As we enter 2022, Covid-19 and uncertainty continue to impact every aspect of incentives. Adaptation, flexibility, and communication will continue to be key as companies weigh their options about bringing employees together, whether it’s opening the office or travelling on an incentive trip. Incentive professionals are called to motivate a changing workforce while corporate goals also continue to change. For the foreseeable future, a remote and hybrid workforce is here to stay. A Mercer survey last May found that 83% of employers will continue to provide flexibility at greater scale post pandemic. Given the importance of recruitment, retention, and engagement, incentive programs will be more important than ever. Dramatic hiring shifts are driving companies to examine how to be even more competitive in the job market, and a robust incentive program is an important part of a company’s full benefits package. According to the IRF’s Industry Outlook for 2022, overall incentive budgets are expected to increase by 34% in 2022, with the per-person spend increasing to $806 from $764 the prior year - although these budgets will need to accommodate price increases resulting from workforce, inventory, and supply chain challenges. Click below to download this important report.

"If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think."  - David Ogilvy David Ogilvy, the famous marketing and sales executive, said it this way, "If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think." Nelson Mandela said it like this: "If you talk to [people] in a language [they] understand, that goes to [their] heads. If you talk to [them] in [their] language, that goes to [their] heart." The ability to communicate—whether to persuade or just to understand—goes beyond using words well; it requires the ability to use words in a way that has meaning for those with whom you are speaking. The ability to talk with someone in his or her native language isn’t just about them understanding you; it’s about you understanding them—their experiences, their thinking, their beliefs, and their values. While definitions lie in words, meaning lies in the people who use them.

Sales Enablement For Marketers If you’re a marketer supporting a sales team, you’ve got a lot on your plate. Sellers are facing one of the most difficult buying landscapes in recent memory—and they need your help. To be effective, you need to align with sales, deliver the best content and other resources that will move deals through the pipeline, and make sure sellers can find and use these resources properly. "Sales enablement has never been more important than it is today." You crank out solution briefs, case studies, videos, blog posts, product guides, and more to support reps' interactions with prospects and help them be productive. You work closely with sales to learn which types of content are working to nurture leads and close deals. You keep your ears open to industry trends and one eye on the company roadmap to anticipate content needs and fill in any gaps. It’s a continuous process of creating and sharing those new materials with reps to allow them to reach customers and sell more effectively. But it can often seem like all your hard work is for naught. You need a better way. Find out how the right sales enablement solution can help you overcome these issues and turn your marketing into an engine that can turbocharge your sales growth for years to come.

In the era of data discovery, analytical power has migrated from the IT department to business users. Surveying over 700 analytics users, Aberdeen set out to understand modern analysts to identify what makes them successful. Among many interesting findings, Aberdeen discovered that modern analysts are 55% more likely to have access to interactive data visualization tools, and 46% more likely to have a data governance solution. Download this report to learn more.

Business leaders look for predictability. They seek insight from mounds of data to get just a glimpse of the future. They demand their sales and marketing executives put the business on the right path to meeting or exceeding sales and margin goals. Sales executives create detailed business plans to identify new opportunities and retain existing customers.  They train sales reps and channel partners on product benefits and teach them to overcome objections. They develop compensation plans aligned with corporate goals to encourage growth. Marketing leaders identify competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. They define buyer personas and construct profiles to ensure the right messages reach the right prospects. They carefully map out every step of the buyer’s journey to know when and how to influence behaviors. All this to increase the likelihood of success, to gain more certainty and predictability. Shouldn’t your sales incentive program work this hard to engage your participants? Knowing how and when to nudge your participants could mean the difference between blowing past your goals and scrambling to explain a disastrous failure. This eBook maps the sales incentive journey which participants embark upon when engaging with a program. We’ve developed it from insights gained during almost 50 years of observing and influencing participants, and it can help put your program on the road to predictable success. Click below to download this eBook.​

The Sales Leader’s Guide, 2023: Mitigate Market Risk and Drive Sustained Revenue in an Uncertain Economy With 2023 around the corner, it’s no secret that rumors of a recession are looming as inflation is at its peak and the market continues to fluctuate. While economic uncertainty is difficult to ignore, what does it mean for sales leaders and businesses? Readjusting expectations and evaluating processes will be a big part of successfully mitigating market risk and driving revenue in an uncertain economy. However, rather than reacting to market conditions, the successful leader will purposely pivot - using strategy, data, and resources efficiently to make better, data-driven decisions for their organization. With employee churn at a high, factors including upskilling and retaining talent, focusing on the quality of conversations, streamlining your tech stack to preserve time and budget, and mitigating organizational risk are just a handful of factors to consider when evaluating your readiness for the new year. This eBook outlines the following ways in which sales leaders can purposely pivot and utilize both data, technology, and strategy to remain resilient and overcome obstacles presented by a changing economic environment: Readjust your expectations to adapt to the changing economy Ramp new hires to full revenue productivity sooner Focus on quality conversations, not the quantity Mitigate organizational and budget changes by improving sales effectiveness Consolidate resources to better preserve time and budget Streamline tech to provide a seamless loop of insights and integrations Tailor your communications to avoid fines or upset consumers Ensure that your decisions are data-driven; it’s more important than ever

