Sales Secrets

InsideSales.com, in partnership with the AA-ISP, Top Sales World, and APS did a research report on the State of Sales. The report covered three areas of structure, people, and systems. In this episode, Denise Bryant, Managing Director at APS joins the Playmaker podcast to discuss the state of sales and provides insights and analysis as to why the US and Europe differ on many key attributes in regards to sales.

Customer reviews are common place in B2C but they have made their way to B2B and whether you like it or not you need to get in the review game. In this episode, Derek Levine from Trust Radius takes us through the importance of reviews and discusses on sales people can use them to make more money. In this episode you'll learn: How reviews are common place in B2C but have made the transition to B2B How B2B software is sold, not bought How I personally use our own TrustRadius reviews/content in my sales process

LinkedIn is always changing and so should you. Video is now on LinkedIn and it's available and ready to use. To some it's annoying and to others it's even more annoying. But, is there a way that you can effectively use it. Should you even use it? In this episode, Teddy Burriss, an expert in social media consulting, especially LinkedIn breaks down the good, the bad, and the ugly of LinkedIn video and other social media trends. In This Episode You’ll Learn: The power of LinkedIn How to use LinkedIn video Social media trends

In the old days we'd just buy a list, call top to bottom and call it good. That doesn't work anymore and you know it. Jake Shaffren is the Director of Sales Development at DiscoverOrg, and he's a master about thinking through how reps can find, identify, and quality their leads and target contacts. It's all about the leads. If reps are spending a lot of time trying to figure out who to pursue, they'll lose. Companies need human verified data to know that their target audience has the right information to contact and qualify them.

We all want big deals right? Big deal have better margins, they stick around longer, and they become better partners. With all the good there is some bad. Big deals are hard to win and they often take a lot longer than smaller deals. There is no secret to win big deals but there are best practices - often learned from the school of hard knocks. Introduce Jason Krieger - an expert when it comes to chasing and winning big deals.In this episode, Jason talks about his sales career and how he's learned to be a Playmker winning big deals when others couldn't. In This Episode You’ll Learn: Preparation and targeting: know enough about your client to ensure that your initial pitch for a meeting is steeped in opportunities to improve or add value to current initiatives. Then target the right function. Have a laser focus on knowing who in the organization is your buyer and where coaches will come from Get internal alignment and set realistic expectations on the resources needed and time needed to invest in relationship

Video, video, video. It's the talk of the town and if you're not using it, you probably should. KPCB says by 2017, online video will account for 74% of all online traffic. That's a lot. No matter how you try and explain it, video is here to stay. The question is, how do you best utilize it? Sati Hillyer, is the founder and CEO of OneMob, a leading video engagement platform. Sati jumped on the Playmaker podcast to discuss video in general, the top trends around videos, and how sales people are using it to crush their quotas. In This Episode You’ll Learn: Why is video such a hot topic What are video engagement platforms and how do they work How can video best be used in the sales process

Sharing content with your network is a big part of the social selling process. Sharing content can help build your brand, create trust, provide value, and help create a following. But, what content is the right content? Should you be creating your own or curating others content? The answer is both. Sales today is about creating value and if you want to do that, you have to learn to create and curate. You have good ideas in your respective profession and you need an outlet for those thoughts and experience. On the other side, you need to realize you and your company don't have all the good ideas. To stay relevant you need to curate content from a wide range of sources. Mastering these two concepts puts you in the drivers seat of social selling and puts you on the track to success.  In This Episode You’ll Learn: Why content curation is an important part of the sales process What tactics reps take to successfully share relevant content Top strategies to curate and create content for your network 

Sales Development is here to stay but it's always changing. David Dulany is the founder and CEO of Tenbound, a company focused on bringing together the sales development community. David discusses trends and problems facing the sales development space and what managers and leaders need to know to stay ahead of the curve. In This Episode You'll Learn: What to expect from the one and only Sales Development Conference Top trends faced by sales development teams Top problems faced by sales development teams  What sales development teams can do today to start winning

Dan McGinn is the author of  Psyched Up: How the Science of Mental Preparation Can Help You Succeed. The book focuses on the topic of science and mental preparation. Stress can effect everybody and people in sales are certainly not immune. Unlike athletes, sales leaders often do little mental preparation before big meetings or events but there is a lot of research suggesting that people who engage in certain behaviors before stressful activities or high-stakes performances perform better. The book highlights such activities as listening to motivational songs, having a routine, or performing a certain set of actions as great ways to get psyched up.

People always find different ways to communicate to get what they want. Using the phone might be preferred for some while others prefer email and others texting messaging. Chat has become a mainstream method used between companies and their prospects and clients. Although chat has not found it's way into the mainstream sales process, it has become an often used and often preferred method for prospects to communicate with companies. Chat allows prospects to not have to pick up the phone and have a long drawn out conversation but it allows the instant gratification of potentially getting answers quick. As Chat continues to become more and more utilized as part of the sales process, we sat down with Johnny Everett, founder of The Chat Shop to talk about how companies are using chat and how chat will continue to disrupt the sales process in the coming years.

