Categories: Economic Change | Sales Negotiation
We’ve talked a lot in blogs and other content about the importance of negotiating early and often. Negotiation isn’t an event that happens with procurement at the end of a deal, but a process of establishing and validating the value of your solution throughout the life of a deal. How does that process change in today’s environment, where buyers are hyper-focused on cost and sales teams are struggling with reduced pipeline?
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Categories: Podcasts
This past month of the Revenue Builders Podcast has featured some all-star leaders. These inspiring conversations have explored everything from game-changing sales strategies to leadership actions that transform teams and people. At a time when many of us are being confronted with new and complex challenges, these stories from experienced leaders offer perspective and advice that will keep you on the path toward growth. Dig into the episodes below to get into the elite leader's mindset. Make sure to tune in to the Revenue Builders podcast on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Economic Change | Sales Discovery Process | Sales Leadership
Recently, we’ve all been living in a constant state of economic uncertainty. 2023 market trends show a leveling off of growth and consumer confidence is steadily declining across global markets.
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Categories: Economic Change | Sales Conversation | Selling to the C-Suite
The Chief Financial Officer is an influential voice in any sales conversation. If you’re looking to drive growth for your organization, your reps must be able to influence the CFO to close higher-value deals. Recently, due to economic pressure and budget constraints, many sales teams are seeing CFOs get involved in every deal, regardless of size. The ability to sell to the CFO is now a crucial skill every seller needs in order to hit revenue targets in today’s market.
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Categories: Company Alignment | Sales Messaging | Sales and Marketing
Recent economic uncertainty has forced many sales teams to dig deeper into their territories for potential pipeline and put a critical focus on effectively maximizing every lead. As buyers become more budget-conscious and develop more stringent criteria, it’s never been more important to communicate value from the very first interaction.
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Categories: Podcasts
Last month, the Revenue Builders Podcast explored the concept of influence: how to identify it, access it, and wield it in the sales process. Our esteemed guests shared expert insights on core sales fundamentals as well as emerging strategies in the market. From nailing negotiations and upselling to converting champions and CFOs, this month's episodes are a masterclass on how to maximize your impact in a challenging sales environment. Dig into our April episodes below and share them with your team to stay prepared for whatever the market throws at you. Make sure to tune in to the Revenue Builders podcast on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Economic Change | Sales Leadership | Talent Management
Economic challenges can take a huge toll on workforce morale. Your sales force is likely encountering obstacles they haven’t faced before, and it’s possible that’s affecting their ability to win.
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Categories: Economic Change | Scaling Sales | Selling to the C-Suite
Selling to C-level leaders is a crucial skill for your sales force if you want to grow your average deal size. Especially in today’s environment of economic uncertainty, big price tags are not getting approved without skillful execution of these conversations.
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Categories: MEDDICC | Sales Messaging | Sales Qualification
Most sales organizations have been affected by the economic downturn, which has resulted in rapid changes in buyer behavior, business priorities and decision criteria. You may be experiencing stagnation of growth, declining win rates or struggles with inconsistency in sales performance. Depending on your organization's current challenges, a sales qualification and/or messaging transformation can improve your sales teams’ ability to increase average deal size and win rates consistently. One initiative complements the other, and the true power of each is maximized when they’re executed together.
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Categories: Podcasts
As leaders, we serve as guides for our teams through challenging times. In the current economic landscape, when the challenges are unpredictable, it helps to have guides of our own. Last month on the Revenue Builders Podcast, we talked to multiple leaders who have guided teams successfully through crises. They spoke to the power of gratitude, communication, culture, and humility. Dig in to these five episodes for sales strategies, wisdom, and inspiration to help you stay at the top of your game through any challenge. Listen to the Revenue Builders podcast on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Company Alignment | Economic Change | Scaling Sales
As the external economic environment continues to shift, many organizations are looking for ways to optimize costs and make their sales force more efficient. One focus area has emerged as a key differentiator for those organizations who have been able to do more with less, accelerate revenue, and exceed their objectives during this economic time: alignment. Succeeding during economic change requires all hands on deck and a united motion toward your goals. Perhaps the recent market shifts have exposed misalignment in your teams that wasn’t as critical before. Or maybe your organization has struggled to pivot to match the speed of the market, resulting in misalignment on how you’re addressing changing customer needs.
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Categories: Economic Change | Sales Enablement Technology | Sales Leadership
Sometimes change comes in the form of a tidal wave: immediate, dramatic, and undeniable. More often, change happens slowly and steadily: hard to perceive until we’ve drifted so far from the shore that we can’t see where we started. Whether you’re trying to minimize “drift” that’s occurred within your sales organization over time or respond to the immediate impact of the turbulent economic environment, ensure you’re focusing on crucial aspects that enable your team to succeed. Remain focused on the fundamental aspects of good selling while using every advantage to stay competitive in the modern selling landscape.
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Categories: Front-line Managers | Opportunity Reviews | Sales Coaching Tools
For the modern sales organization, certain technologies are universal in the age of Sales 2.0. We rely on CRMs and continuous learning platforms to increase the efficiency of our sales force and drive organizational outcomes. The recent economic downturn has most sales organizations looking for ways to achieve even greater cost efficiency and support revenue-driving activities. One high-impact area where leaders are choosing to invest is manager enablement. Emerging sales technologies can optimize opportunity reviews and coaching to increase front-line manager effectiveness. These managers have a unique potential to impact your organization’s success; an investment in their efficacy is an investment in overall sales velocity.
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Categories: Economic Change | Sales Negotiation
Today's sales environment is highly competitive. Rising economic headwinds mean that many buyers are adopting more complex purchasing processes, and sales organizations are looking for any way to preserve vital margins. As a sales leader, you don't want your sellers resorting to discounting to close deals in this environment.
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Categories: Podcasts
This month on Revenue Builders, our guests reminded us of the power of the mind. In leadership and life, the power of your mindset is clear - it affects your outlook, motivation and most importantly those around you. We look for a great mindset in those we partner with and who we hire. These are four stories that convey the transformative power of the mindset, from entrepreneurship to service. Dig in to the episodes below for inspiration and personal growth tactics for leaders in every stage of their career. Listen to the Revenue Builders podcast on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Economic Change | Sales Leadership | Sales Messaging
What do today’s most successful revenue-driving sales forces have in common? The top teams all feature the same traits: (1) a customer-focused qualification and discovery process, (2) the ability to attach to desired business outcomes (3) and clear, tangible differentiation. How can leaders help their organization achieve these things? By operationalizing a powerful messaging framework.
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Categories: Buyer Alignment | Sales Discovery Process | Sales Qualification
Many of today’s top sales organizations are starting to feel the effects of the economic downturn through increased selling criteria and buyer scrutiny. The new B2B customer is more focused on ROI than ever before, and they likely have multiple parties approving the deal through different criteria. What does this mean for sales leaders?
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Categories: Talent Management
I have been very fortunate to be a part of some great teams in my life. My freshman year in college I played football for the Defending National Champions of I-AA (now D-I), Boise State University. I transferred my sophomore year to Bowling Green State University in Ohio and played for one of the greatest teams in BGSU history. During the 1985 season we were ranked 20th in the nation ahead of some of the powerhouse schools like Texas and Georgia!
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Categories: Podcasts
The roadmap for building effective teams begins with the leader. As sales leaders, we can only command the best possible team when we're operating at our own maximum potential. This month’s guests on the Revenue Builders podcast give insight on the essential building blocks for creating company cultures where teams thrive and exceed collective goals. Tune in as four guests discuss the life experiences which led to their own evolution and personal growth, and how the lessons learned have helped them develop teams that get results, again and again. Listen to the Revenue Builders podcast on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Sales Planning | Sales Qualification | Scaling Sales
Achieving 100% forecast accuracy is a goal for any sales organization, but at times it can feel out of our hands. So many factors affect a successful forecast: external economic factors, problems within the buyer organization and the ability of sales teams to predict and execute their number. How do you improve forecast accuracy as a sales leader?