Are you struggling to improve adoption of your sales methodology or deliver outcomes with your sales performance improvement initiatives? Do you want to guide behavior changes in your sales force? Or do you simply want to improve the outcomes and ROI for your sales training? Click below to download your copy of Transforming Sales Results' latest eBook, "The Sales Learning System with the 5 Stages of Sales Mastery & Behavior Change: How to Get Adoption and Deliver Outcomes with your Sales Performance Improvement Initiatives."

If your sales team isn't producing the results expected, the pressure is on you to fix the situation fast. One option is to replace salespeople. A better option is for you to optimize your performance as a sales leader. In The Sales Manager's Guide to Greatness, sales management consultant Kevin F. Davis offers 10 proven and distinctly practical strategies, skills, and tools for overcoming the most challenging obstacles sales managers face and moving your team ahead of the... (click below to download excerpts from this eBook)

If your sales team isn't producing the results expected, the pressure is on you to fix the situation fast. One option is to replace salespeople. A better option is for you to optimize your performance as a sales leader. In The Sales Manager's Guide to Greatness, sales management consultant Kevin F. Davis offers 10 proven and distinctly practical strategies, skills, and tools for overcoming the most challenging obstacles sales managers face and moving your team ahead of the... (click to download excerpts from this eBook)

High-quality coaching requires not only effort and collaboration between sales managers, reps, and sales enablement professionals, but also agreement on coaching effectiveness and best practices. Without agreement, it’s hard to make improvements and drive increased sales success. To find out how these stakeholders feel about coaching effectiveness, we surveyed nearly 300 sales reps, managers, and sales enablement professionals, asking them fundamental questions about their perceptions and preferences. While we found alignment in some areas, reps, managers, and sales enablement leaders differed in their opinions about coaching quality, coaching needs, and even the impact of coaching on results. Left unchecked, differences between key stakeholders on coaching quality and value can pose a significant risk to revenue goals, and even threaten the relationship between reps and managers. Click below to download and learn what the data showed, what it means, and how you can use this information to improve coaching efforts at your organization.

Over the past several years, Qvidian has surveyed hundreds of executives and sales leaders around the world from various industries, markets, and company sizes to create a comprehensive ongoing study of the changing objectives and challenges facing sales leaders.   This Sales Execution Trends Report investigates new obstacles sales organizations face to meet these objectives, as well as explores current conditions and investment areas needed to improve sales execution; providing further market insight into the state of sales today. 

Inside organizations coaching has become common practice to address issues such as developing talent, ‘onboarding’ key leaders and supporting senior executives. Yet, there is clearly widespread opportunity to integrate some of the skills and competencies inherent in coaching into the roles of managers and contributors at all levels in an organization. We call this: the Coaching Mindset. Click below to download this White Paper.

One of the most significant barriers to sales organizations is bringing their sales cycle under control. Read this research from Aberdeen Group to discover how the use of electronic signature tools can improve sales team performance. 

Coaching and leadership are about people. People are unique and to compound the situation they behave differently under varied circumstances. So is it not an overstatement to suggest that there is a framework that can be applied to achieving greater success with people and through them? I will answer with my standard mini-exercise. Assume you are a recruiter. You are asked to identify a Field Commander for a hot war zone as well as a Guidance Counsellor for an all-girls high school. Did your mind automatically paint different pictures as to who will fill the roles? Intuitively, you recognize the differences but what are the factors that brought you to that conclusion? Also, what if the roles were not so far apart, could you intuitively distinguish among candidates? That is role and the value of a reliable framework. For decades, as a member of member of the Extended DISC™ network, I have been using an approach that I call DISCerning Communication to drive healthy interpersonal relations among a cross-section of groups. When people experience others communicating with them in a manner that is comfortable for them the opportunities for positive cooperation increases exponentially. Someone referred to it as communicating from inside the head of the other person. Course after course, webinar after webinar, article after article I receive encouragement to present DISCerning Communication principles in a concise publication to a wider audience. This is your invitation to join the mission and make a positive difference in how we communicate and relate to others.

