SBI BlogRevenue Growth Insights

Coaching & Training

Build Trust and Confidence in a Sales Negotiation in 5 Steps

You’ve worked hard to get the deal to this point and then other decision-makers appear, procurement gets involved and yo...

28 Sep 22

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Motivating Your Sales Team to Prospect in a Down Economy

It’s easy for sales professionals to get frustrated and lose motivation when selling into a slowing economy. There are m...

1 Sep 22

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

The "One More Meeting" Prospecting Strategy

Most sales leaders are hyper-focused on increasing the sales team performance and try anything to improve prospecting ac...

10 Aug 22

2 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

5 Leadership Skills to Build a Stronger Team

Leadership and management skills often get confused and interchanged when talking about developing more effective front-...

19 Jul 22

2 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

5 Steps to Crush Your Numbers as a Sales Leader

Are you a sales leader looking to improve your team’s performance and grow sales numbers? Most sales leaders would say y...

15 Jun 22

2 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Rethinking Virtual Sales Training Delivery–6 Lessons From the Field

Training has gone through an incredible upheaval over the past two years. When the pandemic started, companies had to ad...

29 Apr 22

2 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

4 Techniques to Embed Video to Sell to Key Executives

Targeting and gaining access to key executives is challenging, yet we’ve all been told we need to do it in order to be m...

1 Apr 22

2 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

A High-Performance Sales Team: Lessons from Moneyball

You don’t have to be a baseball fan to enjoy the movie Moneyball with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. The movie is an account ...

18 Mar 22

2 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

The Cost of a Bad Sales Hire: A Million-Dollar Mistake

What is the most expensive decision you can make as a frontline sales manager? Hands down, it's deciding who you'll brin...

22 Feb 22

2 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Recruiting with Gen Z: The Next Class of Sales Professionals

The great Resignation. Realignment. Reshuffling. Whatever you call it there is a lot of movement in sales organizations ...

11 Feb 22

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

How to Maximize Your Sales ROI

Do you wonder why the most successful sales leaders in your organization reach their goals every quarter? They focus on ...

31 Jan 22

2 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

The Sales Manager's Playbook for a Winning Team

In the sports world, coaches and managers are evaluated on one metric: winning. In the corporate world, victories are ju...

13 Jan 22

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

How to Train Difficult Employees & Salespeople to Break Through

How often do your well-intentioned sales training efforts result in direct pushback or a bit of passive resistance? You ...

14 Dec 21

2 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Q4 Sales Closing Techniques and Strategies

Willie Sutton, an infamous bank robber, was asked why he robbed banks, and he responded, "Because that's where the money...

29 Oct 21

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Motivating Salespeople in a Hybrid Environment

Many companies are wrestling with the question about what their future work environment looks like as they emerge from C...

17 Sep 21

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Accelerate Sales Ramp-Up Time in a Hybrid World For Employees

Blended learning approaches are certainly not new, but given the challenges over the past 18 months, we are seeing many ...

19 Aug 21

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Empathy in Sales & Why Your Sales Team Should Develop This Skill

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella often speaks of how his career – and his company – have been shaped by empathy. He views it ...

19 Jul 21

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

How to Choose a Sales Training Partner

Most companies don’t go through the process of hiring a sales training partner very often. When they do, they’re often l...

30 Jun 21

4 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

GTM Design & Structure

CCOs Are Appointed 2.2X More Than CROs and CMOs. Why?

While the position of the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) has been around for some time, it is witnessing an upswing in a...

8 Jun 21

2 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

GTM Design & Structure

7 Key CFO Metrics You Should Use to Evaluate GTM Strategy

How do you know if your go-to-market (GTM) plan will succeed? Evaluating the effectiveness of a GTM strategy and the tea...

27 May 21

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Student Perspectives on Online, Collaborative Sales Training

The expansion of online, collaborative learning is one of the most exciting evolutions to come out of the challenges of ...

30 Apr 21

2 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

4 Key Leadership Mindsets for Your Sales Team's Success

Sales leaders often achieved their position based on their individual success and personal attributes. But when their ro...

8 Apr 21

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

What Ted Lasso Can Teach Us About Leading a Sales Team

“I think that’s what it’s all about: embracing change and being brave.” While this line is very applicable to the events...

27 Mar 21

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

The Sales Manager's Role in Building a High-Performance Team

Hiring isn’t an exact science. Sometimes you think you have identified the perfect sales candidate, and it doesn’t pan o...

26 Feb 21

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

You Had a Great Sales Kickoff Meeting – What Now?

The typical in-person Sales Kickoff (SKO) looked very different this year – and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In f...

5 Feb 21

2 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

4 Simple Steps to Positive Meetings with Key Executives

It’s harder than ever to reach senior executives. The usual protections provided by gatekeepers are still there—but now ...

22 Jan 21

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Going From Virtual Training to Collaborative Learning

COVID-19 has accelerated the move from traditional classroom-based sales training to virtual training. Participants' exp...

9 Dec 20

2 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Virtual Selling

Tips for Virtual Sales Calls: The Virtual Selling Readiness Checklist

Is your team ready to sell virtually? Training for virtual selling is about a lot more than just slapping the name “Virt...

4 Sep 20

1 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

How to Conduct a Virtual Sales Call & Connect with Customers

We receive a lot of inquiries about how to help sales reps improve their ability to engage with clients effectively—espe...

21 Aug 20

5 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Pivoting to Virtual Learning: Your Questions Answered

We recently hosted a webinar with Sam Herring from Intrepid by Vitalsource to discuss how to make the pivot to Virtual a...

1 May 20

6 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Virtual Sales Training During COVID-19 Travel Restrictions

Many of our clients are concerned about how the evolving COVID-19 outbreak and related travel bans will impact their bus...

14 Mar 20

2 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

How to Prioritize Your Time as a Sales Manager

Learn how to use a prioritization system based on Stephen Covey's principles; to stop spending too much time stuck on ur...

8 Aug 19

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Turning Your Salesforce Into A Learning Force

In this episode, we discuss how sales is changing, how sales training needs to respond to the new complexities in the ma...

10 Jul 19

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

13 Tactics to Prevent a Heated Price Negotiation

Discounting is expensive. Learn how to prevent a heated price negotiation by maximizing the value of the deal using fund...

5 Jun 19

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Win More Sales Negotiations by Asking Yourself These Crucial Questions

Before your next sales negotiation, ask yourself these questions to ensure a successful outcome—a great sales negotiatio...

23 May 19

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

TACTICs For Managing Difficult Negotiations

Managing difficult negotiations is not easy, the TACTIC model can help you deal and communicate with a manipulative sale...

20 May 19

4 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Partner & Build Long-Lasting Relationships with Procurement

Instead of struggling to negotiate with Procurement, learn how to work with them. These questions will show you how to b...

16 May 19

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Maximizing Your Negotiation Leverage with Power Sources

Learn how to develop a stronger value proposition. These reasons will help you improve your negotiation leverage to sell...

26 Apr 19

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

How to Build Confidence in Sales & Close Deals

Sales is about the transfer of confidence. In this Q&A, we discuss five ways you can build your confidence to improv...

7 Mar 19

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

SaaS Demo Best Practices: Preventing Post-Demo Prospect Silence

On this Q&A episode: "What's the best way to follow-up with a demo? Even though my demos go really well, the prospec...

7 Dec 18

3 min read

By Ray Makela Read More