BOOST B2B SALES WITH PROVEN TECHNIQUES AND STRATEGIES

Want your B2B sales team operating like a well-oiled revenue machine? From prospecting to objections to deal closing, equip them with science-backed techniques to hit goals in the modern buyer landscape. This comprehensive guide distills hard-won lessons on B2B selling into an actionable playbook. Learn proven strategies to align sales with marketing, leverage data, hire top talent, and guide buyers seamlessly from awareness to advocacy. Now tighten up strategies across the funnel and get ready to enable sales success.

Understanding the B2B Sales Process and Buyer Journey

Selling to other businesses rather than individual consumers brings its own set of challenges. While the B2C sales process tends to be shorter and more transactional, B2B sales cycles are longer, more complex, and involve many stakeholders. Understanding how B2B buyers make purchasing decisions is crucial for aligning your sales process and strategy.
The B2B Buyer’s Journey: Not Your Typical Sales Funnel

In consumer sales, buyers often move linearly through a sales funnel – from awareness to consideration, then conversion. But the B2B buyer’s journey is far less predictable. Multiple decision makers evaluate options through a messy, non-linear process.

According to Harvard Business Review, B2B buyers make it only 12% through a typical buying journey before engaging a supplier. The early stages are a research-heavy “learning loop” driven by the buyer.

So traditional marketing funnels don’t work. B2B sales teams must overlay the customer’s journey to identify the right entry points.

Common Stages of the B2B Buyer’s Journey

While every B2B sale is unique, most journeys contain similar stages:

Problem Awareness: The buying process starts when the customer recognizes a problem or need. But they likely won’t define specs yet or evaluate solutions.

Research: Buyers enter a lengthy research phase, gathering perspectives from colleagues, analysing industry data, and reviewing options online. Don’t expect much engagement here.

Supplier Engagement: After developing a shortlist of vendors, buyers will engage in discussions to clarify needs and evaluate fit. Be ready to answer questions and convey value.

Solution Evaluation: During demos and trials, buyers assess how well solutions address their needs. Focus on showing ROI and ironing out technical issues.

Selection: The buyer weighs pros and cons of remaining options and makes a choice. Stay helpful and trustworthy to remain the favoured option.

Onboarding: Work closely with the client to ensure smooth implementation and adoption. Their experience here will impact future business.

Understanding Pain Points Throughout the Buyer’s Journey

Each stage brings distinct concerns for the customer. Sales teams should map these to target them effectively:

  • Problem Awareness Stage Pain Points: Lack of organizational alignment on problems; No process to evaluate solutions
  • Research Stage Pain Points: Information overload; Difficulty articulating requirements
  • Supplier Evaluation Stage Pain Points: Identifying the right decision makers; Comparing vastly different solutions
  • Selection Stage Pain Points: Obtaining consensus internally; Assessing ROI of competing options
  • Onboarding Stage Pain Points: Disruption to operations during implementation; Pushback from internal stakeholders

By understanding pain points, sales teams can tailor messaging and positioning to each stage.

Aligning Sales Strategies to the Buyer’s Journey

With an overview of how B2B customers buy, sales teams can optimize strategies, including:

  • Marketing: Create targeted content that guides buyers through each stage. For instance, offer research reports in early stages, and ROI studies for final selection.
  • Lead Qualification: Gauge where leads are in the process, and adapt outreach accordingly. Ask questions like “What challenges are you facing?” and “Who is involved in this decision?”
  • Sales Conversations: Rather than just pitching, have a dialogue to uncover needs. Ask about current solutions, objectives, and decision criteria.
  • CRM Tracking: Record buyer stage in your CRM to customize follow-up for each deal. Send relevant content to leads in research mode.
  • Sales Team Structure: Have SDRs focus on top-of-funnel leads, while account executives handle later-stage opportunities.

The B2B buyer’s journey often feels opaque to vendors. But by tracking touchpoints and continuously engaging, sales teams can help guide prospects to purchase. It takes strategic coordination across teams and channels. When done right, this buyer-centric approach builds relationships and trust that drive revenue.

Lead Generation and Prospecting in B2B Sales

Lead generation is the lifeblood of sales. Without a steady stream of qualified prospects entering the pipeline, revenue dries up. In B2B sales, strategically building a robust prospect list takes work. Teams must use multiple tactics – from content marketing to cold calling – to connect with the right decision makers.
Implementing a Mix of Lead Generation Strategies

There’s no one-size-fits-all lead gen solution for B2B. Combining approaches is key:

Content Marketing: Creating valuable content attracts prospects researching solutions. Offer a mix of blog posts, ebooks, case studies, and free tools that answer common buyer questions.

SEO: Optimize content for search to get found by prospects. Target buyer keywords like “pricing,” “implementation,” and industry terms. High rankings build authority.

Paid Ads: Run campaigns with promotions to capture interest. Retarget engaged visitors to move them down the funnel.

