AI-based technologies, which will pave the path to more focused engagement.

Gabriela Lavezzari Principal at Vertex Advisors

Intelligent automation with artificial intelligence and machine learning incl.

Sebastian Grodzietzki CGO @ PARIS AG | MD @ multiple | Serial Founder | Business Angel | Chief Advisor (IoT, Digital Transformation, EduTech + Growth) | Speaker

Henry David Thoreau (referring to the telegraph): "Just because we have more ways to talk doesn't mean we have anything more to say."

Kevin Ascher Modernizing sales teams to produce amazing results

A poorly trained sales person will still be poor, no matter the technology

Robert Cameron “Senior Integrated B2B Direct Marketing Strategist: Building brands for the future”

salespeople who excel at social selling are creating more opportunities and are 51% more likely to hit quota.

Michael Phelan Start-Up CMO, Founder & Principal Go-to-Market Pros

Sales does not ask the right questions or does no have a robust prospect discovery process

Michael Phelan Start-Up CMO, Founder & Principal Go-to-Market Pros

269B email sent per day in 2017

Paolo Beffagnotti Brand Protection Digital Manager

inexperienced BRDs and automation have in fact dumbed down sales and buyers are shutting down,

Michael Phelan Start-Up CMO, Founder & Principal Go-to-Market Pros

co-created solutions that fit and achieve the desired outcomes for our clients

Michael K

They must 'walk a mile in their shoes'.

David Cottrell Managing Director @ Gradient Limited

Selling is not authentic unless the focus is on solving your customer's problem

Ed A

great sellers persuade subtly and with great questions that force prospects to look at the issue from new angles

Kevin Ascher Modernizing sales teams to produce amazing results

deliver a personalized approach. Versus the old, spray and pray. Ugh!

Robert Cameron “Senior Integrated B2B Direct Marketing Strategist: Building brands for the future”

Study you audience and deliver with a clear and customize message, be flexible as the technology

Paolo Beffagnotti Brand Protection Digital Manager

The behaviors I would coach or recruiter to find would be empathy, curiosity, and commitment.

Michael K

successful companies consistently build highly trained sales teams.

Patty Block Market Development Director *Add New Sales Streams *Create Unique Bus Dev & Content Mgt Programs

Most common mistake I've observed (and experienced as a rep) is days of classroom training stuffing as much down the reps as possible.

Kevin Ascher Modernizing sales teams to produce amazing results

Break up big concepts into small pieces, do one at a time, and set people up for success by increasing difficulty as the master previous levels.

Kevin Ascher Modernizing sales teams to produce amazing results

One question that we frequently miss (in onboarding), why does the customer buy our product?

Karl Chang Business Consultant

Happy to see the viewpoint of "more sales team more revenue is getting replaced with better the sales team better the revenue". this will pay off for sure.

Fanish Shukla Lead CIO, Enterprise Architect, Innovator, Founder, Speaker and DeepListener

Role Playing is very effective with new reps, there are a limited set of buyer personas and buyer processes, why not practice first in a learning environment.

Michael Phelan Start-Up CMO, Founder & Principal Go-to-Market Pros

Live or immediate post call coaching has a big impact on ramp time.

Michael Phelan Start-Up CMO, Founder & Principal Go-to-Market Pros

46% of new recruits leave within 18 months. Of that figure almost 22% have gone within 45 days.

David Cottrell Managing Director @ Gradient Limited

Create and document ramp stages and show related historical metrics at each stage to help folks know where they should be and if they are ahead of the curve or behind it.

Michael Phelan Start-Up CMO, Founder & Principal Go-to-Market Pros

Measuring deal velocity is important because it not only helps you compare reps performance but also is an indicator of market readiness. If you see deal velocity slowing over a quarter, it may indicate slowing demand that requires a bigger, company level intervention.

Vishal Srivastava B2B Technology & SaaS Marketing - helping growing SaaS with Digital Marketing & Sales Planning and Execution

In B2B sales, there are four things you must track for each rep: 1) Calls 2) Meetings Scheduled 3) Opportunities created 4) Deals closed

Vishal Srivastava B2B Technology & SaaS Marketing - helping growing SaaS with Digital Marketing & Sales Planning and Execution

A digital platform that is accessible to be viewed by every commercial person but can only be inputted/edited by some key related persons. Such platform should integrate the CRM, SAP, Sales Force, Supply-Demand, and Project Management functionalities.