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Categories: Differentiation | Sales Messaging | Scaling Sales
If you’re a leader in a high-growth tech sector, you’ve probably heard the phrase “unicorn company.” It’s the dream of any tech startup – to reach a valuation of $1 billion without an IPO. But what do companies in this coveted spot have that puts them so far ahead of the competition? Conventional wisdom points to a great product, but we know that’s not the whole story. A great product sets the stage, but sales runs the show – so what can sales leaders in the tech world and beyond learn from the sales process of these standout firms?
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Categories: Company Alignment | Sales Kickoff | Sales Productivity
As we start the new year, many of us are also launched into SKO season. We've been planning for months to create an event that brings the team together, boosts morale and aligns everyone on our organization's priorities for the upcoming year. Often the resulting strategy focuses on training up new or underperforming members of the sales team and communicating expectations to improve productivity in the new year. The sales kickoff is a prime opportunity to build momentum, right the course and chart the path towards increased sales productivity and revenue. In order to achieve desired levels of growth and productivity, leaders must ensure that their presentation addresses the needs of every member of their sales team.
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Categories: Economic Change | Sales Kickoff | Sales Messaging
As we close out a year of widespread economic uncertainty, many leaders are looking for ways to boost morale and prepare their teams to maintain or even recover revenue in a competitive market. The start of the year is an opportunity to capitalize on the mindset of a fresh start. Your sales team is setting goals and habits for the new year, and SKOs and strategy sessions are shifting their approach. The first month or two will be crucial in setting the foundation that will determine your organization’s success this year. Now is the time to lay out a bold strategy and empower reps to take control of closing bigger deals, stacking pipeline and driving toward organizational goals. Here are three strategies that leaders are using to start the year strong with a message that reinforces their value in a competitive market.
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Categories: Podcasts
In February 2022, we published the first episode of Revenue Builders. Veteran sales leaders and friends John Kaplan and John McMahon are passionate about sharing their wealth of knowledge with current and future leaders, and along the years they've rubbed shoulders with some of the most influential and inspiring leaders of the sales world and beyond. The result: a podcast that explores leadership in all its forms, from leading an army to coaching a football team to accelerating industry-transforming growth. What we learned is that sometimes, they're not all that different. As we gear up for a new year of going in the barrel with some of the best, we're looking back on some of our most memorable episodes. Listen to these, then follow the Revenue Builders podcast on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Sales Leadership
It's been another year full of unexpected challenges, big wins and learning opportunities. Now is a time to congratulate yourself on this year's journey and gear up for more growth. As we look forward to 2023, we're taking a look back on some of the most powerful lessons we've shared this year.
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Categories: Podcasts
Leadership is a tough job. Luckily, we don't have to go it alone. This month on Revenue Builders, our guests remind us of the power of the team. Through the story of four very different journeys, these podcast episodes show that humility, mentorship and continuous learning make for more than just great leaders. They create great teams who produce great results. Dig into the episodes below for inspiration on how you can be, and create, better leaders. Listen to the Revenue Builders podcast on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Sales Leadership | Sales Process
The team at Force Management loves sales. We love salespeople. We know good salespeople when we see them. We are thankful for the ones who get it. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we are sharing a little gratitude on The Command Center blog. Here are five things we are thankful for in any sales organization, especially in a year of challenge and growth:
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Categories: Economic Change | Mission Critical Success Series | Sales Process
This blog is part of our Mission Critical Success Series, where we dive into the strategies leaders are using to execute on mission critical sales objectives during times of economic change. Each week, we will cover a different essential area of sales effectiveness. Check our blog next week for the newest installment, or subscribe for updates straight to your inbox. Buyers are more cautious when the economy is uncertain. If these heightened concerns aren’t identified and addressed early in the sales cycle, deal times may get longer and stalling is more likely as more stakeholders get involved. Sellers need to be able to tie your solution directly to the business outcomes that will capture buy-in from each decision maker.
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Categories: Mission Critical Success Series | Sales Leadership | Sales Qualification
This blog is part of our Mission Critical Success Series, where we dive into the strategies leaders are using to execute on mission critical sales objectives during times of economic change. Each week, we will cover a different essential area of sales effectiveness. Check our blog next week for the newest installment, or subscribe for updates straight to your inbox. Changes in the economy mean that most sales leaders are looking to make a shift in strategy right now. No strategic pivot is immediate – many sales initiatives can take at least a full sales cycle to reach full adoption and have visible impact on revenue numbers. If you’re looking to supplement your strategy with something that can affect revenue as soon as this quarter, consider adding qualification training into your initiative.
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Categories: Podcasts
Business leaders in all stages of their career can benefit from self-reflection and improvement. That's why Revenue Builders hosts John McMahon and John Kaplan get real with leaders from all backgrounds and with many different paths to success. This month, the podcast welcomed four guests with wisdom only experience can make. Tune in as they describe their journeys, sharing lessons they've learned about life, people and themselves - and how each has made them a better leader. Listen to the Revenue Builders podcast on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Company Alignment | Economic Change | Mission Critical Success Series
This blog is part of our Mission Critical Success Series, where we dive into the strategies leaders are using to execute on mission critical sales objectives during times of economic change. Each week, we will cover a different essential area of sales effectiveness. Check our blog next week for the newest installment, or subscribe for updates straight to your inbox. With recent uncertainty and shifts in the economy, price-based decisions are becoming more common. More sales organizations are competing for less budget, creating a challenging market for sellers. Leaders can support their sales teams by providing them with a repeatable value-based framework for sales messaging and elite customer care that will intrinsically link their solution to the customer’s success.
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Categories: Economic Change | Mission Critical Success Series
This blog is part of our Mission Critical Success Series, where we dive into the strategies leaders are using to execute on mission critical sales objectives during times of economic change. Each week, we will cover a different essential area of sales effectiveness. Check our blog next week for the newest installment, or subscribe for updates straight to your inbox. Given recent economic headwinds, many sales leaders are launching initiatives to pivot their strategy or reinforce key practices that will enable their team to be effective in a challenging market. We cover some of the top priorities leaders are acting on to keep up with changing buyer needs in this webinar conversation. But how can you make sure that the initiative you’re investing in really sticks and becomes a part of the day-to-day practice of sellers?
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Categories: Economic Change | Mission Critical Success Series
This blog is part of our Mission Critical Success Series, where we dive into the strategies leaders are using to execute on mission critical sales objectives during times of economic change. Each week, we will cover a different essential area of sales effectiveness. Check our blog next week for the newest installment, or subscribe for updates straight to your inbox. Getting customer-focused is an organization-wide initiative that requires alignment of strategy, messaging, content and seller skills. The ability to center your customer in the sales process is a major growth driver, and especially important when customers are dealing with challenges like economic change. Budgets are tightening, and decision makers are under increased scrutiny. When effectively executed, a customer-focused sales process will lead the buyer to view your solution as vital to their success.
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Categories: Podcasts
At some point, every leader will have to guide their team through some level of change. Our guests this month on the Revenue Builders Podcast are familiar with that task. Tune in to these eye-opening episodes for lessons on leading with confidence, building connections and building the leaders of tomorrow. Whether it's building a company from the ground up, tracking our ever-shifting economy or even building a grassroots movement, the insights shared this month are highly relevant and actionable for the leaders of today. Listen to the Revenue Builders podcast on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Economic Change
In times of economic change, the most resilient sales organizations evolve their sales strategy to align with buyer needs. There’s no better time than the sales kickoff to align your team on a powerful, relevant strategy that serves the most critical outcomes on your organization’s agenda.
