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07 Aug 16:46

We Can Do It Cheaper (and Better) Inside – 5 Reasons Why You Can’t

by dan.mcdade@pointclear.com (Dan McDade)

 

The misconception that building an internal team of sales development reps gives you more control and costs less is widespread. In-house tele-prospecting costs more than outsourcing and by outsourcing you can find superior services (however, you must be careful because there is a lot of mediocrity in the lead generation space).

What marketing and sales executives who object to partnering with a specialized firm fail to add up are all the costs of establishing an inside team. They account for labor, commissions and benefits, certainly. But usually they aren’t considering the bigger picture, one that’s chock full of hidden expenses. Equipment, overhead, management and administration need their space on the spreadsheet. So too do the costs associated with turnover, including rehiring, retraining, and lack of productivity when a position is vacant.

On the productivity side, most insourced units fall short of professional outsourced services:

  1. Too much or not enough research: If research is cutting in to the time to make outbound dials per day (the target should be 80) you are doing too much of it. If the environment calls for “grip it and rip it” (calling without research) then most of those calls will be wasted.
  2. Lack of a consistent cadence: There is a precise cadence (combination of dials, voicemails and emails and in some cases direct mail) that is a fit for every situation. Not leaving voicemails and/or not sending emails is a huge mistake. Close to one half of all leads we generate for clients are the result of a voicemail or email response or what we call a scheduled call (as part of the cadence – let me know if you want to discuss).
  3. Too many emails and not enough dials: It is not unusual to find inside sales teams are making 50 – 60 touches per day, but most of them are email touches and there are very few dials. This results in too few conversations, little relationship-building and an unpredictable stream of positive outcomes.
  4. A poor “script”: Prospects don’t want to be tricked. They don’t want to hear a rote message either. They value quality conversations from people who know what they’re talking about and want to help. And, they want to hear from your throughout the buying process – NOT 57% – 78% of the way through the buying process as some would have you believe (see this interview for more). A call-flow coupled with cadence gets the job done.
  5. Inefficient / ineffective nurturing: Nurturing can triple the return on every marketing investment (see this blog for more). Taking the time to continue conversations with qualified targets even if the times not right for them (yet) to buy is well worth the effort.

Use this tool to calculate the cost of an internal team vs. the cost of outsourcing to a specialist. Then look at the productivity gains possible using a best practice, outsourced solution.

Here are three of our most popular blogs in 2018 so far: 

How Much Should a Sales Lead Cost

What Should the Sales Close Rate Be

Lead Development: Turning Raw Leads into Opportunities

 

07 Aug 16:24

Craft a Subject Line and Preheader Pair to Inspire More Opens

by Ben Duchesney

Use the right subject line and preheader to boost your open rate.

How do you keep people reading your email?

By making sure the first thing someone sees in their inbox is your email, and influencing a reader’s decision to open it, not just ignore it along with the other emails.

If your goal is to convince volunteers to sign up for your next event, the first step to directing them to your sign up page is to get your audience to recognize your email in their inbox.

After readers recognize who the email is from, they’re going to turn to the next powerful pair: the subject line and preheader.

Help readers recognize your emails

Before a reader sees your subject line and preheader, the first thing that will catch their eye is your header information, which tells them who sent the email and sometimes also your Reply To email address. Sending consistently will help your audience anticipate receiving an email from you, and will help them recognize your organization’s From Name and email address.

For most nonprofits, the From Name will be the name of your organization. Your From Email should use your website’s domain, such as @heartsandtails.org rather than a gmail account. Also, make sure your Reply To email address is monitored so you can capitalize on any opportunity to connect with people who are willing to help.

Subject Line: What are you talking about?

A strong subject line should capture the attention of your reader, but it should also help set up your email. Instead of trying to summarize your solution, your subject line should highlight the problem you’re trying to solve.

While your subject line can entertain, warn or inform your readers, using a question as your subject line makes the reader need to open your email, such as, ‘Want to feel better about the world?’ Readers will be compelled to open your email to find out the answer to the question posed in your subject line.

Preheader: Add more context, but not an answer

After your subject line presents an issue, use the preheader to show that the problem will be solved with their help, but withhold the complete answer. Instead, show that you’re working on the solution.

The right preheader text can add context without taking away any of the suspense.

The right preheader text can add context without taking away any of the suspense so readers still feel compelled to open your email.

If your nonprofit is helping to feed the hungry in your local community, and have setup a question in the subject line, your preheader can add more context to the problem without spoiling the answer. For example, your preheader could read, ‘You might be the volunteer these kids need.’

Remind your reader why they opened the email

The best way to push readers to sign up as a volunteer for your next event after reading your email, is to deliver on your promise. When someone reads a subject line and preheader combination, then decides to open an email, there is a risk of being disappointed.

When your subject line presents a problem, the body of your email should explain the solution, but also why more volunteers are needed. Make them the hero of your email to boost their engagement, and show them how they fit into the overall solution. Your audience will then be more likely to click on a call-to-action, since it is speaking directly to them.

Start strong to keep your audience reading emails

If your nonprofit organization’s name is familiar to your audience, you’re more likely to catch their eye each time you send an email. Once they start reading, your header, subject line, and preheader all work together to convince them to open it and keep reading. The right words might be all you need to convince volunteers to sign up for your next event.

07 Aug 16:24

Expert Tips for Transforming to a Data-Driven Culture

by Helene Clary

Data Security

Transitioning to a genuine data-driven culture may be one of the key success factors for today’s businesses. Yet, for many organizations, it still poses a challenge to establish and maintain. After all, it’s not just a matter of acquiring robust BI software, hiring the right talent, defining clear strategies, or even setting up trainings. It’s more than just gathering data or even consolidating it into an intelligent, secure data warehouse. A culture change requires the participation of all employees at every level and is only truly achieved when they have embraced data as an integral tool in the day-to-day operations of the company.

Shifting a culture —the assumed values and expectations under which people operate—of hundreds or thousands of employees is not an easy task. But pulling up stakes of legacy systems and traditional practices and transforming an enterprise into a data-driven operation provides huge benefits.

Being data-driven pays

Research consistently shows that fostering data-driven technologies pays off. MIT’s Sloan School of Management reports that organizations that emphasize decision-making based on data and business analytics (DDD) have 5-6% higher output and productivity than what their investments and information technology usage would be expected to produce alone. NucleusResearch claims that analytics pays back $13.01 for every dollar spent.

More than just output and productivity, data analytics results in a whole variety of improvements. According to BARC, a leading enterprise software industry analyst and consulting firm, as many as 84% of companies who have implemented BI have reported that they are making better business decisions, and 41% report increased revenue.

Overcoming resistance

It’s not uncommon for organizations to experience resistance to adopting a data-driven mentality among employees, especially in the early stages of incorporating more data-sourced metrics into their business processes and strategies. Many are not technically knowledgeable and their confidence in unfamiliar, data-driven methodologies is slow to come by. The old paradigm of following gut instincts and relying on the “voices of experience” may have served many for years, but they are no longer the sharpest tools to use in today’s business climate. Obtaining new technology and hiring smart talent can certainly help get you started, but it will be of little value if you’re unable to transform a data-resistant culture.

Top tips for enterprise-wide transformation

What will propel an entire organization to adopt a data-driven culture? Acquiring advanced tools and hiring top analysts aren’t enough to guarantee the transformation of a data-resistant organization into one that trusts, seeks out, and relies on data-generated metrics and insights as a matter of course. What does it take to get everyone on board?

  • Get executive buy-in
    One of the most influential factors to transform an unwilling culture is executive buy-in and support. If the effort to be data-driven begins at the top, it proliferates throughout the organization. Once executives are on board with adopting a more data-driven approach to measuring success and making strategic business decisions, the culture begins.In other words, executive decision-makers need to be the first converts—recognizing that insights and opportunities presented from well-sourced and well-analyzed data can improve performance across the board, from operations and sales to risk exposure and customer loyalty. Unfortunately, there are still innumerable doubting executives who prefer to second-guess data analytics.
  • Lead the way
    Once converted, be sure to set the example from the top. Make access to data analysis and data visualization dashboards an ongoing and integrated part of executive activities to inform decisions, clarify positions, and monitor performance of operations. By doing so, you demonstrate that the data and its insights matter and are trustworthy. Then follow through: re-allocate budgets, modify production processes, or whatever you need to do to make good on the insights presented to you.
  • Evangelize
    Spread the word by sharing performance insights and relevant trends, namely, by demonstrating the usefulness of data on an ongoing basis. Spend time and effort winning employees over on the power of the data. Use data to guide agendas for meetings. Then use dashboards to hone in on key issues, celebrate successes, compare metrics, and point out concerns that need to be discussed. Display key metrics in public areas so that data analytics becomes an expected part of the culture.
  • Commit to the vision
    Create a vision for the organization that clarifies why the change is happening and describes the beneficial impact it will have on employees’ daily jobs. Give them a better understanding of the value of data and how it serves them in decision-making. When employees understand and believe in the vision, they’re more likely to embrace it and less likely to fear that the technology will reduce their value on the job. Convey the message that the accuracy and clarity of data analytics ultimately help everyone become more efficient at reaching their goals. Make it standard practice that ideas will be backed up with data, and reports will include measuring outcomes. As a result, employees will begin to make a habit of seeking out data to help fine-tune their strategies and objectives.
  • Provide access and ongoing training
    While marketing and sales departments are usually the first to implement data analytics, all departments benefit from the cultural shift, including production, finance, controlling and human resources. Employees from all departments should be trained in data literacy and in the practice of interpreting raw data into knowledge and actionable insights. Over time, and with high quality and ongoing training, employees will incorporate the use of data analytics tools to raise the productivity and efficiency of their work. As they learn to use them well, it will become second nature for them to reach for data analytics routinely and effectively.

Change management can be a tough task for many organizations but for any enterprise that is committed to long-term success, a data-driven culture has become more of a requirement than a choice. The rewards of adopting data-driven methods begin to be obvious after a while; with some initial, focused investment by decision-makers at the top, more and more stakeholders will willingly want to be a part of the change.

07 Aug 16:22

America’s Fastest Growing Industry Trends [Infographic]

by Marsha Kelly

The best way to spot emerging business trends to capitalize upon is to watch industry leaders who are named on the annual Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Business list. Learn which business sectors are booming and offer the best odds of success for your new startup.

This group of winning companies grew an average of 600% in 2017 as compared to the overall US economy which grew 6.7% – 100X faster than the average small businesses!

While analyzing the stellar results of these companies, these trends have emerged as profitable opportunities in 2018:

  • B2B Services such as health insurance, human resources and IT Logistics and supply chain management services
  • Innovative business models in existing markets such as car sales and travel agency
  • Environmentally friendly green home building and solar energy

Leading business media company INC.com has been publishing their list since 1982. These companies are ranked according to their revenue growth percentage over a three-year period. Companies must be US-based, independent and privately held. Also, the revenues must be over $100,000 in their first year and at least $2,000,000 in the recent year. See the full list here.

Check out the infographic I created as a visual guide to the INC 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America:

Fastest Growing and Best Industries for Starting a Business in 2018 - An Infographic from Best 4 Businesses.com

Great entrepreneurial lessons for success can be learned from this stellar companies how they started and grew to make the list.

Branding Matters – A lot

Most of the winners knew the value of good branding. An example is Club Pilates, whose explosive growth of 21,319% with $26.8M revenues (WOW!), #4 on the list, Anthony Geisler bought the company in 2015, which was originally founded in 2007, and rebranded it to expand their customer base to include men and children.

He said that “Everybody would complain that men weren’t coming in and doing Pilates. It’s hard enough to get a guy to come and do Pilates, let alone to get him to grab a pink weight on a purple mat.” He began by painting the walls blue with black accents, which eventually tripled his male membership.

Helping Others Counts

Small Business Owners of America, #6 on the list, with $19.7 revenue and 3-year growth of 19,352%, helps entrepreneurs for everything from writing business plans to incorporating startups. Financing services were added in 2013 which also included founder James Moore as an investor in selected client companies. Year one counted $400,000 in loans made to small businesses across the nation. In 2017, over $15 million in funding was made to over 100 American small businesses.

While providing consulting services, James saw the under-served needs of small business cash flows. He felt the pain of business owners who could not grow their firms, even though they had customer anxious to purchase, due to lack of financing options for short-term working capital. Mr. Moore said, “I’ve always been passionate about small businesses, and I respect people who take that leap and actually go out and do something on their own.”, he further added, “It’s scary and it’s risky, and my whole thing is that I want to make it as easy as possible to help them.”

Being Environmentally Friendly Pays

California based, Greenspire, offers energy-related programs to help residential customers lower their costs, such as solar energy, energy efficiency products, and home automation. #9 on the list with $41.7M in revenues and 3-year growth rate of 14,429%.

Watching the building trend towards smart and green homes, President David Murray, spotted an opportunity to turn traditional homes into environmentally friendly ones. From solar panels to redesigned water systems this company helps homeowners both save money and our planet. Founded in 2012, Murray said, “Clean tech was blowing up and I saw an opening”.

Top Booming Industries

The top 5 fastest-growing industries by aggregate growth:

  1. Travel and hospitality, +201%
  2. Media +198%
  3. Energy 174%
  4. Security +171%
  5. Real Estate 168%

The Air Travel Group, #63 is the fastest growing travel company in America. They negotiate event travel and airline fees for corporations, and sports franchises. The founder and president Eric Peterson founded the company in 2002 when other travel companies were closing due to reduced commissions. His lesson is to get into an industry when others are getting out – but in a new, different and better way.

Fastest-growing states and cities

Opportunities abound all across America, however, these 5 states home to the most companies listed in this order; California, Texas, Florida, New York and Virginia.

These cities have the greatest number of companies headquartered in; New York City, NY; Washington, DC; Los Angeles, California, and Atlanta, Georgia.

Highest total revenue

These companies had the highest revenue:

  1. Prime Therapeutics, Health Insurance Management – $4.73 billion
  2. Armada, Supply chain management, and logistics services – $3.96 billion
  3. Allied Universal, Human resources recruitment and staffing – $3.43 billion
  4. Carahsoft Technology – Government IT services, $3.43 billion
  5. Drive Time, Used car dealer and finance company – $3.03 billion

 

Embedded from Best 4 Businesses.com

07 Aug 16:22

How to Create a Strategic Partnership to Spur Innovation Within Your Business

by Dan Lauer

Free-Photos / Pixabay

Every organizational leader lauds innovation, so why do so many businesses struggle with the process? Companies’ internal research and development teams can only take their innovation efforts so far. Case in point: Though 93 percent of executives surveyed by Accenture said innovation was critical to long-term success, less than 20 percent of the same pool of respondents said their current efforts were moving the needle.

Just as people are motivated by the company they keep, companies are influenced by the partnerships they embrace. Those hoping to innovate would be wise to look beyond their own walls and form partnerships with universities, startups, and other industry players.

Making the Case for Collaboration

Working side by side with smart, innovation-minded individuals gives companies a new perspective on old problems, which helps them adapt to technological advancements and evolve with customer preferences.

Partnerships also protect established companies from getting caught off guard by industry disruptors. The way the hotel industry was upended by Airbnb, for example, sets a cautionary tale. By hooking up with young minds, companies get the benefits of fresh eyes and new perspectives that help them stay abreast of industry shifts.

We’ve seen the positive effects of a partnership at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL). When we were looking to create an accelerator program, we knew we wanted it to be a public-private partnership.

We paired with utility provider Ameren to create the Ameren Accelerator, a 12-week program bringing together bright university minds eager to launch startups with the support of a corporate partner. In each Accelerator cohort, five to seven companies receive funding, a workspace, mentoring, and other perks. Ameren received an ear to the ground and a chance to get in on product and service innovations.

If you’re ready to invest in a partnership, here are three steps to get you started:

1. Investigate all your possible partners.

Carefully vetting potential partners is crucial. Start by looking at companies and organizations you know, and study any potential partners by keeping tabs on what they’re doing. Set Google Alerts, read industry blogs, conduct consistent searches, and join user forums.

When UMSL was considering a partner, we looked at plenty of possibilities. One of our most important prerequisites was having buy-in from the most senior level of a company. By sticking to our criteria throughout a careful vetting process, we were able to form a successful partnership with Ameren. It was the right fit for both parties.

If you’re looking to recruit potential partners, consider hosting an open innovation program where people come together to discuss a specific topic. By listening to industry players at these events, you’ll see pain points emerge — those are problems you could potentially solve through a partnership.

“As technologies continue to advance and as the needs and expectations of our customers continue to rise, it is important that we work collaboratively with innovators and entrepreneurs throughout the world to deliver superior value to our customers, shareholders, and the communities we serve,” said Warner Baxter, the chairman, president, and CEO of Ameren.

2. Start with a plan, but remain flexible.

Both you and potential partners will have goals for the partnership. You don’t need partners who share your exact plan, but you do need partners who share your passion and vision. The best partnerships happen when one partner’s weakness is another’s strength. As long as you match up in enthusiasm, you can elevate your collective outcomes.

It helps to set measurable objectives that you and your partners can use to track success. Together with Ameren, we determined how many accelerator applications UMSL would bring to the table, what technology or solutions they were looking for, what each entity’s investment looked like, and how much public exposure the project would try to garner. Putting this plan together set our partnership up for stellar engagement, a good return on investment, and a custom-built approach to innovation.

3. Expect and embrace change.

Innovation requires a willingness to change, and change can create tension. Make change more palatable by reframing it as a way to get closer to the end goals you and your partners set. Making sure all leaders are moving in the same direction will help you get through any friction points you run into. In our partnership with Ameren, it was important that we established an expectation that the process could get chaotic.

While you could invest time, money, and brainpower in an in-house innovation initiative, building a strong partnership might be a more valuable investment. Innovation is closer than you might think.

07 Aug 16:14

6 Reasons it’s Hard to Sell Your Startup

by Kayla Sloan

rawpixel / Pixabay

Many people dream of having their own business. Not everyone gets to realize that dream, of course.

However, for those that do, there inevitably comes a time when they must give it up. It could be that they pass it on to someone else, such as a relative.

Another alternative is to simply close up shop and sell off assets and inventory, if there is any. Should they decide to sell the entire business instead, there are no guarantees anyone will buy it.

If you own a business, you may be struggling with these decisions too. If your aim is to sell it in whole, there are plenty of reasons it’s hard to sell your startup.

1. Difficult to Let Go

When you start a business, you put a lot of work into it to get it going. The hard work doesn’t stop there, though. You must continue delivering excellent products or service to keep it running successfully.

As you might expect, you become very attached to your business. That can make it difficult to let go when it’s time to sell your startup.

2. It is Worth Too Much Now

One of the biggest reasons it’s hard to sell your startup could be because of its value. It’s very exciting to see your startup take off and grow into something big. Nevertheless, that growth could be the very thing holding you back from selling your business.

As your business gets larger and increases in value it becomes more expensive to prospective buyers. They must come up with more money for its purchase. That limits the number of people who could actually buy your business.

As the number of potential buyers decreases it naturally lowers the odds of you getting it sold.

3. You Owe Too Much

The reverse could also be true when you own a business. You could be upside down on what you owe on it meaning you’ll lose money if you sell it.

Clearly nobody chooses to be in that situation on purpose. That being said, it does sometimes happen because managing cash flow can be tricky. Unfortunately, if you suddenly find you need to sell your startup, it could hold you back.

4. It Will Be Worth More Soon

Working hard to grow your business makes it hard to sell if you know it will soon be worth more. You may have to sell it for less that it’s actually worth if you need the money fast.

5. Your Goals Weren’t Reached

You may have another reason not to sell your startup. If your goals weren’t reached, you may prefer to keep working to reach them first.

Selling your business without accomplishing what you set out to do can feel like failure. Therefore, you might be hanging onto your business so you can continue to strive for those goals.

6. Employees Would be Out of a Job

Does your company have employees? You might be worried about where they will find work if you sell your startup.

But the truth is that even if you need to sell your startup soon you can’t worry about everybody else. Give them as much notice as you possibly can once you begin negotiating the sale of your startup.

As you can see there are several reasons it’s hard to sell your startup. But you shouldn’t let that stop you if selling it is really the right thing to do.

07 Aug 16:12

Increase Sales with the Best Live Chat Tools out There [Top 10 List]

by Gaetano
Best Live Chat Software

Finding the best live chat software in a crowded marketplace can be tricky. Fortunately, this just means there’s bound to be an option that fits perfectly with your business model.

If you owned a store, you could directly interact with the customers who come in each day. The same principle doesn’t traditionally work with websites. Sure, you can see the visitors who pop in, thanks to tools that gather data on where they’re coming from.

However, to convert those visitors into buyers, you need to be able to quickly answer questions. Simply being available can make the difference between getting a sale and losing a potential customer.

In fact, live chat has become so popular, 63 percent of customers say they are more likely to come back to a website that has it.

Top Features to Look for in Your Live Chat Software

1) Real-time communication

Of course, the most important feature in live chat software is that it offers real-time communication with your website visitors. This means it needs to appear as an invitation whenever someone navigates to your page.

2) Easy to minimize

It should be easy to minimize for the many customers who want to look without interacting, but it also needs to be warm and welcoming. The window must act as a sales clerk would in a retail store, greeting the customer and offering assistance.

