Today's blog post is by Christopher Cabrera, CEO of Xactly Corporation, the industry leader in sales compensation automation. Xactly just wrapped up our third annual CompCloud user conference in San Francisco last week. It was great to spend a few days listening to our customers and sharing our plans for the next year or so. We were pleased to go into more depth with them about our new products and services, including Xactly Insights, which I wrote about in March. We’ve analyzed eight years’ worth of anonymized customer data from hundreds of companies to establish benchmarks and best practices in... Continue reading

I recently attended a conference where one of the speakers gave this advice to sales managers: "All you have to do to increase sales is to teach your salespeople to repeat their own best performance more often." This sounds like a good idea, but I know that many salespeople can’t transfer their skills from one situation to another or from one job to another. They suffer from an inability to change and adapt. Here are some illustrations: A change in product line A sales rep in the multilevel marketing field who made $1.2 million in commission only a few years... Continue reading

The world of selling is changing at breakneck speed, and sales leaders need to adapt quickly or risk becoming obsolete. Here are the four major trends impacting sales organizations today: 1. Social media. A recent study by the Aberdeen Group shows that 79 percent of salespeople who incorporate social media into their sales process make quota, compared to the industry average of 43 percent. A HubSpot survey finds that companies using Twitter get two times more leads than companies that don’t. Research by InboxQ shows that 64 percent of customers are more likely to purchase from a business that answers... Continue reading

With the economy still sputtering and CEOs keeping a tight lid on spending, sales managers report that paths to decision makers are blocked with obstacles. This is frustrating for the entire sales team. I recently spoke with a number of seasoned managers to get a firsthand look at their challenges and coping strategies. 1. Real opportunities are harder to identify. Most sales managers direct their salespeople to explore opportunities with companies that are doing well. But often, salespeople are not capturing these opportunities. Why? Because the decision-making process has migrated upward, and salespeople are struggling to make connections with these... Continue reading

Today's blog post is by Christopher Cabrera, CEO of Xactly Corporation, the industry leader in sales compensation automation. According to a recent Deloitte survey about sales compensation, sales leaders are facing a fundamental paradox. Of the 300 sales leaders Deloitte surveyed worldwide in 2013, only half said they were happy with their sales productivity. (The six-year average satisfaction level is even lower: 47.5 percent.) But when asked if they believe their compensation programs effectively drive desired sales behaviors, only one-third of sales leaders surveyed said they did not. That raises a question. As Deloitte asks, “Why do leaders generally believe... Continue reading

Many people say that one of their goals in life is to leave the world a better place than it was when they entered it. The thought of improving the world may show lofty ambition – but also hints at arrogance. Good salespeople don't aim to improve the world; instead, they work at improving themselves. If self-improvement is the first step to improving society, what would be the next logical step? We bring to the business of selling more than just the knowledge of the product, people skills, and the motivation to win. We also bring to our customers our... Continue reading

At the recent Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, Selling Power caught up with Andris (Andy) Zoltners, who was there to present “A Top 10: Insights that Lead to Sales Success.” In addition to being one of the founding directors of ZS Associates, Zoltners is a Frederic Esser Nemmers Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He has personally consulted for more than 200 companies around the world and taught thousands of executive, MBA, and PhD students about sales force strategy; sales force size, structure, and deployment; sales force compensation; and total sales... Continue reading

No, I’m not an economist, but I do have a theory about what influences financial decisions, and it has nothing to do with anything Wall Street ever discusses. It’s called the zeitgeist. This is a wonderful German word for which there is no English equivalent. It denotes the collective thoughts and feelings that dominate the era we live in. While the word zeit means “time,” geist has two meanings: “spirit” and “ghost.” Loosely translated, it means “the spirit of our time” or “the ghost of our time.” For example, the zeitgeist in the Y2K era was paranoia about computers crashing... Continue reading

