A few weeks ago, Marketing Sherpa posted a marketing research chart revealing changes in the average length of B2B sales cycles. The data shows that year-over-year, sales cycles are getting shorter. This goes hand-in-hand with their research that B2B deal sizes are also decreasing year over year. Average Length of B2B Sales Cycle Average B2B [...]
Archive | Sales Enablement Software RSS feed for this section
3 Things You Never Have to Say Again on a Sales Call
In sales, when we’re talking to potential customers, there are phrases that we find ourselves saying out of habit. These “go-to” phrases seem to just slip out of our mouths without even thinking about it. I’m just as guilty as the next person when it comes to some of the biggies like, “Do you have [...]
While US Bond Ratings are Plummeting, Enterprise Software Spend is Rising
A few years back when the recession hit, businesses put infrastructure investments on hold—postponing important additions and upgrades to hardware and software right and left. Not the ideal situation if you were an enterprise software salesman! While we may not be in the clear yet for the economy as a whole, in the business arena, [...]
Today’s Top Sales Enablement Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Sixty-five percent of sales reps can’t find content to send to prospects, 56% of companies have trouble measuring content effectiveness, 40% of companies have multiple sales portals. I found these IDC stats while researching the biggest challenges B2B organizations face today with sales enablement. The research brought to light some major issues sales and marketing [...]
Avoiding the Last Minute Scramble with Customer Reference Technology
When it comes to customer references, enterprise sales forces are often met with the following scenario. A salesperson is in the process of closing a sale, when the prospect asks for a reference, and all of a sudden, a mad scramble ensues. Frantic emails get sent around the organization sounding something like this: “Does anyone [...]
Mapping Content Needs of Buyer Personas in Sales Enablement
In big-ticket B2B selling, sales cycles can be long and frequently require educating customers on the ROI and value of your solution at many levels of the organization and in various departments – sometimes all at once. To weave the complex web of customer engagement that is required to close most deals, it is often [...]
Building Buyer Personas for Sales Enablement
It’s a no-brainer: You can’t make a connection with your audience unless you know who you’re trying to reach. This gets down to a marketing basic – developing relevant messaging and content that speaks to buyer personas. Sadly, most business-to-business marketers today skip the key step of building out buyer personas or profiles, and as [...]
Once Upon A Time…Creating Customers by Telling a Story
It’s a fact of life – everyone loves a good story. If that weren’t the case, film and publishing industries around the globe wouldn’t exist, and our children would stop asking for a bedtime story every night as we tuck them in. A good story has the power to inspire, motivate and involve its reader. [...]
When It’s Okay to Be Pushy
When “sales” and “pushy” are uttered together in a sentence, it’s usually bad. And while nobody likes a pushy sales person, being pushy isn’t all bad if you’re NOT in sales. We’re talking about marketing departments. Yes, it’s okay for marketing to get a little pushy about the content, collateral and sales tools they create [...]