3) End user ease of use

The software also needs to be easy to use on the employee end of things. This includes prompting your team members when a customer wants to chat. It can also help for agents to be able to reach out contextually.

4) Contextual support

If a customer appears to be struggling to apply a coupon, for instance, there are chat tools that let the representative see that. They can then throw up a window asking if that customer would like help with the coupon code.

5) 24/7 chat option

Perhaps most important, though, is that you’re able to launch the software only when you have someone on hand to help. You may alternatively want a tool that offers help when you don’t have a live person on hand. Chatbots will never be as personable as a human-based chat operator, but they can at least keep your chat working 24/7.

10 Best Live Chat Tools to Consider

Whatever your goals, here are a few top chat tools that can keep your team in touch with your customers. They’re divided into categories based on their strengths to help you narrow down your options.

  1. Best Overall
  2. 24/7 Availability
  3. Lead Generation
  4. Free Chat Tool
  5. For Inbound Teams
  6. Video and Audio Chat
  7. Easiest to Use
  8. Agent Analytics
  9. Limited Teams
  10. Help Desks

1) Best Overall: Nextiva

Nextiva’s live chat software, Nextiva Chat, rates as the best live chat software due to its focus on NextOS. This pulls data on customer interactions and puts that information to use.

This allows the technology powering Nextiva’s chat tool to interact intelligently with website visitors.

Top features

A winning feature is the built-in shortcuts, which let support operators choose frequently-sent responses to speed up the service they give to customers. Each chat can be easily converted to a case so that it’s logged in the system for later reference.

You can also set the hours team members will be available to chat.

Internally you’ll be able to see which team members are online, and support representatives can also chat with each other. This tool also makes it easy to send broadcast messages to the entire team.

Weaknesses: Currently, Nextiva Chat doesn’t include reporting on website visitors and agent performance, but both features are coming soon.

BBB Rating: A+

Target Customer: Sales and support teams

Price: $10-$35 per month, billed annually

Related: Everything You Need to Know About Choosing the Best VoIP Providers

2) Best for 24/7 Availability: Bold360

If automation is your plan, Bold360 should be at the top of your list.

Built by parent company LogMeIn, this app uses the latest artificial intelligence to provide realistic interactions with your customers. You can supplement your robo-support with live agents during the hours when you have someone available to help.

Top features

Bold360 is best for customer service teams, so it will help more with buyer retention than winning over new customers. It also attaches to your email and messaging solutions to guide your workers on making the most out of every sales conversation.

Self-service portals can be frustrating, but Bold360 empowers teams to offer useful answers to customers. Using analytics, Bold360 finds the best answers to customer questions.

You can then supplement your knowledge bases and customer service manuals to make sure every area is covered. Bold360 also uses intelligent routing, which means if a chatbot can’t help a customer, that person is routed to the appropriate representative.

Weaknesses: Bold360 focuses on powering customer interactions, which may make it ideal for customer service situations.

However, for businesses interested in learning more about their customers, it may be best to choose a platform that homes in on those areas.

BBB Rating: Bold360 is not rated, but parent company LogMeIn has an A+

Target Customer: Customer service teams

Price: Depends on deployment size.

3) Best for Lead Generation: Intercom

Intercom is plugged in to the lead generation needs of sales teams. This technology is used to enhance its live chat tool, engaging website visitors in a way that makes them want to take action.

Your sales team can chat with customers in real-time to answer their questions and encourage them to take a closer look.

Top features

Perhaps what makes Intercom most powerful for lead generation, though, is that each lead is qualified using Intercom’s technology. The bot can even schedule meetings and monitor all lead-capturing data. Integration with Salesforce means your information is always up-to-date across the board.

Once the software has qualified a lead, it’s sent to the perfect salesperson to close the deal. The corresponding app alerts team members that a new lead has come in so that they can act on it.

Weaknesses: Intercom Chat is built specifically for the needs of small businesses. As you grow, you’ll likely need to consider other solutions. It also can be difficult to tell which customer requests need immediate attention.

BBB Rating: No rating

Target Customer: Sales teams

Price: $49 per month for first year for early-stage companies

Related: 32 Omnichannel Technology Tools to Sell Anywhere, All the Time

4) Best Free Chat Tool: PureChat

For a business starting out, “free” has a nice ring to it. PureChat can hook you up on that front, with a free version that includes unlimited live chat, unlimited users etc.

However, if you want visitor tracking and trigger-based alerts, you’ll need to upgrade to the pro version. The free version also includes PureChat’s branding and a limit on the number of contacts it will store.

Top features

PureChat features easy installation, providing a snippet of code that you simply add to your website. There’s also a plugin that can be used to install the gadget.

Once chat is installed, you can view transcripts of all interactions and set up canned responses. The free edition also includes an admin dashboard.
Weaknesses: Like most free solutions, you’ll be limited in what you can do in the free version. That makes it great if you just want to get a tool in place, but be sure you shop around before you settle on the paid version. You may find you get better features at the same price from a competitor.

BBB Rating: No rating

Target Customer: Small startups on a budget

Price: Free or $29-$239 per month for pro version

5) Best for Inbound Teams: SnapEngage

Some sales teams spend the week cold calling, reaching out to explain the benefits of their products.

Many others, though, get the bulk of their leads through incoming traffic, with sales teams working hard to act on those leads.

SnapEngage helps capture the information and deliver it where it needs to go.

Top features

In addition to capturing leads, SnapEngage’s chat functionality also includes a customer support feature. If you use software like Zendesk or Help Scout for your help desk, you’ll love the way SnapEngage connects with those.

You’ll have unlimited simultaneous interactions, which means your team members can pull up windows to chat with others in your organization while interacting with customers.

This is ideal for a help desk situation, where team members constantly need to ask questions in order to better help a customer reporting a problem.

Weaknesses: SnapEngage lacks the ability to learn information about the customers visiting your website. This means representatives won’t be able to launch a chat session based specifically on a customer’s interactions. This can be a significant downside for a tool that specializes in customer support.

BBB Rating: Not BBB accredited

Target Customer: Inbound sales and marketing teams

Price: Starts at $99 per month

6) Best for Video and Audio Chat: ClickDesk

ClickDesk acknowledges that there is more than one way to interact with customers. It offers a solution that gives customers options when it comes to contacting you.

In addition to a solution that it promises is “the easiest live chat app on the planet,” ClickDesk also includes video and audio chat.

Top features

Audio chat is launched through a feature called Browser Phone, which gives you local access business numbers in 40 different countries. There’s also integrations with Skype and Google Talk to meet customer preferences.

If you don’t want to keep a representative camera-ready at all times, never fear. Each representative can choose when to be available for video chat. The same goes for your telephony option.

The software is also easy to set up, with no installation required. It simply works in your web browser.

Weaknesses: Tracking and analytics is a problem, since ClickDesk only shows basic information on the customer. This information includes the customer’s location and browser type, but no more. This can be problematic if your support team wants to learn more about the customers.

BBB Rating: No rating

Target Customer: Teams that want audio and video options

Price: $14.99-$39.99 per month, free for up to 30 chats

Related: 36 Best Lead Generation Tools to Increase Leads by 300%

7) Easiest to Use: Olark

If you’re just looking for a simple, straightforward solution, Olark is your best bet.

Not only will your employees have access to all the information they need, but every chat is captured in a transcript.

Top features

You can also filter your transcripts to find information related to a specific topic. Additionally, you can also search for instances where your competitor has been mentioned.

On the customer side, customers will see a chat widget that lets them easily launch a real-time chat when they’re ready. You can set up a schedule of when a representative will be available to chat. Once you’re back online, a representative can respond to that chat message and make sure the customer receives the necessary help.

Weaknesses: Olark’s simplicity means it’s also missing a few key features, such as an easy way to block or transfer a customer. You’ll also find fewer automation options with this solution.

BBB Rating: No rating

Target Customer: –

Price: $12-$17 per agent per month

8) Best for Agent Analytics: ZenDesk Chat

ZenDesk is a respected name in customer support software. Their chat feature interacts seamlessly with its other products.

Top features

Perhaps one of the best features is its in-depth agent analytics. Using built-in reports, you can monitor each agent’s productivity level, including how many chats each person is completing.

You can also use this tool to identify areas where you can better serve your customers.

This solution also provides the ability to launch chat in context. If a customer is going through checkout, you can reach out and offer assistance. If a customer initiates the chat, that customer will be invited to input basic contact information. You’ll also be able to ask customers to complete a survey about their chat experiences.

Weaknesses: One common complaint about ZenDesk is that the tool can go offline even when an agent isn’t idle.

BBB Rating: D-

Target Customer: Businesses with large agent teams

Price: $14-$59 per agent per month

9) Best for Limited Teams: WebsiteAlive

If you’re dreaming of the day when you’ll have a fully-staffed call center, WebsiteAlive has an option that might help. The solution comes with a separately-priced concierge service that lets you hire live agents.

Should you have someone handling this during business hours, you can choose to enact this option after hours.

Top features

In addition to its concierge feature, WebsiteAlive also offers award-winning live chat. Customers will see a form on your website that invites them to enter a name and email address to launch a chat. You can customize this form, but it can be a great way to capture information for your database.

You can also set up the chat window to launch based on triggers, such as by certain pages they’ve visited.

The customer can choose the department for the chat, saving the time your team normally would have spent forwarding customers to the appropriate representative.

Weaknesses: The screen can be a bit busy for users who prefer a more simplistic solution. The price is also more expensive than other options. This highlights the fact that this solution is designed for small, growing businesses.

BBB Rating: No rating

Target Customer: Website-based businesses

Price: $30 per month for first license, $20 per month for each additional license

10) Best for Help Desks: Kayako

Some businesses deal heavily in providing support for their customers. A software provider, for instance, will likely have a team of representatives available to walk customers through using their product.

Kayako provides help desk software, so it stands to reason that their chat platform would be perfect if you’re offering that type of customer support.

Top features

Customers can reach you via your website or through your own app, simply entering an issue they’re having to launch a chat. Even if you don’t have someone online at the time, customers can launch a request to chat. They’ll be given an estimate of the time they can expect help.

Another great feature of Kayako is that you can set rules to help your representatives offer personalized help. If the customer is in a specific location, you can direct it to send the chat to a team member who is located near that area.

This is also useful for upselling since you can direct the chat to send a message from a certain member of your sales team if a customer takes a specific action.

Weaknesses: Some features of Kayako can be complicated, such as setting up voice chat. You’ll likely need an outside vendor to set this up.

BBB Rating: No rating

Target Customer: Companies that provide technical support

Price: $15-$60 per agent per month

The post Increase Sales with the Best Live Chat Tools out There [Top 10 List] appeared first on Sales Hacker.

07 Aug 16:12

Your Best Lead Gen Marketing Plan? Ask Your Customers.

by J. Christine Feeley

Customer Interviews will generate a wealth of actionable information, including new revenue opportunities. Yet this approach, which traditionally pays for itself with a handsome dividend (one of my most recent client interviews revealed a 6-figure engagement), is probably one of the most under-utilized strategies. Customers love to share feedback, and to provide their points of view and perspectives. It’s not uncommon to hear “I love that you’re doing this!” Equally as important, interviews also provide insights respective to a company’s core value proposition and the sales decision-making process. We’ve used this approach for several years, and it’s never failed as one of our best tools in creating a customized lead gen marketing plan. The value of a 30-minute call will generate 4 amazing insights every company can capitalize on:

  • Targeting Based on Need: What was the trigger which initiated the decision to find a solution?

This question takes a customer back in time, long before there was any consideration that a purchase might be made. Every purchase has an event or a problem that needs to be solved. Although we “think” we understand the “pain points” our products or services resolve, I’ve found it interesting that often the customer and the company aren’t necessarily in alignment – meaning the company doesn’t understand the full breadth of what was happening operationally that triggered the need for the customer to begin a search of a new and better solution. When you understand what created the originating need, you now have three new vital pieces of information:

  1. A more specific way to profile and qualify your ideal lead
  2. High impact messaging that can be exploited through articles, blogs, collateral to prompt a lead to engage sooner rather than later
  3. A new purchasing indicator – when you have all of the purchasing triggers, sales has a much more reliable way to determine “need”
  • Where to Advertise: How did they find which companies have the product or service to solve their problem?

Keep this important sales stat in mind – 57% of all businesses searching for a new product/service are researching on their own, without any sales intervention. The answer to how did a customer find your company provides invaluable information. With a little additional probing, you will also learn additional “search” behavior to help you create a marketing plan to help you position your business at critical “search” points:

  1. What on or off-line resources did they use?
  2. Was there any other criterion used to determine which resources had the best products/services to serve your business needs?
  3. Where do they typically gather their updated news information regarding their industry?

This information will tell you if you’re leveraging all of the communication channels necessary to capture new leads at the most relevant time of the search process.

  • Your Value Proposition: Why did they buy from your company?

This feedback is the core to understanding your value proposition or other key messaging, which could be instrumental in closing future deals, or supporting your advertising/sales collateral. Most companies are surprised by what they learn, and frequently there are reasons that go beyond the originating assumptions. Sometimes it’s a salesperson, while other times it’s the benefit (s) of the products or services offered. But rest assured, there’s always something very distinctive which deserves to be called out and leveraged as unique competitive positioning.

  • What Information You Should Share: What is the customer’s top 3-5 priorities for this year?

This question is a great way to determine topics for future whitepapers, blogs or articles. However, if the exploratory discussion is well planned, the information often turns into a “Golden Ring,” as the key learnings frequently reveal new revenue opportunities or product menu extensions which have established demand.

We all love our customers, now you have several new reasons to love them even more!

07 Aug 16:12

6 Signs B2B Lead Management Could Boost Your Sales Results

by Jeff Kalter

6 Signs B2B Lead Management Could Boost Your Sales Results

A lead management system lays out your standard practices for working with leads efficiently and effectively. It outlines how to create leads and transform them into sales.

So how do you know whether you need lead management?

If you see any of these six signs in your company, you have an opportunity to boost results by implementing a lead management process or strengthening an existing one.

1 – Your Pipeline Is Leaking

A sales pipeline illustrates the stages of buyers involved in the purchasing process. It starts with leads, perhaps those who sign up for an e-book or white paper. A proportion of these leads should turn into marketing qualified leads (MQLs), which means they are a good fit for your company and they are interested in finding a solution. A percentage of MQLs should become sales qualified leads (SQLs), sometimes called an “opportunity.” These leads are now ready to buy that solution.

Ultimately, a share of SQLs should become customers.

Research shows that the average B2B lead-to-opportunity ratio is 13 percent. Also, the mean opportunity to deal rate is six percent.

You can compare your conversion rates to these statistics but do so with caution. Conversion rates naturally vary by industry. Try to find out the benchmark conversion rate in your industry. When doing so, make sure you understand the context of the conversion rate cited. You run the risk of being led astray by some of the stats you’ll find. That’s because many of them focus on only one stage of the pipeline, for instance, the landing page conversion rate.

If your lead-to-sale ratio is low compared to industry standards, you may have a leaky sales pipeline.

The cure: To fix the leaks, you must first find them. Then design a watertight system to acquire leads, educate them, build interest and close deals.

2 – You’re Unable to Contact Leads Easily

Do you find it challenging to reach leads that fill out a web form?

If so, it could be because you’re taking too long to make the call. The Lead Response Management Study discovered that the odds of contacting a lead diminish by ten times in just the first hour. If you wait three days, a study says your chances of qualifying a lead are several thousand times less than if you call them in the first five minutes.

So if you have a leaky pipeline, one of the first places you might check for the leak is your lead response time. (Note: Your response time is just one step in the lead management process — you may find others where your timing is off.)

The cure: Based on your knowledge of what works best, set timeframes for each phase of the sales process where actions are required.

3 – Lukewarm Leads Stay that Way

When the marketing department is qualifying new leads, they will find that some of them are a good fit for your company. However, they’re not interested in buying yet. According to Gleanster Research, on average 50 percent of leads fit in this bucket. If only a small fraction of your “good-fit-not-ready-yet” leads turn into MQLs, it’s a sign you are not doing enough to nurture your leads.

The cure: Make sure your lead nurturing process answers your potential customers’ buying questions. It should also include frequent contacts to keep your brand top of mind and warm up the leads.

4 – Sales Reps Complain Leads Are Not Qualified

If your salespeople complain that leads are not qualified, listen to them.

If, for example, you’re sending all your leads directly to sales, many of them will not be qualified. Because salespeople are not equipped to nurture leads, such a process can result in a gaping hole in your pipeline. If you’re handing leads to sales that are well matched with your organization but are not yet in buying mode, you’re throwing them away.

Also, if you’re giving salespeople leads that are not good matches, you’re wasting their time. If they pursue them, they have less time to work on the qualified opportunities.

The cure: Create a shared sales and marketing definition of an SQL and provide leads that adhere to its criteria. To help implement your lead qualification process, set up lead filtering rules and decide how to score your leads.

5 – Your Lead Information Is Inconsistent

Sales processes work best when you can duplicate them successfully again and again. When a salesperson receives a lead with critical information missing, it can slow them down or even bring them to a dead halt. He or she has to do something different to find the missing information. Given time constraints, he or she may decide to move on to the next opportunity.

The cure: Sales and marketing should work together to specify the data that qualified leads must always include.

6 – You Don’t Know How to Optimize the Sales Process

Do you know what your best lead sources are? Is it your website, webinars, events or referrals?

Do you know how you can increase conversions at each phase of the buying cycle?

If you don’t know the best lead sources or how to boost conversions, it’s difficult to improve your marketing and sales results.

The cure: Set up systems to measure, track and report on all aspects of your sales and marketing process. The information you gather will enable you to dial up success rates.

Do you see any of the signs described above in your business? If so, start working on the prescribed cures, and you’ll likely achieve increased sales.

07 Aug 16:12

Mass Email Is Dead. Try This Better Marketing Strategy Instead [+ Examples]

by john@appcues.com (John Sherer)

My name is John Sherer and I spam my prospects. At least, I used to.

Unfortunately, I didn't stop mass email marketing until it stopped working. And, at that point, it's too late and you're left with no money.

Download Now: 25 Proven Sales Email Templates [Free Access]

So, today I'd like to share the evolution of my email prospecting strategy and how it went from old school robotic to modern and strategic, with a series of different email templates.

Want to skip straight to the SlideShare? No problem, click here.

What is mass email marketing?

Mass email marketing is when the same email is sent to a large subscriber list. It's a marketing strategy that isn't used much today as it usually yields a very low conversion rate.

Mass email is not customized, contains no personalized offers, and is sent to an unfiltered audience that may or may not be interested in what the sender has to say.

Today's consumers expect targeted and customized emails that use AI to provide information and offers relevant to their immediate needs.

How valuable is mass email marketing?

The main appeal of mass email marketing is its simplicity. You make one email template and send it out to your large subscriber list in minutes. It's a popular choice for sending content that doesn't warrant a response like a company announcement or newsletter. The overhead costs are also low, making it a user-friendly approach for small businesses that may not have the budget for a marketing team.

However, many of these messages land in spam folders. In order to get the most out of your email list and generate leads, personalization is key. For many consumers, email is their preferred way of interacting with a business. With 99% of consumers checking their email every day, it’s easy to see why email marketing is a powerful tool.

In the next section, we’ll examine how my mass email marketing campaigns fell short and how I worked to improve them.

The Old Mass Email Example

I used to mass email my leads three times a week, which generated enough appointments to consistently fill the top of my pipeline. The old mass email looked something like this:

 

Hi there,

Do you remember FAQ sections on websites? Occasionally you still see them, but for the most part, they've disappeared.

That's because a website's job is to answer a researcher or prospect's question. If you set up your website to answer your prospect's questions, you'll increase sales. Check out this New York Times article on why.

We offer a complimentary Website Content Assessment. When would be a good time to walk through your site?

Let me know what works best.

John

send-now-hubspot-sales-bar

This mass email worked for two reasons:

1. It included a valuable piece of content.

I knew the New York Times article would grab many people's attention. While this email wasn't personalized — I did know that the prospects on my list would be interested in learning how their websites could answer prospect questions and save their reps time.

While it's obviously a mass email, this article made it interesting enough to grab my reader's attention for a second longer.

2. It included a request to connect.

To always be closing you must always be asking. You don't want to ask for your prospect's business in a mass email, but you do want to close for a connect call. Asking for a consultation regarding their site is a great way to pique interest in how I can help their business identify and fill gaps.

So, this old mass email wasn't necessarily bad. But one day it stopped working, and I have a few hypotheses as to why:

1. The opener was too generic.

We all remember FAQs, but asking a generic opening question isn't offering anything of value to my prospects. They don't know why I'm asking them if they remember FAQ pages, and if I'm a busy marketer, I'm likely already zoning out and moving on to other emails.

A better way to phrase this opening might have been, " The best way to increase your sales is to answer prospect questions. And the easiest way to do that is by optimizing your website."

I've immediately offered a piece of information that serves my prospect's business and should earn their attention.

2. Making assumptions about their website.

No one wants a random salesperson to insult their website — especially via a mass email. A better approach would be to research my prospect's website before sending a personalized email. Then, I could include one element I like about their site and an idea or two on what I would improve.