Joan Dharmadi Senior Business Development Manager

Increase the visibility of seller effectiveness - we call this "Commercial Vitality Dashboard", forecast ROI, manage risks, and measure investments/inputs

Joan Dharmadi Senior Business Development Manager

With complex sales, the standard metrics are not necessarily an accurate measure of effectiveness. Given the nature of complex sales, and the means by which effective sales reps develop each opportunity, comparing these measurements risks missing nuanced value that these sales reps are creating.

Alexander Robinson BDM Seeing Machines | Co-Founder Airly | Writer | Pilot

I think net new prospect and customer meetings is the best way to gauge selling effectiveness especially in the mid-to-enterprise markets. Why don't we measure it more explicitly?

Michael Phelan Start-Up CMO, Founder & Principal Go-to-Market Pros

Sometimes sales reps did not spend enough time on core selling activities as there is a lack in time management. People try to hit the number without a plan but then this is just a hope. Furthermore administrative tasks take a lot of time.

Paolo Beffagnotti Brand Protection Digital Manager

When you analyze a breakdown of sales teams activities, everyone is usually horrified by the results because there is so little 'selling' being done.

David Cottrell Managing Director @ Gradient Limited

Top sales reps know exactly what they’re going to do at every step of the way throughout each deal.

Joana Santos Digital Marketing Consultant

This willingness to "break things" is present in most of the top-performing teams

Kristina McMillan VP Research

The first is a desired outcome of most B2B transactions, even for commodity items, but the later really only applies in cases where the offering meets a critical need defined by the buyer. Trying to be a "strategic supplier" when your service is closer to being a "necessary evil" is unrealistic.

David Feidner Collaborative Global Leader & Executive Coach

Hard work and using the right resources will open up the right doors. Then with a good sales dialogue a true "partnership" or becoming a "strategic supplier" can truly happen.

Dan Harper Business Advisor -- Sales, Marketing and Management Consulting

Innovations in technology, the ease and efficiency of performing transactions, and the increase in B2B platforms have made them the preferred choice for many buyers. In fact, buyers are near 70% of the way through a purchasing process before contacting a sales person.

Primo Bonacina Managing Partner, PBS - Primo Bonacina Services: consultancy on marketing/digital, business/sales, management/HR

To stay relevant in the era of ecommerce, your services have to be differentiated from what can be obtained online. We cannot compete on pricing with the online platform. But we can provide better customer experience, support, education, etc to help customers achieve their goals.

Fehmida Kapadia Helping organizations adopt a customer-centric approach to manage their innovation and marketing strategy.

Recent statistics by Forrester found that 74% of B2B buyers and sellers preferred to purchase products from websites and that 59% preferred not to interact with sales representatives. Today’s buyer holds the cards. They’ve done their research, read reviews and looked at comparison websites.

Primo Bonacina Managing Partner, PBS - Primo Bonacina Services: consultancy on marketing/digital, business/sales, management/HR

Buyers do more research than before. So sales needs to step up their game.. Research the decision maker, find out their real needs & don't insult them with products that don't. Harder? Yes. But not so different than the old days w/o technology to find out about companies & the decision makers.

Dan Harper Business Advisor -- Sales, Marketing and Management Consulting

We always have to read cues to know whether the ask is real or are they just trying to pass the buck. Which is why I like it if they have actual relevant questions or concerns that they express and how much information they share about their needs and how the solution can help them.

Fehmida Kapadia Helping organizations adopt a customer-centric approach to manage their innovation and marketing strategy.

This depends on number of factors. The most important factor for me is "What stage of the buying process is the buyer in?"

Fehmida Kapadia Helping organizations adopt a customer-centric approach to manage their innovation and marketing strategy.

Every meeting is a process, and evaluation makes the process complete. An effective assessment relies on accurate information and a full analysis of four key performance factors: meeting results, meeting process, participation/tone, and next steps. 

Joana Santos Digital Marketing Consultant

I started my first two weeks shadowing another rep and learning how she does it. She also took the time to explain her process to me, educate me about the customer's preferences, how she positioned the product with different customers, etc. This knowledge transfer was very valuable.

Fehmida Kapadia Helping organizations adopt a customer-centric approach to manage their innovation and marketing strategy.