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Categories: Economic Change | Sales Leadership
Times of economic uncertainty and decreased consumer confidence are inevitable, and these downturns during the economic cycle can be particularly challenging for sales organizations. It’s no secret that 2022 trends show a leveling of growth and steadily declining consumer confidence across global markets. Even though market stagnation can make it harder for your team to sell and meet quota, it also offers an opportunity to distinguish yourself from the competition and double down on sales fundamentals to emerge with renewed growth.
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Categories: Adoption and Reinforcement | Economic Change | Sales Kickoff
With the season for sales kickoffs approaching, the current economy is likely a driving influence on your plan. Given the shifting market dynamics, ensure you use your SKO resources where it matters most, and equip your team to drive lasting results long after the SKO ends. Affecting real change on sales behaviors requires more than a two-day SKO event or one-off virtual training session. Teams that compete next year, will be the ones who were equipped from the get go, at the SKO, and then supported along the way as they adjusted their sales actions. In times of economic pressure, elite leaders use their SKO as a critical event to build proficiency around key components of sales effectiveness, whether it be sales messaging, planning, execution or qualification. While the work may start at the SKO event, it’s critical that there’s also a plan to maintain momentum beyond the event, measure ongoing performance and drive the adoption of new sales behaviors.
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Categories: Podcasts
The best leadership requires a combination of skill and character. Last month's guests on the Revenue Builders podcast shared the qualities that they've found to separate the good leaders from the great. Dig into these leadership stories and hear key takeaways from individuals who come from diverse backgrounds, industries and cultures. From military-level discipline to the ability to be vulnerable, there's a quality in each episode that each of us can aspire to as leaders. Listen to the Revenue Builders podcast on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Economic Change | Sales Kickoff | Sales Leadership
Your sales kickoff is a crucial tool for maximizing your sales team's potential. As the economy shifts, leaders are looking to increase efficiency in critical areas to hit their revenue goals.
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Categories: Economic Change | Sales Kickoff
Rising economic headwinds are changing the selling landscape for your sales organization. As revenue pressures mount and buyer pushback increases, help your salespeople weather the storm and come out stronger. Right now, elite leaders are identifying opportunities to strengthen their salespeople’s core selling competencies, so they can better serve customers and maintain pipeline through this season. These are the three must-have skills your sellers can use to sell consistently in a challenging economic climate.
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Categories: Economic Change
Changing dynamics in the economy may demand a strategic pivot for how you reach revenue goals in your sales organization. The challenge becomes identifying which priorities are most critical to devote resources to. Define where to focus and align your organization behind a message that delivers on those objectives. Take action. Leverage your sales kickoff. The sales kickoff is a prime opportunity to reignite morale, reinforce core methodologies and train your team on core actions that have the greatest potential to impact revenue. In a recent conversation, Force Management Managing Director, Brian Walsh, outlined five mission-critical areas of focus for your next SKO. See how your action in one or more of these areas can prepare your sales organization to successfully move through a challenging environment and hit revenue targets.
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Categories: Sales Productivity
Given the current economic headwinds, now is a good time to get a quick snapshot of where your team is at and determine any mission-critical sales opportunities to focus on.
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Categories: Economic Change | MEDDICC
Given the current economic downturn, your salespeople may be more inclined to invest time in an unqualified deal or skip important steps in the sales process to keep pipelines moving. If the current economic landscape is amplifying the pressure your sales team is feeling to hit revenue targets, address this challenge head on and have a direct conversation with your team now. Early action will help to minimize forecast inaccuracy and ensure your salespeople aren’t getting stuck in deals that are more likely to stall out or lose.
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Categories: Podcasts
Overcoming adversity is part of getting to the next level in your leadership career. This month's Revenue Builder's guests dig into the adversities they've faced and share valuable advice for those leading through challenging circumstances. Whether you're faced with hard-to-coach teams or tasked with defining a strategy to help your entire organization sell through ongoing external complexities, dig in. Review this week's epsidoes for advice you can leverage to take action and define the plan to drive revenue results. Listen to the Revenue Builders podcast on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Front-line Managers | Sales Leadership | Sales Transformation
Front-line managers play an impactful role in driving your sales organization’s success. As a sales leader, it's critical that you show your managers support by helping them build their leadership skills.
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Categories: Sales Transformation
With recent speculation around the economic landscape, many organizations are preparing their teams for a difficult sales season ahead. Whether you're already seeing your sales team struggle with unexpected deal delays or economic uncertainty has begun to amplify underlying sales execution issues, one thing is certain: you’ve still got numbers to hit. In these moments, it’s tempting to go back to basics and manage expectations. What separates good sales leaders from great ones is their commitment to their people, no matter the season. Do more with who you have and what you have. Identify how you can help your salespeople build the critical skills they need to be relevant to customer needs, drive pipeline and close deals.
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Categories: Podcasts
Hear tangible leadership takeaways from pioneers across industries and professions. In each June episode, John McMahon and John Kaplan brought out key insights on how successful leaders manage their most important asset, their people. Hear from five leaders, each with a different background and approach to leadership. In each conversation, one common sentiment rang true: you can't be a great leader without investing in and connecting with your people. Spend time with these thought-provoking episodes to gain actionable insight you can use to improve your approach to leadership, and even your own self, all to provide more value to your people. Listen to the Revenue Builders podcast on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Adoption and Reinforcement | Customer Success
We build strategic partnerships with our clients with a focus on helping customer-facing organizations achieve both quick wins and long-term outcomes. To ensure we help our clients achieve that success, we partner with them throughout the journey. We help our customers build out a forward-looking success plan to maximize adoption, drive consistent bottom-line impact and significantly increase the ROI from their engagement.
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Categories: Adoption and Reinforcement | Customer Success
Through hard work and a successful delivery, you’ve created momentum for your customer-facing team, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to improve front-line numbers. Now is the time to refine and amplify your team's skill set — taking them from good to elite.
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Categories: Product-Led Growth | Sales Messaging
Product-led growth (PLG) is driving some of the fastest growing B2B companies. While these solutions can propel organizations forward, this approach requires business leaders to make strategic decisions around what’s needed to scale that success.
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Categories: Sales Messaging
Companies that drive significant growth in their markets all have one thing in common — cross-functional alignment around buyer value and solution differentiation. Through a conversation on the Revenue Builders podcast, Chief Marketing Officer at TripActions, Meagen Eisenberg shares why generating this company-wide alignment is critical, “To fight for larger players and enterprise deals, the entire company needs to know the value your solutions drive for your customers and understand how to develop and sustain that value for customers.” As you work closely with company leaders to define opportunities to improve sales performance, you may find there is a lack of agreement cross-functionally on what's important to your buyer. These gaps and misunderstandings are not uncommon, especially as companies mature into their B,C, or even D-level rounds and new executives join the business. However, misalignment can significantly impact your sales organization's ability to land high-value accounts. When you correct this misalignment, it can lead to increased margins and market share.
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Categories: Company Alignment | Sales Messaging
While the delineation between marketing and sales can vary from one organization to the next, establishing a close working relationship between both areas remains critical. The most successful companies are the ones with leaders who can mitigate any silos and ensure the entire customer-facing organization is aligned with what’s most important to their buyer. Find ways to establish clear alignment with your marketing counterparts to build a revenue engine that powers aggressive growth in your market.
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Categories: Talent Management
Your most important asset is your people. How can you own the talent management process to make your people your sales organization's biggest competitive advantage? In this era of mass resignations and global hiring, it's critical for sales leaders to take ownership of their talent management process. Recently, a Microsoft survey stated that 52% of young people polled say they are likely to consider changing employers this year. On the Revenue Builders podcast, leaders have been sharing similar findings. Mike McSally, an accomplished talent leader with 30+ years in the business, shares his insight on the Great Resignation, highlighting that nearly, “8 out of 10 people that are gainfully employed today are willing to entertain a new opportunity.” Next-level leaders are finding ways to differentiate their approach to talent management. See how you can take ownership, make an impact and retain your top sales talent.
