Barbara Giamanco, one of the first evangelists of leveraging social media in sales, wakes you up to the reality of selling in today's digitally driven marketplace. Buyer behavior has changed with CEB reporting that customers do early stage research on products, people and companies 57% of the time before engaging sales. This shift in buyer behavior and expectations heightens the need for salespeople to implement a social selling strategy to achieve measurable results. The problem is that many sellers are using social selling tactics to short-cut the selling process leading to wasted time and no solid ROI.

Are your salespeople standing out in a crowded marketplace? Do they know how to differentiate on value or do they rely on discounting to close sales? In the quest to discover value as defined by the customer, salespeople diligently ask the customer questions to identify a need they are trying to solve! All salespeople know this, so they come up with the same list of needs and therefore the same expected solutions.

How well are your B2B organization’s sales and marketing behaviors, practices and processes reliably and sustainably producing required outcomes? Are you mired in chaos, spending lots of time getting little done? Are you like most companies, achieving just average results and not knowing why? Or are you among the few that are kickin’ it?

A recent study asked sales leaders to name the top challenges holding their organizations back. The number one answer?  An inability to cut the time it takes new salespeople to close their first deals.

As social networks like LinkedIn have continued to grow, leveraging them to increase sales leads has become increasingly popular. It even launched the term "Social Selling". The practice involves two primary activities: 1.  Outbound Prospecting - Using a "database" of connections to find and connect with ideal prospects via introductions, referrals and research. 2.  Inbound Marketing  - Content-related engagement by salespeople in cooperation with their company’s Marketing department.

It is an oddity of behavioral psychology that it’s a smart business strategy to let sales reps self-select some of their goals, yet not so smart to let them determine whether they receive cash or non-cash rewards for reaching those goals. Simply put, we don’t always understand what motivates us most effectively.

A significant reason managers don’t coach their people is that there’s no obvious WIIFM. Sure, the person they coach improves in engagement, productivity and impact, so the organization benefits too. But for the manager, coaching can feel like just another obligation. By understanding the Drama Triangle, managers can reach that aha! moment where they realize how being more coach-like can help them work less hard and have more impact.

According to research done by the Bridge Group, annual turnover in sales positions ranges from 20% to 34%. A recent study by the Society of Human Resource Management estimates that every time a business replaces an employee, it can cost, on average, 6 to 9 months' salary. This means that for a sales representative making $40,000 a year, it might cost $20,000 to $30,000 in recruiting and training expenses to replace them if or when they leave.

Learning leaders have so many choices on how to deliver on the strategic promise of a learning organization, but there's so little time. Making these choices mean the difference between a growing, high-performance organization and one that struggles with the skill gaps that erode competitive value proposition.

Strategic account planning. It’s an annual exercise, right? A time-drain that produces a document that barely gets used and adds no value.

In his new book, Blindspots: The Hidden Killer of Sales Coaching, sales coach, trainer and author (The Funnel Principle) Mark Sellers exposes a universal problem facing sales leaders - they all have blindspots.  The fundamental problem with blindspots is they prevent leaders from creating emotional connections.  As a result, leaders don’t get everything their people have to give, and performance and results are compromised. 

Hiring right has always been important, especially for sales roles, which are like the Olympic athletes of business or corporate astronauts (they need to have "the right stuff"). Right now, this is even more true than it usually is, and even more important that your new sales hires can sell (possibly remotely, for a while) and deliver the results you need.

The first step in creating top sales coaches is recognizing that most sales managers do not invest enough time coaching their salespeople.  And worse, when they do coach their sales team, they often focus on short-term results rather than mid-to-long-term development.  Top performing sales managers spend at least 50% of their time coaching salespeople and do so in a consistent, structured fashion that drives individual improvement for each team member.  

Enterprise sales teams that can adapt and respond quickly to changing needs and trends will be well positioned to stay one step ahead of the competition. This involves agile sales enablement training with content that is fresh, accessible and measurable.  

Gamification begins with the effect of human psychology on performance and illustrates the many ways to use behavior to build a better workplace culture.

Join this session to discover best practices for scaling training with video and how to implement them. We'll cover tried and true strategies that Panopto customers like Qualcomm, Synaptics, Perkins Coie LLP, and others continue to use to successfully meet the growing demand for sales, compliance, and IL trainings. At the end of the session, you'll leave with five, low-cost, high-impact, key strategies you can implement to scale and increase the effective use of on-demand video learning across your organization.

Did you know that only 1 in 4 North Americans views salespeople as credible in what they say and do? Almost every sales organization attempts to qualify prospects, but they should be giving equal consideration to how buyers qualify (or disqualify) them. It's much more than just price and product.

Be in on the discussion as The Bob Pike Group and companies all around the world prepare for a return to classroom F2F training. We’ve heard from clients and brainstormed our own solutions to make classrooms safe and attendees comfortable. This is your chance to grab tested ideas and also share what people expect in your workplace or industry as we all figure new normal out together.

How many sales are lost to the competition because they got to the real decision-maker first? How many sales stall because salespeople get stuck with individuals who ‘recommend’ but cannot ‘decide’? Probably more times than salespeople or their sales managers’ like to admit! 

The days when a salesperson could close a sale with a "feature dump" presentation and win the sale are long gone. Unfortunately, many salespeople don’t know there is an alternative. They know they need to talk about "value" but how to do so isn’t as obvious.

Persona-based marketing has been used for decades to help craft targeted promotions and messages that appeal to prospects. Personas have a role in sales and marketing webinars as well, but they are often misused, resulting in diminished effectiveness and persuasiveness of your message.

New data privacy laws. Headlines about layoffs and economic turmoil. Distracted prospects.  You can overcome each challenge and generate qualified leads for sales if you leverage the latest, most effective marketing trends.   

Businesses need to have a successful post-purchase experience that drives product-led growth, creates new value streams, and in turn reduces churn. However, to achieve true customer growth, a differentiated customer experience mapped to the post-purchase journey is essential. Learning plays a critical role in augmenting this experience. A self-service model for learning that helps the customer acquire product knowledge to unlock more value helps foster retention, increase loyalty and transform customers into advocates.

The pundits predict a slowing economy in 2024. What does that mean for you and your sales team? Are you concerned about how to lead your team to success?