Whether you’re a top sales performer or striving to be one, you’ve got to keep learning to be your best. Reading books, blogs, and news articles, following thought leaders and researchers online, watching educational videos and listening to podcasts are all great ways to continue to grow your knowledge base and skill set. When it […]

In B2B sales, exceptional verbal communication skills are absolutely imperative. Why? Because phone calls are what move deals forward. As we have all experienced, it can take numerous emails back and forth to qualify a lead, but it’s far easier and more impactful to qualify leads (and move deals forward) on the phone. In my […]

In TOPO’s 2019 Sales Development Benchmark report, 88 percent of the participants cited outbound sales development representatives as essential to their success. Since outbound reps typically perform prospecting, it is therefore essential that your reps have excellent B2B prospecting tools in order to make them more efficient and effective. During prospecting, development reps have to […]

Four of the most common terms you will hear anywhere in sales are prospect, lead, contact, and opportunity. Sometimes they are used interchangeably, but each has their own distinct meaning that directly refers to the sales process. So what exactly is a lead, a prospect, contact, and an opportunity? What do the terms mean, how […]

The onboarding of sales development representatives (SDRs) is one of the most challenging, and sometimes underserviced parts of a business. Sales development roles are commonly treated as entry-level positions. SDRs are given as little as a week of onboarding, and are expected to get by with on-the-job learning. This, combined with steep quotas, mean the […]

No matter how consistently you coach your reps or how well they’ve performed in the past, there are always times when sales teams struggle to hit their goals. This can be especially true at the end of a challenging quarter or year. Your reps may be giving it their all, but seem to be running […]

Hubspot found that the average sales close rate is between 15 and 27%, depending on the industry. With over 70% of deals falling through, everyone has plenty of lost or dropped sales opportunities in their CRM. These prospects fail to convert numerous reasons, from no decision, postponed, budget constraints, contact departure, to even a slow […]

There are many ways to define a “good” sales rep. It’s common to measure their value with factors like experience, performance record, prior companies, and network. There are also unquantifiable factors like personality, drive, character, temperament, and communication skills. Ultimately, your organization’s definition of a “good” sales rep may be very different than another. Your […]

Cold calling is undoubtedly challenging. You must master an array of skills like a natural sounding tone and sales script. You need to learn objection responses, develop product knowledge, and learn proper pre-call research. All of this adds up in a way that makes 48% of business-to-business salespeople afraid of making cold calls. It takes […]

Who doesn’t want to schedule more meetings from their cold calls? Your performance on cold calls can be the difference between hitting your goals or falling short of your target. You can work as best you can to get past the gatekeeper and perfect your pitch, but one of the most crucial aspects of a […]

Just because a lead has been qualified, it doesn’t mean they are going to become a customer. Although it varies by industry, research has shown that only 20-30% of sales qualified leads (SQLs) close. That means that there are many prospects that fall out of the funnel during your sales process. It’s just as well, […]

How effective is your sales coaching? When is the last time you asked yourself this question? It goes without saying, sales coaching is important. Sales coaching differs from sales training in that it is the continuous reinforcement of skills to improve performance over time. If you aren’t sales coaching at all, we’ve covered in depth […]