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Categories: Podcasts
What do the most successful business leaders do to take themselves and their people to the next level? Tune into these episodes for insight on how to build and lead elite sales teams. Hear from dynamic revenue leaders on how they got to where they are now, and the trials and tribulations of their journeys. Take actionable advice, enjoy John McMahon and John Kaplan's banter (we hear it's a hit), and dig in. Listen to the Revenue Builders podcast on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Sales Planning | Sales Process
Each player on the executive team has a different perspective. The CFO is the ears of an organization. They combine everything they hear from leadership to create a balanced plan. They want to yield healthy growth. They go for accuracy.
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Categories: Talent Management
In this wave of mass resignations and global hiring, reduce hiring challenges and cost by narrowing your sales manager's focus. Define what the ideal sales talent candidate looks like for your organization so you can help your managers hire the right people for growth. The topic of sales talent has come up often on the Revenue Builders Podcast. John McMahon and John Kaplan dig deep with their guests, pulling out top-level advice you can use to make your sales talent a competitive advantage for your company.
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Categories: Sales Planning
A salesperson’s time is valuable. Ensure your sales team is spending their time building a pipeline of high-value accounts. Support your sales managers and reps in developing a result-driven plan that focuses them on pursuing these high-value opportunities. Put a process in place that helps your salespeople repeatedly and consistently drive effective sales plans. Provide your managers the tools and resources to support their salespeople in finding revenue gaps in their territory, uncovering value in existing accounts and creating targeted lists based on what’s uncovered. Align your team around a consistent sales planning mindset. Here's how:
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Categories: Sales Coaching Tools
Efficiency and alignment are critical elements of sales productivity. An effective sales process provides a vehicle to enforce discipline, repeatability, predictability and validation of progress throughout a sale. Most importantly, it allows for inspection and planning – in advance. Part of the beauty of a revenue-driving sales process is its simplicity. Ensure your sales process provides the rigor and support that sales teams need to accurately predict their numbers. Here are five must-haves for every great sales process.
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Categories: Press Release
CHARLOTTE, N.C. & ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DecisionLink, a leader in secure, SaaS-based Customer Value Management solutions that simplify and automate customer value conversations at all stages of the customer journey, today announced a partnership with Force Management, a leading provider of sales force transformation solutions.
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Categories: Podcasts
The Revenue Builders Podcast, hosted by John McMahon and John Kaplan, has quickly become part of the weekly routine for business leaders in all stages of their careers. McMahon, Kaplan and their guests get real, digging into timely topics with some of the most successful business leaders in all company disciplines (i.e., Sales, Finance, Product, Engineering, Customer Success, Executive Leadership, etc.). McMahon and Kaplan highlight the characteristics of great leadership no matter the environment, interviewing leaders with impressive backgrounds. Take a look at the recent episodes below. Listen to the Revenue Builders Podcast on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Front-line Managers | Sales Coaching Tools | Talent Management
Successful companies are finding new ways to differentiate their approach to talent management as they face the ongoing complexities of the Great Resignation.
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Categories: Front-line Managers
There’s not a sales leader out there who isn’t trying to accelerate growth. Even if you are working at a company that is driving record numbers, you're likely focused on ensuring you can scale that growth and avoid stalls. How do successful leaders ensure that they are able to maintain their company's growth rate over time?
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Categories: Podcasts | Talent Management
The past few years led to drastic shifts in hiring and recruitment process, impacting organizations of all sizes and in all industries. More recently, it has been imperative that organizations have a strategic approach in order to hire and retain top performers. Ensure you’re hiring the right talent for growth and at the same time creating an environment that supports your people’s success.
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Categories: Podcasts
With this month's podcasts, there's no shortage of educational insights and quick tips for sales reps, managers and leaders. Review the episodes below for actions you can take to drive accountability around your priority sales initiatives. Share the episodes with your front-line managers to help them improve their coaching skill set. Listen to the Audible-Ready Sales Podcast on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Sales Coaching Tools | Talent Management
Sales managers are charged with training, motivating and coaching sales professionals on a daily basis. Your salespeople look to your front-line managers for professional development and expect to be provided the necessary resources, guidance and knowledge to be successful in their role. Remember, people quit managers before they quit companies. Drive talent engagement and improve retention by enabling your managers to give reps the critical feedback they need to improve current and future outcomes.
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Categories: Front-line Managers | Sales Planning | Sales Process
The greatest leaders are the ones who never let their team rest on their success, or wallow in defeat. At the end of the quarter, avoid screaming at the scoreboard. The final score only gives you the end result. It doesn’t tell you the whole story. It’s your responsibility as a sales leader to help your team uncover and address execution challenges.
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Categories: Adoption and Reinforcement
Creating true change within your sales team, and the revenue results that follow, takes more than a set of spreadsheets and a simple day of training. If you implement a hasty training session, you’ll short-change yourself and your salespeople. Creating organizational change requires time, commitment and a plan for reinforcement that drives lasting results. When done right, a well-thought-out strategic initiative creates transformation in a way that accelerates growth and powers valuable exits for growing companies. Here are five ways sales leaders can create top-performing sales organizations that drive significant bottom-line impacts.
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Categories: Podcasts
Give your salespeople the knowledge, skills and tools to differentiate their sales approach from tough competition. The past few years have created permanent shifts to the way buyers and sellers approach sales conversations. Regardless, good selling is good selling. Enable your salespeople to differentiate not just what they sell but also how they sell to help them win more opportunities this year. Listen to each episode and share them with your front-line managers and reps. Find our show on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Buyer Alignment | Sales Negotiation
Whether you've recently launched a sales initiative or are simply looking for ways to support your sales team as the quarter progresses, one thing is certain — you've got numbers to hit. While driving a lasting change to front-line numbers takes consistent effort and leadership, find simple strategies to help your sales reps improve on core areas of sales effectiveness. After all, great selling is great selling. Encouraging reps to hone their sales skills will only further the success of your current initiatives and help your salespeople focus on closing more deals, faster.
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Categories: Adoption and Reinforcement | Sales Kickoff | Sales Leadership
Lasting SKO success takes more than a well-thought-out event. There are five actions successful sales leaders take to drive immediate and lasting results after the launch of a sales kickoff or training initiative. Actions that help sales teams start strong, finish ahead and accelerate revenue growth.
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Categories: Front-line Managers | Sales Leadership
Sales managers deserve support from your organization. After the launch of a strategic initiative or sales kickoff, managers can have a significant impact on rep adoption and growth, but their success will relate back to how well they were supported. Start with a clear definition of what good looks like for your front-line managers as they reinforce current initiatives and build top performers. Great companies start with a strong blueprint that includes the processes and tools that enable sales managers to drive success at the team level.
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Categories: Product-Led Growth | Sales Leadership
Product-led growth (PLG) can propel emerging portfolio companies forward. Some of these companies scale that success and significantly reduce time-to-realization, while others face complex sales execution challenges that they aren’t able to overcome. What do successful CROs prioritize to enable their sales organization to achieve critical company outcomes?
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Categories: Podcasts
Provide the fuel your sales engine needs to have one of its best years yet. Each of these episodes share the critical actions sales leaders can take to ignite momentum around new sales initiatives, help managers make an impact, and ultimately, have a great year. It all starts with this quarter's number. To get your organization headed in the right direction, listen to each episode and share them with your front-line managers and reps. Find our show on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Buyer Alignment | Company Alignment | Sales Transformation
Scaling the success that comes with product-led growth (PLG) brings both opportunities and challenges. If your company is aiming to drive ongoing outcomes, while reducing inefficiencies across customer-facing organizations (Product, Customer Success, etc.) you may find value in what Segment prioritized, as a company, to take their organization to the next level.
