6 Unorthodox Ways to Inspire Low-Performing Salespeople
We all know that, traditionally, the “inspiration” offered to low-performing salespeople has been fear of getting the boot at end-of-quarter. After all, they’re low-performers, and your sales org doesn’t have time for that, right? Maybe though, you see something in them – a potential, a great culture fit, someone who just needs a push in the right direction – and you want to help. Or you’re concerned with for your org’s ability to find a suitable replacement – after all, the
Reality Check: Entrepreneurs Are Sales People
Entrepreneurs’ Sales Phobia “Rich, you’re a natural salesman, you have the gift of gab.” This is what I hear often and it started at a really young age. I would say 10 or 11 years old. As I grew older, I felt like that term meant that I was good at BSing my way in and out of things. Well, I’m sure some of that is true, but what does that mean? And why is there such a phobia of selling? If you haven’t realized this by now part of the mathematical equation for being an entrepre
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
3 Must-Do Social Selling Tactics for Prospecting on LinkedIn
Social media platforms have evolved to become widely-used and trusted communities. This evolution has created a number of opportunities for sales prospecting. But what is the best way to take advantage of those opportunities? Connect, Inform, and Engage Anything you post in a business setting like LinkedIn should aim to simultaneously connect, inform, and engage your audience. Each post should connect with a specific type of person, inform that person of something relevant an
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
10 Favorite Tools That Frontline Salespeople Nominate As Their Favorites
In sales, every minute saved is another opportunity gained. And forbusy salespeople, time is a luxury. Fortunately, a plethora of tools exist to make selling fast and efficient. The only problem is that time-pressed people may have difficulty finding the time to experiment with different technologies. That's why my team at Tenfold has stepped in to help. I asked several of these sales experts to nominate their 10 favorite time-saving tools. So, to help readers identify apps a
Sales coaches matter: Going from $10MM to $100MM in sales
For most small and medium-sized businesses, sales keep the lights on. An effective sales force is crucial to ongoing profitability and long-term success, especially in B2B environments. But as a company grows, it faces several challenges that begin to test the true abilities of its sales team. Passionate business owners can close $1 million dollars in sales by themselves. Beyond that, firms must hire their first dedicated sales rep. When owners defer cold calling to sales rep
