When in search of the lighter side of the sales profession, it strikes me that the list of funny sales movies is awfully short. There are lots of creative works about the dark side of selling, “Death of a Salesman” being the most obvious example. The humorous side of selling just doesn’t get as much … Continue reading
What will be the next big thing in CRM? If you’ve used CRM solutions for any time at all, you know that automation, lead scoring and a few other innovations have been the “big news” for a few years. So, what’s going to be the next breakthrough CRM tech? There are a lot of theories! … Continue reading
Inbound marketing and leads coming in through your website are great! If done well, these can be among the most qualified and “hot” leads you can get. However, for B2B marketers and salespeople, frequently the person that visits your site is not the actual decision maker. Often the lead is a lower level staff member … Continue reading
Do you have a lead nurturing plan? Are you leaving that up to your salespeople to manage? Every sales manager knows that sales people very commonly have a tough time managing to follow up consistently with active customers and leads. If you’re expecting them to also keep in touch with cold leads, you’re asking them … Continue reading
If you’re not measuring sales engagement with customers using your CRM, then your speeches and slogans about the desire to create a compelling customer experience and build lasting relationships with customers by focusing on customer service are worthless. It’s not going to happen without holding the sales team accountable to specific measurement of the depth … Continue reading
A recently published study of email marketing subject lines points out the importance of using email analytics like open and click rates to optimize emails. The study illuminates some very counter-intuitive email marketing tips. Without analysis of email analytics, there’s no way most people could pick up on these tactics, except possibly by blind luck. … Continue reading
Can inside salespeople replace your outside salespeople? Sales is changing, undoubtedly. Thought leaders like Justin Roff-Marsh assert that field sales is dead. Here’s a fascinating webinar where Justin argues that the “sales” function can be moved inside with a smaller contingent of sales engineers for on-site visits, coordinated by the inside team. There’s no doubt … Continue reading
Getting salespeople to make their prospecting calls and getting salespeople to use the CRM are probably the two of the biggest challenges faced by a sales leader/manager. Ironically, the two objectives go hand in hand. You can’t reach your sales goals without consistent prospecting, and you can’t be sure that the prospecting calls are getting … Continue reading
It’s easy for salespeople to see themselves as the conduit for all information instead of the sales CRM, marketing messages and other sources. It’s almost impossible for a salesperson to fully appreciate how much information the customer is presented with online and how that “colors” their perspective. Retargeting is a relatively new trend that has … Continue reading
Is your CRM solution able to clearly break down the numbers that drive your marketing and sales funnel? “Sales is a numbers game.” is true. Sales performance is ultimately measured in actual sales numbers but, the meaning of the cliche is different. Winning at sales is about understanding the other numbers that drive sales results … Continue reading