. Approaching prospects at the right time in their buyer’s journey could provide you with an advantage over your competitors. Step one in this...
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Teamwork is one of those terms thrown around frequently in the business industry. We all know it’s important, but how much are we practicing it? And why should we? More successful outcomes should be a good reason for exploring teamwork, according to the Management Study Guide. Research, MSG experts...
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One of the biggest issues sales teams face is the amount of time it takes to connect with a prospect. How many times do I have to call for them to pick up? What about the gatekeeper? Am I trying to reach the right person? These are all questions...
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Taking time to review and revise your sales strategy is always a good investment. Whether you do it at the beginning of the calendar year or fiscal, creating a quantified road map for achieving sales success will help to shorten the distance between you and your sales goals. As...
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It may be hard to believe, but it’s been 80 years since Dale Carnegie originally published the bestselling book “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” For anyone in corporate America at the time — sales teams included, this gem was a must-read. Among other things, Carnegie’s book promised...
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You scored the big deal, the sale you’ve been going hard after for most of the year. Now what? Sure, go ahead and celebrate. But if you haven’t been keeping a healthy amount of attention to sales prospecting — going after opportunities to connect with other qualified prospects, you...
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It’s an unfortunate reality. When it comes to professionals who earn the lowest marks for honesty and ethical conduct, car salespeople continually drop to the bottom of the pile — next to Congressmen, according to a recent Gallup poll. While car salespeople were singled out in the study, a...
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It’s not surprising. As with most industries, the sales industry has changed significantly over the past few years — requiring managers to take a hard look at what it takes to be successful in today’s digitally-driven business environment. Harvard Business Review pointed to this shift a couple of years...
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Chances are you’ve heard it before: Way too much of your sales reps time is devoted — or should we say consumed — by tasks that have absolutely nothing to do with actually engaging with prospects so that they’re getting closer to closing deals. On average, according to the...
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It’s been ages since author John Malloy penned the bestselling book “Dress for Success.” It was back in the ’70s, in fact. With businesses — from tech companies to major corporations — instituting everything from casual Fridays to casual dress codes for every single day of the week, the...
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There is no shortage of available advice on how to network successfully. Most of it, however, tends to focus on tips for best presenting yourself and your product. Presentation is key, but it’s not exclusive. Equal time should be spent developing well-articulated goals for each connection before you shake...
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The benefits of upselling and cross-selling is a no-brainer, especially when you take into account how the practices are working in the ecommerce sector. With automation working on its behalf — showing visitors complementary products for selected purchases, it’s no wonder Amazon has reported that upsells and cross-sells make...
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Ready to increase your sales? Of course, you are. Besides analyzing your marketing strategies, closing techniques, and training of your sales reps, you could get significant gains by putting your presales capabilities under a microscope, according to the Harvard Business Review. In studying companies internationally, HBR came to this...
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Congratulations! You made what seems like a million phone calls to get to this moment — a one-on-one meeting with a qualified sales prospect. Now is not the time to start sweating about the possibility of blowing it. Brush up on your people skills to make sure your first...
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It’s no secret that it’s a constant tug of war between sales and marketing on who owns teleprospecting. Who owns what part of the sales journey? What constitutes a qualified lead? What is the logical progression of a lead-turned-buyer? These are questions that both teams are asking and not...
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Don’t abandon the phone just yet. Apparently, trends are indicating that the shift from field sales to inside sales isn’t letting up in numerous industries. In fact, it could have your sales team reaching for the phone and other virtual tools at an increasing rate. And it looks like...
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Whether you’re hiring new sales reps as part of an expansion or to replace a departing employee, time is of the essence. Every single day that you’re not getting a new employee up to speed, you’re losing dollars. According to a survey by DePaul University, you could stand to...
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With the internet and other technology continuing to revolutionize the way we live, it’s no wonder that the way we do business continues to evolve. And it appears that the sales industry is among those leading the way. According to the U.S. Department of Labor statistics, the industry was...
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We’re all guilty of it: When we’ve spent any time doing something — whether a job or a task, we’re likely to fall into a rut. Suddenly, you’re relying on the same routine to get the job done. It’s no different in the sales field. However, with the digital...
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When it comes to providing resources for our employees, U.S. companies don’t skimp when it comes to training their sales staff. They’re spending a whopping $20 billion a year on sales training, according to the American Society for Training and Development. But another report reveals that these companies are...
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It’s simple mathematics. If your sales reps can accomplish more in less time, you’ve significantly increased their potential to hit or exceed their sales goals. With advances in technology, it’s becoming increasingly possible to make that a reality. With sales enablement tools gaining popularity as one of the ways...