This is a less jarring way of offering help. It also provides immediate value to the prospect, without being pushy or offensive.

3. Making the prospect do all the work.

The least I could do here would be to link to a calendar or booking tool. Simply telling my prospects, "Let me know what works for you," is a vague, noncommittal way of asking for a follow-up.

A more proactive way to phrase this closing sentence would be, "I'd love to learn more about your website and its unique business challenges. Click here to book a free website content assessment: [Link to calendar]"

Whatever the cause, prospects stopped opening my emails — and that was a problem.

The "Personalized" Mass Email

As previously mentioned, mass email marketing has its place in some instances — like sending out a newsletter or announcement. For conversions and engagement, mass email won’t cut it. Email marketing needs to include personalization to extract its value. In response I made some small adjustments to the emails I was sending.

I tried a more personalized greeting and included a specific meeting time and date in my emails.

 

Hi there,

Do you remember FAQ sections on websites? Occasionally you still see them, but for the most part, they've disappeared.

That's because a website's job is to answer a researcher or prospect's question. If you set up your website to answer your prospect's questions, you'll increase sales. Check out this New York Times article on why.

Would you be able to talk at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday?

Let me know what works best.

John

send-now-hubspot-sales-bar

By now, you know what's coming: this still didn't work.

My attempt at sending “personalized” emails didn’t work because it’s still easy to see that my templates were still simply copied-and-pasted. Making one-word adjustments wasn’t enough.

Retiring Mass Email

Personalization goes beyond just adding a specific meeting time or a friendly greeting. Prospects want an email that’s tailored, focused, and adds value.

So, I threw out impersonal, ineffective mass emails and gave prospects what they wanted: a tailored message focused on solving their needs. Here's what that new email looked like:

 

Hello [First name],

You did an excellent job speaking at the recent 21st Century B2B Culture event. You have a great understanding of social business. Do you see social business being effective in B2C?

I had a few ideas on how it could work in B2C that are related to your recent book (which I read). I help B2C SMBs use the internet to bring their business to the national market.

What's the easiest way to get 10 minutes on your calendar Thursday to share how our market expertise can be mutually beneficial?

Best, John

send-now-hubspot-sales-bar

I sent these emails one at a time — no more mass emails for me. And it worked. It still works. And here's why:

  • I open with a custom event in the prospect's life
  • I connect their expertise with my own
  • I provide a specific timeframe to chat or provide an appointment link.

My prospecting emails started working again. It shouldn’t have been a surprise. More than 20% of marketers say personalization improves email engagement and 90% of US consumers find personalized marketing content appealing.

Collectively, our team tracked these emails to see which ones were opened. Then, we followed up immediately.

Now we don't have to robotically send mass emails. And we're not just filling the top of our pipelines. We're moving people through them.

Using a CRM will help you keep all of your contacts and prospects organized, streamlining your outreach efforts. If you’re already using HubSpot, take advantage of personalization tokens, which help you tailor your email template based on the recipient.

A Better Approach to Email Marketing

Creating tailored content takes more effort, but the ROI is worth it. So ditch mass emails and start giving prospects the personalized content that gets conversions.

This article was originally published in March 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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06 Aug 17:22

Trending This Week: Key Sales and Marketing Alignment Trends for 2018

by Sean Callahan
What's Trending in Sales

What does the future hold for sales and marketing alignment? In a new infographic, InsideView incorporated insights from more than 500 innovators to forge five predictions for this critical frontier.

The trendlines laid out in this forecast are ones that every B2B seller and executive should keep in mind moving forward. The term “future-proof” has become hackneyed from overuse, but adhering to these principles, which will assuredly drive business forward in 2018 and beyond, can ensure you are a step ahead in a rapidly changing environment.

Let’s break down InsideView’s five sales and marketing alignment predictions, with a focus on key takeaways for today’s sales professionals.

5 Sales and Marketing Trends That B2B Sellers Must Recognize

1. The Rise of the Consultative Seller

Late last year, we released our Future of Sales eBook with the subtitle, “Rise of the Strategic Seller.” The first prediction from InsideView is a slight variation of the same basic assertion: salespeople who can address a customer’s acute needs and offer legitimate, meaningful value will outpace the pack.

In the Future of Sales, we broke down data showing a gradual shift in demand from the traditional, transactional sales style to a more consultative and strategic approach. As the purchasing cycle becomes more self-driven, buyers are looking for reps who can expertly assist and enlighten them along the way without being pushy or promotional.

This visualization from the infographic helps put the ongoing progression in perspective:

The following traits define a consultative seller, according to InsideView:

  • Emphatic partner
  • Digital adeptness
  • Operational mindset
  • Storytelling mastery
  • Advocacy focus
  • Flexible and adaptive behavior

Does this list reflect your skill set? Which of these attributes could you stand to develop further?

2. Focus on the Best Customers and Prospects

Quality over quantity. This should be the guiding mantra for B2B sales going forward. An overly wide prospecting scope leads to wasted time, energy, and money (plus a lot of rejection).

Who are your best existing customers? Which ones buy more, renew at a higher rate, and refer others? How can you make them even happier? More importantly, how can you turn them into a prototype for your ideal customer profile?

Account-based marketing is structured around these fundamentals, and requires an aligned sales and marketing strategy to succeed. Invest in the research and data analysis to narrow your prospect field, and then jointly determine the best methods for pursuing those high-value accounts.

3. AI and Machine Learning Fuel Decisions on Best Target Markets

Technology should play a significant role in the customer segmentation process. There is unmistakable value in gathering input from reps and marketers, whose experiences give them unique insight into the people and accounts they serve, but artificial intelligence and machine learning bring dimensions of efficiency and objectivity that humans cannot match.

According to Gartner, by the year 2020, 30% of all B2B companies will employ AI to augment at least one of their primary sales processes. The key word there is “augment.” In the Future of Sales eBook we used the same terminology in suggesting that “using technology to augment human effort” will be a cornerstone going forward.

Augment is defined as making something greater by adding to it. Sales technology is here to improve, not to replace. Those who shun its arrival will invariably fall behind.

4. Millenials Have a Major Impact in B2B Buying and Selling

This sort of goes without saying, but it’s definitely a trend that organizations everywhere need to account for. The millennial cohort continues to carve out a larger stake in buying committees everywhere, and the demographic carries its own set of preferences.

Among those called out in InsideView’s infographic: millennials tend to communicate with vendors through email, heavily weigh the opinions of friends or family before making purchase decisions, and will post positive feedback on social media when they are satisfied customers.

The takeaway? “Successful companies will start adapting to a digital, social, mobile-first sales and marketing approach to attract business from this generation’s best talent.” Hard to argue.

5. Marketing and Sales Operations Merge into One Revenue Operations Team

This lines up with another striking insight from the Future of Sales eBook: Over the past three years, we’ve seen a 73% increase in Chief Revenue Officer titles on LinkedIn. The emergence of this role speaks to an increasingly agnostic view that businesses are taking when it comes to generating revenue. As long as we’re making money, who cares about delineating its sources, or feeding into superficial divisions of the sales funnel?

The natural evolution of sales and marketing alignment has always pointed toward a convergence into one unified ops team. We’re now moving closer to that point, which raises its own set of questions. How will these departments be structured in a way that maintains autonomy for both disciplines? Should sales and marketing share a budget? How can business leaders encourage buy-in from skeptics on either side?

These aren’t necessarily easy questions to answer, but it is important for organizations and pros on both sides to be thinking about them — along with the other outcomes predicted by InsideView — as they plan ahead.

Are you aligned with the future of sales and marketing? Subscribe to the LinkedIn Sales blog to stay plugged in.

06 Aug 17:17

Improve Your Sales Hiring and Transform Your Sales Organization and Success

by afrost@hubspot.com (Aja Frost)

Your organization needs an effective sales hiring strategy to survive. The average annual turnover for sales teams is around 27%, meaning that if you have 10 reps, you could lose three of them within the year.

The only way to maintain — and, ideally, to increase — sales performance is to hire often and well.

In this guide, you’ll learn the ins and outs of a successful sales hiring process.

1. Build a hiring profile.

Different salespeople are successful in different environments. Just like you target specific prospects who are the best fit for your product, you should identify the type of reps who have the ideal skills, experience, and background for your company — and pursue them aggressively.

To figure out what your optimal salesperson looks like, study the top-performing ones on your team. Which traits do they have in common? Which industries do they come from? What are their trademark selling styles? What motivates them?

When Mark Roberge, former SVP of Worldwide Sales and Services at HubSpot, began scaling our sales team, he prioritized five traits of the most successful salespeople.

  1. Coachable: Can absorb and apply feedback
  2. Curious: Interested in learning more about prospects; willing to ask probing questions
  3. Intelligent: Able to master a subject
  4. Hard-working: Put in the time and energy
  5. Previously successful: Has a track record of success, whether in sales or sports, school, another job, etc.

If you have a few (or several) different selling functions, do this exercise for each role. For example, your ideal Business Development Rep (BDR) profile will look different than your ideal Account Executive (AE) profile. The former should probably have 0-2 years of sales experience, while the latter will have 3-5 years.

You should also identify salary for this role. This is a function of your budget, market rate, the role and how much revenue it should produce, and the non-monetary aspects you can offer.

For example, if your competitors are offering salespeople $160,000 OTE (on-target earnings), you may want to offer a comparable (or higher) salary to attract the top salespeople. If you’re willing to take a risk on less proven candidates (maybe someone who has the right personality but little or zero selling experience), you can justifiably provide a lower salary.

The larger your annual contract value (ACV) and yearly quota, the higher annual compensation should be. For example, if your ACV is $50,000, and you expect reps to close $700,000 in new business per year, their OTE should be around $126,000 — assuming compensation is split 50/50 between base and commission. (Learn more about how much you should pay your salespeople.)

You may want to consider including salary information in your job description. Not only will it filter out the candidates who want more than you can reasonably pay, but it can also increase your percentage of applications by 30%. Salespeople are also traditionally motivated by money, so you’ll be playing to your audience.

2. Develop questions and techniques.

Once you’ve built a comprehensive profile of your ideal salesperson, come up with interview strategies to measure each trait in your candidates.

Let’s say that, like Roberge, you want to hire highly coachable salespeople. Roberge factored this into his interviewing process with a role play. He would run through a standard role play with the prospective hire, ask them to assess their performance, give them some recommendations, and then do the role play again. Accurately diagnosing their performance, as well as incorporating Roberge’s feedback, was a strong sign they were highly coachable.

Roleplaying is always a handy technique, but it’s not the only one available. You can also use:

  • Interview questions: Prompts like “Tell me about a time when …” or “How would you handle X situation?” help you get a read on a candidate.
  • References: Ask for specific examples of how the candidate exhibited a particular trait, like resourcefulness.
  • Resume: Look for objective markers of success, like a promotion or membership on a sports team.

3. Write a job description.

Now it’s time to translate your ideal hiring profile into a job description. Take the time to craft an engaging, well-written job description that accurately describes the role and sells your company.

Remember, your job descriptions influence both the quantity and quality of your applicants. So, let's cover some common mistakes you may be making while writing yours.

You're cobbling together pieces of job descriptions from other companies.

You might save time copying and pasting snippets from other job descriptions, but the finished product will be generic and boring. You can look at your competitors’ job descriptions to see how they’re describing similar roles, their company culture, and benefits, but always write the actual description yourself.

You're writing out a wishlist of desired skills and experiences that ends up being unrealistic.

Are you describing your dream candidate? You’ll probably scare applicants off; after all, the “perfect’ salesperson probably isn’t out there (and if they are, they’ll likely want more money than you’re willing to pay).

Sort your requirements into several buckets: Required, preferred, and bonus. Label them as such in your job description. This will ensure people who meet 60% or more of your requirements will apply — which is exactly the percentage you’re shooting for.

You're using vague terms and jargon (such as “motivated”, “strong business acumen”, “self-starter,” etc.).

These adjectives are so overused they’re essentially meaningless. Be as specific as possible; for example, if your sales team is driven by friendly competition, say you’re looking for salespeople who “love to win.” It’s simple, straightforward, and, most importantly, honest.

You're neglecting to make the role sound desirable.

Don’t forget — you’re trying to win over in-demand salespeople. Make sure to include several reasons why this role is a great opportunity. That might be your company culture, perks, the chance to get in on the ground floor of a hot company, an established career path, a competitive salary, access to coaching and training, or some combination of the above.

You're being misleading.

Never misrepresent the job. Maybe entry-level sales hires usually spend their first year calling prospects and booking appointments for closing reps. If you don’t mention that in the job description, you’ll end up with interviewees who aren’t interested in the position you’re hiring for — or worse, new employees who will quickly quit when they realize the reality of their job.

The best way to prevent this? Provide a brief summary of a typical day. Giving candidates a preview of their daily routine will help them decide if it’s a good fit.

Here’s a breakdown of a strong job description:

example of a strong job description sales hiring account executive

Notice:
  • It lists the salary.
  • It begins with a compelling description of the company and the role.
  • It describes what the first months and overall responsibilities will be like without using jargon.

example of a strong job description sales hiring account executive

Notice:
  • It targets a specific personality.
  • It separates requirements into “what we’re looking for” and “Bonus skills.”

example of a strong job description sales hiring account executive

Notice:
  • It highlights both traditional benefits (“competitive salary,” “equity”) and more unique/culture benefits (“dog-friendly,” “flexible hours and vacation.”)

4. Build your pipeline.

Planning on writing up a quick job description, posting it on 10 job boards, and waiting for the applications to roll in? Although you might hit your quantity objective, the quality will probably be disappointing. Quality sales hiring starts with intentionally building your pipeline.

There are many different channels for recruiting salespeople. I recommend trying several to see which ones are most effective.

Traditional Job Boards

Monster.com, Indeed, and Glassdoor are some of the most well-known job boards.

Pros: They’re easy and quick to use.

Cons: Most candidates probably won’t be qualified (Staff.com chief of Staff Rob Rawson estimates most employers receive “dozens or hundreds of applicants with 95-100% not qualified or adequately skilled”.)

Niche Job Boards

Use these to target your specific industry and/or sales function. For example, candidates browsing AngelList are looking for startup jobs, while those on MedReps.com want to work in pharmaceutical sales.

Pros: You have less competition. A much greater percentage of applicants will be potential fits.

Cons: There might not be an ideal job board for your niche. Plus, you might not receive enough applicants to justify the price of a job listing.

LinkedIn

Look for users that fit your ideal profile, then reach out to see if they’re interested in a career change.

Pros: The best salespeople often aren’t actively looking for a new job. You can pre-qualify people to ensure they’re good fits. This option is also free (unless you want to pay for $1,200 per year for LinkedIn Recruiter Lite, which gives you 30 InMails per month, advanced search options, and suggested candidates based on your searches).

Cons: This method is time-consuming and hard to scale. Since you’re reaching out to passive candidates, it usually means a longer time-to-hire — first, you have to convince them to apply, then you have to actually interview them.

Social Media

Ask your sales managers and/or salespeople to share the job description on their social media accounts. (Consider offering a referral bonus as an incentive.)

Pros: This is a lightweight way to get referral candidates, who are hired more frequently and in less time than applicants through other channels. Almost half of the referrals stay at their jobs for three-plus years, compared to 14% of employees hired from job boards.

Cons: You may not get enough volume to satisfy your needs.

Referrals

Along similar lines, tap your network for potential good fits. Send an email to your professional connections asking if they know anyone who fits X criteria and would be interested in Y job.

Pros: Again, referrals are highly desirable hires. You know they’re trustworthy, qualified, and hardworking.

Cons: If no one in your network knows the right person for the job, you won’t have any candidates. It’s also probably not wise to tap everyone you know every time you have an open req, so this method needs to be used selectively.

Sales Managers

Encourage them to consistently take high-performing salespeople at other companies out for coffee — not to pressure them to leave their jobs, but to give them feedback and advice. When the time comes that they’re ready to make a move, your company will be on their shortlist.

Pros: You can attract top candidates by giving them specialized attention.

Cons: Your sales managers are already busy — this adds another non-revenue generating activity to their plate. Additionally, it might take six months to two years of coffee meetings for a salesperson to be ready to switch (assuming they make the leap at all, which is far from guaranteed). And if you try to woo multiple salespeople from a single employer, you may get a reputation for poaching.

Recruiters

Hire a staffing agency to find and vet candidates for you.

Pros: If you need to hire salespeople ASAP, an agency could be the solution. You don’t have to do any of the heavy lifting.

Cons: This option will cost you — firms will usually request 20-30% of the new hire’s first-year salary. Plus, recruiters aren’t company employees, so they don’t truly know what your culture is like.

5. Screen applicants.

The pre-interview screen can save you a great deal of time later in the interview process. You can do a phone or virtual screening interview, which will last around 10 minutes, or a written screen, i.e. an assignment that lets you gauge the candidate’s skills.

Each form has unique benefits. Phone/virtual screens give you the chance to see whether potential hires are good at building rapport, thinking on their feet, and speaking effectively — all critical abilities in sales.

However, written screens test candidates’ written communication skills (also important in sales), as well as their commitment to being hired.

Peter Kazanjy, cofounder of TalentBin (acquired by Monster Worldwide), explains, “(The written screen) puts the time cost on the candidate and gives you a better sense of their abilities.”

He recommends sending them around 12 “lighthearted and pithy” open-ended questions, such as:

  • Document for me a deal (either sales or recruiting) that went terribly. Be totally honest.
  • What do you think about Google Glass?

“Written screens allow me to take an off-ramp as soon as it's clear someone isn't making the cut,” Kazanjy also notes. “Contrast this to the standard approach of setting up a 15-30 minute phone call that requires aligning calendars. Plus, it's much more difficult to end a call early when it’s clear it’s a bad fit than to stop reading a written response.”

6. Have applicants do a mock demo.

At some point in the interview process, determine how well the candidate can present. Having excellent presentation skills is less important for junior salespeople, as you can teach these. But it’s a red flag if an experienced salesperson can’t effectively run a demo. And in both cases, you can judge how much effort the rep put into preparing.

That’s why a mock presentation or demo should take place in between the screen and on-site interview. (You can also incorporate into the on-site interview, but keep in mind your candidate may get tired or overwhelmed if you’re also scheduling several face-to-face meetings with different members of your team.)

Give your hire a product to sell that your organization would feasibly buy (or has bought already). You’re a prospect who has agreed to a demo. They should treat this like they would in a real sales role — from sending a calendar invitation and setting up a Zoom, Google Hangouts, or WebEx meeting to closing.

Here’s what to look for:

  • An invite sent in advance with all the details you need (time, date, brief agenda, meeting link)
  • Confirmation and/or reminder email before the meeting
  • An agenda at the top of the call
  • Clear knowledge of you and your business
  • Periodic questions to make sure you’re following along
  • Probing questions
  • Check-in questions to see if you’re confused or need additional information
  • Attempts to surface objections
  • Good objection-handling skills
  • Confidence
  • Personalized content for your company and use case
  • A strong close
  • A follow-up email sent the same day as the demo (or early the next day) with a proposal

While it’s rare for one candidate to check every single box, a promising hire will meet most of them.

 

7. Interview applicants.

Humans are inherently biased and emotional — meaning their ability to predict a person’s fit during an interview isn’t great. Research shows the validity of a typical unstructured interview is approximately 20%. In other words, only one in five interviews actually help employers identify candidates that will be successful.

To improve your odds, standardize your interviews. Use a scorecard and uniform set of questions during every interview. If more than one person on your team is interviewing candidates, they should all use the same scorecards and individual set of questions as well. This removes subjectivity and bias from the process; plus, it’s easier to compare your impressions with your coworkers.

For example, maybe your sales enablement manager is interviewing candidates to help you identify people who will use marketing collateral and take advantage of your company’s resources. She should ask every single candidate some variation on the same 10 questions, which will allow her to develop a baseline and spot great responses.

Your scorecard should reflect the hallmarks of your best reps. Let’s say one of the traits you’re looking for is a desire to learn. Each interviewer should rate the candidate’s desire to learn on a scale of 10, allowing you to develop an average score.

(Of course, you don’t need to use a 1-10 scale — figure out a grading convention that works for you and your team.)

The scorecard should also have a section for an overall recommendation: Strong Yes, Yes, No, Strong No.

Sales Interview Questions

If you’re interviewing for an entry-level sales position, prompts like “Tell me about a time when …” and “Describe your usual process for X” aren’t very helpful because chances are the candidate has little to none traditional sales experience.

Instead, opt for hypothetical questions. Here are a few examples:

  • “What would you do if …?”
  • “Imagine you’re in X situation. How do you react?”

However, if you’re interviewing a candidate who’s held a selling role in the past, you should ask a mixture of hypothetical and real questions.

To give you an idea, you might ask, “Describe a time your prospect went dark. What did you do?” , followed by, “If you got on a call with a prospect and there were three people on the line whom you weren’t expecting and had never met before, what would you do?”

This gives you a chance to gauge both their experience and innate abilities.

Your questions should cover the following:

  • Selling skills (qualifying, asking questions, objection-handling, presenting, negotiating, etc.)
  • Behavior and personality
  • Motivation

And if you have specific requirements — like technical knowledge, familiarity with a certain industry or product type, relationships with a given set of people — make sure to dig into these during the interview as well.

