Sales Secrets

As sales pipeline continues to be the biggest problem in sales, marketing and sales leaders search for answers to some of the biggest questions in sales. . . Where is their untapped value? Who is most likely to buy from me? What is the next best action to take? In the sea of sameness, little progress is being made as companies scramble to compete with little to no improvement. Do you have a sales development team? Yes and so does everybody else Do you have marketing and sales technology? Yes and so does everybody else Are you running an account-based sales model? Yes and so is everybody else If you’re doing the same thing but just trying to do it better or just doing what everyone else is doing how do you expect to win? That’s sounds like the definition of insanity. The answer to the above questions and the solution to the biggest problem in sales is not the more of the same. The solution is breaking open the black box of predictive and and successfully operationalizing artificial intelligence. Artificial

If you're looking to have more conversations with the right people, persistence is key. Data shows that most sales reps today stop at sending an email or placing one phone call. The best sales professionals will not give up so fast. They create a sales cadence with multiple touch points, including a variety of sales communication channels: calls, texts, email, social media, voicemail, event direct mail and video. At InsideSales.com, we've tracked and analyzed thousands of sales interactions with machine learning algorithms and found there really is a formula for success. When executed correctly, the right sales cadence can double your contact rates. There's an ideal duration, spacing, attempts, media, and messaging for each sales cadence during prospecting, and we're about to tell you what it is. Gabe Larsen, VP of Growth for InsideSales.com, and Michael Pedone, founder and CEO of SalesBuzz, are going to show you the winning formula for sales prospecting.

Culture is not just important it is imperative to win. Some leaders pass culture off as something soft and not important and those leaders unfortunately have to learn the hard way. Great leaders recognize the value of their people and put them first. The problem is most leaders don't the best way to build a culture and so they find themselves struggling to create an environment where people want to be. In this episode, Tom Whalen, Dir of Inside Sales at McKesson, talks about his secrets to building culture and what he found works. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Tom's LinkedIn Tom's LinkedIn Article on Culture Subscribe to Gabe's Content In This Episode You'll Learn: How to collaborate with team members to develop culture Why it's important to lead by example How to coach from an attitude of “team”. Why company culture is is essential, not just a nice-to-have

Let me guess, you’ve heard of AI? Everybody is talking about it but nobody seems to be effectively using it, until now. AI is meant is not meant to eliminate humans but enable humans and sales is a great place to start. In this session, Gabe Larsen VP of Growth at InsideSales.com, will take you through what AI is and how companies are winning using this cutting-edge science. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Video of Presentation Subscribe to Gabe's Content In This Episode You'll Learn: What is AI? What is the difference between real and fake AI? Where in the sales process can AI enable sales reps? How can AI be used right now to build pipeline and increase sales?

Change is hard no matter who you are or what company you've worked at but nobody knows that better than Mike Katz EVP of Sales at T-Mobile for Business. Mike has been with the organization 20 years and he's seen bad times and good times but through it all Mike and team have learned some important lessons about change management. In this episode, Mike takes us through his journey and how he and T-mobile have successfully navigated change. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Mike's LinkedIn Mike's Article on Culture Subscribe to Gabe's Content In This Episode You'll Learn: What makes change so difficult Lessons learned through change at T-Mobile Best practice change management tips from Mike

Do you even care about AI? Maybe you should. Mark Gorenberg is the founder of Zetta Venture Partners, an investment group focused on companies who lead the world in analytics and artificial intelligence. Mark has seen just about everything there is when it comes to AI and in this episode we sit down and talk about the trend of AI, what makes AI companies successful, and what sales leaders must know about it to win. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Mark's LinkedIn The State of Artificial Intelligence Subscribe to Gabe's Content In This Episode You'll Learn: What is artificial intelligence What are some of the top trends in the space Why are some companies growing in the AI marketing What sales leaders should be thinking about in regards to AI

Have you heard about diversity? Have you heard it's important? The answer to that is probably yes and yes but do you know how to get a more diverse sales team? Maybe not. Diversity has become more and more important and many studies show diversity can be beneficial to organizations but many organizations lack the ability to make it happen. In this episode, Gabriel Moncayo CEO of AlwaysHired, talks about his own journey and how's discovered the benefits of diversity and what that can mean to an organization. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Gabriel's LinkedIn State of Sales Development Infographic Subscribe to Gabe's Content In This Episode You'll Learn: What is diversity and why is it important Tactical things organizations can do to make their team more diverse The responsibility of leaders to drive diversity

One of the secrets of a good sales team is its DNA or team make up. Not many sales leaders focus on it but the ones who do often have a special team and special results. The reason many leaders don't focus on designing the optimal team is because they don't know how to do it. David Belden, regional sales leader for Google Cloud and his colleagues at Google have sought to change that. An Inc magazine article depicts the research and tests Google has conducted to try and determine how to design the optimal team and the results are fascinating. In this episode, David breaks down the article and talks about the steps sales teams need to take to create winning teams. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: David's LinkedIn Profile Google Article Subscribe to Gabe's Content In This Episode You'll Learn: What are the characteristics of a successful team What elements are most important for a sales team How can companies start building a team based on the principles of successful sales teams

Why do we not have a data driven hiring approach in sales? It's embarrassing we are still looking for people who are nice or positive, isn't it? When do we move past that and get to the data? When do we combine the art of hiring with the science of hiring? For some people that time is now and there is better expert on the topic of data driven hiring than Dr. Chris Croner from Sales Drive Test. In this episode, Chris lays it all on the line and talks about why people haven't gotten to a data-driven hiring model and how they can.

Customer service teams are often a mess. They are often overlooked and understaffed so David Schotz, Sr. Direct at Centrica decided to do something about it. Rather than have a tier one customer service team, David had his sales reps be the tier one support and sales soared. The test wasn't without bumps and bruises but the creative idea and the subsequent test paid off. In this episode, David talks about his journey and his thoughts on why companies should think about making money when customers call for help.