Today's blog post is by Jeff Ogden, award-winning B2B marketing expert, president of the sales lead generation company Find New Customers, and creator of the popular syndicated online TV show Marketing Made Simple TV. Follow him on Twitter at @fearlesscomp. Salespeople are having a tough time nowadays. It is getting harder and harder to crack into accounts. The time has come for sales leaders to say to top management, “We need a best-practices B2B demand-generation program here ASAP!” A very recent study by Crain’s BtoB magazine found four areas of concern: The marketing mix is still not meeting the needs... Continue reading

While many companies promise to build their organization around the needs of their customers, few companies can claim that they organize themselves around the needs of their salespeople. Yet the two are inevitably linked: in a sales-focused culture in which the entire company (not just the sales department) is involved in selling, salespeople are more successful and customers are more satisfied. Highly successful companies not only create customer-focused organizations but also back up their commitment with sales-focused cultures. What are the elements of a sales-focused culture? Ideally, a company sells at three distinct levels. At the C-level, top executives set... Continue reading

Sales 2.0 isn't a buzzword; it's become a professional discipline. It's not a passing fad but a massive shift in the global business culture. It's not about sales or marketing tools but a business transformation that delivers better results. Today, Sales 2.0 plays a vital role in selling. And as the old ways of selling are fading away and salespeople and sales managers are educated about the increased risk of becoming victims of change, I want to reassure old-school salespeople that the core of selling will never change. That core is the ability to create, expand, and enhance relationships, face-to-face... Continue reading

To survive in the sales world, global executives must be adaptable. Studies show that there are three ways people commonly adapt to foreign cultures. The first is unconditional acceptance of the foreign culture with a critical view of home. For example, a VP of sales marveled that in Japan cab drivers wore white gloves and the hotel staff always welcomed her with friendly smiles. She complained about the lack of courtesy in American business and scorned the negativity of American workers. The second approach shows a strong loyalty to "back home" culture and a critical view of foreign culture. A... Continue reading

Many books, blogs, and online sales videos suggest a non-manipulative, synergistic, consultative approach to uncovering a prospect's needs. These resources all advance the idea that manipulative selling is a thing of the past. But is it? The word manipulation has many meanings. Its definitions range from "artful skill" to "to change accounts to suit one's purpose." Today, we seem to give the word one meaning: to make someone do what we want him to do against his will or better judgment. Of course, this is counterproductive in any selling situation. But does this mean that manipulation should not have a... Continue reading

The technology industry suggests that we all can win by out-innovating our competition. That’s a bold promise; however, in reality, technology is like medicine: it often has side effects. For example, in the year 1900, automotive companies produced 4,200 cars, of which 28 percent were powered by electric motors. While electric cars could run efficiently at about 30 MPH, gasoline-powered cars could reach higher speeds and travel longer distances. In 1908, Henry Ford began mass production of the Model T with a gasoline engine. The decision prompted Thomas Edison to stop the development of a longer-lasting battery for electric cars.... Continue reading

Talk to sales managers about their jobs, and chances are, you’ll hear four common “complaints” about how they perceive today’s selling climate: 1. Selling is tougher than it has ever been. 2. Selling is more competitive than it has ever been. 3. Selling is more complex than it has ever been. 4. Selling is more stressful and not as much fun as it used to be. How true are these statements? That’s a trick question. Believe it or not, these four responses don’t always reflect the state of the economy. More often, they reflect the state of mind of the... Continue reading

Today's blog post is by Christopher Cabrera, CEO of Xactly Corporation, the industry leader in sales compensation automation. One statistic I shared at the Sales 2.0 conference last April was that US companies spend about $800 billion a year on sales compensation – three times more than they spend on advertising and $100 million more than the government spends on national defense. Even though the cost of compensation dwarfs national advertising spend, companies tend to constantly analyze ad performance but seldom give their comp plans the same level of scrutiny. Businesses as a whole simply don’t do a very good... Continue reading

The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) have recently published their report, “Content Marketing in the UK: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends.” According to this report, marketers in the United Kingdom believe that their content-marketing effort is more effective than that of their peers in the United States and Australia and that they are leading the way in this regard. Their belief appears to be supported by CMI and DMA’s findings that marketers in the United Kingdom currently use “a wider range of content-marketing tactics than their international counterparts” and plan to increase their content-marketing budgets... Continue reading