The solar eclipse happened and it was a good thing. A lot of people across the globe gathered and enjoyed the celestial event. I for one was dragged to Idaho to watch the actual event close to the area of totality, where apparently you could get the best view possible. It was fun and the family and I enjoyed the whole experience. Now, leading up to the event there were a handful of publications who tried to estimate how much productivity would be lost due to the event. Being data-driven junkies like we are, we decided to look at our Neuralytics data set and see how what happened to sales teams during the solar eclipse. WARNING We report this data in fun, we enjoyed the eclipse as much as anybody else.

Many sales people find themselves on an island. They run their business with little support and little interference from the corporate office. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that sales reps are empowered to do what they need for their territories but the bad thing is, they often overlook critical elements that would make their lives a lot easier. One of those things is the power of story telling, especially from the eyes of customers. Stories help prospects see how transformational products and services can help change their lives and when these stories are told from real people who experience real results, the impact can be lasting. Sadly, most organizations don't see this and most sales reps can't do it on their own. Great customer stories therefore never get shared and never are fully utilized. In this episode, James O'Gara, CEO and Founder of On Message and StoryDimensions, talks about the importance of stories and how organizations should start thinking about building and sha

Texting is here to stay. Busy decision makers are using texting to respond to people in and out of the work place and sales reps are starting to see the benefits of getting mobile numbers. How will this continue to play out? In this episode, Mike Vandenbos, Entrepreneur in Residence at Zipwhip, talks about the state of sales and discusses where texting is being best utilized. In addition, Mike points out some of the rules and regulations regarding texting and advises on how people should start thinking about brining texting into their day-to-day sales activities. In This Episode You'll Learn: History of texting in business? What is going on with texting in general? What is going on with texting in the sales space? How can sales reps get more mobile numbers? What are best practices for texting?

Every sales representative executes a ‘cadence’ when they reach out via email, phone, or using social media to initiate a conversation with a potential prospect. The art of a cadence is determined based on a myriad of factors, fueled primarily by sales reps’ intuition regarding the company and contact being pursued. Because of the subjective nature of this exercise many cadences go south and lead disastrous results. Because of this InsideSales Labs decided to study the art of sales cadences and determine what companies are actually doing. Labs studied more than 14K cadences across nearly 9K companies.

In baseball you can't have a good batting average unless you have at bats. At bats are opportunities to succeed in baseball but without them you're not even in the game. Sales is similar to baseball in this regard. Many sales people are talented but they never get the chance or the 'at bats' to prove it. If sales people can get enough at bats they find themselves improving their overall game to where they can become Allstars. The question is, how can sales people get more at bats in sales? Tibor Shanto, is an expert in sales and is a proclaimed CDO or chief door opener. He specializes in helping sales reps get more opportunities. In this episode, Tibor teaches us some of the tried and true principles of getting more at bats. In This Episode You'll Learn: Things you to consider before the call Changing the narrative to change results Role of dynamics in calling success Executing the complete call Common mistakes to avoid

Steven Broudy, a senior sales leader posted on LinkedIn telling sales reps to step up and use the phone instead of spamming him with what we all know are automated emails. I didn't say it, he did. Mr. Broudy caused quite a stir with his post, but is it true? Should sales reps really use that ugly thing we call the phone?

Are you getting tired of social selling? We've decided to speak our mind about the truth of social selling and ask industry experts to explain the who, the what, and the why of social selling. In this episode, we debate the fundamentals of social selling with Larry Levine, founder of Social Sales Academy and put Larry on the spot with tough questions such as, "Why is there so much data lacking about social selling results?", "What should reps do to be successful when social selling?" and "What does social selling even mean?"

We live in a world of inside out marketing. We're guessing at who we are talking to. We are guessing at what we should say to them. We need to rethink how we are engaging with the marketplace. Chief Customer Officer at Big Willow, Neil Passero poses the question, how many deals are you missing out on? Many of your buyers will not be in your CRM, they are not responding to your marketing program but they are out on the web searching for you, searching for services, or searching for competitors. This is the power of data and particularly intent and behavioral data and if you can use this data effectively you can grow your sales pipeline significantly. In This Episode You'll Learn: The missing link in the sales process and why companies are missing out on a lot of sales deals The power of data and how it can help you sell more What is behavioral and intent data and how you can use it in your business

The science of decision making is complex but important. Tim Riesterer, Chief Strategy and Research Officer at Corporate Visions, is the master of explaining the hidden forces that shape why and how choices are made. Many sales reps chase after traditional sales approaches only to see them fail time and time again. Reps need something new. They need to start using data and science. They need to realize they can take their power back by understanding the science of why people do what they do and changing their behavior accordingly. In This Episode You'll Learn: Create Value - The differentiation conversation - how do you create more opportunities and start putting distance between you and your competitors Evaluate Value - The justification conversation - Why most sales reps are not ready to have executive level conversations and how you can start talking about what executives want to talk about Capture Value - The maximization conversation - How you can move from negotiation to understanding the balance of po