Sales Intelligence Weekly

We know strategic alignment throughout your organization is crucial to increasing win rates. In a previous episode we explored specifically how to create alignment and end the battle between sales and marketing – but when it comes to strategic revenue operations, alignment goes beyond that. In today’s episode, we’re going to explore strategic alignment in B2B organizations from the top down. Let’s talk about why the misalignment occurs, how you can identify it quickly, and how you can create strategic alignment within your organization between all customer-centric departments?

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It’s no mystery – sales is a tough profession to be in. As we’ve talked about before on the show, the time sellers have with buyers is shrinking as the buyer’s journey shifts to a digital experience. Gartner predicts that sales reps only have 5-6% of the B2B buyer’s journey, and in this time they must understand how they can make the greatest impact on an opportunity outcome.  

This is part of why we do what we do at Primary Intelligence – to uncover the unbiased reasons for wins and losses for each rep. To enable them with buyer feedback that helps them sell better. 

But win-loss is one piece of the puzzle. So how can we enable our reps to build trust, differentiate, and – ultimately – increase wins?

Episode 26: Reverse Lost Opportunities with the Voice of Your Customer by Primary Intelligence

It’s easy for sales reps to get discouraged or to lose motivation. When things get tough, prospects go silent, or deals are lost, your sales reps may feel discouraged, unmotivated, and negative  - and that negativity is contagious! We see this in our win-loss research. The experience with your sales rep can make or break an opportunity outcome. And when a rep becomes unmotivated, the buyer’s experience with that sales rep is sure to suffer. And this is detrimental to win rates. So how to we prevent this? How do we as sales leaders keep our reps motivated and engaged?

Cold calling – most reps dread it. And it makes sense! It’s uncomfortable talking to someone you don’t have a prior relationship with – especially when you’re ultimately trying to sell them something. And according to GONG, there’s a 1.48% chance of a positive outcome from a cold call. It feels like the odds

are stacked against sales reps when it comes to cold calling. But never fear. Cold calling doesn’t have to fill you with dread. Join us as we explore how each rep can improve those cold call outcomes with Jason Bay, Chief Prospecting Officer at Blissful Prospecting!

There has never been a better time to be a seller! There is more technology, information, and means of connecting with our prospects and customers than at any other point in history. At the same time, the complexity of selling is through the roof and the variety of pressures on salespeople, sales leaders and sales teams can be soul-crushing.  

What can sales leaders do to inoculate themselves and their teams against these pressures and complexities? What is one thing they can do to give themselves a competitive advantage in this complex and pressurized sales environment? Well, it turns out that the highest performing sales teams are also the ones that purposefully build and maintain winning cultures. 

Now, there’s almost nothing worse for a sales team than unchecked, rampant negativity. Negativity can be infectious, it causes innumerable problems for sales teams and it's super easy for it to take root in your culture.  

As sales leaders, we can directly impact and ultimately reverse the effects of negativity on our sales floors. We have the power to create and foster a winning sales culture within our team.

A buyer’s experience with a sales rep can make or break a deal. In a recent study, we found that 36% of losing vendors could’ve won the deal by making a change during the evaluation process. Most often, buyers attributed the loss to something in the sales experience – even above price or product feature! But when you ask a sales rep, they’ll likely attribute most losses to something beyond their control – like price, missing product feature, or timing. The experience your sales rep creates with the buyer is crucial!

So how can you empower your reps to create the right experiences for your buyers? How can you help them build trust, differentiate from competitors, and really demonstrate value throughout the sales process?

In today’s episode, we’re exploring a topic that seems to be on the minds of every B2B revenue leader right now – growth. Everybody wants it. Everybody needs it. But how do we create and implement successful growth strategies?

Discussing how sales intelligence plays into growth strategies is Frank Maylett, Chief Revenue Officer at Instructure.

B2B sales teams have experienced a shift in the past few years. We’ve all felt it. The pandemic has caused many sales teams to transition into a remote or hybrid work environment. As sales leaders, it can be tough to hire, onboard, and coach when you don’t have that daily in-person time with your new reps on the sales floor. So how can you identify top talent and skills quickly when building your team? And how can you empower your new reps to start winning as soon as possible?

Personal connection – We all want it. We all need it. But as the buyer’s journey shifts to a digital experience, it can be tough to build personal connections with prospects during the sales cycle. Yes, sales reps MUST lean into data and analytics to understand how to win more – but layering in a personable approach to sales in crucial to building customer relationships. So how do we do this? How do we build those strong connections with prospects?