Be prepared to answer questions about your company, the role, and your product as well. Good salespeople will want to know:

  • What your sales process is like
  • How territories are allocated
  • How you approach training
  • What the ramp-up period is like
  • Which tools your team uses
  • Which challenges new and veteran salespeople face
  • What distinguishes your top performers from your average ones
  • If there’s a clear promotion path
  • Which metrics they’ll be measured on
  • What a typical day in the office is like
  • Which personality types are most successful
  • How salary and commissions work

Make sure everyone on your interview team knows the answers to these (and that you’re all saying the same things).

8. Make an offer.

After you’ve progressed several candidates to the final stage, hold a roundtable discussion with every member of the interview process.

Because the only thing more time-consuming and expensive than hiring someone is firing them and finding a replacement, your team should take this decision very seriously. Listen to everyone’s opinions, encourage them to express their reservations, and default to “no”.

Most employers extend the offer over the phone first. If the candidate verbally accepts, they send a formal offer letter. This saves you from spending time writing the offer only to have the candidate say they don’t want the job.

If the candidate wants a few days to consider your offer, give them the time. You should also let them know you’re happy to answer any of their questions.

Once you send the letter, they may attempt to negotiate salary or other terms. It’s up to you whether you negotiate or not — most sales organizations pay the same base/variable salary to all the salespeople in that role. It’s then up to the reps to over-perform if they want to make more money.

Of course, the ability to negotiate is a key part of a salesperson’s job … so it may be a positive sign when a candidate comes back with several requests.

Are you in the enviable position of having more salespeople you want to hire than open positions? Don’t reject them and forget they ever existed. A few months down the line, you’ll probably be hiring again.

When you give them the news, make it clear you were impressed with their application and would love to have them on your team. Request to stay in touch with future opportunities. Every three months or so, shoot them an email asking them how they’re doing — and when you do have an open slot, ask them personally to apply.

9. Measure and tweak.

Keep track of every aspect of your hiring process. Double down on what’s working, and experiment with the less successful components.

What does that look like in practice? Let’s say you implemented a formal hiring process eight months ago. Most of the highest-performing reps from the first cohort came from a recruiting firm. With that in mind, you should decrease your investment in other channels and ramp up your budget with the agency.

You also notice that it takes roughly one week longer to hire salespeople when you have an intro screening call before the first in-person interview, but the interview-to-offer ratio is three times higher. In other words, adding seven days is probably worth it because you end up filtering out lots of poor fits that will otherwise suck up interviewing time.

Master Your Sales Hiring Process

Master the sales hiring process, and you'll have a competitive advantage. Follow these tips to get top candidates that stick around and help your business grow.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in September 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

06 Aug 17:16

Scaling Your Sales Team? Don’t Make These 12 Dangerous Mistakes

by Meg Prater

More salespeople equals more sales, right? Wrong. Scaling your sales team is crucial to growing a healthy business. Do it at the right time, and your company will grow exponentially. Do it at the wrong time, and your company could shutter within six months.

Don’t just hire with your gut. Take a strategic approach to scaling your sales team, and make smart hiring decisions that will benefit your organization for years to come. Check out these 12 mistakes to avoid when scaling your sales organization.

Download Now: Sales Training & Onboarding Template [Free Tool]

1. Overpopulating Territories

Scaling your sales team almost always means bringing on new reps. And while that's exciting in its own right, it means that you — as a sales leader — have more balls in the air.

That means more room for error — particularly when it comes to misallocating staff or accidentally overpopulating your existing territories. Successfully scaling a sales team means optimizing efficiency, and if you haphazardly scatter your new hires around, you won't see their full potential and will likely stunt your existing team's operations.

So, how do you avoid that dilemma? Well, you start by looking at three key factors: A territory's potential, its existing accounts, and your reps' broader workload.

Do you have sufficient green space in the territory? Are your current customers in the area productive and satisfied? And do your reps in the region have the bandwidth and energy to get more out of it?

With that information in mind, you can get a better picture of what kind of hires you can make for a given territory — if you need to make any at all.

2. Hiring Out of Desperation

A lot of time can pass between determining you need headcount, receiving budgetary approval, posting a job listing, and thinning the herd of candidates down to a top three.

And while maintaining thorough attention to detail throughout that process is key, that extended period of "hiring limbo" can take a toll on your team — but you can't let that frustration have too much bearing on your decision.

Don't hire someone you're not sold on out of convenience. Have a firm rubric for what you want and expect out of your candidates. If you want someone with a background in SaaS, don't settle for someone who thinks SaaS is an attitude.

Low-quality hires dilute your team's collective talent, can mess with your culture, and ultimately undermine your sales org's results. Make sure you make the best hires you can — even if it takes a while — and your team and business will benefit as you continue to scale.

3. Providing Insufficient Training

If you're not investing in a sensible, effective, comprehensive training program for new reps, you're selling your team short. Onboarding new hires with a single day of orientation and a few weeks of shadowing are certainly convenient — particularly for small or rapidly growing sales teams — but it makes for inconsistent and low-quality work from your reps.

You need thorough, uniform training if you want to ensure that your reps are on the same page and best-equipped to operate effectively. That kind of program sets a high, definitive bar that all of your salespeople are aware of and expected to meet.

Before hiring to fill a gap, take a look at your salespeople and decide whether training or coaching could help them perform at a higher level. If you can make existing reps more efficient, invest there before expanding your team.

4. Using Out-of-Date Compensation Plans

Compensation is the ultimate incentive. It's literally the main reason any salesperson works in the first place — so if you want to ensure that your team remains as productive as possible as it scales, you need to have a thoughtful, effective compensation plan in place.

Misaligned compensation is one of the worst wrenches you can throw in your team's direction and motivation. That's why it serves you to regularly check your plan and ensure it aligns with your quarterly business goals as your team grows.

If you’re expanding to a new territory and prospecting is a big priority for the quarter, compensate your reps accordingly. Is converting those prospects into new business the goal next quarter? Shift the bonus structure to reflect that.

For example, if you want to encourage prospecting, you might offer $100 to every rep who gives more than 10 demos in a week. This ensures reps are being rewarded for the right work. It also makes them more efficient in pushing the business toward meeting the right goals.

5. Tracking the Wrong Metrics

You can't know whether it's time to hire if you're not evaluating the right metrics, but finding them is easier said than done. One place to start is by tracking your reps' base compensation.

Once you have those figures, take a look at their variable compensation at the rate at which they meet their quota. Finally, review their average deal size and churn.

By looking at their on-target earnings, you’ll be able to determine whether your reps are working at capacity. That will give you insight into whether it’s time to hire someone new and, if so, what type of role to recruit for.

Your salespeople should be turning a profit within six months to a year of their hire date. If they’re not, it might be time to replace them or invest in training.

6. Ignoring Role Pollution

A rapidly growing sales team comes with a hefty share of administrative requirements, and if you overlook them, you'll wind up wasting your reps' precious selling time on data entry and other tedious, menial tasks.

You can't afford to pollute your senior reps' jobs by having them pull too much administrative weight — so if you're finding that those salespeople are squandering time that could be better spent selling, consider making your next hire a BDR or administrative assistant as opposed to another sales manager.

Those kinds of hires are cost-effective ways to free up your sales reps to do what they do best, alleviate unnecessary stress, and make your growing team's operations more efficient.

By that same token, you need to make sure roles aren’t being diluted. If you have reps that aren’t functioning at full capacity, see if they can take on more responsibility before making another hire. If they can’t meet the numbers you need from them, it might be time to replace them instead of hiring additional headcount.

7. Not Aligning With Marketing

Forgive the SAT word, but your sales and marketing departments need to be symbiotic — one can't productively function without the other. Even the most effective sales department can only get so far if it's not being fed high-quality leads.

So before you go ahead and hire more salespeople as your company scales, make sure your marketing team has the bandwidth and resources to generate a solid stream of prospect interest for your growing sales team to capitalize on.

Work closely with marketing leadership to gauge whether their department can meet the lead demand that an influx of new salespeople will create. If they're not equipped to meet those benchmarks, consider scaling your company's marketing team before adding to your own.

8. Spending Too Much Time Forecasting Instead of Coaching

Forecasting is crucial to gauging your team's potential success, establishing appropriate expectations, setting quotas, and putting reasonable goals in place — all of which are central components of your team's success. 

You need to forecast thoughtfully and effectively, but you can't get too fixated on the process. In some cases, the time you take to construct and refine your forecasts can run too long and encroach on time you should be spending coaching your team.

Dedicate at least a few hours each week to coaching your team. If you don't, you're selling your sales organization and individual contributors short. Set up weekly or monthly check-ins, build a mentorship program, or implement a quarterly training day.

If your reps aren’t constantly improving, it will affect their growth potential down the line. By investing time and resources into making your employees better, you might be able to accomplish more without expanding your team.

9. Over-Hiring Executive Talent

If you're fresh off a round of funding or in the thick of a high-growth period, the prospect of stacking your organization with high-powered executive talent might seem tempting.

In some cases, that could be the right move for your company, but whether it's successful or not generally hinges on one big question: "Do we have the right people in place to do the actual selling?"

If you already have a scalable and efficient sales process in place, you might be better off hiring reps to work it. If you lack that kind of direction or need a major overhaul of how your sales team sells, making that Fortune 500 hire could be in your best interest.

You don’t want to make an expensive hire that you don’t have the sales team and revenue to support — so try to have your nitty-gritty, lower-level ducks in a row before recruiting high-level talent.

10. Being Afraid to Trim Fat

If you scale strategically, you should be able to avoid making large-scale layoffs — but making periodic cuts is a natural, healthy part of how a growing business operates.

The skills you needed from your reps when your sales org was just five people might not be the same ones you need once it scales to 50. Ideally, your reps will adapt, grow, and refine your skills as your business scales, but that's not always the case.

Some of your team members might get complacent in their positions — leaning on their tenure at your company as justification for their lack of growth.

Keep a pulse on your sales team, and be honest with yourself and your current reps about whether their underperformance warrants replacing them with new hires who will bring more energy, enthusiasm, and life to your organization.

11. Setting Goals Beyond Your Reach

Ambition is obviously key to the success of any growing business — if you didn't have it, you wouldn't be scaling in the first place — but it gets away from a lot of companies as they expand.

No matter how confident you are in your sales team's ability to absolutely nail every last challenge that comes your way as you scale, you need to take a deep breath and measure your expectations.

Make sure your goals are attainable. That could mean ensuring your revenue targets are reasonable enough to let you establish quotas that your reps can hit while still keeping their feet moving.

Understand what your, your reps', and your company's limitations are at whatever stage of maturity your business is in — and adjust your ambitions accordingly.

Also, be sure to break down your broader strategic objectives into more easily digestible operational objectives to keep your reps on track and in higher spirits.

Scaling your sales team is exciting, but you can't let yourself get too excitable. Make sure you temper your ambitions and set objectives that your sales team can reach — if you do this right, you'll put yourself in a good position to hit those high-minded goals, further down the line.

12. Disregarding Retention

You can't scale a sales team without bringing on new customers — that's more or less how scaling happens in the first place — but you can't get fixated on that process exclusively. You have to understand how to retain customers before you start hitting new markets.

Getting to work and focusing strictly on acquisition is a tempting prospect for scaling sales teams — but don't let yourself fall into that trap. A close rate of 25% in a new market doesn't do too much for you if your churn rate within it is 50%.

Take the proper strides to keep your new customers on board. Make sure your reps are keeping in touch with the customers they bring in, ensuring that they're thriving with your product or service. Also, make sure your company has a solid customer support infrastructure in place to keep your customers satisfied.

Acquiring a customer is more expensive than retaining one, and while you can't scale if you rest on your laurels and avoid pursuing new business, you'll undermine your growth if you can't keep your existing base.

Make the right hires at the right time, and avoid these mistakes along the way — and your sales team, executive leadership, company at large, and bottom line will all thank you.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in September 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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06 Aug 17:15

How to Improve Your Sales Team’s RFP Close Rate

by Sujan Patel

salesperson doing paperwork

ganesh shankar

What’s your sales team’s current RFP close rate? Whether or not it’s as high as you’d like, you may be surprised to hear that Ganesh Shankar of RFPIO states that “the common win rate for RFPs is less than 5%.”

Following these numbers, for every 20 proposals the average vendor sends, only one will be successful. And with many companies investing 20-40 hours into each RFP response, that’s a lot of wasted time and money.

For example, suppose you have an Inside Technical Sales Rep completing RFPs for your team, and this rep earns a salary of 50 thousand dollars annually (roughly equivalent to 24 dollars per hour).

If the average size of your proposals is 25 thousand dollars and you successfully close one proposal out of 20, you’ve gained 25 thousand dollars in net new business. But you’ve also lost an average of 30 hours for each of the other 19 proposals. 

At an average hourly rate of 24 dollars, that’s a loss of 13,680 dollars (before taking into account opportunity costs, overhead and other variables).

Though it’s unlikely you’ll achieve a one-hundred percent closed-won rate, reducing the number of unsuccessful proposals sent saves your company both time and money.

In this article you will find a list of suggestions and best practices to help Sales Leaders improve their sales team’s RFP close rates.

Have a “Go/No-Go” Opt-Out Point

Here’s a really simple way to improve your RFP close rate: only apply to projects you’re likely to get.

Imagine a batch of 20 RFPs. In it, maybe five will be a good fit for your company. The other 15 are either bad opportunities or projects you’d have to stretch to complete, in terms of project fit or resources required to submit an RFP.

  • If you apply to all 20 and win one, your close rate will be 5%.
  • If you weed out the 15 that aren’t a good fit and win one of the remaining five, your close rate will be 20%.

Not only have you upped your close rate, you’ve also saved all the time and money you would have wasted on inappropriate proposals.

Adam Boyd

 

Adam Boyd, in a LinkedIn Pulse article, describes it this way:

 

“Not all RFPs are created equal, and you don’t have an equal shot at winning them all. Know when to say, ‘This isn’t in our wheelhouse, and is too expensive a use of time to pursue.”

For example:

  • If you apply to all 20 and win one:
    Your close rate will be 5 percent and you’ve earned 25 thousand dollars in net new business. You will have invested 600 hours (30 hours per RFP) and 14,440 dollars (24 dollars per hour). Your RFP productivity rate (total new business divided by amount of work hours) is 42 dollars per hour.
  • If you weed out the 15 unfit proposals, apply for five and win one:
    Your close rate will be 20 percent and you’ve earned 25 thousand dollars in net new business. You will have invested 150 hours and 3,600 dollars. Because you were more selective, you RFP RFP scoring checklistproductivity rate is now $166.67 per hour.

Developing an in-house checklist or scoring system for evaluating RFP opportunities can help you determine where your opt-out point lies. Bob Lohfeld, CEO of Lohfeld Consulting Group, suggests asking the following seven questions to filter RFPs accordingly:

  1. Do we understand the customer’s mission and the work to be performed?
  2. Do we have a solution that will help the customer achieve its mission and contract objectives?
  3. Do we have a relationship with this customer through meetings or prior contract performance?
  4. Do we know who we are competing against and can we beat them?
  5. Do we have a teaming strategy and can we get the right subcontractors?
  6. Do we know what price we need to bid to win and can we achieve it profitably?
  7. Do we have a compelling win strategy?

John Auer

 

If you’re concerned about missing out on potentially-good projects, consider the advice of Sales Benchmark Index’s Principal, John Auer:

 

“In some cases, opting-out can actually be a more effective differentiator than participating in the RFP.  For example, prospects may show their hand and confess they were looking forward to your proposal. If this is the case, you’ve just learned a valuable piece of information that could very well result in a win.”

If you don’t receive such a confession, you’ve saved time; but if you do, you’ve gained valuable insight into whether or not the RFP will be an effective time investment. It’s a win-win.

Work from a Proposal Template

As you pare down the number of RFPs you’re actually responding to, you can save even more time by developing a proposal template. This will minimize the amount of time you spend “reinventing the wheel” to develop every response.

RFP templateYou won’t be able to anticipate every Q&A you’ll encounter ahead of time. But developing stock copy for your executive summary and adding new Q&A responses to a central document – which you can draw from again in the future – can trim huge amounts of time off your RFP process.

For example, working from a template cuts the average time required to complete and submit a proposal from 30 hours per RFP to 10 hours. This time decrease would increase your RFP productivity rate to 500 dollars per hour (based on the metrics provided at the beginning of the article.

To calculate your RFP productivity rate, use the formula below:

Net new business amount / (number of RFPs x total hours worked)

Use a Non-Traditional Response Process

That said, just because you’re working from an RFP proposal template doesn’t mean your responses have to come across as formulaic. A non-traditional response process can minimize the burden of RFP completion on your team members, while also helping your company stand out from other applicants.

mike drapeau

 

According to Mike Drapeau, Partner at Sales Benchmark Index:

 

“Think George Costanza. Remember the episode when he did the opposite of everything his instinct was telling him to do and the results were off the charts? That is the approach you should use in developing your RFP strategy. Conventional wisdom is dead wrong.

So what does a non-traditional response process look like? Possible ideas include:

  • A highly-abbreviated executive summary section that eliminates corporate navel-gazing in favor of prioritizing value statements targeted to recipients.
  • Calling out requirements that are missing from the RFP (likely because they were overlooked by a procurement committee) to quickly establish expertise.
  • Offering extremely-detailed Q&A responses that are likely to exceed competitors’ proposals and impress companies with their comprehensive nature.

Another non-traditional RFP response option comes from Board Studios, which offers three suggestions for incorporating rich media into your RFPs:

  • Create a simple mini-site that shows off your USP and answers key questions.
  • Use infographics or professionally-designed process-flow images in your proposals.
  • Produce an explainer video in lieu of your executive summary.

Some industries – tech companies, for example, versus more staid banking and legal services – may be more receptive to the use of new media than others. But don’t be afraid to experiment by pushing boundaries. Standing out may be enough to get your proposal the close read it wouldn’t otherwise receive.

Think about how proposals are typically handled in your industry, and then – like George Costanza – consider doing the opposite.

Build Relationships Before RFP Responses

In most cases, you aren’t allowed to contact company representatives to make a personal appeal during the RFP process. That’s why it’s important that you continually invest in expanding your network before the process begins.

pre-rfp sales effortsCompanies need to know who you are before they receive your proposal. According to data gathered by The Seibert Group, 40 percent of your success comes down to your pre-RFP sales efforts:

“You must be actively selling to the buyer in the 12 to 18 months before the RFP is released. If they don’t know you before the RFP, your chances of winning are low.”

In practice, this means actively networking with future prospects, using both direct and indirect approaches. Cold calls and an active presence at industry events are important, but you may also find it helpful to use content marketing, social media marketing and other campaigns to build thought leadership around your company.  

Stephanie Czajka

 

Stephanie Czajka, Project Manager at the Weidert Group, suggests that:

 

“The more you’re already present in prospects’ eyes because of your content, the more your company will be included on buyers’ “short lists.” In digital terms, you can think about this as a search process. When prospects are looking for answers to their questions related to your business, they’ll query Google, and if your content article shows up, then they’re more likely to read about you, and you’re more likely to be included on their short list.”

Further, Czajka argues, transforming your company into a respected thought leader through proper inbound marketing may remove the RFP from the equation entirely. “In cases where an RFP is optional, the buyer will naturally move to the subjective choice of a trusted advisor or resource.”

Simply put, if a buyer needs a vendor but decides not to proceed with the RFP process, the thought leadership you’ve built around your brand will make you a natural candidate to fill the spot.

Monitor Your RFP Success Rate

rfp metricsRegardless of which of the above strategies you choose to implement, one of the best things your sales team can do is monitor the metrics surrounding your RFP process.

Specific variables to track include:

  • Amount of RFPs received
  • Number of RFPs responded to vs. opted-out of
  • Number of RFPs closed
  • Value of closed RFPs vs. value of unsuccessful RFPs
  • Average amount of time required to complete RFPs

The data you gather here can play a role in improving your close rate, if you use it effectively.

Suppose you notice that from Q1 to Q2, your number of closed-won projects fell from 30 to 20. If, at the same time, you’ve tracked the total number of hours invested into each proposal and found that it too decreased from 20 hours per RFP to 10 hours, this is a signal that you need to invest more time into your proposal process.

Proposal analytics programs may be useful in identifying these types of trends. But even choosing to run your calculations by hand will put you ahead of competitors who aren’t as invested in monitoring their RFP metrics.

Be Smart About RFPs to Boost Your Close Rate

Success with RFPs comes down to approaching the process more thoughtfully than your competitors.

Use the data at hand to your advantage as you experiment with non-traditional RFP strategies and ongoing networking. Your 5% or less close rate will quickly become a thing of the past.

 

The post How to Improve Your Sales Team’s RFP Close Rate appeared first on Peak Sales Recruiting.

