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
How to Develop a Sales Strategy for Your Small Business
Every business needs to develop a good marketing strategy in order to succeed, but good marketing is not an end in and of itself. Rather, it should act as the basis for further development – for planning and implementing a strategy of selling to your customers. Read this guide to find out more about establishing a tailored sales strategy, forecasting, managing a sales team and how to measure performance. How do I plan my sales approach? The first crucial step in any sales str
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
4 Rules You Need to Follow to Succeed in Business
As the founder and CEO of OneIMS and Clickx, Solomon Thimothy has built his career around his passion for helping other businesses grow an online presence and thrive in the digital world. Solomon works with clients big and small to develop uniquely customized and highly effective marketing strategies that meet every company's individual goals. Follow him on twitter @sthimothy. Entrepreneurs go into business for a variety of reasons, yet they all have one thing in common: they
The 4 Secrets of Social Commerce From the Head of Social Selling at LinkedIn
Before we begin, I realize it's a bold statement to say there are four secrets of social selling (as in things you're most likely not doing on LinkedIn, but should be doing to drive social sales). So let me prove it to you with a single click. Go to thisLinkedIn site and, assuming you have a LinkedIn profile, you will immediately see how you rank on LinkedIn's Social Selling Index (SSI). While I have a score of 75 (out of 100), most of my peers rank around 25. If you have a s
The Sales Volume Game Is Dead, Long Live Targeted Prospecting
“Tell me how you measure me, and I will tell you how I behave.” As a result of how most reps are measured -- activity-based metrics and quota -- most reps put a tremendous amount of effort into high-volume outreach. Instead of slowing down and identifying good fit prospects who would actually be interested in their product or service, reps simply grab that extra cup of coffee and send out another 100 emails in hopes of getting through to someone (anyone). But consider that a
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