I used to despair when salespeople pulled out their laptop and asked to show their company presentation. "and on slide 79 is a photo of our founder outside the original factory in Bumfluff Arizona"

David Cottrell Managing Director @ Gradient Limited

The supplier thought that they were sharing the business with another vendor, who also held the lion's share of the business. They offered incentives, extended payment terms, etc just to increase the % of their share. The truth was that they already held 100% of the business!

David Cottrell Managing Director @ Gradient Limited

Buyers only take a meeting if the supplier is outside of the 'transactional' category. Operational and Strategic suppliers can impact the business and deserve an appropriate amount of time. They will ask challenging questions about future pricing and product availability, so be prepared.

David Cottrell Managing Director @ Gradient Limited

Take a meeting when you clarified your needs and how the seller can meet. Review your expectations in advance. Build trust and be transparent (these are fundamental from this side too). Set up a clear agenda covering the main topics. Ask the right questions, engage with the seller.

Paolo Beffagnotti Brand Protection Digital Manager

I typically run it by the client "If you are interested, I have a Powerpoint that we can use as a discussion guide." If the client gets excited about it, then ppt is a go, if the client wants a free-flowing discussion than I would use handouts to facilitate the discussion.

Fehmida Kapadia Helping organizations adopt a customer-centric approach to manage their innovation and marketing strategy.

PowerPoint is not dead, but the creativity and lively sense matters now, for example how animation bring traction to the presentation. But we should also be very alert about how people will getting bored when presentation involve too much wordings and has too much slides.

Joan Dharmadi Senior Business Development Manager

According to a study conducted by Verizon Business, meetings are the #1 time waster in the work place. They are often unorganized, have no purpose and go off-topic. It’s also no mistake that most of these meetings are missing a clear meeting agenda.  

Primo Bonacina Managing Partner, PBS - Primo Bonacina Services: consultancy on marketing/digital, business/sales, management/HR

Good project management is key to ensure meeting success. I have an agenda that I share with the client, to help the client get a sense of what to expect. I capture notes and action items that I use to continue the follow-up discussion.

Fehmida Kapadia Helping organizations adopt a customer-centric approach to manage their innovation and marketing strategy.

The stage of the sales cycle defines whether the meeting should be in-person or phone/web. If you are in early stages where you are still prospecting the client and are trying to gauge interest, I think a phone call/web conference works well.

Fehmida Kapadia Helping organizations adopt a customer-centric approach to manage their innovation and marketing strategy.

Usually I turn on the video during the first call with new colleagues or other persons that I never met., I think it is easier to start engaging with the other persons. It helps to break the first barriers.

Paolo Beffagnotti Brand Protection Digital Manager

Entertainment and events are always beneficial, it supports in engaging out of the working environment and break more barriers. I had several valuable talks out of the working environment, during events and lunch/dinner and even just coffee break.

Paolo Beffagnotti Brand Protection Digital Manager

Entertainment is a just nice to have, but more and more clients nowadays look for the substances of the discussion and the meeting purpose. Subjectivity on whether they like the person or not is still valid too.

Joan Dharmadi Senior Business Development Manager

Tension is not universally bad, its main benefit might actually help a client channel frustration towards real solution with some velocity.

Chris Woods Global Innovation & Strategy Leader at Insight

It highlights where issues may be , and this could be interesting for the topic you are dealing with ... or may be good signs of thing you will need to take into account when putting into action whatever has been decided in the meeting / workshop. It can push engagement in the discussion.

Olivier Legrand Managing Director at Onext Bvba

Start with being human -- listen, listen, listen -- then make yourself useful (problem uncovered...solution identified).

Chris Woods Global Innovation & Strategy Leader at Insight

Empathy: put yourself in someone else's situation

Paolo Beffagnotti Brand Protection Digital Manager

Usually there's a dynamic equilibrium set up with clients. The pendulum swings both ways and (usually) no one party benefits all of the time. However, disagreements happen and they are usually over price issues.

David Cottrell Managing Director @ Gradient Limited

Working together in a change environment where people are more and more acting for themselves before thinking about the community (we are a "selfie" society!) makes tension almost normal and maybe expected. Normal b/cit brings people out of their confort zone ... or threaten their personal interest

Olivier Legrand Managing Director at Onext Bvba

Global warming and climate change - this will impact what products and services will be required, how will we administer them, etc. It might also define how we interact with our customers. Air travel is not environmentally friendly.

Fehmida Kapadia Helping organizations adopt a customer-centric approach to manage their innovation and marketing strategy.

