Are you ready to sell like Socrates? The Greek philosopher Socrates was no fan of lectures, and if he were around today, he’d be equally dismissive of sales pitches. He was famous for asking his students targeted questions  in order to provoke thoughts, help them analyze concepts, and get to the truth of issues. Socrates knew where he […]

Most inside sales managers know when reps are underperforming. But being a great sales manager requires being able to address why certain reps are or aren’t hitting their numbers. In our experience, the most successful managers are those that are able to gain visibility into how individual reps’ activities impact downstream revenue. For our latest eBook, […]

When is the last time that you made a purchase on a whim? This past weekend, I decided to go to a really fancy brunch with two of my friends. When the check came, it was about 5 times the price of what I would normally spend on brunch. It was a splurge, to be sure, but […]

Imagine you’re an inside sales rep who is given a list of outbound leads to call down. It can be tempting to just dial down the list cold, in hopes of initiating as many conversations as possible. But think how much more successful you could be if you had access to contextually relevant information about each […]

As salespeople, we all want opportunities with zero competitors. But today’s buyers are savvier than ever, and often research the landscape prior to making a buying decision. As such, all salespeople should be prepared to go head-to-head with the competition. I’ve found that the best sales reps aren’t deterred by a prospect mentioning the competition. […]

I remember a time I was working at another company as an account executive (AE), when our sales development rep (SDR) transferred a call over to me out of the blue. There was no data about the prospect in in our CRM, so I didn’t know what solutions she was interested in buying, I didn’t […]

Sales development reps (SDRs) find themselves in a challenging situation when they are asked to prospect for new leads across a diverse cross-section of industries. The problem? Every industry has also has its own language. Unless you are (at least somewhat) fluent in that language, it can be nearly impossible to sell into any industry but your […]

The philosopher Socrates was famous for asking disciplined questions of his students in order to provoke thoughts, help them analyze concepts and get to the truth of issues. Socrates knew where he wanted his students to arrive. But rather than simply lecturing them, he realized that it was possible to lead students to an epiphany by asking a systematic […]

Can inside sales reps really afford to leave lead nurturing solely to marketers? According to data from Marketing Sherpa, 61% of B2B marketers hand all  leads over to sales, but only 27% of those leads are qualified. If you’re still thinking of lead nurturing as a synonym for email marketing, it’s time to adjust your […]

Whether you are trying to generate leads for your own company, or you work for an agency that traffics in leads, chances are that  you aren’t taking enough credit for your efforts. There’s a lot of talk amongst marketers about creating a culture of accountability, in which marketers are able to report the ROI of […]

Top B2B sales reps have already discovered how valuable LinkedIn can be during B2B sales prospecting. Best-selling author and top sales strategist Jill Konrath reported that reps can massively accelerate their sales pipeline by spending less than an hour a day using LinkedIn. In fact, Konrath states that LinkedIn offers better sales ROI than any other […]

Each day, LinkedIn prompts each of us to “say congrats” on someone’s new job. Directors become VPs,  VPs become CXOs, and CEOs found new companies. The changes accompanying executive role shifts is much like what happens when coaches leave one team for another, or a political leader takes power. Entire systems of operations change, as […]