We know that the state of sales has significantly changed over the past few weeks. Many of you are now working remotely, face-to-face meetings are no longer an option, and you likely have a close eye on the economy. This environment makes it challenging for many reps to engage with customers and maintain productivity. Sales leaders are, in turn, making complex decisions to navigate this unprecedented time — to keep their workforces and communities safe, while also moving their businesses forward. To discuss pathways forward for sales orgs in these uncertain times, L ..read more

As we’ve written here before, intent data is one of the most promising frontiers for B2B sales and marketing. Focused on identifying online behavior signals that are indicative of purchase motivations (even in the earliest stages), intent data holds the key to meeting buyers where they are and delivering truly relevant and welcomed outreach. It’s fair to say many companies across the world are in a state of flux. For the past couple weeks, business leaders have sought to help their teams acclimate and adapt to a new reality. Now, as we settle into this altered norm, the ..read more

Each Monday on this blog, we run a “This Week’s Big Deal” column, which aggregates and analyzes the most prominent trending topics of the moment in sales. Now, and for the foreseeable future, one topic overshadows all others: adapting and adjusting in the midst of a global pandemic response. It is the very definition of a big deal. The implications of this event are deep and wide-reaching, and we as a society are only beginning to wrap our brains around them. (LinkedIn has created a resource hub to help you navigate this crisis).   Our goal on this blog is to help r ..read more

This guest post was contributed by Julie Thomas, CEO of ValueSelling Associates. A sales process doesn’t work unless you work it. Easier said than done, especially in these challenging times. The amount of time that salespeople spend actually selling has been decreasing consistently since I started selling 25 years ago. Research validates this, showing that salespeople are not as productive as they could be. LinkedIn’s State of Sales report found that salespeople spend only 37.67% of their time selling. One of the primary drivers of this troubling statistic is the a ..read more

Have you ever kept failing at something when it felt like you should be winning? It’s maddening.  Golf comes to mind. Sometimes your whole swing feels perfect – the target is aligned, everything about the swing is smooth – yet the result is consistently awful. Then someone finally, thankfully, points out that your poor grip is what’s causing you to push every shot.  While no one enjoys hearing about their bad habits, each revelation comes with inherent hope. In the case of our golf swing, a bad habit was identified so that a good habit – a new club-gripping routine ..read more

Without a conversation, there’s no conversion. Salespeople have long set their sights on winning the deal. These days, we should really be focused on sparking the dialogue. In a highly competitive and buyer-controlled digital marketplace, reaching the point of engaging in a quality conversation is an accomplishment unto itself. Treating it as such can dramatically improve our ability to earn trust and build relationships. Think about it: If a seller’s primary goal during outreach is merely to open up a back-and-forth discussion, rather than pitching or prying or pro ..read more

We’re all trying to figure out how to maneuver through unprecedented change by understanding how to navigate work and the coronavirus. Although many of you might be spending less time (or no time) in an office and it might be harder (or not possible at all) to get face-time with customers, we know that business continues.  Whether it’s coronavirus or uncertainty of the economic environment, right now it’s not easy and there are a lot of questions. In connecting with you  and other people in sales, we’ve heard some common questions centered on how to stay: Connected ..read more

Most business trends are easy to see. In fact, they’re often impossible to miss, repeated ad nauseum by managers and executives obsessing over the next best practice. Unfortunately, if a trend is obvious, it probably won’t provide a competitive advantage, and it might not even be all that meaningful. That’s why we’ve always appreciated the premise behind Rohit Bhargava’s long-running “Non-Obvious” series, which seeks to surface the most noteworthy undercurrents in the business world that are escaping the mainstream radar. Now, he’s gathered all of his best learnings ..read more

A force multiplier isn't just a fancy-sounding term salespeople use to describe their solutions. Defined as something that allows you to get more done with the same or less effort (like switching from a screwdriver to a power drill), force multipliers can be critical to business survival.  Today, most companies have a dedicated sales ops team because, as SiriusDecisions notes, the sales ops team serves as a force multiplier for the sales team by acting as the critical link between the development of key sales strategies and their execution.  When you consider that t ..read more

90% of decision makers say they never respond to cold outreach. And, of those, only 28% engage in conversations. 77% of buyers won’t even engage salespeople who can’t provide insights about their business. These are just a few of the statistics that indicate that traditional sales tactics are losing their efficacy. In contrast, research indicates that modern sellers gain 57% higher ROI than their traditional counterparts. One modern selling technique, multi-threading, leads to 34% higher win rates for new business development. 84% of B2B decision makers begin their buyi ..read more