06 Aug 17:14

Why Product Qualified Leads Are Rapidly Being Adopted in SaaS  

by Mickey Alon

Leveraging in-product behavior as a leading indicator of buyer intent

To date, B2B software companies have relied on marketing qualified leads (MQLs) as a way to determine when someone shows buying intent. As a key qualifier for passing leads along to sales, MQLs have long held a prominent spot in the metrics that matter. But the MQL is giving way to a new, more relevant metric that promises to provide Software as a Service (SaaS) companies in particular with a meaningful way to measure and track their success: product qualified leads (PQLs).

Evolving the Customer Acquisition Process

As we discussed in our book – “Mastering Product Experience in SaaS” – a number of factors have converged to elevate PQLs to the top of the heap for SaaS companies:

  • Economic realities of the SaaS business model
  • The rise of the empowered buyer
  • The consumerization of business software
  • The ability to track and analyze buyer intent during a trial or proof of concept

Before the introduction of the SaaS business model, enterprise software businesses called upon a high-touch, sales-led approach to developing leads. They relied on customer meetings, demos, proof-of-concept deployments and the like to convert prospects to customers.

The SaaS model enabled companies to ship software more often, iterate faster, and develop a more effective customer acquisition strategy. However, after the introduction of the SaaS model,  customer expectations changed because of the confluence of two new realities:

  1. Their ability to validate it’s the right solution for them by simply trying the software using only a web browser
  2. The lower risk associated with SaaS because of the smaller upfront investment and the customer’s ability to opt-out without taking a big financial hit

Combined, these factors led to a rapid uptake of self-service options for buyers of business software.

These realities forced SaaS companies to rethink their sales-centric customer acquisition model because it wasn’t delivering the necessary margin to balance customer acquisition cost (CAC) and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Hiring an army of enterprise sales reps would not make economic sense as their salaries would trump the income they generated for the company. As a result, we saw the rise of the marketing-centric customer acquisition model.

SaaS companies started using digital marketing strategies as a new way of reaching out and qualifying leads. enabling them to effectively raise awareness and create demand at scale. To ensure lead prioritization, marketing has to nurture those hundreds of potential leads and effectively qualify their buyer intent before passing them to sales reps. This became known as the marketing-led approach.

This new customer acquisition process drives prospects through a sequence of inbound and outbound engagements to fill out lead forms in exchange for content such as white papers, webinars, and the like meant to educate buyers about the product. This model fits nicely with the rise of empowered, self-educated B2B buyers who hold sales at arm’s length until they are far along in their research process. Essentially, marketing and content took the place of the interactions these prospects would have had with sales professionals.

Once a lead has satisfied certain criteria, marketing passes it to sales as a marketing qualified lead (MQL). Only at this point are buyers given initial access to the product in the form of a demo. However, even this approach has been upended by the growing desire prospects express for trying products before buying.

Spoiled by their experiences using consumer applications, B2B buyers prefer access to business software earlier in the buying cycle via free trials or freemium pricing models. It’s no wonder so many of the fastest growing enterprise companies – including Slack, Zenefits, Dropbox, inVision, Github, Atlassian, and many others – rely on free trials or freemiums.

The MQL Model Mismatch

Before we further explore this new approach to customer acquisition, let’s dissect the shortcomings of MQLs.

The MQL scoring model is meant to try and identify which prospect actions are considered indicative of buying intent. The model is highly subjective, rule-based and relies on basic activities such as website visits, email opens, webinars and gated content downloads. It is missing a critical element when it comes to SaaS companies, whereby potential customers expect to educate themselves by experiencing the product firsthand. By overlooking this component of the buying experience, SaaS companies are effectively robbing themselves of the chance to gain greater visibility into buyer intent through product usage.

Using the generic MQL model, companies might miss out on highly qualified leads as indicated by clear product usage signals. That’s because the MQL model would overlook leads that didn’t respond to a specific marketing program or are marked as “unqualified” in their database. No wonder SaaS companies find themselves generating conversions on average conversion just 5 to 15 percent of the time.

In fact, while the research findings vary, the average SaaS conversion rate from lead to won deal tends to be anywhere from 1 to 10 percent. Simply put, marketing and sales spends a majority of its resources on leads that will never convert. To drive enough revenues from these conversion rates, marketing works hard to pump even more leads into the funnel. It is largely these ineffective lead generation strategies emphasizing quantity over quality that lie at the heart of sales and marketing misalignment.

Essentially, this added a step to the qualification process, giving the sales team a chance to validate that MQLs were truly qualified leads from their perspective. However, even sales qualified leads (SQLs) fall short because the process for marking a lead as an SQL also relies on vetting the prospective buyer against a set of criteria that varies by organization. For instance, a sales development rep (SDR) might be required to call an MQL to determine the buyer’s BANT (Budget, Authority, Needs and Timeline). Or it may be a matter of checking to see whether the lead has visited the pricing page.

While these activities may be more closely associated with the product in question, none truly confirm that someone is likely to buy the product.

All those signals might fall short in predicting if prospects will actually find the SaaS solution relevant, simply because they are not given an opportunity to assess the solution firsthand. In fact, in many  cases, leads are drawn in by strong marketing messages and the right buzzwords, only to realize the solution isn’t a good fit once they get a chance to see a demo  or start using it.

The best indicator that someone is strongly interested in buying software is that they are actively using it. That is why the product channel is becoming the main communication channel and a key part of the marketing strategy for SaaS companies.

Enter the Product-Led Go-to-Market Strategy

SaaS companies are focused on driving prospects to see a demo or try their products through free trials and freemium models to accelerate their customer acquisition process. By skipping the cumbersome MQL/SQL process and instead generating high-quality leads with strong and clear product usage signals associated with demographics and firmographic data, they can deliver initial value to those prospects and close deals faster. This is known as a Product Qualified Lead (PQL),i.e., a prospect that signed up and demonstrated buying intent based on product interest, usage, and fits your target customer criteria.

We strongly believe that a PQL it is the key metric and model for SaaS companies going forward. Moreover, it’s highly applicable to the self-service model at the heart of the B2B “try-before-you-buy” movement.

To support this new approach, SaaS companies have replaced their market-led go-to-market (GTM) strategy with a product-led go-to-market (GTM) strategy. In a product-led GTM strategy, the product becomes a crucial and irreplaceable part of every step of how a company prepares to reach and engage prospective customers. In fact, OpenView, a venture capital firm, says a product is a key part of a company’s marketing.

To understand how a product-led GTM changes the customer acquisition process, consider the customer lifecycle in a marketing-led GTM. As shown below, a good portion of that process occurs outside of the product.

In product enagements

Now contrast this with the process often used by companies that embrace a product-led GTM approach, as shown below. In this approach, the majority of the process revolves around in-product engagements.

In product enagements

In the product-led approach, the customer lifecycle shifts more into the elevated axis area where product behavior becomes essential in guiding users and customers through the lifecycle. In fact, sales, marketing, product, and customer success can call upon product usage data to efficiently move prospects through the customer acquisition process. Furthermore, it is easier for these teams to agree on the definition of a PQL. That’s because this metric calls upon more concrete data compared with the way that MQLs/SQLs are defined. Whenever prospects realize initial value and reach PQL status, there is a high chance they will convert into paying customers or qualify for up-sell/cross-sell opportunities.

Ready to master the SaaS product experience? Access the free guide here.

Your success as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company is completely dependent on acquiring and keeping users in your product. But if you’re using traditional marketing tactics, you’re likely struggling to scale your business quickly. That’s because conventional marketing techniques focus on engaging prospects and users outside of the product.

The post Why Product Qualified Leads Are Rapidly Being Adopted in SaaS   appeared first on OpenView Labs.

06 Aug 17:14

4 Ways Sales Can Win Over Buyers By Selling ROI

by Alex Hisaka
  • buyers-with-ROI

Our new State of Sales report surfaced an interesting insight: B2B sales pros find return on investment (ROI) to be far more important than price in closing a deal. While buyers might not say they agree, that’s likely because ROI is more nuanced than a simple price point.

By putting ROI at the forefront of sales calls and meetings, your sales team can get buyers to recognize and prioritize the ultimate return over cost. In the process, your reps will overcome a common sales momentum barrier. Here are four ways to change the conversation in your favor.

Lead With Numbers

Businesspeople are accustomed to thinking in data-driven terms, so your sales team shouldn’t be afraid to lead with numbers. Numbers speak volumes, especially when it comes to helping your buyers make their internal business case. With statistics and metrics more readily available than ever before, there’s no excuse for leaving them out of conversations and pitches.

If your organization has figured out the aggregate return on investment across its customer base, encourage your reps to share that number. Or perhaps they can cherry-pick the ROI stats of companies in the same industry as their prospects. Better yet, if possible, task your dev team with creating an ROI calculator that allows your team to plug in numbers so reps can show the potential ROI for their specific buyers and their companies.

Personalize Pitches

Continuing with this theme, it’s a must for your sales professionals to customize their pitches to each prospect’s specific business. Today’s buyers expect personalization at every turn and outright reject most things generic. It’s a real turnoff when reps deliver cookie-cutter presentations to prospects who have advanced past the initial research stage.

Knowledgeable, prepared buyers expect today’s sellers to be just as knowledgeable and prepared, so your reps need to make sure their meetings stand up to scrutiny. Based on the buyer’s situation, needs, and priorities, they should dig up relevant industry benchmarks and other real-life numbers to frame their examples and discussion points.

Let Marketing Enable Your Team

As your reps seek ways to tell a compelling ROI story, check with your marketing colleagues for messaging. They should be able to supply a customizable narrative that position your reps to deliver stronger economic insights.

These value messages might be contained in existing decks, or conveyed in written and video case studies. Marketing might even be able to provide an interactive benchmark survey that prospects can fill out to determine how they compare to their peers – and how much they stand to gain by abandoning the status quo. Simply put, marketing should be able to equip your team with messages that clearly convey the value of investing in your solution.

When your reps are preparing to share ROI-laden content with prospects, tell them to take advantage of PointDrive. The integrated PointDrive functionality in LinkedIn Sales Navigator allows them to professionally package up and seamlessly deliver content. Rather than send an email with a bunch of attachments, they can send a link to relevant documents, PDFs, videos, testimonials, articles, and more housed on landing pages unique to each prospect. This makes it easy for buyers to access the information they find most relevant, whether they are on a desktop computer, smartphone, or tablet. Plus, it means you and your reps can track the recipient’s consumption and sharing of that content.

Optimize Your Content Strategy

Ideally your marketing team calls upon SEO best practices to influence prospects at every stage of the buying cycle. You can pave the way for ROI-focused conversations by working with your marketing department to ensure buyers realize the importance of ROI before they reach sales.

Specifically, marketing should customize your company’s SEO and content strategy to target buyers focusing more on ROI than on price. It should also develop content that “trains” buyers to be less sensitive to price. And don’t forget: sharing and distributing content through social channels helps boost visibility and rankings in the search engines. So be sure your reps share that ROI-focused content on their LinkedIn profiles and in other relevant online channels.

Emotions at Play

Lastly, as your team focuses on conveying return over cost, remind them that emotion still plays into the buying process. When they show how a prospect’s company will realize ROI, they should paint the buyer as the hero of the story. If they do so, their pitches will strike a chord – and be more likely to find their way into the prospect’s business case for your solution.

For more ways to work the odds in your favor, download Proof Positive: Easily Measure and Maximize Sales ROI. 

      
06 Aug 17:08

30 Sales Apps Every Rep Needs on Their Phone in 2023

by ebrudner@hubspot.com (Emma Brudner)

Salespeople are constantly on the go, meeting with clients, flying out to give a presentation, or running to a team training. Accordingly, access to the best sales apps is necessary for the modern salesperson to stay connected.

Besides company software, salespeople can utilize productivity, educational, travel, sales tools, and other just plain useful apps for work to optimize their time away from their desks.

Here are some of our favorites.

Learn More About HubSpot's Sales Software

Table of Contents

CRM and Sales Productivity Apps

Tracking deals and staying on top of follow-up communication are paramount for any sales rep. Here are some apps to help you cross everything off your to-do list and shepherd your deals down the pipeline.

Before you read on, check out this video to learn about some of the top mobile apps for sales.

1. HubSpot Mobile App

Get started with the mobile CRM for free

HubSpot is an industry-leading CRM platform with a sleek and easy-to-use mobile app. Oh yeah, and it’s free! Using HubSpot’s mobile CRM, logging contacts and calls and keeping track of your deals will be a breeze.

What we like: HubSpot CRM makes it easy to stay connected with your team. With features like document sharing, meeting scheduling, and live chat, you and your team will always be connected with prospects.

Pricing: Free

2. ClickUp

Keep track of to-do’s, collaborate on tasks, annotate PDFs with prospects, and more with this all-in-one productivity platform. ClickUp can be the central software hub for your business with its deep set of productivity features.

You can also use ClickUp as a CRM, project management solution, or a tool for keeping teams connected through remote work.

Best for: Teams that want to consolidate their software needs into as few tools as possible.

Pricing

  • Basic: Free
  • Unlimited: $5 per user a month
  • Business: $12 per user a month
  • Business Plus: $19 per user a month
  • Enterprise pricing upon request

3. Asana

Asana is a task management app that will keep your team on track by organizing all daily tasks into one place. You can build timelines and set goals within the app to ensure you and your reps can focus on engaging with potential customers and closing deals.

Pro tip: You can create templates for common workflows like your sales pipeline and customer implementation. You can close faster and onboard customers more efficiently using repeatable best practices.

Pricing

  • Basic: Free
  • Premium: $10.99 per user a month
  • Business: $24.99 per user a month

4. Trello

Trello is a project management solution that helps you stay on track using Kanban boards to visualize work and maximize efficiency. Use Trello to create sales workflows that the whole team can get behind, from nurturing leads to closing deals.

Pro tip: Trello offers 11 template sales boards so you can hit the ground running.

Pricing

  • Standard: $5.00 per user a month
  • Premium: $10.00 per user a month
  • Enterprise pricing upon request

Sales Rep Communication Apps

Salespeople need to be expert communicators. These apps will help you stay connected with both your team and prospects.

5. Slack

iOS | Android

Slack is an industry-leading workplace communication app. Slack stands for Searchable Log of All Conversations and Knowledge, which is accurate.

Not only is Slack a very reliable way to communicate with your team, but you can also search your organization's entire history of conversations and attachments, so nothing gets lost in translation.

What we like: Slack supports multiple integrations with popular products like Google Calendar, Outlook, HubSpot, and more. You can also find some fun integrations like Giphy that lets you search a library of animated gifs when words just can’t fully capture what you’re feeling.

Pricing

  • Basic: Free
  • Pro: $7.25 per user a month
  • Business+: $12.50 per user a month
  • Enterprise pricing upon request

6. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the ubiquitous professional network that we all know and love. Don't walk into a meeting without first looking at the person's LinkedIn profile. With the mobile app, you can always stay up to date on your prospects’ experience and be ready with the right angle to sell.

Pro tip: Consider LinkedIn Premium for access to even more illuminating insights. LinkedIn Premium lets you see who has been viewing your profile, which can be very helpful when identifying sales opportunities.

Pricing

  • Free
  • Linkedin Premium Career: $29.99 monthly
  • Linkedin Premium Business: $59.99 monthly
  • Linkedin Sales Navigator: $99.99 monthly

7. Zoom

Zoom offers HD video, meeting encryption, team chat, transcription, and recording. Zoom's app has it all. Add this handy app to your mobile device so you can hop on video calls whenever, wherever. Download free and get going.

What we like: Zoom has recently become the industry leader in video meetings. Their mobile app is thoughtfully designed and reliable.

Pricing

  • Basic: Free
  • Pro: $149.90 per user a year
  • Business: $199.90 per user a year
  • Business Plus: $250.00 per user a year
  • Enterprise pricing upon request

8. WhatsApp

This free messaging app lets you send messages and make calls anywhere in the world with an internet connection.

Pro tip: WhatsApp is very popular overseas. WhatsApp may be necessary if you do business internationally (especially in countries without access to Google and Meta services).

Pricing: Free

Sales Rep Organizational Software

These apps will help you keep your documents, contacts, and presentations in working order so you can focus less on housekeeping and more on closing.

9. HubSpot Mobile Card Scanner

Try our free business card scanner.

Never worry about misplacing a business card again. The HubSpot Mobile Card Scanner digitizes cards with a simple photo and automatically saves the information to your phone's contacts.

What we like: HubSpot Mobile Card Scanner will automatically enter data into your CRM.

Pricing: Free

10. Keynote

Keynote is the flagship presentation software from Apple. Using its user-friendly mobile app, you can stay on top of your slide decks from anywhere, no laptop required.

What we like: The interface is intuitive and attractive, making updates to your decks just a little better.

Pricing: Free

File Storage and Document Signing Apps for Sales

A lot of paperwork goes into selling. There are contracts to sign, term sheets; you name it. So keep your documents organized and secured in the cloud with these file storage and document signing apps.

11. CamScanner

CamScanner is a high-quality document-scanning app with text recognition (OCR) and intelligent auto-crop features. CamScanner also allows you to edit PDFs on the go and sync across all your devices.

Pro tip: CamScanner also allows you to sign PDFs to close deals on the go.

Pricing

  • Basic: Free
  • Premium: $4.99 per month
  • Business: $6.99 a user per month

12. Dropbox

Dropbox is a stalwart cloud storage solution. It’s reliable and easy to use. Need to send or receive a large file? Enter Dropbox's mobile app. Never again see the "this file is too large to send" error message.

Pro tip: Dropbox also offers Dropbox Sign (formerly HelloSign), so you can streamline contract signing and even embed eSignatures into websites and apps.

Pricing

  • Standard: $15 a user per month
  • Advanced: $24 a user per month
  • Enterprise pricing upon request

13. DocuSign

When a prospect is ready to commit to a contract, a rep will get them to sign, come hell or high water. If your organization uses an eSignature system such as DocuSign, download the corresponding mobile app to enable prospects to sign wherever, whenever.

What we like: DocuSign makes it simple to get signatures and close deals. You’ll no longer need to rely on your prospect to hand-sign a document, scan it, and send it back to you. Instead, DocuSign takes care of it without either party needing to leave the browser.

Pricing

  • Basic: Free
  • Personal: $10 monthly
  • Standard: $25 per user a month
  • Business Pro $40 per user a month
  • Enterprise pricing upon request

Note-Taking Apps for Salespeople

It’s important not to let details slip through the cracks as a salesperson. These apps will make taking notes a pleasure, so you’ll never need to worry about missing any details.

14. Evernote

Evernote is a top-of-the-line note-taking app and much more. Evernote can be the productivity hub for your whole team, with features like tasks, calendars, document scanning, and multi-device sync to keep you and your team connected from anywhere.

Bonus: Evernote also offers voice-to-text transcription

Pricing

  • Basic: Free
  • Personal: $8.99 monthly
  • Professional: $10.99 monthly
  • Teams: $14.99 a user per month

15. Notejoy

Notejoy is a note-taking solution with a focus on productivity and collaboration. Notejoy allows you to attach any type of docs to notes, clip web pages, edit notes collaboratively, make checklists, and chat with your team directly in the app.

Pro tip: Notejoy integrates with HubSpot so that you can take notes directly in your CRM.

Pricing

  • Basic: free
  • Solo: $4 monthly
  • Pro: $8 per user a month
  • Premium: $12 per user a month

16. Dragon

Not into written notes? Dragon is a professional-grade dictation and transcription app that automatically transcribes your spoken word to text on your phone.

What we like: Dragon boasts 99% accuracy, so you won’t have to worry about awkward incorrect transcriptions when writing emails or notes.

Pricing

  • $15/month or $150/year
  • Enterprise pricing upon request

17. Just Press Record

Just Press Record is an award-winning mobile audio recording app that will help you record meetings, notes, and conversations on the go.

Of course, your phone likely already has a recording app. Still, Just Press Record is a notch above, with features like automatic transcription, folder organization of voice memos, Apple Watch integration, and seamless iCloud syncing.

What we like: The interface is simple and beautiful. With just one big red button to begin recording, it's not only easy, but you’ll want to keep track of your phone calls and meetings with this app.

Pricing: A one-time purchase of $4.99

Knowledge-Based Apps for Salespeople

Education is a continuing endeavor. Salespeople who want to stay sharp should check out these apps to keep up with industry trends and optimize development.

18. Feedly

Traveling is no excuse for falling behind on your industry news. Subscribe to your favorite blogs on Feedly and peruse them on the go via the RSS reader's mobile app.

What we like: Feedly’s AI engine can build a custom feed based on your interests and industry.

Pricing

  • Basic: Free
  • Pro: $6 monthly
  • Pro+: $8.25 monthly
  • Enterprise pricing upon request

19. Pocket

If you stumble upon an article or webpage you want to read but don’t have the time, don’t sweat it. Instead, save it to Pocket so you can read it later. Tags and search features make it easy to go back and explore meaningful articles.

What we like: Pocket will curate recommended articles based on your preferences and the history of articles you save.

Pricing

  • Basic: Free
  • Premium: $4.99 a month or $44.99 a year

20. MindTools

MindTools is an on-demand career and management learning platform to help you level up in your professional life. MindTools offers resources for people of all professions, but salespeople specifically can advance their careers with the help of their sales training resources.

What we like: MindTools gives you access to 200+ interviews with experts, so you can be sure you are learning from the best.

