Sales Secrets

Sales technology continues to advance and leaders are looking for the next thing that will provide the growth for their organizations. Some sales technology will become commoditized in the future but the thing that will differentiate tools is data. Data provides a differentiator but not just any data. Collective intelligence is data fueled by all all users for the greater good of the group. This type of data will be key in sales and marketing to continue to fuel the data economy.

Sales Development is one of the biggest trends in sales and it is here to stay. To win at sales development you need to master five plays according to Dan Gottlieb from TOPO. Those plays are developing a repeatable and prescriptive live call framework, focus SDRs on multi-threading within target accounts, design SDR onboarding activities for their role, leverage sales engagement filters for time management, and try an offer that is 100% valuable to the prospect.

We all know how to build an inside sales team right? Well maybe but not when it comes to running an inside sales team in EMEA. Do the same rules apply as they do in the US? Can reps prospect just like they do in in the US? What about GDPR? How does it work between countries? These are all good questions and topics we covered with Christian in this podcast about unique aspects of inside sales in EMEA.

Sales activity consistently spikes at the end of the month, but what managers don’t know is that this is costing them money. While sales reps stuff any opportunity, no matter how bad in the pipeline at the end of the month, win rates drop over 51% (from InsideSales.com research). But how do you manage pipeline hygiene and wean sales reps off of bad behaviors like opportunity stuffing or sandbagging? Enter Artificial intelligence (AI) for forecasting and pipeline management tools. AI can quickly scan and analyze billions of data points on CRM transactions and their outcomes, as well as external data to come up with predictions that are 30% more accurate than regular pipeline reviews. This makes it much easier to produce realistic revenue projections that are based on hard data, and seamlessly navigate weekly pipeline review calls.

Don't pay your sales reps commission? You've got to be crazy! Well that's exactly what Mitch Little has been teaching and practicing for years and the funny thing is, he's seeing some pretty powerful results. Mitch has taken a non-traditional approach to sales by not paying his reps commissions but rather paying them a high base salary and letting the numbers take care of the rest. Although, somewhat controversial Mitch explains his ideas on the podcast and makes a case for everyone else to consider.

When it comes to sales, most sales people think if they don't drop their price they won' win the deal. In this episode, we talk about sales differentiation and the 19 easy-to-implement concepts to help salespeople win deals while protecting margin.

AI is here in full force and a lot of companies are talking about it but is it real and what can it do to help sales people sell more? In this episode, we talk about how AI is disrupting sales, how sales is being automated, and why sales people should care. How AI is disrupting sales – the age of implementation of new technologies Sales is being automated, but not as much as we think – the human element of AI Data, analytics, correlations: The importance of CRM systems and sales data hygiene What is a Data Scientist anyway? Why modern sales organizations need a Data Strategy person

Not every sales leader has the luxury of picking who he or she get's to work with and that can make things really difficult. If you inherit a sales team what should you do and how can you best perform? In this episode, we dive into how great leaders manage to be successful when they inherit a sales team that may or may not be the best.

Sales is not going anywhere but it is changing. What does the future of sales look like and how can you get ahead of it? In this episode, we talk about the next generation of sales people and how they can be successful.

Experiments are a must in sales. You can't guess and expect to be right all the time. In sales testing is the new normal and great sales reps and managers find a way to successfully test everything they are doing to find optimal ways to be successful. In this episode, we dive into the concept of experimenting and talk about how great reps find a way to test their way to success. https://blog.insidesales.com/sales-productivity/sales-experiments-importance/

Salesforce has become a special company and every once and awhile they will open the doors and let us understand their secrets of success. In this episode, we dive into how to build a sales development team the Salesforce way.

Sales technology is a must for every sales organization but that doesn't mean it's easy to know what technology you should and shouldn't use. In this episode, we discuss how companies are building and optimizing their marketing and sales technology stack.

Everybody has a model but does a model really make a company successful? In this episode, we discuss how models and mindsets work together to drive success in organizations.

Sales prospecting is never easy. One aspect of sales prospecting that is particularly difficult is finding the right contact information for your target contacts. Phone numbers seem like they would be easy to find but they are not. That doesn't mean it's impossible to find direct dial phone numbers you just need to know some of the secrets of the trade. In this episode, we talk about some of the tips and tricks to finding direct dial phone numbers. Catch the blog here: https://blog.insidesales.com/dialer/how-to-find-direct-dial-phone-numbers-when-prospecting/

Trends come and go and some stick and others don't. I sat down this Jan and wrote down 50 trends every leader needs to know about. Dave Elkington, CEO of InsideSales.com, and I decided to sit down and discuss some of these trends and get his take on which trends will mean the most as we jump into 2019.

This is the coolest thing we've done at InsideSales.com. We did a study to figure out what sales reps BELIEVE they do in an outbound sales cadences, versus what reps ACTUALLY do and the results were fascinating! You can see the results here: https://blog.insidesales.com/sales-development/outbound-sales-cadence/ We examined the pillars of a cadence, attempts, media, duration, spacing, and content. Here is what we found: ATTEMPTS: -Believed: 15.1 -Actual: 3.5 -Optimal: 7 MEDIA: -Believed: 4 types -Actual: 2 types -Optimal: 3+ types DURATION: -Believed: 28 days -Actual: 24.6 days -Optimal: 6-8 days SPACING: -Believed:1.9 days -Actual: 10.4 days -Optimal: 1-2 days CONTENT: -See the data

Millennials are tough no matter how you slice it. The way they expect to work and they way they expect to sell is different than any generation before them. Nobody knows this better than Craig Parrish from McAfee. He's been doing inside sales for almost 20 years and he's battled training and coaching for a variety if different generational sales people. In this episode, Craig takes us through some of his experiences in transforming the culture of McAfee.

Trends are a funny thing. Some die and some survive. Unfortunately, we don't know which ones will be most impactful for our businesses so it's important to know what trends are out there and begin thinking how they will affect your business. In this episode, I dive further into our list of top 50 trends for 2019 and discuss the evolution of the sales model and well as what's going on with the technology landscape.

Every year, people write their top trend list so this year I thought I'd write mine. I usually think their lists are pretty weak and I can do better so I thought I'd take a stab. I was surprise that I came up with 50 trends in a really short amount of time. Most people thought I was crazy to say there was 50 trends happening in 2019 and maybe they are right. Maybe you should not call them trends but either way, these are things I think you'll see happen in 2019 so you'll want to watch them carefully. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Top Trends Blog Social Fight about AI and Sales Subscribe to Gabe's Content

Every year, people write their top trend list so this year I thought I'd write mine. I usually think their lists are pretty weak and I can do better so I thought I'd take a stab. I was surprise that I came up with 50 trends in a really short amount of time. Most people thought I was crazy to say there was 50 trends happening in 2019 and maybe they are right. Maybe you should not call them trends but either way, these are things I think you'll see happen in 2019 so you'll want to watch them carefully. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Top Trends Blog Social Fight about AI and Sales Subscribe to Gabe's Content