13 Online Tools Used by Successful Entrepreneurs
Today's tech-driven entrepreneurs know how to get stuff done. In the current entrepreneurial culture, it is essential that any successful entrepreneur understand and use online tools, apps, programs, interfaces, and systems to increase productivity and efficiency. What kind of online tools do these entrepreneurs use? There's no end of choices, but some reportedly work better than others. Smart developers have made sure that there's an online tool for nearly every task. There
How to Do Tiered Outbound Prospecting for SMB and Mid-Market Targets
Most companies with outbound SDR teams expect reps to do all of their own prospect research. This makes sense for teams selling exclusively to enterprise clients, but it’s an inefficient use of an SDR’s time when their targets are SMB or mid-market companies. The purpose of an SDR team is to allow your company’s closers to focus exclusively on their job—closing deals. As an SDR manager, my job is to allow the outbound SDRs to focus exclusively on their job—prospecting. At Pan
20 qualities that all great salespeople share
To succeed in life and in business, you have to be a great salesperson, whether it's selling yourself, your ideas, or your product. "Great salespeople are literally the engine of every economy in the world," says Grant Cardone, a sales expert and the author of "Sell or Be Sold: How to Get Your Way in Business and in Life". So how does one become great? We caught up with Cardone, who shared the 20 qualities that he thinks set great salespeople apart from everyone else. This is
How To Work Your Sales Funnel
Here are some practical tips for you to consider using, broken out by stage. Everyone’s team and process is a little different, but a lot of these are fundamental across most types of teams. The stages of a basic sales funnel are: Lead, Opportunity, Closed Customer (your team may have other stages in between, but these are the big ones, I think). Each stage of your sales funnel has associated sales activities All sales activities are tied back to your defined sales process Al
Want A High Performance Small Biz Sales Team? Learn Analytics Now
33% of high-performing small business service teams are already using predictive analytics. 34% percent of small business marketers identify as heavy tech adopters. Small business sales teams’ mobile app use will grow by 140% in the next two years. Growth in marketing automation among small businesses will jump 143% within 12 months. These and other insights are from the Salesforce Research’s latest report, Benchmarks for Small Business Growth (free, opt-in, 22 pp.). Intervie
10 Inspiring Business Books to Start the Year
If your New Year’s resolutions includes reading more books to help you start or grow your business, here’s our suggestions on getting started. Below are 10 books from the past year on topics ranging from the military to the music industry to the NFL locker room. They’ll make you cheer, cry, and maybe even get inspired. 1. Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll, by Sam Guralnick Sam Phillips founded Sun Records in 1952, which became a cornerstone of rock ‘n’ roll. Ye
5 Steps to Executing the Perfect Sales Prospecting Campaign
Forget about all the articles with the best subject lines. Ignore the posts about the perfect time to send an email. And don’t get caught chasing the next new sales tool. Those lists are useful for only a short period of time before everyone catches on and starts using them, at which point their effectiveness drops like a lead weight. What’s more important than any specific tactic is the overarching process and strategy. I want to cover how you can set up and start executing
Hiring Sales Reps for your Startup
In my time working in a startup for 2 years, it hasn’t been hard for me to figure out that the most difficult part for a new business is hiring. It is rightly said that a good product sells itself, but at the same time, it is also essential for any business to have sales reps who are worth being the face of the business and the product. Hiring for sales includes persuading the right people (who can persuade others gracefully) into being a part of your team. In this small arti
How to Sharpen Your Value Statement and Improve Sales Results
Today's guest post is by David Hibbard, coauthor of SOAR Selling: How to Get Through to Almost Anyone (The Proven Method for Reaching Decision Makers) and founder of Dialexis. Hear Dave speak on November 16 at the Sales 2.0 Leadership Conference in Philadelphia. For more information or questions about the event, email larissa@salesdottwoinc.com. The other day I was on a call with a new prospect. I delivered my value proposition with clarity and professionalism. I asked questi
86 Percent of Companies with B2B Referral Program See Growth, Study Says
What’s the best way to boost sales and acquire new customers? Marketing-led referral programs that are supported by relevant technology, says a new study (PDF). In fact, 84 percent of B2B decision makers start the buying process with a referral. Heinz Marketing surveyed 600 B2B professionals from across North America to understand the impact of formal referral programs on sales pipeline growth and revenue acceleration. It found that “referrals convert better, close faster and