Pricing: $27 a month or $270 a year

Sales Apps for Travel

Traveling can be a big part of the job for some reps, and it isn’t always easy. So check out these sales apps that can take care of travel logistics and put your mind at ease.

21. Headspace

Traveling can take a lot out of you. Use headspace to keep your mental health in check and stay focused when it counts. Headspace gives you access to guided meditations and mindfulness workshops that are beloved by many, with over 70 million downloads.

Pro tip: Headspace offers a Headspace for Work plan so you can empower your whole team with mindfulness and reduce stress and burnout.

Pricing: $12.99 monthly or $69.99 yearly

22. Expensify

Uber rides, client dinners, hotel rooms — there are many expenses when you’re a salesperson on the road. Expensify lets you track expenses, scan receipts, pay bills, track mileage, and even book travel.

Pro tip: Expensify’s business credit card makes expense reports even more straightforward, and you get a bonus of 4% cash back on all purchases.

Pricing

  • Basic: Free
  • Collect: $5 a user per month with Expensify Card — $10 without
  • Control: $9 a user per month with Expensify Card — $18 without

23. Google Maps

You're probably familiar with this one. Google Maps is a modern-day necessity for navigation, public transportation, walking directions, and more. Don’t leave home without this one.

Pro tip: Use pins and stars to mark prospects, favorite restaurants, and places you want to visit on the map so you can stay in the know no matter where you are.

Pricing: Free

24. Yelp

A rep's gotta eat. Use Yelp to find the best restaurants wherever you are, and check out the reviews and pictures of the food so you can decide what you want to order before you even get to the restaurant.

Pro tip: Yelp has more than just restaurants. Need a dry cleaner or an oil change? Yelp has you covered.

Pricing: Free

25. Resy

Not only do sales reps need to eat, but taking prospects out to eat at excellent restaurants can be a big part of the job. Resy is your guide to the best restaurants around, and you can make reservations with the click of a button.

Pro tip: Don’t forget to check out Resy’s curated selection of restaurants based on dietary restrictions or the atmosphere you are after. You can even book experiences and special events, like private dining rooms and cooking classes.

26. TripIt

Toggling back and forth between flight confirmations, car rental information, and restaurant reservations when you're traveling can be annoying. To make your day much more manageable, TripIt synthesizes your daily confirmations into a centralized itinerary.

Best for: Sales reps who are constantly traveling. If you only travel once in a while, you may not need to spend extra money on a travel planning app.

Pricing: Free or $49 per year

27. SpotHero

Never be late for a meeting because you can't find a place to park again. SpotHero enables you to search for a spot near your destination and book it in advance.

What we like: With over 40 million parking spaces, you can trust you’ll always have a spot to park in. If there are any issues, they offer a money-back guarantee.

Pricing: Free

28. Uber/Lyft

If a rental car isn't a part of your business trip, you'll need a ride every once in a while. Instead of hailing a taxi, use Uber or Lyft to summon a driver to your location.

Pro tip: Keep an eye out for promotional emails with discounts on rides.

Pricing: The app is free to download; users pay by the ride.

Door-to-Door Sales Apps

Some sales reps specialize in canvassing, which means going door-to-door to make contact with prospective customers. Along with this type of selling comes logistics, like managing rep territory and tracking performance in the field.

The following apps are essential if you’ve got boots on the ground selling products.

29. SalesRabbit

This mobile app is a canvassing CRM with features like territory assignments, team messaging, and lead tracking. Plus, you can connect SalesRabbit to other web services to share your data quickly.

Pro tip: SalesRabbit offers many add-ons at additional cost. Study their features and see what add-ons make the most sense for your business.

Pricing: $39 a user per month

30. Spotio

Spotio is a field sales software that allows reps to canvas with ease. Features include tracking software, territory management, a sales intelligence tool, a leaderboard, and an appointment calendar.

Key feature: Appointment setting capabilities make it easy for canvassers to set meetings and add notes for closers to go in and finish the deal.

Pricing

  • Team: $39 a user per month
  • Business: $69 a user per month
  • Pro: $129 a user per month
  • Enterprise pricing upon request

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06 Aug 17:07

The Case for Agile Sales Management

by Alex Hisaka
  • agile-salespeople

Agile management is being adopted at skyrocketing rates throughout the business world as organizations see how the practice has positively impacted software development. This philosophy is even making its way into B2B sales organizations, with good reason.

One concept at the center of agile is that in complex projects, more is unknown than known. Change and uncertainty are the norm. That’s an apt description for many B2B selling environments.

How to Capitalize on Core Agile Principles for Sales Management

If you are looking for an effective way to address the dynamic, complicated processes and trends driving your sales practice, agile sales management may be the answer. Here’s a look at how you can apply key principles outlined in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development to make agile sales management work in your organization.

1. Deliver Value Early and Continuously

The first principle of agile software development is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. In the world of sales, this translates to satisfying prospect and customer expectations by delivering early and continuous insights and guidance. This can come in the form of helping to streamline the purchase process for buyers, as well as sharing relevant information and advice based on an understanding of the prospect’s situation, challenges, and priorities.

2. Adapt to Change

The concept of embracing change is front and center in the agile software philosophy. Specifically, the Manifesto says, “Welcome changing requirements, even in late development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.” From a sales perspective, this means being willing and able to adjust your approach as needed to best suit each prospect’s and customer’s needs.

Perhaps one prospect wants to engage heavily online, while another insists on face-to-face interactions. Or maybe one buyer is the key decision-maker, readily armed with relevant research, and asks only that your sales reps provide proof of customer satisfaction and success. Meanwhile, another prospect may be a champion who needs help in developing a business case and convincing the rest of the buying committee to pull the trigger.

In all cases, your sales team needs to adapt to situations as needed, and expect the unexpected.

3. Frequently Reset to Perform Better

One of the most prominent ideas in agile development is to work in sprints, which are short development cycles (typically 1-4 weeks). The goal is to identify any problems as quickly as possible, so as to avoid wasting time on what could ultimately be an ineffective strategy. To make this work, software development teams are finding new ways to measure and manage their activities, so they can achieve more frequent milestones.

In sales, this idea is about revisiting opportunities and approaches on a frequent basis to ensure everything is operating smoothly. By checking in regularly with your sales reps, you can identify and address potential issues that might otherwise derail deals.

For instance, perhaps you see that a discussion has stalled. Rather than waiting and watching, review the situation to see if you can collectively pinpoint the cause. Then, by being flexible about adjusting to prospect needs, your sales reps can pivot to get things on track.

4. Collaborate Closely and Daily

To deliver value to software customers, businesspeople and developers must work together daily throughout a project. This idea carries over when working on sales deals. Cooperation and collaboration across and beyond sales is essential in bringing complex B2B opportunities to fruition. In fact, CSO Insights found that in environments with a formal collaboration approach, 76 percent of salespeople were able to achieve their quota.

Encourage your reps to request and make warm introductions for one another, while also working with their colleagues across the organization as needed. For example, they should collaborate with marketing to develop ideal customer profiles and targeted account lists, and could enlist pre-sales engineers to help develop a compelling demo.

5. Trust and Equip Your Reps to Succeed 

In the agile methodology, projects are built around motivated individuals who are given both the autonomy and support they need to get the job done. Assuming you have hired sales reps who are eager to excel, the next step is assigning them goals, giving them the tools and guidance they need to attain them, and trusting them to succeed. Remember to give each rep leeway to achieve their milestones in the way that works best for them. As long as they are accountable for hitting their goals, there’s no need to shoehorn tactics that don’t fit.

6. Measure Your Progress

Agile software developers measure their progress based on whether or not they’re producing functional software. When it comes to gauging the progress of sales opportunities, engaged prospects are a key measure of success.

Knowing that more and more buyers prefer to conduct research online, and largely keep sales reps at arm’s length early in the process, your team may need a new approach to become part of this process. They can do this by embracing social selling best practices. Namely, generously sharing relevant information and insights while finding subtle ways to engage with prospects, such as commenting on and sharing their posts.

Then you can track and measure how effectively your reps are finding ways to engage. Key online engagement metrics include number of LinkedIn profile views, number of followers gained, and number of inquiries received.

8. Pay Continuous Attention to Best Practices

According to the Agile Manifesto, continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility. In much the same way, continuous attention to social selling best practices enhances your team’s ability to achieve its goals. To enable a modern sales approach, you need to provide the training, tools, and ongoing guidance that will help your sales reps succeed.

9.  Work Smarter, Not Harder

Agile is about eliminating unnecessary work. As the Manifesto says, simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential. With that tenet in mind, you and your reps should find every way to avoid the unnecessary. Here are a few ways to do so:

  • Instead of reaching out via blind, disruptive, and unwelcomed cold solicitation, your reps should connect via warm introductions and personalized communications. Quality over quantity.
  • By taking the time to research prospects, your reps will be working smarter than other reps who are less insightful in their outreach.
  • Coach your reps to focus on what it means to help and provide value to prospects so they can cultivate relationships that leads to sales.

10. Always Strive for Better Performance

In agile organizations, teams reflect regularly on how to become more productive, then adjust accordingly. Schedule regular meetings so your team can do the same.

One option is to start each morning with a quick gathering that sets the tone for the day. To that end, Sandler Sales Management trainer Marcus Cauchi recommends a daily huddle where each rep shares his or her top 3-4 goals. You can pair these with weekly meetings where achievements, challenges, and best practices are shared. If your team needs help from outside the department, invite others from across the organization to attend so you can iron out issues. Then follow up with your reps to make sure each one is adjusting as necessary to achieve better results.

Agile sales management can provide both the framework and flexibility you need to unleash the full potential of your sales team. By introducing your team to the philosophy and supporting it with a plan to address the core principles, your team will be on its way to realizing newfound levels of agility perfectly suited to modern selling.

For more on the latest sales trends and best practices, subscribe to the LinkedIn Sales Solution blog.

      
06 Aug 17:06

The Ultimate Guide to Agile Sales

by afrost@hubspot.com (Aja Frost)

Effective sales management is based on a variety of different strategies, like being able to motivate your teams, setting goals and quotas, motivating reps, and reviewing data and performance.

While all of these strategies can lead you to be successful, there are also frameworks to follow, like agile sales management, that will supplement your process.

In this post, learn about agile sales, how to grow a successful agile sales team, and key processes to follow.

Free Download: Sales Plan Template

Why should you care about agile sales?

There are three changes in the sales world that should make you sit up and pay attention.

First, millennials are making up larger and larger parts of your sales team. Right now, they’re probably SDRs and AEs — with a few ambitious ones holding management or even director roles. But in eight years, millennials may hold half of your leadership positions. In 15? They’ll probably hold all of them.

That means you can’t keep using the same techniques and tactics. These professionals have grown up with constant access to information. As a result, they’re independent, learn quickly, enjoy collaboration, are incredibly tech-savvy, and get bored doing the same things over and over. Agile sales help you adapt your sales org to suit these traits.

Second, your customers are different. Few people have the patience or desire to be forced through a rigid sales process. Now they can self-educate — and they’ll quickly lose interest if your reps make them answer a laundry list of questions about things they could’ve learned online or don’t add any value to the research process.

If you want your salespeople to deliver unique, consultative, high-value experiences to each and every buyer they interact with, the agile sales methodology makes it much easier for reps to respond in real-time and meet client needs.

Finally, we have an unprecedented amount of data. You can learn everything from your lowest-performing rep’s average call-to-demo conversion rate to the average number of deals closed on the last day of the month in a few clicks. The dark side to all this data? If you’re not focused and intentional, you’ll get lost in it. Agile sales involve constantly reviewing and reacting to data — making it an ideal solution.

Agile Sales Explained

We gave a brief summary above, but let’s dive further into how agile sales works.

When using this framework, work is organized into “sprints.” A sprint typically lasts one to two weeks and has a specific objective.

Every sprint starts with a two-to-four-hour planning meeting to decide on the sprint goal (which must be summed up in one sentence) and break down that objective into discrete tasks or milestones. The latter should result in a list of projects, known as the Sprint Backlog.

Each morning, the team gets together for a stand-up. This meeting is meant to be quick — in fact, most companies make everyone stand up for the duration, hence the name. Team members go around and explain:

  1. What they accomplished yesterday
  2. What they’ll accomplish today
  3. Any obstacles they’re facing

This helps everyone stay on the same page and provides accountability.

How To Implement Agile Sales

Implementing an agile sales methodology is centered around seven essential processes: sprints, daily standups, short-term goals, a flexible strategy, leveraging a CRM, data, and review. Let’s discuss each below.

agile sales tactics to implement agile sale

Agile Sales Tactics

1. Sprints

Divide work into sprints of just one to two weeks at most. With these sprints, you can have kickoff meetings where you inform salespeople of the goal of the sprint and what tasks will need to happen to achieve that goal.

2. Daily Standups

Standups are helpful for any group that works collaboratively:

  • ABM teams
  • Tiger teams targeting a list of prospects
  • BDR-AE teams

The idea is simple. Have a quick (5-15 minutes) status update meeting at the beginning of the workday. Each person should share what they did the day before, explain what they’ll work on that day, and ask for help or guidance if necessary.

Standups definitely boost alignment and accountability (plus, they make your team feel like more of a team.)

3. Short-term Goals

Sales objectives can often feel overwhelming and impossible to achieve. For example, maybe you want to go to President’s Club this year, but that would mean performing 30% better than last year — which you don’t think you can pull off no matter how hard you work.

Or you’re a sales manager, and you want to double your team’s average contract value — but that seems like a monumental feat.

To make these goals feel in your reach, borrow the “sprint” concept from agile. Rather than looking at the end goal, break it down into sub-goals. These objectives should be short-term (think monthly, weekly, or even daily).

For example, let’s say to make P Club you need to hit 120% of your annual quota. That translates to $84,000.

In other words, you need to sell $7,000 every month. But you know that some months are better — The first quarter tends to be huge, while June, July, and August are slow. With that in mind, you create this schedule:

January: $8,000

February: $7,500

March: $8,500

April: $6,000

May: $6,000

June: $5,000

July: $5,000

August: $5,000

September: $9,000

October: $7,500

November: $8,000

December: $9,000

(If you do the math, this comes out to $84,500. It’s always good to have a cushion!)

Now that you’ve broken down your major goal into monthly ones, qualifying for P Club seems a lot more feasible.

Sales managers, use this framework to guide your reps’ goal-setting process. First, figure out their “pie in the sky” goal. What do they want to accomplish this year? Then, work with them to create a timeline with milestones.

4. A Flexible Strategy

Flexibility and iteration are the foundation of agile sales. That means reacting in real-time to new data and information and adapting as needed.

Let’s look at two examples of how you might iterate or pivot. First, imagine you’re the director of your company’s SMB segment. In the past few weeks, your reps have lost ten deals to a new, lower-cost competitor.

  • Option 1: Let this play out. You know the competitor’s product is inferior, so in time, customers will figure out the cheaper price isn’t worth it and switch to you.
  • Option 2: Create a battlecard that helps salespeople position your product as the higher-quality, more reliable choice, goes over common customer objections and responses, and outlines testimonials from customers who have chosen you over the competitor.

The first option — essentially, stay the course — isn’t agile. The second option is quintessential agile: Being quick to respond and adapt to changing customer needs.

You can also use this mentality to react to:

  • Market/industry changes
  • New legislation
  • Product updates and launches
  • Company-wide strategic shifts
  • Changes in leadership

And more. Basically, you should constantly be analyzing what’s happening in your world and figuring out how to change your process, objectives, or strategy to keep up.

5. Leveraging a CRM

Without a system of truth, it’s extremely difficult to hold salespeople accountable. (The same goes if you’re a rep: How can you analyze your progress if you’re not tracking it?)

That makes your CRM an essential component of agile sales. At many companies, the rule is “If it’s not in the CRM, it didn’t happen.”

There are a few ways to enforce this:

  • Don’t count emails, calls, or demos toward activity goals if they’re not logged in the CRM
  • Don’t discuss deals during pipeline review if there’s not a matching opportunity in the rep’s CRM pipeline
  • Don’t comp reps on deals that aren’t in the CRM

Of course, getting your salespeople to record everything will be far easier if your sales and marketing tools are synced with your CRM. For example, teams using HubSpot Sales Hub will automatically have their calls, emails, and meetings recorded in the CRM — no manual data entry required.

6. Data

Agile sales’ emphasis on data dovetails perfectly with modern sales management. Whether you’re a rep, a manager, or an executive, data tells you if your strategy is working — and how well.

Different metrics matter for different situations and objectives. Perhaps you review your last quarter and realize there’s huge fallout between your qualification and discovery calls. After listening to a few call recordings with your manager, you identify two issues:

  • You talk too much
  • You don’t ask enough open-ended questions

Your key metrics for the next month should be:

  • Talk-to-listen ratio (aiming for 30:70)
  • # of open-ended questions per call (shooting for 6+)
  • Qualification-to-discovery conversion rate (target is 30%)

Notice that you’re focusing on these metrics within a short timeframe (essentially, a sprint). You can easily manage these specific metrics and evaluate your progress at the end of the month.

A sales manager, on the other hand, might be focusing on these metrics:

  • Average deal velocity, or typical length of sales cycle
  • Average deal size
  • Average quota attainment

If you have a specific goal for the month — like getting your salespeople to follow up more quickly — you’d also be focused on average lead response time.

The bottom line is: Come up with your short-term goals first, then work backward to determine the best metrics for gauging progress.

7. Review

After each sprint is completed, have a review meeting to go over the outcomes of the sprint, goals met, and what was not able to be achieved.

As a sales manager, you can lead the majority of the meeting, but you can also consider having teams or specific individuals present on progress. This can help reps take accountability for their process and bolster feelings of collaboration and teamwork.

Steps To Build an Agile Sales Team

how to build an agile sales team

Building a successful agile sales team is dependent on four critical factors: accountability, adaptability, and collaboration, transparency.

Accountability

Agile sales teams need to practice accountability. As there are specific milestones to meet during specific sprints, all involved parties need to own their actions to help the team meet their goals. Salespeople should take ownership of their practices, both positive outcomes and those that need improvement, and be forthright about them and be able to ask for help when necessary.

Adaptability

Agile practices can always change, so teams need to be adaptable and handle changes when they arise. Thus, while you should have a baseline framework that you follow, the framework should have room for flexibility, like working with customers that are more informed than others or pivoting a strategy as a result of data.

Collaboration

As successful agile sales processes require teams to be able to work together, collaboration is key. Individuals should know who is on their team, what their job duties are, and how their job duties contribute to other teams’ successes. They should be able to approach other team members to ask questions. Departments should also be aligned to achieve the same goals.

Stand-ups are incredibly valuable for establishing collaboration amongst your teams.

Transparency

Transparency is similar to accountability, as reps and all team members understand progress towards meeting goals throughout the entire sprint. As a result, they aren’t surprised by quotas not met at the end of your sprints because the information is available to them throughout the entire process. Essentially, transparency is directly related to teams having context for what is happening in the sales process at all times.

Over To You

Agile sales is a natural evolution for sales teams. It helps you leverage your data, team members, and motivation to get the best results possible.

sales plan

06 Aug 17:05

How to Hire the Best B2B Sales Reps in 2018

by Steve Kearns
Hiring Manager

A sales manager is only as good as his or her team, and the results they produce. Because of this, hiring the most effective reps possible is a vital part of the job. But with the very nature of the profession evolving before our eyes, identifying the right candidates requires a different set of criteria than it did five – or even two – years ago.

The core skills that define great B2B sellers are changing in the digital age. Proactive sales leaders are focusing on attributes and capabilities that will continue to grow more valuable in the coming year and beyond.

With an eye on helping you acquire the best possible talent for your team, here are a few insights on hiring the best B2B sales reps in 2018.

Shifting Demand for Sales Skills

At LinkedIn, our ability to track aggregated professional data gives us a unique perspective on the overarching trends and patterns of skills and traits for various disciplines. This has provided us with some enlightening revelations on the field of selling and its outlook.

As discussed in the Future of Sales eBook, there’s a fundamental shift taking place right now. The most common and traditional types of sales skills, which fall into the “transactional” category, are fading somewhat in recruiting demand for B2B. They tend to characterize more product-centric sellers – well versed in the art of pitching and negotiating.

Meanwhile, we see a rise in demand for strategic sales skills. These would appear on a candidate’s LinkedIn profile in the form of tags like complex selling, partner management, and business alliances – and they are far more rare than transactional staples like business development and sales leadership. The Future of Sales eBook tells us that strategic skills are found in only 1.5% of LinkedIn profiles. These competencies are more conducive to a consultative approach that B2B buyers crave, and are suggestive of a sales pro built for the future.

This is not to say, by any means, that you should be actively avoiding those transactional sales skills. They’re likely to be present on the résumés of most effective sellers, and in general, the ability to persuasively articulate a solution’s value will always be important. But these strategic sales skills and relationship-building indicators are the ones to keep an eye out for with your next wave of hires.

Tech Proficiency is a Trending Priority

Another frontier that we emphasized in the Future of Sales eBook is sales technology, which is becoming an ingrained aspect of B2B selling. Lack of adoption – whether due to resistance or perplexity – holds back a huge number of organizations. Meanwhile, those who embrace the enhancements these solutions bring to the sales process are clearly seeing the benefits.