The following excerpt is from "A Practical Guide to Getting Sales Teams to Prospect," by Wendy Weiss, The Queen of Cold Calling™ In The Feeling Good Handbook, Dr. Burns lists "Ten Forms of Twisted Thinking" that occur when people are depressed. My years of training and coaching sales professionals have made it clear that people who are not depressed can fall into these twisted ways of thinking, too — and many, many sales professionals, unfortunately, employ "twisted thinking" when it comes to prospecting. Click below to download this excerpt and for the link to download the complete eBook

We all know we need to coach sales reps. In the face of The Great Resignation, a staggering 60% of reps say that they’re more likely to leave their job if their manager is a poor coach (*The Center for Sales Strategy.) However, successful coaching is not always as easy as it seems. A sales leader’s time is spent on a multitude of tasks - accurately forecasting revenue, understanding where deals are, getting on calls with customers - and often, as a result, they don’t know where to begin a formal coaching process. Whether your goal is to improve rep performance, onboard new hires faster, speed up your sales cycle, or boost retention rates, effective sales coaching driven by data can be a game-changer for your oranization. This guide will demonstrate.

We all know we need to coach sales reps. In the face of The Great Resignation, a staggering 60% of reps say that they’re more likely to leave their job if their manager is a poor coach (*The Center for Sales Strategy.) However, successful coaching is not always as easy as it seems. A sales leader’s time is spent on a multitude of tasks - accurately forecasting revenue, understanding where deals are, getting on calls with customers - and often, as a result, they don’t know where to begin a formal coaching process. Whether your goal is to improve rep performance, onboard new hires faster, speed up your sales cycle, or boost retention rates, effective sales coaching driven by data can be a game-changer for your organization. This guide demonstrates: How sales tech can identify coaching best practices and increase coaching effectiveness and efficiency. How to use data to improve sales coaching, including real-life examples. How to leverage sales tech to better identify "who" to coach, "what" to coach, and "how" to coach it!

Common wisdom to increase production would dictate a change in the monetary compensation plan. Pay more cash and get more results. Everyone likes money - it is a simple and rational choice. And if money is so desirable, why not use it as a reward to induce more desired behavior? Many corporations do just that. It is undeniable that money works to drive behavior, and money used as an incentive yields positive results - up to a point. The fact, however, is that money is not the optimal reward to get extra effort from people.

A year into virtually all sales teams working from home, salespeople have adapted to the new normal of selling and organizations have updated their tech stacks to help their teams through the remote process. However, now that teams have acclimated to remote selling, it’s time to turn your sales team into a data-driven machine and accelerate pipeline, advance deals, and close more revenue. Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered guided coaching is an investment in your sales team’s productivity. AI assistants identify coaching needs in real-time, providing your reps with the right messaging during live calls to improve performance and progress deals. With the guided coaching capabilities of conversation intelligence technology, sales leaders can provide their remote salespeople with even more informed coaching insights than they could while in the office. This guide demonstrates: What sets real-time AI-guided coaching apart from other sales tools How AI-guided coaching can benefit your sales team What to look for in an AI-guided coaching provider Features to look for in a solution, and more!

How much time, money, and effort is your company currently investing in its digital marketing strategy? Every organization knows they need digital marketing, but for many it is just not a priority. There is either no budget, no staff to manage it, or the organization simply does not have the knowledge or experience to implement an effective strategy. If having a digital marketing strategy is not a priority for your organization today, you need to make it one. Download this white paper to find out why.

Think about the growth your company could achieve by tripling your revenue. That’s what one company was able to do by following this free guide, Why Your Hiring Process Is Broken and How to Fix It. It enabled them to hire more people like their top performers, ultimately achieving a 338% boost in annual revenue. You can do it too, and it’s easier than you might think. Learn how to supercharge your hiring process to build a team of all-stars that can dramatically grow your pipeline and consistently close deals.

In sales, we often find ourselves grappling with a false choice - do we focus on relationship building with the customer, or focus more on winning the deal at all costs? It can often seem like there is no middle ground, we have to either perform like a hardliner or try and gain the customer's favor. But it is not, in fact, an either/or situation. This white paper explores the middle ground between building relationships and winning the deal and offers helpful tips on ways to nurture both your relationship with the customer while keeping your eye on the prize. Read more to discover how it might be the way salespeople think about their customer relationships that prevents them from focusing on and winning the deal. JMReid Group is a training company that provides sales programs with this middle ground at top of mind. If you like what you read, contact us in the interest of your sales team at www.jmreidgroup.com.

Team selling today is no longer required just for blockbuster business-to-business sales pitches. Whether you are in consulting, investment banking, or technology or are a financial advisor, home remodeler, or lawyer, pivotal meetings with customers and prospects now often involve more people — on both sides of the table. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, "…the number of people involved in B2B solutions purchases has climbed from an average of 5.4 two years ago to 6.8 today."

Typically only 20% of salespeople are considered high performers. Why are so few highly successful? There are deeper reasons- reasons why salespeople succeed or fail... What actually causes your salespeople’s success? Why does most sales training cause your people to shut down? And what are the five dimensions that most influence sales’ success? This eBook will provide all the answers as well as explore the critical role of values, inner beliefs about selling itself and belief in your products in influencing sales success. Click below to download this eBook.