Insights on Driving Faster Capital-Efficient Growth
If you’re a couple of quarters into the year and your sales team is not attaining their goals or quota targets, here is what you can do. Use the framework of focusing on the 5 key elements of sales management or the 5 P’s – People, Planning, Process, Pipeline and… Read More >
When you are hiring new sales reps, what traits are you looking for? I typically try to look for the 5 traits below (these are the primary and the most important ones but there are others too) which have worked for me and will typically be useful for identifying effective sales… Read More >
A few years ago I was a speaker at the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals event, and one of the attendees followed up with me and asked me how I would define selling in today’s day and age. To me, the answer has not changed from thousands of years ago.… Read More >
As you browse the shelves at your local Barnes and Noble (or the digital shelves of your Kindle), it can be hard to decide which sales management books you should pick up for your summer beach vacation. Each of them, with their shiny jackets and similar-sounding names, looks just like… Read More >
If someone asks you whether you have a good sales team or not, what objective criteria or sales metrics could you use to say that you do? Most people look exclusively at results, rather than inputs, and answer based on whether their sales team hits their number. But here’s the… Read More >
There are no teachers to assign you summer reading, but that doesn’t mean you should ever stop learning and reviewing best practices in sales management. There are many insightful books on both sales management and selling methods and you must always stay on top in order to build a repeatable,… Read More >
Sales management is a difficult endeavor to master, with many nuances amid a constantly-changing environment. Enter Jason Jordan, an author, recognized thought leader and a partner of Vantage Point Performance, a leading sales management training and development firm. Jason wrote “Cracking the Sales Management Code: The Secrets to Measuring and… Read More >
Whenever I read books (primarily non-fiction), I always try to take copious notes right on the pages and also on the back few pages if they have blank pages there. This way I can review my notes every year or whenever I have a need to refer to the particular… Read More >
A few weeks ago Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, gave an interview about the late Steve Jobs as someone quite different than the media represented him. Cook called Jobs “kind, patient, and human” in a Fast Company article titled “The Steve Jobs You Didn’t Know.” Reading this piece made me… Read More >
Every A-player sales rep knows that to be at the top of their game, they must combine the art of sales with some science. Reps need to have a handle on leading indicators so they can build their own personal scalable, repeatable, and predictable sales processes that help them consistently… Read More >
What does a successful quota-carrying sales rep do every day? It’s no shock to learn that the best reps in the business are incredibly focused, organized, and clearly plan out each day with a set goal in mind. Here I wanted to share what I believe to be some highly-effective… Read More >
Everyone makes mistakes, even the best sales reps in the business. Unfortunately, some of the most common pitfalls that reps trip up on when talking to prospects can slow down a deal, confuse a customer’s understanding of your product, or even kill the deal outright. So how do you prevent… Read More >
Do you have an effective sales playbook? A playbook acts as a reference manual for onboarding new sales reps and covers key areas for ongoing sales training. But a sales playbook also has a more important function – it codifies a sales process that is conducive to scalable, repeatable and… Read More >
Sales has changed. That’s no secret; the advent of technology and the evolution of the educated customer has forced sales organizations, sales managers and sales reps to change the way they used to do their jobs. According to The Corporate Executive Board (CEB), 57% of the purchase decision is completed… Read More >
What skills help make a quota-carrying inside sales rep successful? There is a complex set of skills that every ISR must possess in order to sell effectively and, as a sales manager, it is your responsibility to train and coach your reps extensively to enable them to succeed. Make sure… Read More >
I read a lot about how other VPs of Sales and sales executives at SaaS companies have struggled with accuracy in sales forecasting. And every time I see that I wonder how they run forecasts. Most sales organizations typically lean on one of these three methods: They used traditional sales… Read More >
Even the best sales reps in the business make mistakes – and some of those errors are all too common. Sales reps are prone to common pitfalls when talking to prospects that can slow down a deal, trip up a customer’s understanding of your product, or even kill the deal… Read More >
