The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Clients calls, webinars, team meetings, staff meetings, one-on-one's with a coworker, prospect meetings — we're spending a lot more time online.

Video conferencing etiquette and attire are certainly not a new topic for many professionals, but it's a new reality for millions.

How you portray yourself, whether over the phone or on shared-screen calls, represents both you and your company. It’s important that we present ourselves just as well virtually as we do in-person. In an effort to improve your phone and video etiquette, and ensure the person on the other end receives an excellent experience, implement the best practices outlined below.

In uncertain times, prospects and clients conduct even more online research before working with a vendor or purchasing a product. Thought leadership is vital to brand differentiation, but when done right, it greatly improves sales performance.

The thought leadership position is certainly an advantageous position to have, as it helps with generating sales, lead generation, recruitment and retention, and new business opportunities. Sometimes this thought leadership position comes completely organically, but many times it's part of an overall sales strategy.

Much is written every year about corporate culture. And yes, every corporation has a culture—they may not have built it purposefully, they may not be proud of it, it may hold the organization back rather than propel it to success—but there’s always a culture and it always impacts performance.

Don’t look to a mission or vision statement hanging on the wall to discern the culture of a given organization. Just watch what the people do. Despite what the pretty prose might say, the actual culture is revealed in how the company’s people interact with each other and with the outside world, minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day.

Say it either way: The culture—values, attitudes, beliefs, priorities, expectations, attitudes, taboos, unwritten rules—is demonstrated by the aggregate behaviors of its people. Or the people define the culture by how they act.

If you could start one new thing this month that increased the open rate of your sales emails by 5Xs and improved your open-to-reply rate by 8Xs, would you do it? The obvious answer is yes, but sadly, once most of you realize what it is, you’ll come up with at least one of these excuses as to why you won’t do it and still avoid it.  

Video. Yes, video! Video has the power to not only get your emails opened but replied to! Across platforms (not just email) it’s proven to help get higher response rates, inspire more action, and help sellers reach the C-Suite (source).

Amidst the worldwide pandemic and historic economic shift, sales managers and business leaders everywhere are busy trying to adjust business models. A majority of business owners are re-inventing their business operations in a time where most people are "sheltering-in-place" and can no longer physically visit their place of business.

Once you figure out what this new world order entails for your organization, it’s time to re-examine your marketing strategy—not just your advertising and commercial messaging. COVID-19 is shifting consumer behavior and media habits, and we all need to make sure our strategy changes with them.

LinkedIn is the most popular professional social networking site out there, which means if you have a B2B business or cater to other professionals in a specific industry, it could be the ideal platform for growing your business.

By now, you’ve updated your LinkedIn profile using the Ultimate LinkedIn Profile Checklist. Now you want more engagement, you want your LinkedIn posts to attract more viewers and increase shares—but where do you even start?

As sales professionals, one of the biggest challenges we face is trying to connect with a new prospect. With so many different touchpoints, it’s easy for a prospect to avoid or ignore your voicemails, emails, texts, or LinkedIn request.

If you want your message to stand out, it’s critical that you have a solid valid business reason (VBR) that establishes you as trusted and valued. However, it’s equally important to ensure you have a strong email subject line. You can have the best valid business reason on the planet, but if the email is never opened by the intended recipient, what good is it?