Building the B2B Customer Reference Community –

In my years in selling in the corporate world, I tended to run into a consistent issue – big clients would rarely, if ever, allow me (or the company I worked for) to be quoted publicly that they were our client. One time, I nearly lost a multi-million dollar contract with a very big airplane manufacturer because some low-level person in our company DID get quoted in a newspaper about the business relationship. That person did not understand that it was in our contract to not divulge information about our relationship.
I also knew little about the power of a white paper back then, or what one can do beyond simple endorsements and testimonials.
A lot has changed. Now there is community and conversations all around the topic of Customer… continue reading

Can Your Company Create a Sales Influencer?

It is exciting to announce the first of a series of roundtable conversations on what a sales influencer is. This is important because:
1) What company or brand doesn’t want to have a sales influencer on board?
2) Think of the possibilities within your company and beyond once this becomes part of your title
3) Any strategy that helps you differentiate from being just a vendor is a good thing, right?
Just like building relationships in person or through on-line social means, this does not happen overnight. How can you position yourself and what steps can you work toward to make this happen?
I’ll be moderating a panel of Sales Influencers on Thursday, March 29 at Focus. Come listen to Jill Konrath, (Speaker and Top Selling Sales Author), Jonathan Farrington,(CEO/Chairman… continue reading

Looking for Women B2B Sales Lead Generation Experts!

Are you a woman in the lead gen business in B2B selling? Do you work at the front end of the sales cycle generating hundreds or thousands of leads over time for your company (or companies)?  There is a search going on for the Top 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management.  Are you a man who knows of a woman colleague, client, or partner who should be nominated?
See Sales Expert Jill Konrath’s video message about it.
This is time-sensitive. You must make your nomination or nominate yourself right away.
I am flattered to have been nominated for this recognition – and would like to learn of more women involved in CRM, prospecting, lead identification, and inside sales in general.
See the nominations so far, and help get… continue reading

How Setting Next Actions Consistently Help Buyers Buy...

We recently posted in our newsletter about 3 tips to close more deals. The third tip talked about setting next actions. Specifically,
Determine and set a next action. Before you make in-person or phone contact, decide what you and the buyer (prospect) are going to do next. Convey that to the prospect, with their agreement, so they understand what is going to happen next. Set a time to get back in contact and specify when (date and time), what are you going to talk about, how (phone, in-person), and the purpose. This is a great way to end a conversation. Everyone leaves with clear understanding.
A reader wrote in and said: The “key words where I believe most of us get hung up on is ‘the purpose’ of the call back… continue reading

Sales Tools You Can Win That Will Grow Your Business...

Want to become your sales manager’s new favorite rep? Time is almost up to enter the Smart Selling Tools Sales Software Sweepstakes. For entering, you can win one of three grand prize packages for your company -
- Revenue Maximizer Prize
- Deal Closer Prize
- Opportunity Creator Prize
No purchase needed to enter, but the Sweepstakes ends on March 31st.  Score More Sales is not affiliated with this site or the companies offering prizes in any way – we just love the idea of you getting a $25K – $40K sales software prize package to help improve your sales process or streamline operations for your sales team. We also like and trust many of the sales tools in the prize packages: Front Row Solutions, ePrize, Qvidian, DocuSign, OneSource, and… continue reading

The 4 People in Your Sales Pipeline You Must Know

In order to be most productive with the  sales opportunities in your pipeline there are a number of people you need to know well. These people affect your chances of bringing deals to closure every day. Since a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, you may have 3 of these people covered, but that fourth one is going to do you in. You’re done in by lost sales, missed opportunities, misaligned goals, and “no’s” toward the end of a prospective customer’s long buying cycle.
Who are these people? Some are obvious. All are important.
1. Your prospect. We start with the obvious first. What is not obvious is all the detail you need to understand about your prospective customer’s world so that you have a real opportunity… continue reading

Book Review of High Profit Selling by Mark Hunter

In a world with tens of thousands of sales books, is there room for one more? After reading Mark Hunter’s new book, I say a loud “YES!”. Here’s why:
Mark is from the trenches. He has talked with thousands and thousands of sales leaders and sales people over the past 14 years on how to maximize profits and grow revenues. As a very generous blogger, he’s shared many of these tips, strategies and ideas over time. Instead of scouring the web, now you can find a wide range of topics all relating to growing profit in your sales business in one place – from within High Profit Selling.
There are 15 chapters in the book. It begins with some real basics on profitability  - and is worth reading just for… continue reading

The Top 2 Sales Tips to Leverage the People in Your...

Contacts are data, and people are real. Who these people are needs to be sorted out and organized, hence the need for a CRM, Social CRM, or other contact system.
Without recommending one platform or another specifically, we urge you to have one place where all of your contacts are – prospects, clients, former clients, vendors, and strategic referrers. We will let you choose whether you invest in a full-blown system which has features to incorporate your full marketing strategy, including web lead capture – or you start by enhancing your email system with social information and notifications. The fact is that it is getting harder  for a seller to keep track of contacts due to so many social channels plus traditional ones.
“With the advent of social networking, we… continue reading

Of Value Propositions and Elevator Pitches for B2B

IMAGE CREDIT: EASYCOMMS PLUS

Recently I spoke with OpenView Venture Partners Managing Director Brian Zimmerman about the importance of having a strong value proposition as you build your company. Listen to the audio.
Too many sales managers assume that their reps are all on the same page, when in fact many are sharing fractured pieces of the value their company brings. They have a slanted point of view, based on what they sell, who they talk to and what their prospects tell them. It is critically important to do regular mini-sessions as a team to get your entire team – inside sales and outbound sales – with clear written and conversational communication about the business value they can bring to prospective client companies.
Think of it more as a quarterly… continue reading

5 Tips for Lead Nurturing to Grow Your Sales Funnel

As a seller you are working hard to create a full pipeline (funnel) and now that you have all of these companies and some actual sales opportunities on your radar, how will you bring them to closure?
Here are 5 tips to help you gain and nurture more sales opportunities:

Re-educate yourself and all that you know about selling. Start by reading about the Buyer Experience Funnel and how the buyer’s process has changed to being nearly unrecognizable by old school sellers. Ardath Albee of Marketing Interactions has written a four-part series called, Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum where she talks about the BEF and the very fluid content marketing continuum. She is one of the smartest people I know on the topic, and anything she writes is worth… continue reading