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Categories: Sales Transformation
If you've ever launched a sales initiative, you know that you gain a significant return on the investment in the weeks immediately following rollout. The critical events that happen after training can make the difference between a sales initiative that moves the needle and one that falls flat. Here are a few ways to counteract the fading enthusiasm that can happen right after a sales training or a sales kickoff.
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Categories: Buyer Alignment | Sales Messaging | Sales Transformation
Product-led growth (PLG) is leading many B2B companies to drive rapid revenue success. While PLG solutions can propel organizations forward efficiently, this approach also brings specific and complex challenges of its own. If your company is aiming to scale revenue, your cross-functional team may already be considering shifts to go-to-market (GTM) distribution efforts and strategies. What do successful sales leaders prioritize to align their sales organizations accordingly?
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Categories: Podcasts
If your New Year's resolution is to find small ways, every day, to provide value to your salespeople then you've come to the right place. Our December episodes focused on key sales skills and topics that lead to better numbers and faster close rates. Your front-line managers and reps can implement these actions into their daily activities to ensure consistent application of desired sales skills or methodologies. Peruse each episode and share them with your front-line managers and your reps. Find our show on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Talent Management
As shocking as it may be, your next career opportunity is often in the hands of someone that will spend less than SIX seconds determining if you are a good fit. For the few of us that can remember when Jim Lange hosted a game show – before Jane Krakowski was tapped last year to resurrect it – you know it was called Name That Tune. The original show, which had contestants try to name a song after hearing the least amount of piano keystrokes, has some scary similarities with today's approach to assessing talent. Today's research shows that the people responsible for bringing in the right talent to their organizations spend mere seconds viewing the years of professional experiences their potential employees possess.
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Categories: Sales Leadership
Motivating and supporting sales teams in an ever-changing economic environment is no easy feat. Congratulations on making it through another year. As you settle into your new normal or continue to navigate ongoing change, here are a few topics that may help you stay the course.
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Categories: Sales Leadership
For many of us, despite our best efforts, we’ll find ourselves crashing on the couch this holiday. Whether it’s from all the food or exhaustion of non-stop holiday cheer, it’s nice to veg out for a bit over the holiday. Instead of simply scrolling through your favorite streaming service, take a look at some of these motivational stories to give you some spirit this holiday and maybe even some motivation as you move into next year.
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Categories: Talent Management
The Frustrations with Job Postings I am old. Fifty three to be exact. I was fortunate enough to get my start in recruitment before the internet, job boards or LinkedIn. Over the past twenty years, I have continued to experience the transactional nature of the way the world goes about attracting its most valuable asset, talent. Posting a job description that has a ton to be desired and hoping that the right person will come to us is fools gold. Can companies fill open roles with job postings? Of course they can, but a job posting is not recruiting. I highly doubt any professional sports teams are putting up a posting in hopes that their next franchise player will miraculously author the perfect resume to take them to the championship. Although being a lifelong NY Giants fan maybe that is the exact methodology they have implemented over the last ten years ...
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Categories: Podcasts
Each of our November episodes share ways sales leaders, managers and reps can prepare for a successful new quarter or year. Each episode digs deep into tactics your salespeople can use to plan for aggressive growth goals, reduce competitive losses, and minimize margin cuts. Peruse each episode to find those worth listening to or sharing with your sales team. You may find a few that would be a great addition to upcoming company emails, newsletters or initiatives. Find our show on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Sales Leadership
Driving organizational transformation is no easy feat, whether it’s your first initiative or your 10th. Force Management President, John Kaplan, answered timely questions during a webinar on sales leadership, sharing the tactics leaders are using now to achieve critical outcomes. Here are some of the most relevant questions answered, along with valuable resources to help you be successful.
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Categories: Sales Leadership
Get more out of your team and cut through the noise of remote working challenges. In our recent webinar, Force Management President, John Kaplan, answered timely questions on sales leadership actions related to the “post-Covid” world and remote working strategies. We’ve compiled some of the most impactful topics and resources that you may find valuable as you decide what’s needed to support your sales team in hitting revenue goals.
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Categories: Podcasts
Our October episodes provide a refresher on key sales fundamentals that your reps can use to stand out from the competition and move their deals forward faster. Each episode provides tactics your salespeople can add to their approach as they prepare for their next sales conversation. Send these episodes to your sales team today. Have your managers listen as well so they can coach on those critical skills during future opportunity review sessions. Find our show on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Sales Transformation
[CHARLOTTE, N.C.] — February 3, 2022 — Force Management, a leading provider of sales force training solutions to the high-growth technology sector, was selected as one of Training Industry’s Watch List Sales Training and Enablement Companies for 2022.
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Categories: Sales Messaging
The remote work environment is forcing sales leaders to motivate their teams and increase collaboration within groups and cross-functionally. Building alignment around how to best serve your customers can be a force multiplier that drives significant company-wide improvements, even when it comes to motivating employees and improving collaboration in work-from-home environments.
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Categories: Buyer Alignment | Company Alignment | Sales Leadership
Every sales leader wants to get more out of their current sales team and implement a strategy that drives immediate results. In our recent webinar, Force Management President, John Kaplan, discussed three critical areas where leadership alignment supports sales resilience and growth. We’ve compiled some of the most impactful topics and resources that you may find valuable to support your sales team in hitting revenue goals.
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Categories: Front-line Managers | Sales Coaching Tools
Your front-line managers can be one of the most valuable assets for any sales organization. Top sales leaders should always be looking for ways to support and enable these critical team players. Our own Paddy Mac (In official terms, Force Management’s Senior Director of Consulting and Facilitation Patrick McLoughlin) is loud and proud when it comes to enabling managers. You may have caught his “Manager Thought of the Day” on his LinkedIn. It’s a great list so we’re sharing it with you here.
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Categories: Sales Process | Sales Qualification
If you want to get your sales teams working smarter, you need a well-defined sales process and qualification approach. Why do so many organizations struggle with consistently qualifying and progressing the right opportunities?
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Categories: Podcasts
If you're focused on providing tangible value to your salespeople and outlets for them to grow and become elite — this month's episodes are exactly what you need. Each episode covers specific ways you can take action right now, as well as insights you can use as you develop next year's sales kickoff. Review the episodes below and share them with your salespeople and managers as you see fit. Find our show on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Sales Kickoff | Sales Leadership
You’ve put in the work to achieve your new position and now you’re aiming to make an immediate impact on sales success. We’ve pulled together some of our most popular resources that apply to people in a new sales leadership role. As you build your execution plan, leverage these insights to avoid setbacks and implement a strategy that gets results.
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Categories: Sales Kickoff | Sales Leadership
If you’re aiming to boost seller capabilities through an enablement initiative, ensure your efforts and resources drive the front-line impacts you need. Consider a strategic sales initiative that not only uplifts employee skill sets but also their engagement, or commitment to solving customer problems and getting results. A Gallup study recently cited in this Wall Street Journal article showed replacing an employee can cost twice as much as the annual salary. Costs that could be avoided with effective engagement programs.
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Categories: Front-line Managers | Sales Leadership
You may know the reason why a specific deal was won or lost, but can you and your account teams reverse engineer that process to improve results on the next deal? Is your team currently leveraging those insights to repeat successes and avoid known setbacks? Don’t scream at the scoreboard, or just tell your people what to do. Help your managers provide the how. Define exactly what’s working and what isn’t so you can focus on the best opportunities to support your salespeople in improving win rates. First, you need to equip your managers to get beyond the data of why deals are won and lost.