The water crisis will start impacting businesses depending on geo. South Africa and California are already seeing the effects. Although, this does not have a direct relation to sales, it will indirectly affect which businesses will survive, which new businesses will be created,, etc

Fehmida Kapadia Helping organizations adopt a customer-centric approach to manage their innovation and marketing strategy.

Data and analytics is making inroads in sales and marketing, where data is being heavily used to predict customer buying habits, needs, trends, etc. Knowing what the customer needs is key to making a sale. So we are becoming more realistic about how to use data and how to combine it with Empathy.

Fehmida Kapadia Helping organizations adopt a customer-centric approach to manage their innovation and marketing strategy.

Digital Transformation will lead to more and more automation. Companies will try to get as lean and efficient as possible by automating as many processes as possible. This will lead to rethink virtually any process and to try to trim the fat out of it.

Primo Bonacina Managing Partner, PBS - Primo Bonacina Services: consultancy on marketing/digital, business/sales, management/HR

Children are the best sales people b/c they haven't experienced failure so they only know how to go after what they want with passion and enthusiasm. Remember what it meant to sell without fear of failure, add to that the element of active listening and empathy and we have a winning combination.

Fehmida Kapadia Helping organizations adopt a customer-centric approach to manage their innovation and marketing strategy.

Solution Providers must start with "Helping Buyers be a Better Buyers" and then and only start to sell. Increasingly sales has to earn a right to pitch a buyer

Michael Phelan Start-Up CMO, Founder & Principal Go-to-Market Pros

What's left to learn about sales? The power shifts from the seller to the buyer and from outbound sales on the basis of 'push' to inbound on the basis of 'pull'. Successful sales professionals are therefore not intrusive but especially helpful.

Olaf Zwijnenburg OmniChannel Executive (Retail, Wholesale, FMCG)

AI will change the way we engage with our customers now versus 5 years from now will be very different. Empathy, needs assessment and solving problems will still be at the crux of the sales process, but we will likely have many tools at our disposal to help us do these tasks better and faster

Fehmida Kapadia Helping organizations adopt a customer-centric approach to manage their innovation and marketing strategy.

There are many applications for AI which can be used to help train/coach the sales person to be more effective. For example using AI for behavioral and emotional analytics (software analyzes the audio real-time on a call between sales and customer/prospect) has shown to enhance revenue.

Steve Borochoff VP Sales | Advisor | Software, Systems, Sensors | Enterprise, OEM, Embedded | Artificial Intelligence | IoT |

Help sellers identify the right customers, know their preferences so that they can provide better offerings. The sales process takes engagement, empathy and being able to identify the customer's needs.

Fehmida Kapadia Helping organizations adopt a customer-centric approach to manage their innovation and marketing strategy.

A sale is so easy when the customer is ready to buy. On the other hand, it does not matter how awesome your product is, how well you try to sell, and how much you try to convince the customer that buying this product will change their life, if they are not ready to buy, nothing happens.

Jay D

Sales reps don’t change people’s buying habits or circumstances. What they can do is accurately discover them and then attempt to create a sense of urgency.

Joana Santos Digital Marketing Consultant

The starting point is with the CEO, to evangelize Sales as the engine of the company; then build business functions including process, cross-functional metrics and systems within marketing, finance, legal, delivery, and customer satisfaction; to integrate support of the pre and post sales process.

Paul Fenick Senior New Account Executive - New Business Development

I'd like to get better at aligning the entire company behind sales, not just by comp plans that have a large sales component but by culture which celebrates its sales team at the rank-and-file level, and gives sales the benefit of the doubt when faced with something that seems left-field.

Akshay Birla Sales & Marketing at Radix Health | Board Member: Woodstock School, KFI | Amateur Podcaster

Presents a very clear picture of my sales efforts. Seeing where my prospects sit in the sales funnel has immensely helped me in how I pitch and sell. It has also informed my engagement strategy. Prior to using CRM I dropped the ball on a few of my contacts.

Fehmida Kapadia Helping organizations adopt a customer-centric approach to manage their innovation and marketing strategy.

If the rep uses the CRM daily, it will keep them well organized, and provides a real time compilation of action items, forecasts, internal and external correspondence, etc. Not doing so equates to less than goal performance without a comprehensive tool to keep the group and individual focused

Steve Borochoff VP Sales | Advisor | Software, Systems, Sensors | Enterprise, OEM, Embedded | Artificial Intelligence | IoT |

Managers and execs benefit because it simplifies which stage each relationship belongs to, next steps etc. It prevents process duplication (e.g. multiple managers trying to engage a high net worth prospect simultaneously. And has the option of adding notes.

