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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

4 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

2 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

5 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

7 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

5 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

3 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

7 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

5 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

6 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

7 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

7 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

9 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

5 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

4 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

8 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

5 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

6 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

4 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

5 min read

By SBI Team Read More

GTM Design & Structure

Virtual Selling: A New Era Is Upon Us

Face-to-face selling is over, how will you arm your sales organization to effectively sell in this new environment? Rece...

28 May 21

8 min read

By Austin Kline Read More

Customer Success

Touchpoint Analysis - Your Key to Unlocking the Secrets of the Customer Journey

The Customer is growing more important for all sellers in today’s digital selling motion and customer service environmen...

28 May 21

7 min read

By SBI Team Read More

GTM Design & Structure

The 5 components of a Channel Management Strategy

Cover the market completely with direct and indirect sales channels. It sounds crazy that your channel management strate...

27 May 21

3 min read

By Andrew Urteaga Read More

GTM Design & Structure

SPIN Selling Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Today we are discussing how to develop your sales strategy. To demonstrate how we need to sell today, we are going to bu...

27 May 21

5 min read

By Andrew Urteaga Read More

GTM Design & Structure

Three Sales Demo Disasters and How to Avoid Them

At SBI, our consultants sit through hundreds of Demos per year as part of our Go-to-Market consulting where we view exis...

27 May 21

8 min read

By SBI Team Read More

GTM Design & Structure

The Optimal Sales Manager to Rep Ratio

To the contrary, other organizations have cut back on sales reps due to economic conditions and kept Sales Management in...

27 May 21

4 min read

By Scott Gruher Read More

GTM Design & Structure

Top 3 Sales Strategy Priorities of CEOs

President of Sales demonstrates how to leverage the top sales strategies of CEOs to drive revenue growth and run a consi...

27 May 21

2 min read

By Matt Sharrers Read More

Marketing

Start Here to Create a Strong Marketing Operations Plan

Empower your marketing team to do their best work. Remove Marketing’s non-program responsibilities and streamline those ...

27 May 21

4 min read

By Scott Gruher 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

7 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

GTM Design & Structure

The CEOs 4 Most Common Go-to-Market Mistakes

Discover how top-growth CEOs sidestep four major pitfalls in going to market. Agility and willingness to iterate rapidly...

27 May 21

15 min read

By Matt Sharrers Read More

GTM Design & Structure

The True Cost of Keeping "C" Players

Do you know who your C Players are in your Sales Organization? Making your number might depend on it. Your C Players Are...

27 May 21

7 min read

By SBI Team Read More

Accelerating Growth Through a High-Performance Sales Culture

Culture—the ultimate 21st-century corporate buzzword. Most agree it’s important, some understand why, but very few sales...

17 May 21

7 min read

By SBI Team Read More

Sales

Building, Retaining, and Developing a Modern Salesforce

To say your salesforce is changing is an understatement. Not only have there been shifts in adapting to a new virtual wo...

15 May 21

2 min read

By SBI Team Read More

Coaching & Training

Psychology of a Successful Salesperson

Here’s a post one of my colleagues recently made on LinkedIn after a long day of prospecting: “Today, I made 114 calls. ...

14 May 21

4 min read

By David Jacoby 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

5 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

Sales Training That Sticks: Five Key Success Factors

Sales organizations continue to invest in sales training but are often challenged when it comes to demonstrating that th...

26 Apr 21

6 min read

By Norman Behar Read More

GTM Design & Structure

What Every CEO Should Know About Their Data and Why They Should Care

CEOs often get lost in data while trying to decide what's working, if there is too much, or if it's even correct. But ev...

25 Apr 21

3 min read

By Matt Sharrers Read More

Coaching & Training

Selling to the Enterprise Customer vs. the SMB Market

One of the biggest challenges for a sales organization is moving upmarket. For example, if you target the small- and med...

21 Apr 21

4 min read

By David Jacoby 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

6 min read

By Ray Makela Read More

Coaching & Training

What I Learned Talking to 53 Sales Managers

Last week, I surveyed 53 sales managers, asking them, among other things, what essential skills their top-performing sal...

31 Mar 21

4 min read

By David Jacoby 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

8 min read

By Ray Makela Read More