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Quick. Can you explain what your company does in just 2 minutes? 1 minute? 30 seconds? What about the other employees at your company? The marketing team? The sales team? If it’s been awhile since anyone on your team has tested your company’s elevator speech, take a few minutes...
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You’ve heard about the high costs of replacing a valuable employee. When it comes to a core sales rep, the average cost is even higher — $1 million in lost opportunity, productivity, and replacement expenses, according to Salesforce. To make matters worse, it can take another 6 to 12...
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Ever since Jim Collins released the bestseller Good to Great nearly 15 years ago, managers have been borrowing his analogy about “getting the right people on the bus” — to achieve the results that can make a business stellar. Of course, even as Collins further explained in his book,...
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As the old saying goes, time is money. In sales, that means making the most of the 9-, 10- 0r 11-hour workdays your team is putting in every day to hit sales quotas. Rather than putting in an extra hour or two, top-performing teams are investing in strategies to...
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Now that 2016 is drawing near for its turn, salespeople can expect yet another set of challenges — whether they’re simply looking at new sales goals set by management or significant changes within the industry as a result of technology, economics or other external factors. If 2015 is any...
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Technology has changed everything. Inbound. Outbound. Social. Emails. Marketing data. Those are just a few of the ingredients teams are using to come up with a strategy to hit their numbers in this increasingly complex world of sales. Yet, high-tech companies like Google, Yelp, and Groupon used the decades-old...
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Nothing has changed. Picking up the phone to call a prospect is still an effective way to get a qualified lead. Make more of them, and you’re more likely to hit your goals. But, as with any strategy, you need to master it to get great results. For this...
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Depending upon which report you’re relying on, it could take anywhere from 6 to 13 touchpoints (emails, voicemails, meetings, etc.) with a prospect before they’re ready to buy whatever it is that you’re selling. Some sales experts say it can take even more in today’s complex sales and marketing...
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As a sales manager, you’re all too familiar with the daily challenges your team is up against. How about too few hours in the day to tackle all the tasks of required to get a sale — from researching data and following up on emails to making the cold...
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When making sales calls, your team may feel like they’re engaged in an endless game of “Where are you now?” as they try to make a connection with a person who can make a decision. They’re gathering data to make meaningful conversations. They’re checking email. As a matter of...
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You hit the goal, made the basket, scored … whatever analogies you and your sales team use to mark a win, it’s important to remember that the game is never over after a deal has closed. It’s only one more step in the process. Keep your eye on the...
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Plotting your strategy for growth in 2016? Consider implementing (or expanding your use of) sales enablement tools to boost your chances of success. As it turns out, it’s one of the most successful investments a company can make, according to data compiled by the Aberdeen Group. Companies who do...
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As a sales rep, you know when you’re able to make a human connection with a prospect, you’re in a great position to do what you do best — making the case for how your company’s products or services will satisfy a need. But making those connections are becoming...
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If you were to identify one of the most important things that make you successful in the sales industry, it’s this: Increase your volume of sales calls. That’s what author Jeffrey Gitomer points out in the latest revision of his book, “The Sales Bible.” While it’s an old philosophy,...
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When was the last time you really analyzed your sales team’s ability to close a deal — to take it to its final destination? If it’s been a while, it could be time to throw in some training to make your team’s efforts more effective. More closed deals, of...
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If you’ve observed the sales industry for any amount of time – even in the past year or two, you know you’re dealing with a much different prospect than you encountered in the past. With information increasingly available online, with everything from reviews to in-depth tutorials and whitepapers on...
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With the end of 2015 closing in, many companies are positioning themselves for growth in the upcoming year. Chances are you’re among them, and you’re likely considering a strategy that includes expanding your team, investing in technological solutions and tools, and boosting your sales. One area you may or...
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There are many sales enablement technologies and services out in the marketplace today, and appointment setting has been one of the most popular services large sales teams have used over the past two decades. In an effort to cut out cold calling and administrative tasks, this service provides sales...
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As a past COO at an appointment setting company, I faced a variety of challenges with hitting our numbers. Everything from low connections rates to unproductive sales reps to cold calling struggles plagued any and every team I had. Finding and keeping a good team while providing them with...
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We understand that we aren’t the only company that plays in the inside sales and sales acceleration space, but we try to do our best to provide objective material on how our technology compares against our direct and indirect competitors. InsideSales.com – Power Dialer Products: Power Dialer Click to...
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Trying to identify what Salesforce license you should buy can be challenging especially if you are a first time buyer, or moving from an entry level CRM or contact manger.First let’s take a look at the Salesforce.com business model, then we’ll hop in an explore what Sales Cloud edition...
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MonsterConnect is a technology-enabled sales acceleration service providing B2B sales organizations with a consistent stream of live phone connections with decision-making prospects.