Nayyara Rahman Director Digital Services; Ethics At Work Advocate

Use the tool for forecasts, reminders, action items for internal/external stakeholders, lead gen correspondence. It is a diary + non-human administrative assistant

Steve Borochoff VP Sales | Advisor | Software, Systems, Sensors | Enterprise, OEM, Embedded | Artificial Intelligence | IoT |

working with several people in the same client is critical. Decisions are made by committee nowadays and every player needs to be on board. This is where CRM can really help.

David Cottrell Managing Director @ Gradient Limited

The system is only as good as the data feed. Most of the CRM systems I've been involved with implementing have all suffered from poor data input. SAP data was used and was full of errors that required manual input by responsible salespeople to correct.

David Cottrell Managing Director @ Gradient Limited

This means right from the get-go, sales feel aggrieved that they are have to spend a lot of time on a system that is supposed to make their life better.

David Cottrell Managing Director @ Gradient Limited

Get stakeholders engaged rapidly. Account managers that believe they are exempt from reporting due to their great performance are challenging but for this tool to work best, everyone needs to be diligent about using it daily.

Steve Borochoff VP Sales | Advisor | Software, Systems, Sensors | Enterprise, OEM, Embedded | Artificial Intelligence | IoT |

Instead of the current dashboard approach, shift to visualizing the factors that contributed to sales outcomes as the primary focus to follow the successful pathways, and to reinforce what works well in the selling and buying processes.

Sandy Waters Semi Retired at SW Consulting but still helping companies accelerate growth

Over time, train the system to perform in-depth win/loss of the collected conversations, observations, and documented events, in an effort to continually refine and highlight those elements that contributed to the successful execution of the sale.

Sandy Waters Semi Retired at SW Consulting but still helping companies accelerate growth

The prospect is not a decision maker, but a data collector The salesperson has not asked the necessary qualifying questions Salesperson is overly optimistic, which happens freqently The salesperson did not understand the buying decision making process and failed to align

Sandy Waters Semi Retired at SW Consulting but still helping companies accelerate growth

Their boss changed their priorities and they don’t want to admit it They are simply busy and rude You're not high on their priority list, so they are chasing more urgent matters Competitors went in and changed the rule of the game Something happened and you are not needed anymore

Primo Bonacina Managing Partner, PBS - Primo Bonacina Services: consultancy on marketing/digital, business/sales, management/HR

Sometimes, sales reps talk with prospects that don’t completely believe they're facing the problem a product solves. Sharing more content about the problems they are experiencing is one tactic to educate prospects and increase prospect engagement.

Joana Santos Digital Marketing Consultant

1. Get a structure in place for clear communication Agree on turnaround times and communication methods right away with your client. Ask if phone calls are better than emails. MIf they have days they know are more hectic or they know they’ll be unavailable, make note of those, too.

Joana Santos Digital Marketing Consultant

Use a checklist as a part of your sales process to include pre-call items such as match to ideal customer profile, what we know about the prospect's company and its structure, learning as much as we can and choosing the open from your relevant valid business reasons for a call,

Sandy Waters Semi Retired at SW Consulting but still helping companies accelerate growth

You failed to correctly understand through proper prep for a call and developing a questioning strategy to uncover the presence of a need, and to align your selling process with the prospects buying decision making process.

Sandy Waters Semi Retired at SW Consulting but still helping companies accelerate growth

Identify an internal champion at the prospect to guide you. Alternatively, I many times have a colleague that either knows the prospect or can give me guidance/enlightenment on the situation. Plan B, after 2-4 wks I contact a higher level person that could offer some guidance.

Steve Borochoff VP Sales | Advisor | Software, Systems, Sensors | Enterprise, OEM, Embedded | Artificial Intelligence | IoT |

Use instead of the standard breakup email, "It seems like this isn't a good fit for your company right now. I don't want to bother you unnecessarily, so I'll follow up in a few months to see if our goals are better aligned."

Joana Santos Digital Marketing Consultant

Best tip... video works great in this scenario. Make a video recapping the value you share with them and at the end simply ask "I thought we had a great meeting, how did I go awry?" People typically will respond. Worth a shot right?

Trish Bertuzzi Author of "The Sales Development Playbook," CEO of The Bridge Group, Inc. and Inside Sales Evangelist