Sales reps spend an average of 25 hours a month, 15% of their total selling time, leaving voicemails. With pickup rates hovering around 13%, the majority of sales calls go to voicemail, and sales best practices suggest that salespeople should always leave voicemails. Regardless if sales reps are calling leads, prospects or customers, these messages […]

As a sales rep, you sell more than a product, or a band-aid, you sell a positive change – a future state. You sell the idea that your prospect’s problems will disappear and their life will transform and improve as a result of their purchase. The same principle applies whether you are selling a car, […]

Athletes are known for the pre-game rituals they use to prepare themselves for each game. These activities equip them to perform their best and (hopefully) win the game. Sales is no different. It’s important to prepare and be at the top of your game each day to ensure peak productivity. Your morning routine acts as […]

Sales coaching – everyone says sales managers should do it, and all sales managers think they are doing it. But are you really doing it correctly? If you need to improve your sales coaching game, Start by honestly assessing where you are in your coaching skill set. This doesn’t mean assess how good of a […]

One tenth of a second, that’s just 100 milliseconds. According to research, it’s also how long it takes for someone to form their first impression of you. For what feels like decades, we’ve been taught that our first impression is the key moment that will absolutely make or break any relationship. But how is it […]

Steve Jobs may have left us seven years ago, but even to this day, the mere mention of his name sparks a range of responses. One of the many things Jobs was known for was his mastery of persuasion. The Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs discusses the “reality distortion field” that was Jobs’ ability […]

When you meet new people, how do you connect with them quickly? Why are some people able to connect deeper, faster than others? Perhaps  shared interests, mutual activities, similar feelings do play a role, but social psychology says a more primal subconscious process is at play. For sales, this is a process that can be […]

The traditional definition of growth hacking involves doing more with less but still driving an increase in performance. In sales, we love to measure usage of a prospect’s name, keyword mentions, and even conversation length, however there are variables that can be exploited as “hacks” order to garner immediate returns. These include both verbal and […]

In sales, the discovery phase involves smart questions and active listening skills. Any sales training will mention both. However, it is possible to ask questions and use sales listening skills without real empathy. Consider the data from a HubSpot Research study of B2B buyers and sellers: The #1 buyer expectation (69%) is a sales rep […]

Salesforce is an incredibly flexible CRM with a vast number of applications available to add to its functionality. In fact, Salesforce’s AppExchange marketplace contains over 3.5 million applications. However, with so many third-party apps at your disposal you must be careful of which you choose to implement within your business. Poorly built tools, or those […]

It’s easy to rely on “show and tell” when communicating with prospects, especially when reps are following a tried and tested sales process. When it comes to SaaS products for instance, a demo could involve a screen share where a rep jumps right into showing off the product by highlighting its main features. But what […]

Everyone in sales has likely made a discovery call at one time or another.  The discovery call is a crucial component of the sales process. It allows reps to qualify a prospect and gather information to be leveraged throughout the sales process in order to generate a win. However, not all discovery calls are created […]