Sales

Three B2B selling tips to be great at sales without the being a ‘pushy salesperson’

“I’m not a salesperson!” – The catchcry of many business owners, especially those who come from technical or product-based backgrounds. Everyone knows that in order to generate more revenue, you need to increase sales – especially as the owner. However, labelling yourself a ‘salesperson’ can seem distasteful and often leaves people feeling uncomfortable. So, how do we reconcile these two positions? You need to be great at sales to generate revenue, but you don't want to be a 'pushy salesperson'. In this blog, I will share with you three ways to improve client satisfaction and close more sales, whilst avoiding READ MORE ›

By Brett Bonser|Sales|

Channel Partner [video]

Do you want sell through a channel partner? Or build a program for recruiting and managing multiple channel partners? Let me share with you six steps for finding and managing the perfect channel partner. First, understand that a channel can refer, or sell, or distribute, or implement, your product or service Focus on different types of channels at each stage of market maturity. I'll go into this shortly, but for example, in the early market we want direct channel, that is our own salespeople, whereas later in the maturity of the market, we want to be READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Sales|

Go to Market Strategy Example [video]

A go-to market plan needs to articulate the solution that's on offer, its price, what's unique about that solution and how you position that difference, who your target, the channels you will use to reach the market, and the tactics you will use to take that offer to the market through that channel. As I've been doing recently, I went looking for five sources of a great go to market strategy example. Truth, I only found three good ones, so after I've given you the conclusions, I'll give you two more align.me go-to market strategy examples. READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Sales, Skills, Strategy, Velocity|

Sales and marketing blogs [video]

Indexes of thousands marketing blogs are great for SEO. Make really sticky content. Today we're going to review five of those indexes and explain how, and why, the sites have created those indexes of thousands of marketing blogs. Let's start with I've concluded and then I'll explain why I've concluded that. Number one: find the best blogs that you personally enjoy reading. There's no point creating content that you're not personally interested in. That's inauthentic. Secondly, though edit that list with your audience in mind. Third, summarize the content and link fully. Don't steal copy. You're just READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Sales, Skills, Strategy, Tactics|

How to get Leads from LinkedIn [video]

Hi again, LinkedIn's core value proposition remains pretty much the same. It legitimizes putting your CV online, keeping it up-to-date, and putting your best foot forward for future job prospects, for most people. That's fundamentally its core proposition. A lot of us use it for different purposes, but that's essentially it. That, therefore, means that lots of people keep their profile really up-to-date, which makes it a great source for leads. Today, I want to explore how to get leads from LinkedIn. I've explored great advice from other bloggers, including a couple of our own articles, and READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Sales, Tactics|

How to prepare and run the perfect prospect meeting

Imagine that you’re in a prospect meeting. You’re meeting a client (or prospective client) for the first time ever, and you’ve got seven really cracking questions that you’re going to ask them. You might be using Spin Selling (which teaches us to use troubling questions) or Conceptual Selling (which is somewhat more of a bespoke for each opportunity). Still, whatever approach you’re taking, you’re certainly going into that meeting armed with some great questions that are insightful and penetrative. With a breath, you asked your first and wait – using golden silence. Your prospect considers your question READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Evergreen, Sales|

Your channel partner strategy plan begins with ‘who’

Your channel partner strategy plan needs to begin with "who"? But like so much of strategy, the "who" question isn't "who should my channel be?", but "who is my buyer?", and therefore "what sort of channel do my buyers need?" We're arguing here that your channel partner strategy plan needs to be based on what your buyers need, not on what you need. What type of channel your buyers need, and how many channel sales people you need to provide to meet that need, changes as the market matures. We'll show you how to work out your channel READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Sales|

Tactics to improve conversion and dominate your market

If you can't make your funnel flow faster, can you lose fewer buyers throughout their journey? We've argued on recent blogs why you can't speed up your buyer just because you have quotas to meet, but that you can improve your conversion rates. We had a ton of email requests for specific tactics. So this week we're making a series of specific tactical recommendations to improve your conversion rates throughout the funnel. Want to receive more content like this? Subscribe to our monthly B2B marketing blog!

By Hugh Macfarlane|Sales, Tactics|

How to calculate your sales CR, and why speed kills

In last week's show, we offered 10 steps for calculating sales conversion rate. We also promised to show you why lag is death. In English, why a buyer who has taken longer than normal is unlikely to buy from you at all. So does that mean there is merit in using assertive marketing and sales techniques to speed them up? We all want to speed our funnel up. In a recession like the GFC, sales cycles typically blow out, meaning buyers are taking longer than normal to buy. This could be so - they might genuinely be READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Evergreen, Sales|

Discover your sales CR in 10 steps, and why lag is death

Ask any Sales Manager, and she will tell you that her team closes 1 in 4 (or 3 or 10, whatever it is, they usually know the number). Ask a marketer what his click through rates on emails are, and again, he will know (maybe 4-5% of successful sends). But ask them how many names they need to add to their 'engine' next month, and how many deals need to close that month, and you'll probably get a "good question" response. Ask them to give you conversion rate by stage in funnel, and they'll blink and READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Sales, Velocity|