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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

Setting And Achieving Annual Sales Goals for Your Team

Achieving sales goals is an essential part of sales management. While an annual sales goal may be “imposed” on a sales m...

26 Jan 22

2 min read

By Norman Behar Read More

GTM Design & Structure

Five Questions with Smart Selling Tools’ Founder, Nancy Nardin

The salestech landscape continues to explode, with more than 1200 solutions currently available for growth leaders to pu...

26 Jan 22

3 min read

By SBI Team Read More

Coaching & Training

Virtual Selling is Here to Stay

It may seem like a lifetime ago, but early in the pandemic people thought “Work from Home” was just a temporary disrupti...

20 Jan 22

2 min read

By David Jacoby 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 Develop Your Sales Team To Be More Customer Driven

Given the number of challenges sales organizations have encountered during the Covid pandemic, it is easy to lose sight ...

6 Jan 22

2 min read

By Norman Behar Read More

Coaching & Training

Our Top 10 Sales Management and Leadership Posts of 2021

It's been quite a year for sales leaders across the country. Before we gaze ahead to 2022, we want to take a quick look ...

22 Dec 21

1 min read

By David Jacoby 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

How to Fix Stalled Opportunities in Your Sales Pipeline

Pipeline management is an ongoing challenge for sales managers. While it may seem that a pipeline with more opportunitie...

10 Dec 21

2 min read

By Norman Behar Read More

How Omicron Is Impacting SKO Plans

Immediately following the announcement of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, commercial leaders began questioning their sales...

8 Dec 21

1 min read

By SBI Team Read More

Article

Four Risks Growth Leaders Must Consider for 2022, Part Four: Too Much Agility

While the current macroeconomic environment presents growth leaders with considerable opportunity, CEOs will benefit fro...

1 Dec 21

1 min read

By SBI Team Read More

Coaching & Training

Managing Enterprise Sales: Quality vs. Quantity

Previously, we discussed why “linearity” doesn’t work when managing enterprise sales opportunities. Selling to the enter...

19 Nov 21

2 min read

By David Jacoby Read More

Coaching & Training

3 Key Skills You Already Have as a Non-Sales Professional

For some people, the word “sales” comes along with its own set of baggage and negative connotations. Your point of refer...

15 Nov 21

2 min read

By Norman Behar Read More

Coaching & Training

The Problem with Linearity in Enterprise Sales Opportunities

Many senior sales leaders are enamored with “linearity”- the concept that the sales process can be broken into monthly, ...

10 Nov 21

2 min read

By David Jacoby 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

GTM Design & Structure

Six Key Themes for CEOs to Win the Growth Battle in 2022

What sets CEOs of high-growth companies apart in 2021? Much of it comes down to focus and conviction. As part of a sever...

27 Oct 21

3 min read

By SBI Team Read More

Coaching & Training

Selling to the Chief Technology Officer

If you sell technology solutions, you know that meeting with Technology Officers early in the sales process can dramatic...

22 Oct 21

3 min read

By David Jacoby Read More

How Strong Is Your Commercial Culture?

Some of the most valuable and fastest-growing organizations in the world are known — for better or for worse — for their...

7 Oct 21

3 min read

By Jamie Halpin Read More

Coaching & Training

Leveraging Conversation Intelligence to Improve Sales Coaching

In our research report 5 Hallmarks of High-Impact Sales Organizations, we identified sales coaching as the top sales man...

1 Oct 21

2 min read

By Norman Behar Read More

Coaching & Training

Selling to Complex Accounts: Your Customer Coach Relationship Strength

When navigating a large, complex sales opportunity, one of the most important relationships a sales rep can cultivate is...

30 Sep 21

2 min read

By David Jacoby Read More

Increase Customer Retention

How a Chief Customer Officer Helps Companies Overcome Common Digital Evolution Pitfalls

Nearly 1 year ago, the economy had come to an abrupt halt as many organizations waited to be ushered into a "new normal....

28 Sep 21

1 min read

By Matt Sharrers Read More

Coaching & Training

Position Yourself as a Trusted Advisor, Not a Salesperson

“Do you mind if I ask you a few questions to understand your needs better?” This is the go-to line most salespeople use ...

22 Sep 21

2 min read

By David Jacoby 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

The Challenge of Overreliance on Sales Stars, and What To Do About It

Many sales organizations have become overly reliant on their top sales performers to achieve their goals. While it is co...

31 Aug 21

2 min read

By Norman Behar Read More

Coaching & Training

How to Establish Credibility with Customers

Inevitably at some point during a sales call, the customer will ask, “Who else have you done this for?” What they’re rea...

24 Aug 21

1 min read

By David Jacoby 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

The X Factor: 5 Key Qualities to Look for in Sales Trainers

The success of a sales training initiative is based on multiple considerations as noted in my prior blog posts: How to C...

31 Jul 21

2 min read

By Norman Behar Read More

Coaching & Training

How to Get Access to Key Executives

In previous blogs, we discussed how to prepare for a meeting with a key executive (see here and here). But the 800-pound...

26 Jul 21

3 min read

By David Jacoby 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

Selling to Key Executives: Start with Research

How do you prepare for a meeting with a CXO or other important executive? A friend of mine who is a senior investment ba...

14 Jul 21

3 min read

By David Jacoby 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

Coaching & Training

4 Key Factors for Developing a Sales Training Program

When companies experience sales challenges, they often view sales training as the solution. While training can impact sa...

28 Jun 21

2 min read

By Norman Behar Read More

Coaching & Training

How COVID-19 Created a Collaborative Learning Experience Virtually

With in-person, instructor-led training off the table for over a year, companies had to innovate and leverage technology...

14 Jun 21

2 min read

By Norman Behar Read More

Article

5 Ways Sales Leaders Create a Winning Culture

In years past, if you wanted to build out or strengthen your sales organization, you could simply offer higher compensat...

9 Jun 21

3 min read

By Austin Kline 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

Marketing

Will You Have Enough Leads in the Funnel to Make Your Number?

Marketers are increasingly held responsible for contributing to revenue. With that, CMOs need to carefully plan realisti...

28 May 21

3 min read

By SBI Team Read More

Customer Success

Key Account Management: Avoiding the “Bow-Tie” Resource Approach

The questions are: How are your resources aligned? Are they the right resources? Are you single-threaded within the acco...

28 May 21

2 min read

By John Staples Read More

GTM Design & Structure

Are You Listening? Many Customers Prefer Inside Sales

Determine what type of reps you need, and the best organizational chart for you. Fight the urge to ignore Inside Sales b...

28 May 21

2 min read

By SBI Team Read More