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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s the second month of the third quarter. Some sales teams are scrambling at this point, increasingly worried they won’t make annual quotas. Regardless if your team is on pace to hit their targets, or not, it’s a great time to review the first half. How do you stay on track or make adjustments to […]

Outsourcing part of the sales development role to an agent-assisted dialing service may not be as advantageous as expected. Not all software and technology are a good fit for all businesses. It depends on the sales cycle and the type of product being sold. With claims of 125 dials and 7-10 conversations per rep per […]

Sales coaching is an incredibly effective way to increase the performance of your sales team. It boosts sales effectiveness by improving your reps’ sales abilities on an individual basis. Implementing sales coaching can seem daunting, but when you break it down piece by piece, starting one can be simple. We recently created a new ebook […]

There’s a lot of irony when it comes to texting. It feels extremely personal (and highly intrusive if you don’t have a certain rapport with someone) and yet when you consider that most people check their emails on their mobile phones, what makes texting any different? Is it because one uses an email address and […]