Everybody says buyers are half way into their buying process before they talk to a sales person, is that true and if it is true what is the data source for this claim? One way to determine where people are in the sales process is how they engage with content and nobody does that better than DocSend. In this episode, Dave Koslow, COO at DocSend talks about the power of content and what it means for your company. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Dave's LinkedIn Profile State of Sales Development Infographic Subscribe to Gabe's Content In This Episode You'll Learn: How can content be used in the sales process What research is there about content and what it is doing in the sales process What content works best to push the sales process forward

Compensation matters across all of sales but it really matters for sales development reps. SDRs need more guidence when managers can't be around and bad comp plans can lead to bad results. Most people don't have an answer for compensation but experience can teach you a lot. In this episode, Alex Hudzik, from Nasuni, talks about his experience and lessons learned about building an optimal SDR comp plan. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Alex's LinkedIn Profile State of Sales Development Infographic Subscribe to Gabe's Content In This Episode You'll Learn: An SDR compensation plan is incredibly important. It should provide the guideposts and direction for the 90% of the day when the manager is not directly working with the team. Too often organizations mess this up by: Preferring simplicity over KPIs that really matter to the business Not weighting things in a way that eliminates luck and levels the playing field for all, creating unfair wealth distribution amongst the team Coaching on best prac

Are great leaders born or is it something that is learned? I sat down with CEO of InsideSales.com Dave Elkington and had him give me his top five leadership traits. How do you rate on each one? Where are your strengths and weaknesses? What can you do to become a more well balanced leader? Listen to this podcast and find out how good of a leaders you are. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Dave Elkington's Leadership Trait Article In This Episode You'll Learn: The five leadership traits you need to know about What each of the leadership traits are How you should thinking about becoming a well balanced leader

Sales and marketing are fighting STILL and sometimes I think they will never stop fighting. But, great organizations have figured out a way to make sales and marketing work and it makes a big difference in the bottom line of their organizations. What's the secrets and how can other organizations make it work? In this episode, sales expert Jeff Davis, talks about his experience and his goal of brining sales and marketing together once and for all. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Jeff Davis LinkedIn ABM Best Practices State of Sales Research Subscribe to Gabe's Content In This Episode You'll Learn: How communication is key to winning the sales and marketing battle Why data is one of the first steps organizations must take to succeed How to think about mapping your sales process according to your buyers

A lot of people talk about how the buying process has changed but it's hard to find where that information came from. To change that Jim and team decided to interview 500 business buyers (with deal sizes over 10K and not in procurement) to understand what really happens during the buying cycle. The findings were fascinating as the top was not a sales person, in fact, a sales person was 9th on the list. Tune into this episode to learn more about this research and how decision makers really make decisions. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Jim's LinkedIn Understanding Buyer Behavior White Paper State of Sales Research In This Episode You'll Learn: What 500 business buyers think about buying Why sales reps don't make the list and how they can What research says is real reason decision makers buy

Artificial Intelligence is here to stay and one place it's making a lot of noise in is conversations. Conversations may be the most important metric in sales. If you don't have conversations, you can't progress the sale forward. In this episode, Udi Ledergor from Gong.io talks about the power of conversations and how organizations can turn them into incredible coaching through science.

Every sales rep wants to move up in his or her career and every sales reps expects that to happen at their current company when they first join. Sadly, career progression at many organizations and for many sales development reps is tough to come by. Nobody knows that better than Ryan from Seal Software. As an expert in inside sales and sales development, Ryan has seen many examples of poorly run sales development teams. In this episode, Ryan flips it over and talks about how he's done things differently to make sure reps move forward in the organization. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Ryan's LinkedIn State of Sales Development State of Sales Research In This Episode You'll Learn: How to create career progression for sales development reps How money plays a role in career progression How recognition plays a role in keeping sales development reps happy How title plays a role in strong sales development rep programs

Every company wants to know how to GROW but growth is not an easy task. To learn more about this topic, DiscoverOrg surveyed leaders in sales and marketing on growth at their companies and factors accelerating it or inhibiting it. Survey questions delved into team structure, budgets, strategies, technologies stack, and more with the objective to uncover current trends leading to high growth success. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: DiscoverOrg Research Katie's LinkedIn State of Sales Research In This Episode You'll Learn: Is cold calling dead? Or, is it alive? How many hours of training does a sales team need each week? Should I focus marketing investment on inbound or outbound lead generation? What attributes of my sales team are undermining growth? What are the most important strengths to have in a marketing team?

Yeah I know, you've heard the term account-based but like the rest of us, you're still trying to figure it out what it is and how to be successful doing it. Don't worry, you're not alone but that doesn't mean you can give up. In this episode, two experts of account-based strategies lend their support and their tips to help marketing and sales professionals win using account-based principles. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Kathy's LinkedIn Trish's LinkedIn In This Episode You'll Learn: What is account-based revenue What has chanced in recent years to make account-based more impactful Who should run an account-based strategy What strategies should you ask before you run an account-based strategy

Campaigns are tough and getting your top prospects to respond to your message is sometime a combination of luck and timing but there are principles that make some marketers shine above the rest. In this episode, Ryan O'Hara, VP of Marketing & Growth at LeadIQ talks about building killer campaigns and how he's seen success being creative in his campaigns. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: The Coffee Campaign Campaign Ideas In This Episode You'll Learn: I'll talk about how Campaign Based Prospecting fits in Account Based Selling. I'll share a few examples of things you can do, and rehash the foundations of what makes effective outreach. How to fit this concept into things you may do in your current sales flow, and use cadences to promote your tactic.