Today, salespeople carry smartphones, tote lightweight tablets, and are dialed into their organization’s network from, well, almost anywhere. No wonder that selling is now, more than ever, less a transactional endeavor and more an exercise in cultivating lasting relationships with customers. But despite the ubiquity of digital sales tools, reps who base their sales effort on a time-tested principle of work/life balance are most often the sales superstars. Here’s a list of some time-tested keys that will give you the best chance for success. 1. Work harder and play better. Successful people know that nothing worthwhile comes easy. Hard work... Continue reading

At a past Sales Leadership Conference, during a private dinner organized for all speakers, we discussed sales relationships. While everyone there agreed that relationships are vital to creating sales, the consensus was that there is no formal body of knowledge that explains how relationships are formed, what makes them grow, what causes them to fizzle, and what leads to the creation of value. One speaker called relationships “the soul of business.” Below is a summary of the excellent ideas – and there was no shortage of them – shared by 18 sales leaders who continually contribute to the selling profession.... Continue reading

Paul Greenberg defines social business as “the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.” After taking the audience’s pulse at a Sales & Marketing 2.0 Conference back in 2011, I realized that Greenberg’s definition was already a traffic light behind Main Street. The rapid rate at which companies integrate social media into their business operation is astonishing. Search Engine Journal predicted that by 2012, 43 percent of companies would be using social media. Today, more than 80 percent of companies use social media for recruiting. One company represented at the conference reported that 20 percent of its new... Continue reading

Today's blog post is by Jeff Ogden, award-winning B2B marketing expert, president of the sales lead generation company Find New Customers, and creator of the very popular and syndicated online TV show Marketing Made Simple TV. What is a Buyer Persona™ Buyer personas tell you exactly how and why a representative buyer makes the decision to buy the products, services, or solutions that you market. While buyer personas may include other details, the 5 Rings of Insight are their most overlooked and essential aspect, clarifying decisions for persuasive messaging, content marketing, product or solution launches, campaigns, and sales alignment. Priority... Continue reading

Today's blog post is by Sue Hershkowitz-Coore, author of Power Sales Writing: Using Communication to Turn Prospects into Clients (Second Edition) which appeared on the Selling Power Best Books for Sales Success in 2013 list. Every day people forward awful sales emails to me. A recent favorite opened with, "I just wanted to take a moment to personally introduce myself as your sole contact for XYX company! I am truly excited to be put in this position as I am very proud and passionate about … etc." It seems reasonable to assume that the salesperson who crafted that email also... Continue reading

Today's blog post is by Christopher Cabrera, CEO of Xactly Corporation, the industry leader in sales compensation automation. Back in November, I wrote here about how sales managers who are on the cusp of hitting quota sometimes hang on to low-performing reps in the hope of eking out even a few more sales. Obviously it’s not good business to keep poorly performing sales reps on the books. But the underlying issue ­– and perhaps the more important one ­– is that first-line sales managers have a huge impact on company performance, yet they’re often overlooked for training and career development.... Continue reading

Today's blog post is by Christopher Cabrera, CEO of Xactly Corporation, the industry leader in sales compensation automation. Many sales leaders hope to drive performance by enticing their reps with one tempting financial incentive after another. And that makes a certain amount of sense: what salesperson wouldn’t work just a little bit harder to earn a nice bonus? Seems like a no-brainer. In fact, the link between money and performance is more tenuous than you might expect. One expert whose work I like in this area is author and journalist Daniel Pink, who has written a number of books on... Continue reading

Today's blog post is by Jacco van der Kooij, sales leader at Harmonic Inc. Traditional focus: internal tools that power the sales process Over the last decade, marketing and sales processes have been very focused on understanding and managing the transactional part of the business. These include processes that focus on lead generation, demand generation, opportunity creation, demo/trial conversion, closing, order processing, account management, and so forth. We call it “a process,” which is pretty accurate considering the striking similarities to a production line at a car manufacturing plant, where robots make sure all cars look 100 percent the same.... Continue reading