In the State of Sales 2017 report, we learned that 90% of sales professionals describe sales tech as either “important” or “very important” to closing deals. Across the B2B landscape we see companies increasing their investments in digital enablement tools, but deriving value from these investments requires team members that are willing and able to utilize them.

As such, it’s advisable to hire reps with some level of demonstrated tech proficiency. This doesn’t mean you need to be seeking out software developers or programmers, but look for signs of relevant experience or personal interest.

Interviewing Sales Candidates in 2018

When conducting interviews with new candidates, you can gauge their adeptness for the era of strategic selling by asking the right questions. A while back, we suggested a couple of different spins on the old “sell me this pen” convention, posing scenarios that test a seller’s ability to think strategically and apply new-age tactics.

Here’s one idea: assign interviewees with “homework” ahead of time, providing them with a hypothetical target account they might pursue on the job. See what kind of insights about that company they bring, and ask how they’d engage a buyer in the organization as a trusted advisor rather than as a salesperson.

Keys to Hiring B2B Sales Reps of the Future

Here’s a quick recap of our top takeaways as you formulate your recruitment plan for 2018:

  • Examine résumés and LinkedIn profiles for signs of a strategic, consultative seller
  • Focus on individuals who are comfortable and proficient with sales technology
  • Orient your interview questions toward determining ability to research, engage, advise

For more insights and guidance on building a future-proof sales team, download The Future of Sales: Rise of the Strategic Seller

06 Aug 17:05

3 New Metrics to Add to Your B2B Sales Analytics Arsenal in 2018

by Alex Rynne
Colleagues

If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.

This fundamental reality is as true in 2018 as it was in 2017, and every year preceding. But the actual methods that today’s sales teams use to measure their efforts and outcomes are certainly in flux. An evolving digital B2B landscape requires a new set of sales metrics that accurately filter out the most meaningful actions for driving revenue.

Are you measuring and improving the right indicators?

3 Critical Sales Metrics for 2018

With all the tools and technologies now at our fingertips, we can measure pretty much everything these days. This is both a blessing and a curse. Many managers are drowning in sales metrics and struggle to distill them.

To that end, we’ve narrowed down three oft-overlooked KPIs that stand out among the most informative and useful for optimizing sales processes. If you aren’t actively tracking each of these already, then we’d suggest it is time to start.

Cost Per Lead

This isn’t a cutting-edge metric by any means, but it’s one that continues to flummox plenty of organizations. Some can’t reach agreement on what truly qualifies as a “lead.” Others view CPL as a marketing metric. Both these common issues are symptomatic of misalignment between sales and marketing.

High-performing modern B2B sales teams are almost uniformly adopting a social selling mindset. In this framework, both marketers and salespeople are helping generate leads, and thus influencing CPL rates. As a crucial profit factor, this number is vitally important in the eyes of the C-suite.

The first step in refining CPL measurement is determining exactly what a lead is. I prefer not to think in terms of Marketing-Qualified or Sales-Qualified leads, as these divisions run counter to the objective of a unified approach. Instead, collaborate on pinpointing one universal definition, and then formulate your CPL metric around it.

A lead might be anyone who fills out a form to download an asset. It might be any introduction with a prospect that advances to another interaction. Or it might be more esoteric to your company’s methodology.

The best way to make this determination is by studying your sales funnel and identifying the “turning point” where generalized prospects become significantly more likely to convert. Then, continually test and tweak tactics, from both sales and marketing, to lower the average cost of getting people across that line.

Connections at Key Accounts

When using LinkedIn as a social selling tool, building connections within accounts that your organization has prioritized is one of the most valuable activities for sales pros. Buying committees keep getting larger, with varying influence dynamics and high churn rates. Because of this, developing multiple relationships in an organization is extremely beneficial. Reps who make a habit of doing so are less susceptible to the pitfall of hanging by a thread.

Compiling key accounts is a prerequisite for this metric, accomplished through careful research and analysis. Once you’ve built your list of companies, you can add them as Saved Accounts in Sales Navigator to make tracking easier.

Keep in mind that this isn’t the same as measuring number of different accounts/companies with connections. In a focused, account-based approach, the emphasis is on gaining long-term sway with companies you’ve identified as exceptionally strong fits. This means that three solid connections within the same account are just as beneficial as one connection at three different accounts, if not more so.

Of course, properly applying this metric requires a bit of nuance. If reps were to start blasting connection requests for the sake of artificially boosting their numbers, the system becomes counterproductive. Make sure outreach is always purposeful and constructive.

Prospect Response Rate

How often did a sales rep’s communication with a prospective customer result in a response that moved the conversation forward? This figure can be determined by reviewing the CRM and self-reported logs from team members, and assessing which percentage of outreach attempts led to productive engagements.

There’s plenty of room for ambiguity here, so you’ll want to collectively establish benchmarks and thresholds (i.e., what qualifies as a productive engagement). As with the previous measure, this one should be judged on the basis of quality, not quantity. I recommend giving each rep a maximum number of prospects to work on every month -- ideally a number that leaves them plenty of time to research and prep for each.

Monitoring this percentage on an ongoing basis provides sales managers with a real-time view of social selling efficacy. If a certain rep is consistently posting lower rates than others, you might consider taking a look at the channels she’s relying on for outreach, or the messaging style he employs. Conversely, high performers might have their own practices to share with others.

And it’s not only beneficial for analyzing the reps themselves; the more details you track, the more these response rates can inform your overall strategy. For instance, was there a lift in responses among people who were exposed to your company’s marketing content before being contacted?

In the world of B2B sales as it exists in 2018, these three metrics in combination serve as an excellent barometer for gauging the efforts and proficiency of your sales department. When you’re lowering the costs of your leads, consistently building out valuable relationship networks, and moving social interactions forward to the next stage, you’ve got a reliable formula for demonstrable and sustainable revenue generation.

To find more information on the best methods and metrics for measuring sales success in 2018, download Proof Positive: How to Easily Measure and Maximize Sales ROI.

06 Aug 17:04

How to Increase Sales: Record Yourself to Record Performance

by Eric Beckman

How to Increase Sales: Recording Yourself to Record Performance

You may not be a golfer, but you know an awkward swing when you see one. You’ve probably never acted in a movie, but you can easily spot bad acting.

If you think recording yourself in sales character is weird, or narcissistic, get over it. It’s the best way to prepare to excel in the moment during customer conversations. And, it can even serve as the foundation of a training approach that, through a system of expert coaching and feedback, turns observable practice into demonstrated proficiency.

You Sound Different Than You Think

When it comes to customer conversations, and nimbly navigating the twists and turns that can unexpectedly arise, it’s all about repetition. Most people inherently know this. Few sellers actually live it.

Musicians have long known you sound different than you think. Playing an instrument, like selling, is so difficult in itself that listening objectively to the chords you’re playing or the melody you’re singing often takes a back seat.

When you record yourself, you can experience the conversation from the perspective that matters most—your customer’s. Do you periodically pause to allow your customer to participate? Does your narrative speak to them, or about you? How expressive is your body language or vocal tonality? Are you correctly articulating and emphasizing the most critical junctures in your story?

Most importantly, ‘Would you buy from you?’

How Fluency Coaching Works

Consistent with an evidence-driven approach to skills development, Fluency Coaching in the form of recorded practice is directly integrated into your learning plans. Here’s how it works:

Reps receive structured challenges, linked to the skill areas they’re discovering. For example, winning access to a customer executive. They simply record, then submit their response to receive individualized coaching and feedback. Within target completion dates the entire process can be completed at each rep’s convenience so as not to be disruptive to core responsibilities. That flexibility is critical today. A Corporate Visions survey found that the number one reason companies struggle to train as many reps as they want is a reluctance among sales managers to take reps out of the field for training.

When using recordings, sellers often record multiple takes before finally submitting one they’re happy with, accomplishing the oft-elusive goal of getting reps to practice.

Video recordings offer the richest experience, but audio-only recordings are also effective for developing skills like leaving compelling voicemails. Expert consultants can then review submissions and provide a depth of seller-specific feedback that’s difficult to replicate in group training—whether in-person or virtual.

Metrics produced through Fluency Coaching can also be aligned with manager evaluations of their teams, CRM-sourced performance data, and additional assessments to build a rich view of individual and team capabilities from which to match custom learning paths and close skill gaps.

Using Recordings to Increase Sales

You can begin to incorporate the use of basic practice recordings to encourage behavior change and build skill adoption using tools as basic as mobile phones. Best practices to ensure you achieve desired outcomes include:

  • Providing a good example(s) for reps to draw from and enrich their learning experience
  • Creating a rubric to produce consistent scoring – and exposing it to your reps too
  • Crafting challenges around actual accounts and opportunities, not case study scenarios

Rinse and Repeat

When you incorporate recorded fluency coaching into your development plans, the ancient Latin saying, Repetitio mater studiorum est, repetition is the mother of all learning, finds brand new relevance in the twenty-first century. I’m sorry, could you say that one more time?

Want to learn more about the benefits of virtual classroom training based on observable practice and demonstrated proficiency? Check out our latest State of the Conversation Report.

The post How to Increase Sales: Record Yourself to Record Performance appeared first on Corporate Visions.

06 Aug 17:04

Three Metrics to Measure Sales and Marketing Alignment & Improve Organizational Transparency

by Christine Crandell

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on Forbes here.

Getting sales and marketing to effectively team is the lament of just about every CEO. Achieving alignment goes beyond just getting these two groups to get along; growth depends on them working productively together. If sales and marketing are at odds it impacts the whole business, most notably revenue, customer satisfaction and company productivity. Add to that the reality that discord between these two groups damages the company’s culture, it’s easy to see why alignment is on the top of every CEO’s agenda.

But why is alignment such a persistent challenge? Part of the reason lies with the CEO. While they are experts in measuring the effectiveness of sales, these same leaders are at a disadvantage with it comes to evaluating alignment. Most are unclear as to what the right questions are to ask in order to understand how well marketing and sales are aligned. Without that knowledge, it is hard to know which metrics are the right ones to focus on or how to isolate the root cause of misalignment. With this backdrop, it’s easy to see why measuring sales and marketing alignment can be an overwhelming task – and why CEOs fall back to the pipeline and lead generation metrics they’ve relied on in the past.

Moving to Metrics

What CEOs really want is visibility into, and confidence, in revenue cycle data. They want to understand the productivity of each stage, status of key activities, and the emerging issues they need to worry about. In managing the revenue cycle, and by default sales and marketing alignment, visibility is critical to helping them temper their instinctive response to the deluge of daily email, phone calls and meetings.

The best way to gain that visibility is with tools the CEO and Board are already familiar with, namely KPIs. With the right set of metrics, CEOs can better understand marketing’s effectiveness as well as the impact alignment has on the top- and bottom-line. While there are literally hundreds of sales and marketing metrics that can be used; it comes down to three that measure alignment and frame that all-too critical joint conversation with sales and marketing about what’s working and what isn’t. Done right, metrics-based management can move a company toward alignment as well as help institutionalize cross-organizational transparency.

There are three key metrics that CEOs should start using to achieve this:

  1. End-to-End Conversion
  2. Revenue Diversity
  3. Outcome Profitability

End-to-End Conversion Metric measures the conversion ratio for the full revenue cycle well as for each of the major stages – from market attraction through sales close and customer lifetime value. Benchmarked over time this metric highlights leakages and inefficiencies between stages, sales and marketing, and enables more accurate forecasting and target performance setting. Aligned organizations tend to have stable conversion ratios and use this metric to discuss how to improve the ratios between the stages and overall. A significant change up or down in conversion from one stage to another is a flag that warrants investigation.

Revenue Diversity Metric measures the productivity of lead generation. There are hundreds of lead sources like the web, direct mail, physical and virtual events, email, cold calls, eCommerce, other distribution channels, etc. This metric provides visibility into how broadly and efficiently marketing reaches target prospects, which lead sources are most productive and how effective sales converts them into revenue. Aligned organizations manage their revenue sources using portfolio management techniques to balance the diversity of lead channels. The key is to invest eighty percent of resources into high productive lead generation sources. The remaining twenty percent should be consistently invested in a wide and ever changing range of new channels.

Outcome Profitability Metric is applicable to companies that sell complex products or solutions. Since not every sale can have four walls and a roof where the buyer only cares about comparing product features; complex solutions need to link the buyer’s desired outcome, which is often role-based. Used in conjunction with customer-centric methodologies, this metric measures profit attributable to each specific business problem or “outcome” sold to. While this approach is counter to how revenue is typically analyzed, which is by product lines, it gives the CEO great visibility into how well sales and marketing understand the buyers, their business problems and how effective they are in pursuing those opportunities. Aligned companies should see consistent profitability trends for a handful of role-based outcomes and see the profitability track the outcome’s maturity curve.

These three metrics are starting points for CEOs looking to gain visibility into how aligned their organizations are. Reporting on these metrics will require some heavy lifting by sales and marketing as they are not standard reports in Salesforce.com or Marketo. But that is part of the value because through the learning process to calculate these metrics, sales and marketing will have to work together and will jointly discover where gaps exist, systems aren’t integrated or conflict, and where they can no longer assume popular held beliefs.

The learning process is more often more valuable than the metrics themselves. It forces sales and marketing to the table and forces the CEO to get involved and pay attention. The metrics shed visibility into alignment and empower CEOs to ask the right questions and lead the company to the next stage of alignment.

The post Three Metrics to Measure Sales and Marketing Alignment & Improve Organizational Transparency appeared first on OpenView Labs.

06 Aug 17:04

Critical Selling Metrics You Need to Boost Sales Effectiveness

by Gerhard Gschwandtner
At Richardson, we’ve determined eight core metrics are the most critical for revealing sales effectiveness. Here’s how each one works and why they matter.
06 Aug 17:03

Solving Backwards: An Underrated B2B Sales Prospecting Strategy

by Sean Callahan
B2B Sales Prospecting

Many talk about the art and science of B2B sales. But what about the math?

In arithmetic, you can solve a problem by beginning with the answer and applying operations in reverse to find the starting number. Your sales team can do the same when it comes to sales prospecting, working backward from your solution to find people whose problems it can solve.

Here’s a formula for arriving at the best possible answer and making the most out of that insight.

Reverse-Engineering the Purchase Process

Every high-performing sales organization and salesperson analyzes its sales funnel. However, many overlook key signals.

The experiences and inputs of your sales reps can surface many revelations. Instead of strictly reviewing metrics, make your analysis a thoughtful exercise focused on gaining new perspective about what drove a win and why. Put another way, follow the clues that customers leave along their path to purchase, then identify key buying patterns and triggers.

In most cases, the standard B2B purchasing process looks like this:

Company experiences challenge -> Company recognizes need for a solution -> Company researches potential solutions -> Company engages sellers -> Company makes a purchase

Now let’s flip the order. A sales organization can examine all the data it gathers in the course of closing deals and reverse the order of operations to surface new insights:

Company makes a purchase -> Company engages sellers -> Company researches potential solutions -> Company recognizes need for a solution -> Company experiences challenge

Pick one or two of your highest-value customer segments and map their purchase decision journeys. As you review your closed sales – especially your biggest deals – answer these questions:

  • What influenced their decision-making?
  • What were the precursors to the account recognizing a need?
  • What triggered the account to seek out a solution?
  • What specific problems were they trying to solve by purchasing your solution?
  • What were the preliminary steps in their research?

The goal is to zero in on common factors that ultimately trigger conversations and conversions. In other words: which buyer actions, behaviors, preferences, and habits add up to a sale? The end result will be a hypothesis about the variables affecting the purchase decision, and a more substantive list of indicators your sales team should look for to catch prospects as early as possible in the consideration phase.

Turning Insight into Action with Target Accounts

By working backward, your organization and reps can become more predictive and anticipatory. Recognizing key purchase triggers equips your sales team to actively seek out people in similar situations.  

Assume for instance that after scrutinizing the sales funnel from this perspective, your company discovers that the customer success teams are playing an important behind-the-scenes role in influencing the decision to select your marketing-focused solution. It’s not that unusual for an ancillary group to sway a purchase decision. However, in the excitement of pursuing an opportunity, it’s easy to become blind to the key influencers who don’t have as much visibility.

To complement their typical account nurturing and engagement, your reps could use LinkedIn to uncover key customer success personnel at target accounts. The next step would be scoring a warm introduction, either directly through an existing connection within the account, or by finding a colleague – using the TeamLink function in Sales Navigator – who can make the intro.

If no introduction is possible, your reps should look for other ways to engage the individual in question. Study the contact’s LinkedIn profile to glean how active they are on the platform. If they post content and comment on other members’ posts, that social savvy makes them more likely to welcome interactions via LinkedIn. If this is the case, look for chances to engage through a shared LinkedIn Group or by commenting on a contact’s post, or even recommending content that might interest them.

Connecting Through Referrals

In other instances, your reps will discover a brand-new prospect that isn’t on their radar. Here’s where the power of referrals comes into play. The first step is for your reps to determine who is already connected to this prospective account by combing their LinkedIn network to find a connection and possible referral path.

Whether the rep is trying to connect with the prospect via a colleague or existing customer or partner, they should explain the reason for wanting the referral. They should also make it as easy as possible for their connection to make the introduction, ideally by sending a message the person can use in their outreach.

Once the introduction is made, your reps can follow up with the new connection, using details from the prospect’s LinkedIn profile to connect with relevance. That might mean mentioning a shared interest or alma mater, or commenting on recent activity in the prospect’s feed.

No matter how your salespeople identify and connect with a potential deal influencer, they should save pertinent keyword searches and get notified of timely trigger events.

Guide Buyers Down the Purchase Path

If your organization sells to a buying committee, it’s critical to determine who influenced what as you work backward through the purchase process. One of the biggest barriers to selling to multiple stakeholders is getting everyone to agree. The better that sales pros understand the typical buying team’s makeup and dynamics, the better they can spot roadblocks and account for them.

In most cases, your target account will appreciate your guidance in driving consensus. After all, one or more buying committee members were likely given marching orders to find a solution to their organization’s challenge.

In fact, you may be working an account that is entirely new to the complex “purchase by committee.” In those cases, you can serve as a welcome guide, sharing your experience and knowledge to help them get through the process.

Don’t Leave Deals to Chance

It goes without saying that it’s better to focus on the most promising deals. However, it’s not all up to the prospect to determine how auspicious an opportunity is. By deconstructing the path to purchase and analyzing it from end to beginning, your sales organization will uncover new insights that it can apply to steer prospects toward your solution.   

For more ideas on how to get smarter with your sales approach, subscribe to the LinkedIn Sales Solutions blog.

Photo: Shutterstock

06 Aug 16:59

How One Company Integrates SDRs into their Account-Based Strategies

by tbertuzzi@bridgegroupinc.com (Trish Bertuzzi)

We all know account-based (ABx) strategies are hot.

Search for “account-based technology” on Google, and before you know it, targeted display ads will fill your browser, vendor branded socks will arrive in your mailbox, and dozens of new SDR cadences will flood your inbox. 

No doubt, the technology behind ABx is amazing. But what gets less attention is how the SDR role needs to evolve to support it. I want to share one company’s journey. Meet Zignal Labs.

Zignal Labs, Inc. provides a cloud-based platform that analyzes social and digital media in real-time and delivers data-driven insights. By way of orientation, their average deal is six figures and the sales cycles run 6–8 months. Jamie Varley, Director of Account Development at Zignal, shared how his group integrates into the company’s account-based approach.

First Things First

Account selection was step one. Zignal knew that success hinges on their ability to focus. Their theory was that a smaller number of accounts would result in higher quality output. But which accounts were “worthy” of the target account designation?

Rather than just draw a line under the largest 50 accounts in their key verticals, Zignal pulled together a cross-functional team to build their list. This included the heads field sales, marketing, sales operations, and sales development.

Looking at their current customers, they divided them into a 2x2 matrix. If an account, required significant marketing and sales expense to acquire—but also delivered significant lifetime value—it was placed in the top right quadrant. If an account delivered high value—but was easier to win—they were placed in the top left. And so on. They were able to identify lookalike companies and map them against this framework. Those in the top right quadrant were deemed AB-appropriate, while those in the top left were better suited to traditional demand generation.

zignals2x2.jpg

Next, they moved to mapping out prospect personas. Questions included: what departments are key to our sale? Which departments have the budget for a solution like ours? How can we best leverage internal champions? What content do we have/need that will allow for 1:1 communication with these buyers?

Zignal knew: no focus, no content, no personalization, means no ABx.

It Takes a (Committed) Village

Next, Marketing committed to building a rock-solid content and enablement strategy. They focused on creating both persona-related and industry-related content for the AEs and Account Development Reps (ADRs) to leverage. In a world of reps who’d "love to get 15 minutes on your calendar" and ubiquitous offers to "see a demo," it takes real work, real empathy, and real insight to stand out.

At the same time, the ADR team conducted a data “audit and verification.” They ensured that each account had the right contacts identified, populated, and enriched in CRM (e.g., 1+ contact for each of their personas). Rather than rely exclusively on third-party data, ADRs phone-verified each contact’s role. This was an upfront resource investment. But Jamie didn’t want his team conducting account-based outreach with faulty data. When prospecting the mid-market, it’s much easier to swap out contacts as needs dictate. Things gets a lot more complicated when conducting a total account, multi-department, multi-media, and tag team campaign.

