The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Studies show that reaching out to leads within an hour of them contacting you makes you seven times likelier to have meaningful conversations, and up to 50% of sales go to the vendor who responded first.

There’s also a tenfold decrease in your odds of making contact with a lead if you wait more than five minutes to reach out after they submit a web form.

Whether from clients, management, or themselves, salespeople are under a lot of pressure to perform faster in their sales processes. We live and work in a fast-paced, “want it now” culture that can feel overwhelming at times. Sometimes, there’s only one solution to closing more deals, and that’s to SLOW DOWN!

When selling a product or service, not all outreach efforts should be directed directly at the decision maker, who has the final word on what will be bought.

Instead, it's more effective to engage with the people around them—influencers from whom they seek advice, people nearby who can speak favorably about your company, and sources of information they trust.

This is an even more vital strategy in B2B sales efforts. After all, the decision maker may not be the one using your product, adjusting workflows to accommodate it, or even engaging with the product directly at all. Instead, your sales teams need to develop a comprehensive approach for identifying and engaging with influencers who will ultimately lead you to decision makers (or lead the decision makers to you).

Start by clearly understanding the role of decision influencers in today's sales and buying experiences, how to reach out to these decision influencers, and, ultimately, how to leverage that connection to get in front of decision makers more effectively.

For as long as sellers have been selling, managers have tracked their activity. Over time, we've improved the tools we use to track that activity, from call sheets to spreadsheets to CRM.

But if all we do is capture the data and not study the data, what's the point? After all, the value is not simply in seeing how much activity we have but in understanding the trends within that data to help salespeople improve.

Studying the data allows you to identify where the bottlenecks in the sales process occur. It enables you to go beyond what you think is happening and confirm where that friction in the sales process lives. That confirmation allows you to develop specific strategies to improve your performance or the performance of your sales team.

Sealing the deal is the ultimate goal of any business negotiation, but the path to get there is often fraught with obstacles and delays.

Striking while the iron is hot can make all the difference. Closing a lucrative deal within a tight one-month timeline might seem like an impossible feat. However, with the right mindset, preparation, and tactics, it's a challenge that can be conquered.

Here are some effective strategies for closing a business deal in a short timeframe.

Let's face it, sales isn't for the faint of heart. It's a battlefield of "no's," rejection emails, and voicemails that mysteriously transform into black holes, swallowing your carefully crafted messages whole.

But before you drown your sorrows in a pint of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla (hey, emotional eating is a valid sales strategy, right?), hear me out: persistence is the secret weapon in your sales arsenal.

Spending time observing salespeople is something all leaders should do occasionally. You can learn so much more by observing first-hand how your salespeople interact with clients and customers.

This can work by physically accompanying a salesperson in the field or translating to online sales by listening to sales calls or observing emails and chats.  

Negotiation is an art, often perceived with a mix of hesitation and intrigue. It's a dance that occurs in various aspects of life, from buying a car to brokering major business deals.

Especially in sales, negotiation is not just a skill; it's a necessity. But the essence of effective negotiation lies in the approach: it's about collaboration, not confrontation.

Salespeople fill a fundamental role in society, so why do they get a bad rep?

In a HubSpot’s Research study, Buyers Speak Out: How Sales Needs to Evolve, respondents were asked to submit the word they most associated with salespeople.

The number one response was “pushy."

Persistence is part of being a salesperson, but there’s a difference between consistently adding value with each check-in and rambling about the benefits of what you’re selling. It’s decades and decades of the “pushy” kind of sales tactic that has made the average salesperson somewhat unpopular. We’re here to help change that with an updated look at the customer-focused sales process.

A Customer Relationship Manager, also known as a CRM, can be a powerful tool. It can help to streamline your sales process and provide benefits to complete sales teams.

Here are five ways using a CRM efficiently can help improve your sales process.

In the dynamic world of B2B sales, the pivotal moment of any successful sales journey is, without a doubt, the discovery meeting.

This initial encounter with a potential client is your golden ticket to unlocking a world of opportunities. However, to truly capitalize on this crucial interaction, a strategic approach is imperative.

Let's dive into the essential strategies that transform a discover meeting from a mere conversation into a powerful tool for driving sales success.