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Categories: Sales Kickoff
SKO season is quickly approaching. If your company is making strategic shifts that you need to align your sales organization behind, the time to start defining your execution plan is now. There are good SKOs, great SKOs and ones that unfortunately fall flat. Help your enablement team avoid common mistakes that will negatively impact seller engagement and outcomes. Here are our top resources that sales leaders like yourself have found the most value in:
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Categories: Podcasts
Your number one priority is always to drive numbers up, but your number one job is to help your salespeople grow, improve and become top performers. Fortunately, those two tasks go hand in hand. Use these episodes to meet your sales reps and managers where they are and help them build the skills and capabilities they need to become elite. Be sure to share last month's final episode, The Brandon Burlsworth Story, with your team. It covers motivational lessons on how to commit yourself to become the best of the best. Review each episode and share them with your salespeople and managers as you see fit. Find our show on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Sales Kickoff
In the flurry of SKO planning, it’s easy to get bogged down on the details. You and your enablement team are making a slew of decisions — who’s presenting, where are you doing it, what’s the agenda, etc. While those details are important to your overall success, don’t lose focus on your most important asset, your salespeople.
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Categories: Sales Leadership | Sales Transformation
If you want to align your organization behind company goals, growth benchmarks and evolving customer needs, you’ll need to successfully move your organization through rapid change and enable your sales team to execute. Here are three critical areas where leadership alignment supports sales resilience and growth. If you’re interested in how sales leaders successfully capture alignment in these three areas, watch our on-demand webinar. John Kaplan discussed what’s top-of-mind for sales leaders as they work to significantly improve revenue and growth.
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Categories: Sales Kickoff
Aligning the sales strategy with the company growth strategy is a key component to successfully growing a sales organization. There’s no better time than the sales kickoff to make sure your sales team knows the company growth plan and how they as salespeople are a key component to making that happen. What do you need to do now to make sure your sales organization is set up for success next year? Consider how you can use the SKO to ensure your sales organization is aligned, equipped and motivated to execute. Here’s what to consider:
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Categories: Company Alignment | Sales Kickoff
Check out all our sales kickoff resources and tools in the Ultimate Sales Kickoff Resource Guide. Strategizing around this year’s sales kickoff (SKO), coming out of last year’s challenges, may require a shift in your approach. Whether you’re considering a full in-person event, a virtual meeting or a combination of the two, one thing you don’t want to do is wait too long to pull your SKO plan together. Ensure you roll out something strategic that drives the critical business impacts you need. We've helped countless sales leaders roll out transformative sales initiatives as part of their SKO. Those experiences have shown us some common mistakes that leaders often make when planning their SKOs. Here are our top four and how to avoid them.
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Categories: Sales Leadership
Five-time CRO John McMahon’s book, The Qualified Sales Leader: Proven Lessons from a Five Time CRO, has been at the top of sales leaders’ reading lists since it was published in April. McMahon recently joined John Kaplan on The Audible-Ready Sales podcast to discuss the book’s themes and key takeaways for sales leaders. Listen to their conversation here. Here are our top five takeaways from the conversation.
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Categories: Podcasts
There are numerous ways you can improve your sales organization's competitive advantage in the market. This month's episodes cover multiple tactics you can implement into your talent management approach and your sales team's go-to-market approach to improve your company's overall ability to compete. We even have a special guest this month. Sales Leader Veteran John McMahon joins John Kaplan to discuss takeaways from his new book, “The Qualified Sales Leader”. Review each episode and share them with your salespeople and managers as you see fit. Find our show on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Front-line Managers | Sales Coaching Tools
One of the key ways sales leaders can improve sales performance is by helping their managers coach their teams. Ensure your managers are spending the right amount of time coaching the right people all while taking into account their skills and level of motivation. A Skill/Will matrix can help your front-line sales managers account for differences on their team and coach individuals to success. We cover this matrix and how to use it in a special series on The Audible-Ready Sales Podcast.
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Categories: Sales Kickoff
This blog contains content from our Ultimate Sales Kickoff Resource Guide. Check out all our sales kickoff resources, best practices and tools here. Your sales talent is your only sustainable competitive advantage. In the flurry of preparing the business to face economic challenges, don't lose sight of your people. Find ways to communicate critical concepts that will drive motivation and engagement around mission-critical sales priorities. Given the current economic landscape, ensure your SKO provides the clarity your people are looking for. The SKO is your opportunity to articulate what’s expected of your salespeople next year and how you’re going to help them get there. What you do (or don’t) say will have a large impact on your sales team’s actions after they log off or return home from your SKO. Use the critical concepts below to provide clarity to your salespeople around what they can expect for the upcoming year. Understand what you need to communicate to them, early and often, throughout your SKO journey and afterward.
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Categories: Sales Kickoff
This blog contains content from our Ultimate Sales Kickoff Resource Guide. Check out all of our sales kickoff resources, best practices and tools here. Defining the plan for this year's sales kickoff (SKO) has many sales leaders focused on using this year’s event to motivate and build momentum for the upcoming year. The SKO isn’t something that should just be delegated to an enablement team. It should be viewed as a strategic event that launches the sales team on a plan for success for the year. As a sales leader, it’s too important for you not to be fully involved.
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Categories: Sales Kickoff
This blog contains content from our Ultimate Sales Kickoff Resource Guide. Check out all of our sales kickoff resources, best practices and tools here. Sales Kickoffs are meant to get the sales team motivated toward a common goal for the upcoming year. Given the changing economy, your SKO will be an important opportunity to instill this motivation and align your team to execute mission-critical sales activities. Ensure the right outcomes and objectives are prioritized in your SKO agenda in a way that drives that company strategy. Set clear, measurable objectives for your SKO and ultimately, your sales team. After all, the SKO, whether virtual or in-person, is just one or two weeks of the fiscal year. Clear objectives for the kickoff and beyond, will be imperative to drive consistent sales performance in a complex selling environment. Set your objectives now so you and your enablement team know what you have to achieve to drive revenue goals. Below are a few things to factor in when you begin to set clear objectives for your next sales kickoff.
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Categories: Sales Kickoff
This blog contains content from our Ultimate Sales Kickoff Resource Guide. Check out all of our sales kickoff resources, best practices and tools here. Sales kickoffs are a useful tool to enable a sales organization to execute on the organization’s top goals for the year. It is easy to delegate the SKO event or get bogged down in the details of who’s doing what, where they’re doing it and how it’s going to go. After all, it may be an event you do every year. However, the key question that needs to be at the forefront for every sales leader is how are you going to use the SKO to align your sales organization around the critical outcomes you need to achieve in the upcoming year?
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Categories: Company Alignment | Sales Kickoff
This blog contains content from our Ultimate Sales Kickoff Resource Guide. Check out all our sales kickoff resources, best practices and tools here. One of the keys to a successful sales kickoff is to execute it in a way that aligns with your organization's overall business strategy. Given the current economic landscape, your company's strategy may be evolving or shifting. Sales alignment with the yearly goals of the company are critical. Because you have a limited amount of time and frankly, attention of your attendees, it’s important that you ensure what is presented and delivered during the SKO supports your team’s ability to execute next year. As the external market continues to shift, your salespeople will likely welcome the transparency on business initiatives and support for hitting critical revenue targets. Focus on the areas below to align your company’s business strategy to your SKO agenda:
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Categories: Sales Kickoff
This blog contains content from our Ultimate Sales Kickoff Resource Guide. Check out all of our sales kickoff resources, best practices and tools here. We are working with leaders right now who are rethinking their sales kickoffs, using the event next year to launch a broader sales transformation initiative, aligned to their company’s overall growth strategy. Whether they’re launching something new or aligning the sales team behind company shifts (i.e. acquisitions, shifted market segments, etc.) — it becomes clear pretty quickly that changing sales behaviors and mindsets requires more than a two-day SKO event or one-off virtual training session.
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Categories: Talent Management
Build a process you and your managers can leverage to make your B2B sales talent a competitive advantage. The remote and hybrid work environment provides companies the opportunity to hire talent with fewer geographical restraints creating the ability for leaders to expand their talent pool. Your competition may be leveraging that talent pool to build its sales team, and may be swiping your top performers. If you're considering a renewed focus on your sales talent approach, ensure you have the right foundations to make people successful in your organization and avoid your top talent jumping ship. With more options and more competition, you have the opportunity to ensure you’re maximizing your talent approach. Take ownership of your talent and coaching process.