What they did next is something far too many companies miss. Rather than passing the account list down to the AEs and ADRs to “have at it.” Zignal set rules for coordinating outreach between and across the teams. They built three “swim lanes” for their AB-strategy with the AE playing the CEO role for their territory. The AEs could:

  1. Designate accounts solely to themselves-
    ADRs were expected to stay hands off these accounts.
  2. Partner with their ADR-
    In this scenario, ADRs target more junior contacts while the AE goes after senior executives. Any intelligence and traction gained are shared and leveraged by both parties.
  3. Assign accounts to the ADR only-
    Only ADRs work to crack into these accounts, leaving the AEs to focus elsewhere.
     

Zignal knew: to run successful plays, everyone needs to know their roles and routes.

The BIG Question

One thing you might be wondering at this point is: how do the ADRs get paid? This a common question and ABx requires a small twist to the norm. Remember, compensation drives behavior. The behavior they were trying to drive was a true partnership between the ADR team and the field. At Zignal, the ADR is rewarded for building a strong relationship with the buyer.

Here is how Zignal pays out the ADRs quarterly plan:

ADRs are paid based on a meeting which happens and in which they take part. This is a Sales Qualified Appointment (SQA). For this they get a flat rate for the meeting and another flat rate if it is accepted as an opportunity. This accounts for roughly 40% of their incentive compensation.

If that meeting does not immediately convert to an opportunity, the ADR continues to work the account. At the point that it does become a Sales Qualified Opportunity (SQO) the ADR is paid an even higher flat rate. This is to reward the ADR for their effective nurture tactics. This accounts for roughly 60% of their compensation.

Finally, if a deal they have sourced/nurtured closes, they receive a portion of the revenue for the first year. This is over and above their target incentive number.

Zignal knew: compensation must evolve alongside of strategy.

Lessons Learned

Jamie offered a few general lessons learned along the way. He advises:

Expect to put in the time- ABx involves a lot of heavy lifting. If you aren't ready or able to make the investment in time, you may need to think about another customer acquisition plan.

Over-communicate your goals, plans, and roadmap. People will immediately doubt what you’re doing if they aren't in the know.

ABR is a "slow roast"- If you want the best results, you must have and use the best ingredients! Be obsessive about your contact data. This will speed the process of generating actual results. Have relevant content for the industry and the personas you target.

Build trust- Today, breaking into strategic accounts with only blunt instruments is an exercise in futility. Leverage every tool at your disposal to build trust and engage with your key accounts. Whitepapers, eBooks, webcasts, blogs, regional events, and annual customer conferences are all good reasons to engage, build trust, and accelerate a buy-cycle.

Reporting has to be on point- Visibility across all teams is key in helping people see the fruits of your labor. You can’t wait 2-3 quarters before seeing if things are “working.” Figure out the leading indicators and measure them from day one. At the same time, traditional funnel metrics are no longer relevant in an ABx world -- so you will need to recalibrate your executive and sales management team. For example, top-of-the funnel MQL metrics should be replaced with engagement metrics.

Be prepared to navigate lots of challenges and even some failures- Nobody has ever taken down the big game without getting a few bruises along the way.

So, what do you think? Ask your questions here and Jamie will answer them. There is so much to learn as companies shift sales development upstream, so let’s share that journey.
 

06 Aug 16:57

Trending This Week: The Salesperson as a Storyteller

by Kylee Lessard
a book represents the art of storytelling as a salesperson

Quick. Tell the story of your day. Tell it to the person next to you. Or yourself, if you’re alone.

It’s hard to be put on the spot, but that’s the situation salespeople often find themselves in. It’s even harder to be put on the spot and not know what to say. This is why being a conversational storyteller is so important. If you can awaken your prospect’s imagination, you are more likely to engage them and see results.

Our roundup of what’s trending in sales this week explores the value of storytelling as it relates to sales. You’ll also find a new perspective on the importance of customer service, learn about the ROI of call coaching, and more.

What Sales Pros Were Reading and Sharing This Week:

1. Using Conversational Storytelling to Drive the Bottom Line

How do you start your sales presentations? If you are too straightforward, you may be missing out on an opportunity to make a connection. Nadjya Ghausi, VP of marketing at Prezi, examines the importance of conversational storytelling in sales.

Ghausi focuses on a combination of marketing and sales tactics in her post. While it is important for marketers to play a role in the story, she says salespeople can take the lead too. Approaching sales interactions with a conversational tone and offering a compelling story allows you to make a presentation that aligns with a decision maker’s needs.

2. B2B Sales: Why Customer Service is the New Selling

Perry Boeker of Red Rocket Creative Strategies has a pretty simple argument for a shift in the ABCs of selling. He says, “...when it comes to effective sales techniques in today’s business world, the classic phrase ‘Always Be Closing’ should really be replaced with ‘Always Be Helping.’”

While Boeker admits that the idea of helping clients isn’t a new concept, he says it is a new way of introducing entry-level salespeople to the industry. His argument is that if you focus on helping and getting results, the sales will come. Boeker explains how this helpful philosophy affects three key areas:

  1. Social selling
  2. Understanding modern buyer behavior
  3. Gaining prospects trust

For LinkedIn's take on targeting the right buyers, understanding what they want, and reaching out with a personalized approach, check out How To Maximize LinkedIn's Value With Sales Navigator.

3. The ROI of Call Coaching In Sales

How much time and money do you invest into call coaching for your sales staff? More importantly, do you know the ROI for coaching? These are the questions Chris Orlob of Gong.io explores in his post.

Orlob’s key takeaway is that call coaching can be incredibly valuable. He walks through real examples to calculate call coaching ROI, which you can apply to your own organization to determine how valuable it may be for you.

4. 14 Recommendations for B2B Sales Leaders Planning Sales “Effectiveness” Training

Jack Dean of Fastpartners LLC has trained over 15,000 salespeople over his extensive career. He gets asked about sales effectiveness training so often that he wrote a blog post with his 14 key recommendations for B2B sales leaders.

Dean starts out with an overview of what “effectiveness” means, which boils down to determining an objective and measuring results. In order to implement his recommendations, you’ll need to have a goal for your training, plus defined metrics for tracking success. He then sets out with 14 actionable pieces of advice for how to create your own training.

5. Overcoming Digital Isolation to Make Real Connections: SAP Ariba CMO Tifenn Dano Kwan on Marketing Smarts [Podcast]

It’s worth carving out 30 mins of your time to listen to Tifenn Dano Kwan of SAP Ariba on Kerry O’Shea Gorgone’s Marketing Smarts podcast. Their conversation touches on how to avoid isolation in the digital world.

Kwan also notes the importance of aligning sales and marketing throughout the buyer’s journey. By combining forces within your organization, you can better understand and support the customer’s needs. She also says this is a way to co-innovate with the customer, and ensure that everyone is working together to drive results.

Looking for more of the latest sales industry news and highlights? Subscribe to the LinkedIn Sales Solutions blog.

06 Aug 16:56

5 Metrics for Top Performing Sales Leaders

by Daniel Korten
Sales Leaders need to have their finger on the pulse at all times. They must know whether the team is on track, or not, to hit the yearly goal.   Top performing Sales Leaders are always on top of this. They
06 Aug 16:55

A Salesperson’s Go-To Guide To Improve Business Acumen

by John Barrows

A lot’s been said about the skills and traits that will enable salespeople to perform at their optimum best.

Among the most frequently mentioned are product knowledge, customer empathy, problem solving, persuasiveness, and sales methodologies. No sales leader in her right mind would let loose a sales rep who lacks every one of those crucial attributes on the floor. Nor can a salesperson achieve decent performance metrics without strategic thinking, affinity to technology, and presenting. Anyone selling something to enterprises without these skills would be operating at a very serious disadvantage.

The list of required skills can go on and on.

But one trait that’s often missing or overlooked in the most wanted lists is business acumen.

What Is Business Acumen?

Business acumen refers to a strong understanding of business situations, enabling a person to quickly assess risks and opportunities, make smart decisions, and take actions that often lead to positive outcomes.

It’s also called “business sense,” “executive mindset,” or “business savvy,”. Business acumen stems from a practical awareness of the different aspects, units, processes, and roles that comprise a successful business, and how these components relate to each other.

In essence, business acumen is knowing how businesses behave.

A person with good business acumen possesses or develops some measure of leadership, innovative thinking, entrepreneurial mentality, and strategic sense. Using a business-centric frame of reference, he or she should be able to perform the following:

  1. See the big picture as well as the little details comprising a business organization.
  2. Determine how a specific business sustains cash flow and generates profit.
  3. Identify major factors or market disruptions that can benefit or negatively impact a business.
  4. Appreciate general business concepts and common documents like financial statements, articles of incorporation, business communications.
  5. Grasp corporate objectives and mentally map different ways of achieving those objectives.
  6. Internalize how the owner of a specific business might think about issues and make decisions to solve problems or achieve success.

Why You MUST Improve Your Business Acumen

Some salespeople fail at building meaningful relationships or at closing deals simply because they do not grasp the fundamentals of how businesses operate and make decisions. Sure, salespeople might know the technical features of their product and have been extensively trained in how to articulate their benefits, but these aren’t enough to build strong connections with dynamic business organizations.

Selling is pretty straightforward:

You won’t go very far if you don’t know your customer.   

In today’s sophisticated B2B markets, businesses don’t really need salespeople in the traditional sense. They’d rather find and consume product information online at their own convenience than be personally called over the phone by a rabid salesperson prodded by a sales quota, armed with a call script, and conditioned not to go beyond a prefabricated sales pitch.    

Instead of stereotypical sales practitioners, businesses need accomplished advisors and consultants who:

  • understand where their clients are coming from
  • know how to probe aspects of the organization to identify pain points
  • have the ability to create unique solutions that will address specific challenges
  • recognize relevant business goals enough to orchestrate outcomes that lead to customer success

Without business acumen, a salesperson will never get that done.  

Real-World Examples Of Business Acumen In Action

Quite a number of popular business personalities pop up each time the term “business acumen” is used. You’ll hear some anecdotes or comments about Richard Branson, Henry Ford, Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and other business figures.

Here are a few concrete instances showcasing how some of these industry giants use their astute business acumen to gain advantage/benefit:

Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett developed strong business acumen through extensive experience, having run a string of businesses non-stop from an early age.

As a kid, he sold magazines, bubblegum, and worked at a grocery store. During high school, Buffett and a friend invested $25 for a pinball machine which they strategically placed in a barber shop. The small business expanded within months to several pinball machines at different barber shops. Within a year, they sold the business for $1,200.

Buffett, now a billionaire investor, leverages his business acumen to intuit the profitability of companies and determine whether these companies are worth investing on.

Jeff Bezos

Led by Jeff Bezos, Amazon operates the world’s largest online retail business in terms of revenue and market capitalization.

Customer data gathered over the years allowed Amazon to understand customer behavior and focus all other business units towards customer satisfaction. This led to a series of corporate acquisitions and product innovations that strengthened Amazon’s supply chain strategy and diversification efforts.   

Richard Branson

Like Buffett, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson started running a business early.

From publishing a magazine and operating a mail-order business during his teen years, Branson eventually came to lead a conglomerate that controls more than 400 businesses.  

Business Acumen Is Not Just For CEOs

Business acumen is not only for business owners, entrepreneurs, or corporate leaders. For companies to thrive in the highly competitive landscapes of tomorrow, business acumen should flow in their corporate DNA. Specifically, a B2B company’s sales force — which owns the revenue streams that sustain and enable the company to grow — should be staffed by people who truly understand how businesses work and how enterprises behave in different scenarios.

Without business acumen, sales professionals will find it extremely difficult to build and sustain strong and value-driven bonds with corporate clients.

In contrast, a salesperson with good business acumen will be able to perform the following critical tasks during sales engagements:

  1. Plan and execute custom engagement strategies by determining the best approach in providing value based on the specific customer’s business context.      
  2. Build trust by conveying a strong understanding of businesses and their hierarchy of priorities.
  3. Ask the right questions and obtain important answers fast.
  4. Identify challenges, problems, and pain points.
  5. Keep business conversations relevant, meaningful, and insightful.
  6. Collaborate with the customer in building possible solutions to pain points.
  7. Assess whether custom solutions proposed would be feasible in terms of related costs and sustainability on the part of the vendor.
  8. Find the sweet spot for both vendor and customer.    

Business Acumen Vs. Sales Acumen

Sales acumen encapsulates the traits, experience, skills, and mindset that make a salesperson excellent at selling. These include prospecting, value articulation, problem solving, objection handling and negotiation, and relationship building. Professionals who possess good sales acumen generally have high levels of customer empathy, grit, self-motivation, and persuasive skills.

On the other hand, having business acumen is essentially having a strong understanding of business fundamentals as explained in previous sections. In the B2B universe, selling without business acumen can be very difficult:

  • If a salesperson lacks knowledge about business issues and trends affecting the customer, keeping conversations relevant and meaningful will be quite challenging. Thus, making it harder to grow the sales pipeline and walk prospects through different stages in the funnel.
  • In B2B sales, lack of business acumen is like a person without medical background trying to make a diagnosis (opportunity assessment), identify a disease (pain point), and prescribe the appropriate medicine or therapy (business solution).

Understandably, sales acumen precedes business acumen in importance when it comes to every sales-focused interaction. However, because customer-centricity increasingly pervades the emerging landscape, business acumen becomes nearly as important as sales acumen in the world of B2B sales.  

In a market where your customers are looking for trusted advisors and consultants instead of a sales rep, you can’t fulfil their needs as a sales practitioner without business acumen:

  1. For your team to stay relevant, your sales force should be familiar with the language, concepts, and priorities of business.
  2. It’s only through the lens of a business decision maker could you frame a custom solution that precisely addresses your customer’s main problems.
  3. And it’s only on top of strong business fundamentals could you best articulate why the solution you are offering is an excellent investment for the customer.

High-performing B2B salespeople serve as trusted partners and consultants to their customers. They understand relevant business models and industry trends that affect their prospects.

How To Develop Business Acumen

For sales organizations as well as for individuals who want to be entrepreneurs, business owners, or corporate leaders, one thing about business acumen stands out as very good news:

Business acumen can be learned.

It’s not an innate ability. Anyone with enough motivation can develop business acumen through experience, self-learning through reading and networking with business leaders, and formal training.

Salespeople can start by learning as much about a specific enterprise they are engaging. They should know more about the specific industry the enterprise belongs to as well as the key factors that drive this industry.

They can also learn more about their own organizations, the different units that comprise the company, the various processes that help it generate profit, and the ways and roles through which strategic decisions are made. You can initiate proactive efforts to network with workers and executives across different departments and get to know their own challenges and how they get things done.     

Tools, Books, And Resources For Building Business Acumen

Moving outward, the next step is to voraciously read books and consume multimedia materials such as audio files, podcasts, and videos that will help you quicken your goal of building a decent level of business acumen.

There are also more formal ways of training such as going to school and signing up for workshops and seminars. While enrolling in an Ivy League business school or joining a branded business training from top-notch providers will definitely bolster your business acumen, you can save on costs by checking out free online courses first.

Top resources to get you started:

Websites/Magazines

1) Business Insider

2) Entrepreneur

3) Inc.

4) Fast Company

5) The Harvard Business Review

6) Bloomberg Businessweek

Podcasts

1) The Sales Hacker Podcast

2) Make It Happen – B2B Sales Talk with John Barrows

3) Entrepreneur on Fire – EOF

4) Duct Tape Marketing

5) HBR Ideacast

6) B2B Nation: Smarketing

7) THE $100 MBA

Bonus: 45 Best Sales Podcasts to Follow in 2018

 

Books

1) Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company by Kevin Cope

2) The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell

3) The New One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

4) Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink

5) Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman

6) The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt

7) Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin

8) Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . And Others Don’t by Jim Collins

Bonus: 30 Recommended Read by Sales Hacker: Best Sales Books for 2018

Free Online Courses

1) Principles of Management, Saylor Academy

2) Economic Analysis for Business Decisions, MIT Sloan School of Management

3) Introduction to Finance, University of Michigan

4) Organizational Analysis, Stanford University

5) U.Lab: Transforming Business, Society, and Self, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

6) Behavioural Economics in Action, University of Toronto

7) Entrepreneurship 101: Who is Your Customer?, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

8) Innovation and Commercialization, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Excellent Salespeople Think Like Business Leaders

Sales skills alone may have been sufficient to close deals in the past but the game has completely changed altogether. Sales teams now need to adopt entirely new playbooks to win. A key element integral to that playbook and a crucial trait for all your salesfolks is business acumen.

Enterprise customers demand a lot more from vendors these days. They don’t need and are often turned off by run-of-the-mill sales reps. Instead, they deeply appreciate trusted consultants who understand the priorities of their business and recognize the different market drivers that influence important decisions in their industry.

Business acumen enables a salesperson to build trust, create sound engagement strategies, make smart calls, and deliver solutions that squarely address their customer’s problems and orchestrate business outcomes clients expect.  

Salespeople with strong business acumen are the new power players in the game of B2B selling. Because they know exactly how to help client organizations succeed, they eventually help their own companies achieve sales targets and deliver a winning performance.

The post A Salesperson’s Go-To Guide To Improve Business Acumen appeared first on Sales Hacker.

06 Aug 16:52

How to Turn Sales Pilots into Smokin' Deals

by Sean Higgins

Navigating a pilot can be the difference between winning and losing in sales. Whether you target the Fortune 500 or are simply trying to secure your first 10 customers, pilots can open the door for future deals. A pilot project is a small-scale test designed to look at feasibility, cost, and the ROI of a product or service.

Companies love pilots because they enable them to try multiple projects and see which ones move the needle for the business. They also help companies explore new technology in a low-risk manner without much commitment. As a sales leader, your team needs to know how to land pilots and turn your pilots into actual deals.

Securing a Pilot

The first question you need to ask yourself when looking at a pilot opportunity is “Does the pilot actually make sense here?” Here are a few characteristics of a deal with pilot potential:

  • A Fixed timeline: You’re able to provide the benefit over a small period of time and then turn it off. This works with many software projects or with small scope service projects. Delivering a product or solution over a short amount of time makes it easier to leave the customer wanting more post-project.
  • Unclear ROI: If the customer has expressed interest but is unsure about the exact benefit the offering will provide (common with newer products and markets). Here, the pilot is an opportunity to prove the value to the customer while winning a small deal in the process.
  • Budget constraints: The customer likes the offering but doesn’t have enough money in the budget to acquire the entire thing. Be careful here. Just how new sales reps like to drop price immediately on a tough phone call, sometimes lowering the deal scope on a pilot can be a crutch to avoid that awkward silence on a call.
  • Feature restrictions: Making sure the pilot is actually different than the real offering. You wouldn’t give away a car every time someone asked for a test drive, so why give away your entire product? If you can’t limit the scope of your offering, a pilot will rarely make sense for your team.

Once you meet the criteria above, you’re in good territory positioning your offer as a pilot. One last word of warning for securing a pilot: Don’t give away your pilot for free. If it requires a salesperson’s time to set it up, getting a nominal fee will ensure your contact can get budget when the actual contract comes up for negotiation.

If you’re still acquiring your first handful of customers, pilots can be a great way to get more exposure in the market. When pitching pilots directly, it’s a good idea to connect with a company’s innovation department. They’re often a key stakeholder when running new tests and -- in some cases -- provide budgetary support to other business units.

Turning Your Pilot into a Lucrative Deal

There are several components of successfully turning a pilot into a deal. Generally, you’ll need to show either clear usage metrics and/or a clear ROI post-pilot. Examples of usage metrics are as follows:

  • How many people logged in during the pilot?
  • How many active users did you have?
  • How many value-add activities did those folks perform?
  • How can you translate these figures into actual value for the company?

If you have a software, service, or product that influences top-line revenue, the ROI process is pretty simple:

  1. How many new leads did you generate over the pilot?
  2. What is the estimated close rate and the overall contract value?

That’s how much revenue the pilot generated. Now, what if you could run that year-round? How much would you expect to make in top line? Showing the benefit -- and how greatly it outweighs the cost -- can help you make a clear ROI pitch to your stakeholders.

If, on the other hand, you influence a cost center (support, development, accounting, etc.) you’ll want to show one of the following:

  1. Cost savings over what the client was using before for your solution.
  2. Time savings that translates into even greater value.

Point one is straightforward if your prospect is paying, for example, $10,000/month for accounting software and your pilot provided the same capabilities for $500/month. That’s clearly a massive savings.

With the second criteria, however, you need to save time and show how that time can be repurposed effectively. Saving five minutes at the end of each meeting doesn’t help the company, if that time is spent unproductively.

With these ideas in mind, start your pilot by asking your prospect what success looks like -- and working backward from there. Build the case for your ROI every week or month the pilot is running, and you’ll be able to show more than a data point. You’ll have a line of all the value generated over the life of the pilot. This reduces purchase risks for your customer and earns you revenue in the process.

So, go ahead, get your product into the hands of more customers with a pilot program and see the results pile up in your bank account.

HubSpot CRM