As a sports fan, you are familiar with the adage, “Practice like you play.” Coaches preach this mantra repeatedly, to instill a mindset of intensity and improvement among their players. Unless a player practices as if they were actually playing in a competitive game – running plays against defenders, competing… Read More >
Each of our inside sales reps at InsightSquared is a “mini-CEO,” as my friend Aaron Ross calls them. This is because they analyze all their own business by themselves. They fully own not only their quota number, but all of their sales performance analysis as well. I’ve noticed many sales reps… Read More >
Following last week’s press release, in which InsightSquared announced 20x growth in the past year, we received a lot of questions from customers and partners about how we did it. In this post, I’ll share some of the crucial steps we took to achieve such rapid growth. First, we started… Read More >
Sales reps deal with more indifference, rejection, and bad attitude throughout their workday than most. Sales contests are used as fun ways to lift their spirits, remind them of their larger goals, and keep them motivated – while simultaneously driving results in specific areas. We at InsightSquared believe in building… Read More >
Most sales professionals are familiar with the qualifying acronym and methodology called BANT – Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing. But there are a few fundamental flaws with BANT. For example, the implication with BANT is that “B” or Budget comes first. However, Need, also known as pain, problem or challenges… Read More >
Building and managing a sales team is Rob Merklinger‘s specialty. In fact, over the past 12 years, Rob has put together a diverse resume, encompassing sales management in a variety of different roles at various software companies. Starting out at Oracle, Rob rose from the ranks of a regional sales… Read More >
Failure is often looked down upon as unfortunate and unwanted. The emotions associated with failure are typically disappointment, shame or anger. But if people viewed failure as a step to success and a learning opportunity then they would end up being much more successful in the end. Thomas Watson Sr.,… Read More >
Steve Jobs was the brainchild of some of the world’s most popular consumer electronics today – you’re probably reading this on your iPhone or iPad – and father of one of the world’s biggest brands in Apple. However, there is one aspect of Jobs’ legacy that is often overlooked –… Read More >
We’ve always been inspired by the work of Mike Volpe, the Chief Marketing Officer at HubSpot who is one of the top authorities among marketing executives in high-tech industries. As the 5th employee to start at HubSpot, Mike helped the company grow into one of the biggest names in marketing… Read More >
For a sales manager looking for his first deep dive into sales analytics, it can be daunting trying to determine which sales performance metrics to focus on. Well, sales managers can consider their problems solved, with the release of our new infographic – produced in collaboration with InsideSales.com – displaying… Read More >
Dave Mattson is the CEO sales trianing company Sandler Systems, Inc. which is a leader in international sales training and sales consulting. Dave first met David H. Sandler, the founder of Sandler Training, in 1986. He fell in love with the training material and methodologies right away and began working for… Read More >
There are several key trends in sales and sales management but one particular trend is especially exciting and transformational – the trend towards Sales Performance Management (SPM). SPM is an innovative discipline of sales management that is focused on driving more optimal sales performance with next-generation tools and metrics-driven best… Read More >
Aaron Ross is the author of the award-winning bestseller Predictable Revenue: Turn your Business into a Sales Machine with the $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce.com. He is also the CEO and Founder of Predictable Revenue, which teaches companies how to grow sales faster and more predictably. Previously, Ross helped create… Read More >
Measuring sales key performance indicators (KPIs) for your sales reps is critical for sales performance management and building a predictable, repeatable revenue generation process. Studying the “right” sales performance metrics lets sales managers determine which reps are struggling and in which areas they need coaching help with. Unfortunately, a lot of… Read More >
There are many challenges to forecasting accurately, but you can be more effective at accurate sales forecasting methods if you manage your “sales forecast killers” carefully. Consider these 10 key forecast killers and if they creep up into your opportunities then flag those opportunities as “at risk”. Timing Time kills… Read More >
We recently attended a webinar hosted by Salesforce.com called “Sales Coaching Master Class with Tony Robbins,” featuring Tony Robbins and Walter Rogers. We were truly inspired and thought this would be a great time to write a post about what Sales Coaching really means. As discussed in a recent blog… Read More >