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Categories: Sales Negotiation
A defined negotiation strategy is a critical component to an organization’s success. If you’re seeing these challenges across your sales organization, it’s time to shift your sales team’s approach:
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Categories: Podcasts
How have you created value for your sales team this year? In our most recent podcasts, we discuss ways you can support your people and coach your entire team to success. As a sales leader, finding the time to fix execution gaps that you know exist, while in the flurry to hit your number is a common challenge. These episodes give you easy ways to enable your sales reps, support your managers and evaluate your own leadership skill set. Find each episode on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Sales Productivity
Take a deep dive into the content and expertise other sales leaders have found insightful as they operationalize new initiatives. We asked the Force Management team what assets resonate the most with the leaders they’re talking to every day. This list is the result. You may also find them valuable as you work to improve your team’s sales performance.
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Categories: Sales Coaching Tools
Great leaders are great leaders — no matter the court they operate in. On the Audible-Ready Sales Podcast, John Kaplan, Force Management President, had a chance to chat with Coach John Mosley Jr. from Netflix's Last Chance U and East Los Angeles College. Coaching inspiration can come from anywhere. Below are our top takeaways that you can apply to your own sales teams.
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Categories: Sales Productivity
Enable your sales team to pick up the pace this year, particularly if they’re in a competitive sales environment. Maybe you know what’s working well and what isn't, but you’re unsure how to move forward. Maybe you’re looking for strategic ways to course-correct existing challenges, while in the flurry to hit your number this quarter. In a competitive market, the best sales leaders are the ones who enable their teams to differentiate based on buyer needs. Define and align on what’s next for your sales team and how you can act now to enable them to survive and thrive this year. Here are a few areas to consider.
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Categories: Buyer Alignment | Sales Messaging
There are a lot of organizations that tout what makes them different from the competition. However, at times, that differentiation is simply talk because sales reps are unable to articulate that differentiation in terms of buyer needs. Cross-functional alignment on the competitive differentiation of a great B2B solution and a sales consumable framework that enables reps to leverage that differentiation, can have a major impact on the sales team’s ability to win more and close higher-value opportunities. See how successful sales leaders generate this alignment and operationalize it in a way that drives repeatable sales impacts and company-wide benefits.
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Categories: Podcasts
This month's episodes packed an extra punch. With timely front-line sales tips and a guest appearance for ELAC Men's Basketball Coach, John Mosley Jr. (as seen on Netflix's Last Chance U: Basketball Series) — each episode has something for everyone in your organization. Here's a rundown of what each episode covers. Tune in and share with your sales reps, managers and other leaders in your organization. Find each episode on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Sales Coaching Tools | Sales Leadership
The best sales leaders are great coaches. If you’ve made the jump from sales rep to sales manager, you know that effective coaching is a learned skill. If you’ve seen the latest season of Netflix’s Last Chance U: Basketball, you know that Coach John Mosley Junior, Men’s Basketball coach at East Los Angeles College, thrives on coaching his players to success. I had the chance to interview him for a two-part series on The Audible-Ready Sales Podcast.
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Categories: Customer Success | Sales Messaging | Sales Negotiation
Quarterly Business Reviews are a common practice for B2B sales companies. They’re meant to provide value for the customer and also provide an opportunity for the sales team to discover ways to help customers be successful, but all too often they miss the mark. Most executives have been through countless lackluster or for lack of a better term, bad QBRs. That’s why your buyers may avoid these important discussions and opt to not come altogether. With a well-defined process on how your customer-facing teams create and capture value, you can differentiate your approach to these important meetings.
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Categories: Sales Leadership
I often have the conversation on “balancing long- and short-term sales goals” with sales leaders. Finding the time to fix execution gaps that you know exist, while in the flurry to hit your number is a common challenge. So the question becomes, “How do you handle the pressure of the quarter while ensuring achievement of the long-term goals for your sales organization?”
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Categories: Podcasts
Our April episodes cover sales fundamentals that reps can implement right now to improve win rates and margins. From influencing decision criteria to attaching to big business problems that demand urgency — each episode shares proven best practices and actionable tactics salespeople can use to beat the competition and close at a premium price. Review each episode below, and encourage your sales reps and managers to listen in. Find each episode on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Sales Messaging | Sales Transformation
How can you grow sales revenue when you’re selling a product that simply isn’t a line item in most buyer budgets? Selling a product that represents a new way of doing business demands that salespeople are equipped to be relevant to their buyers’ business-level challenges. When groundbreaking high-tech companies aim to scale sales success, solidifying alignment with their buyer is a key first step and one that can drive company-wide benefits in the process.
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Categories: Buyer Alignment | Sales Productivity | Sales Transformation
Every sales leader wants to get more out of their current sales team. How do you boost sales performance with what you have? In our recent webinar, Force Management's President, John Kaplan, and Chief Operating Officer, Dave Davies, discussed what sales leaders are doing right now. We’ve broken down our top five takeaways and action items from their conversation. If you want to watch the full discussion, get access to the on-demand webinar here.
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Categories: Sales Productivity | Sales Qualification
If "not right now" or "no decision" deals are crippling your pipeline, you likely need a concerted sales effort to minimize their impact on your forecast. Do you have clarity around what’s leading to not right now decisions? The top-tier sales leaders we’re working with are successfully driving win rates and numbers up by helping their reps align with their buyers through their sales process and message. Define where deals are breaking down in your customer engagement process. Here are two areas to assess.
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Categories: Podcasts
Our March episodes focused on key steps in the sales process. Help your salespeople improve their ability to execute on selling fundamentals like, influencing decision criteria and selling higher. Listen, and share with your managers, front-line reps and BDR/SDR organization to help them improve front-line execution over the next few sales cycles. Find each episode on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Company Alignment | Sales Productivity
Companies often function in silos, with sales, marketing, product and operations working separately, instead of together toward common goals. As each department works to meet company goals on their own, inefficiencies become rampant, with sales performance likely becoming one of the largest frustrations. Removing those silos can create and capture customer value, as well as streamline internal processes and administrative burdens.
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Categories: Sales Transformation
Changing the sales behaviors of an entire organization requires time, commitment and a plan for reinforcement that drives lasting results. When done right, a well-thought-out strategic initiative creates organizational transformation in a way that accelerates growth and powers valuable exits for growing companies. Successful transformation is an outcome of a concerted effort to reinforce behavior change within the sales organization.
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Categories: Adoption and Reinforcement | Sales Transformation
With any strategic change initiative, there’s always the question of whether or not it will stick. If you’re tasked with ensuring your sales organization can execute against aggressive growth goals, you’re likely readying your plan. Building sales capabilities and driving on-going reinforcement is not easy. Even veteran leaders aren’t immune to the risks that come with investing coveted time and resources in a sales transformation initiative. However, experience does provide insight on what not to do and how to lead from the front in a way that drives on-going results.
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Categories: Sales Coaching Tools
We’re regularly updating our robust content library, focused on sales best practices. Many of the topics come from our own prospects and customers who are dealing with sales challenges as they look to accelerate growth, drive more pipeline and capture value throughout the sales process. Many sales leaders find value in sharing this content with their sales teams. Whether you’re reinforcing a recent training or trying to get your teams to up their game in certain areas, you may find some of the resources helpful. Here is a list of some of our most popular content that may be worth passing along to your front-line managers, account reps, and your BDR/SDR team.
