Month: December 2014

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Blog Sales Sales Advice Social Selling Social Selling in 60 Seconds

One Killer Sales Tip: Help Buyers Always, In All Ways

By far, one of the questions I’m asked most frequently is “what is your social selling philosophy?”

And although the answer is so simple to me, it baffles people. In today’s day and age, we think that there has to be a complicated reason for something, or even a convoluted method that others are doing that make them really successful.

The reality, my friends, couldn’t be further from the truth.

Want my philosophy? It’s right there in the title: help buyers always, in all ways. Although simple sounding, it requires you to make a radical shift in mindset.

Check out this video to see what I’m talking about.

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Blog Sales Sales 2.0 Sales Advice Social Selling

10 Must-Read Sales Books for Your Holiday Gift List

10 Must Read Books

Ahh, holidays. The traditional time to spread joy and good cheer.

Many companies promote a culture of gift giving (and, of course, receiving). For some sales and marketing professionals, however, this time-honored ritual causes unnecessary stress.

Why worry about being creative, or being labelled too practical? Instead of choosing an ordinary gift card or an oh-so-special article of clothing (a tie – really), or perhaps some “home” baked goods, feed the intellectual curiosity of your colleagues and co-workers with the following list of thought-provoking sales books.

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Blog Sales Sales 2.0 Social Selling

Why Experts Forecast Rapid Adoption Of Social Selling In 2015

Years ending with the number five have a special significance. It’s time to look back at what we’ve learned since 2010 and what we want to achieve by 2020. The future of Social Selling is shaping up to have a defining influence on the rest of this decade.

The concept of social selling has been around since the birth of social networks over a decade ago, but searches for the term “social selling” didn’t really explode until 2011. Last year, the Sales Management Association reported that even though sales reps tend to spend more than six hours on LinkedIn every week, 80 percent of them didn’t have any training on social selling – 2015 will be the year when that number drops precipitously.

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Blog Infographics Sales Sales 2.0 Social Selling

Who Do People Buy From? [Infographic]

There’s a lot of talk around the changing sales and marketing landscape. But this evolution is driven by one important factor: the buyer. The way people purchase products and services online has dramatically changed over the years – and these days, buyers have more power than ever. To understand more about what influences today’s customer, we’ve put together an infographic that reveals their motivations.

What kinds of content resonate more with buyers? Who do they trust? Which tools should you employ to simplify the buying process? Take a look!

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Blog Sales Sales Advice Social Selling

15 Tweets By Ridiculously Successful Social Sellers

Seriously, how do they do it? They use the same social tools: LinkedIn, HootSuite, Twitter, etc. They have the same pressures and aspirations as the rest of us. Yet somehow, these Social Selling superstars not only make it work, they make it look easy. Today, we’re pulling back the curtain and taking a good look at the gears of success. Here are 15 pieces of highly tweetable inspiration from winners in Social Selling.

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Blog Content Marketing Sales Sales 2.0 Sales Advice Social Selling

Creating and Organizing Your Sales Content Library in 5 Easy Steps

How much time are you wasting trying to sell to a client that isn’t ready? Studies say that up to half of qualified leads just aren’t ready to buy yet. They will be ready, though, with nurturing through content marketing. Smart sales professionals send these prospects the right content by their funnel stage. Nurture leads with the appropriate content and watch average order size grow by 47 percent. Less time, more money. Everybody wins.

This level of sophisticated content targeting demands mastery of a content library. Before you can master it, you need to organize or build one. The good news is, you are five steps away right now.

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Blog LinkedIn Sales Advice Social Selling

6 Sure-Fire Social Selling Tips to Revitalize Your Existing LinkedIn Network

You get it. As sales and marketing professionals you understand the power and practical applications of social media.

You’ve made inroads into accounts and secured introductions to champions and key decision makers using your most powerful prospecting tool – LinkedIn – the epicenter of the Social Selling universe.

You watched your LinkedIn network grow as you’ve leveraged conversations with your advocate network and utilized your LinkedIn publishing posts to share content and spur further conversations (and connections).

But it’s been awhile, and much like all relationships – personal and professional – your LinkedIn network could use some much-needed attention.

Remember, it’s six times easier to sell to an existing client than it is to generate new business. Now is the best time to conduct a top-to-bottom audit and revitalize your existing LinkedIn network.

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Blog Sales 2.0 Sales Advice Social Selling Social Selling in 60 Seconds

Does Your Company Have What It Needs For Social Selling Success?

Welcome to the Social Hierarchy of Organizational Needs. This is a reverse-engineering of Maslow’s Hierarchy to represent the order of importance of different elements to Social Selling success.

If you’re a sales professional, sales leader, marketing guru or sales enablement champion within your organization, PLEASE forward this to your team!

The Social Hierarchy of Organizational Needs was created to highlight the vital elements for Social Selling success. Following this structure, but in a different sequential order can mean misalignment towards any long-term organizational change.

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