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Categories: Podcasts
Our February episodes aim to help sales leaders and managers improve seller skill sets and productivity this year. Help your salespeople stand out from competitors, avoid a dreaded "not right now" decision, and improve their ability to execute the fundamentals of great selling. From preparation, to building business acumen and being relevant to multiple decision makers — each episode this month covers key sales fundamentals your sellers should constantly be focusing on. Listen, and share with your sales teams to help them improve their ability to execute and hit quotas. Find each episode on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Adoption and Reinforcement | Sales Kickoff
If you launched some type of virtual sales kickoff event this year or you’re building momentum for an upcoming sales initiative, what’s your plan to reinforce it throughout the year? Anyone who has launched a strategic sales initiative knows it’s a big effort. This year, company leaders are getting strategic with how they’re planning to maintain SKO momentum, adapting their reinforcement efforts to drive success in the increasingly remote sales environment.
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Categories: Sales Messaging
SaaS trends show companies are increasingly making the shift to usage-based pricing models. The ability to increase monetization over time and emphasize a land and expand strategy makes consumption-based models attractive to growing companies. Aligning to new ways buyers use your product likely requires a shifted sales approach, one that equips sellers to communicate value in a way that improves their ability to (1) land high-consumption accounts and (2) ensure long-term adoption within them. Easier said than done.
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Categories: Podcasts
Our January episodes aimed to help sales teams start the year right. Each episode shares insights sales reps, managers and leaders can use to make an immediate impact on the pipeline. Listen, and share with your sales teams to support them in driving better numbers right away this year. Find each episode on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Sales Transformation
Many of you had a killer year, despite its challenges. It may have been the best you’ve ever had as a sales organization and company. However, with any success, comes new challenges. Can you repeat the same success next year? How are you preparing to ensure the growth your sales organization has achieved doesn't stagnate?
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Categories: Opportunity Reviews | Sales Coaching Tools
If you’ve launched a strategic initiative to improve your sales organization’s success rate this year, ensure your managers are prepared to drive consistent execution and make it stick. Opportunity coaching sessions are an ideal place to reinforce new methodologies and sales behaviors. However, they have to be structured and executed in a way that salespeople see the value in these sessions and managers know how to provide it. When implemented with the right foundation, a coaching approach to regular deal reviews provides reps with actions to take on an account and a way to learn how to execute better in the future.
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Categories: Company Alignment | Sales Messaging
Acquiring a company can be an exciting time for an organization. It may bring new capabilities and solution differentiators, perks for employees, verticals to target, etc… On the flip side, an acquisition also brings the challenge of incorporating updates and changes into the sales function. Depending on what was acquired, it may bring changes to your sales process, your qualification process, your negotiation frameworks and/or your sales message. Putting a disciplined plan together that equips your teams to execute at the buyer-level is critical. That plan often starts with your sales messaging framework. Here are key areas to consider as you start aligning your sales team after an acquisition.
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Categories: Talent Management
You monitor rep performance, but what processes have you put in place to build “B” sellers into “A”s and retain your highest performing people? Do you hire what you think are top performers, only to see that they aren’t worth their cost in the long run? As a sales leader, you cannot underestimate the importance of owning your sales talent process. Don’t make the mistake of relying solely on human resources to navigate the recruiting process for new sellers, especially when you have the opportunity to make your sales talent a competitive advantage in your market. Regular evaluation of your talent (and the tools you’re providing them with) are critical to successfully managing and growing revenue year after year.
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Categories: Sales Leadership
"We first make our habits, and then our habits make us." - John Dryden With 2020 being the year it was, many of us have likely picked up some new habits - some great and a few we may want to leave behind. Habits are critical to being successful in sales. Being purposeful with your habits now can help you seize this year’s opportunities to achieve new goals, both personal and professional. John Kaplan recently shared this post on LinkedIn around how he’s planning to clean up some habits rolling into 2021. It sparked a great conversation and a list of habits to aspire to in the new year. You may find them valuable too. Here are a few that were shared:
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Categories: Podcasts | Sales Messaging
Proof Points are a critical component to the sales process. They provide proof that you do what you say you can do. The more they’re aligned to your buyer through industry, problem or positive business outcome, the more effective they’ll be. Sales organizations that have a process for developing and maximizing the effectiveness of their proof points are able to leverage this important tool in a way that creates and preserves value in the sales process.
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Categories: Podcasts
Each December episode can help your sales reps make an impact on current pipeline opportunities, no matter what stage of the sales process they're in. Share these episodes with your managers, account reps and even SDR/BDR organization to help them improve their ability to execute on critical deals and start the new year strong. Review our rundown of episodes below. Find each episode on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Sales Productivity
2020 was a year unlike any other. Many of us are still working through unexpected and unique challenges. The Force Management content team worked to publish content that was relevant and helpful to a sales community that was navigating unprecedented times. Taking a look back, we put together a list of the content that resonated most with our network of revenue leaders. You may find value in these insights as well, as you assess how you can improve your sales team’s ability to compete next year.
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Categories: Sales Messaging
Through podcasts, conversations and LinkedIn activity, you’ve probably heard me call 2020 the “great teacher.” No matter who you are or where you are in this world, we all have learned something about ourselves this year. I like to compare the 2020 business landscape to boats in the harbor. The water level lowered and ALL of our boats went down at the same time, but not all of our boats rose at the same time. Why did some boats raise back up and others have not and maybe will not? As I pondered that question, I thought about a few metaphors that may help explain my thoughts on why some will come out of this Pandemic stronger and in a better place to win. Here are three concepts that I think pertain to that current situation:
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Categories: Podcasts
End this complex year on a high note and define your plan for next year. Our November episodes share tips and insights to consider as you make strategic decisions (for yourself or your sales team) heading into next year. Review our rundown of episodes below. Each episode is available on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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Categories: Sales Messaging
There's not a salesperson out there that doesn't love having a multitude of case studies and customer testimonials that demonstrate the value and differentiation of your solutions. Proof points help move individual opportunities forward, gaining attention of prospects and mitigating purchasing risk. Elite salespeople know how to use them effectively. Elite sales organizations have a process around capturing them and using them.
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Categories: Sales Transformation
The way you launch and implement a new sales methodology is critical to its success. In fact, it may be even more important than the methodology you choose to adopt in the first place. That’s the findings from the latest study from MetaCX. Researchers surveyed 400 revenue leaders within B2B SaaS companies on sales methodology trends. Not surprisingly, the research shows that application powers success. Here are our two other major takeaways from the study:
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Categories: Sales Planning
Whether you're facing end-of-year territory reviews and or planning to drive more business in the upcoming quarter, one thing is certain — you've got numbers to hit. As a leader, it's critical to support your sales managers and reps in developing a plan to drive consistent pipeline and ensure your sales team isn’t missing out on high-value accounts. Now is a great time to align your team around a consistent sales planning mindset.
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Categories: Sales Messaging | Sales Process
Remote selling, buying, prospecting and training is here to stay. Even as lockdowns and restrictions loosen, B2B buyers continue to embrace, but also seem to prefer, remote interactions over face-to face meetings. That’s according to new research just published by McKinsey. At Force, we’ve found similar trends. Elite sales leaders are analyzing how well they’re supporting their salespeople in the remote environment, and making strategic changes to drive continued success or improve numbers.
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Categories: Podcasts
To help sales teams secure critical pipeline deals before year end, each of our episodes this month focused on ensuring successful execution in various areas of sales effectiveness. Review our rundown of episodes below. Share these insights with sales managers and reps to help them improve their ability to hit their numbers. Each episode is available on your favorite podcast player, so you can easily download, listen and share.
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If you’re responsible for your sales organization’s success and need to make an immediate impact — we’ve outlined a roadmap you can use to scale success. Use your sales force as a way to accelerate your company's flywheel. Assess your sales organization’s ability to execute in these four areas of sales effectiveness. Prioritize your best opportunity to scale and maximize your sales organization's current success. Equip your sales team to accelerate revenue growth by improving their ability to execute in one or more of these areas:
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