Email Marketing: Send emails guiding prospects to relevant content. Use segmentation and workflows tailored to their stage.

Social Media: Build an audience on channels your buyers use. Avoid blatant self-promotion. Entertain and inform followers with engaging posts.

Webinars: Host virtual events to share expertise. Record to generate leads over time.

Referrals: Motivate happy customers to introduce you to peers through discounts or rewards.

Trade Shows: Meet prospects face-to-face at industry conferences and events. Come armed with giveaways that capture contact info.

No approach works perfectly on its own. But combined intelligently, these tactics feed into your sales pipeline. Appoint team members to own each channel. Track lead quality to double down on what works.

Crafting a Prospecting Strategy for Reaching Decision Makers

Lead generation brings visitors into your funnel. But prospecting is needed to convert promising leads into qualified opportunities by engaging key decision makers.

Effective prospecting starts with research. For target accounts, identify roles like:

  • Economic buyers: Approve purchases and manage budgets.
  • Technical buyers: Evaluate product capabilities and compatibility.
  • User buyers: Provide input on needs as end users.
  • Influencers: Shape buying criteria though may not make final call.

Sales teams should reach out to multiple buyer personas through:

  • Cold Email: Send personalized emails presenting value. Follow up promptly and offer helpful resources.
  • Cold Calling: Call to directly discuss needs and arrange meetings. Optimize scripts to get to decision makers.
  • LinkedIn: Leverage recruiters to connect with prospects. Share relevant content in groups and posts.
  • Direct Mail: Send eye-catching packages to spark interest. Include promotional items like samples.
  • Events: Network in-person at industry conferences and trade shows. Collect cards and take meetings.
  • Referrals: Ask satisfied customers for warm introductions to their networks.
  • Retargeting: Remarket to visitors from ads and content downloads. Use chatbots to qualify leads.

The combination that works best depends on your audience, resources, and sales cycle length. Test options to identify the most efficient channels.

Building a Robust B2B Prospect List

Reaching prospects requires rich contact data. Sales teams should build prospect lists tied to specific target accounts.

Start by researching key accounts that fit your ideal customer profile (ICP). Prioritize ones with a documented need or upcoming renewal.

Compile buyer persona profiles for each target company. Identify which roles influence decisions. List their pain points.

Then gather contact details from sources like:

  • Your CRM database and marketing analytics for past engagement
  • Business directories like ZoomInfo or DiscoverOrg
  • Trade show attendee lists
  • Web research using LinkedIn, company sites, and people search tools
  • List rental services to obtain targeted contact lists

Enter all prospect information and profiles into your CRM or sales tool. Continually enrich data by adding pain points, lead source, and other notes with each interaction.

Accurate prospect data ensures sales outreach hits the right people. Dedicate time weekly to qualify and update your list. If needed, engage specialist providers to append missing details. View prospecting as a long-term investment that fuels the sales engine.

Optimizing Your Cold Outreach Game

Two of the toughest outreach channels are cold email and cold calling. But when mastered, both can reliably generate sales conversations.

For productive cold emails:

  • Research prospects to personalize messages
  • Grab attention with subject lines mentioning their company or needs
  • Spotlight value quickly and include a specific call-to-action
  • Send short emails focused on the reader with scannable text
  • Offer content and solutions tailored to their role
  • Follow up promptly but avoid spamming prospects

To boost cold calling results:

  • Perfect your intro and pitch for fast impact
  • Ask smart questions that uncover needs
  • Take the conversation offline quickly with a meeting proposal
  • Enhance credibility by mentioning existing customers
  • Build urgency by sharing limited time offers
  • Don’t wing it – practice calls to polish scripts
  • Leverage tools to optimize connect rates and productivity

The B2B landscape offers countless potential prospects. But sales teams need strategies tailored to their niche. Maintain an organized plan for researching targets, generating leads across multiple channels, and engaging decision makers. With a results-driven prospecting approach, your sales pipeline will never run dry.

Consultative Selling and Understanding Customer Needs

In the past, sales teams relied on product pitches and slick demos to close deals. But modern B2B buyers demand a more consultative approach. Salespeople must ask probing questions, listen intently, and prescribe customized solutions.
Making the Shift to Consultative Selling

Transactional selling focuses on features and price. Consultative selling puts the customer first. Rather than barraging buyers with product details, salespeople become trusted advisors guiding buyers to the right solution.

Some tips for making the transition:

  • Study your customers’ industries and challenges. Immerse yourself in their world.
  • Ask discovery questions early in the sales process to learn pain points. Resist defaulting to your standard pitch too soon.
  • Share experiences of other customers you’ve helped in similar situations. Back claims with specific data.
  • Outline the buyer’s needs and explain how your solution addresses them. Lead with business value.
  • Be transparent about capabilities, implementation, and pricing. Overpromising erodes trust.
  • Discuss post-sales support and training your company provides. Focus on the long-term partnership.
  • Let the buyer’s questions and concerns guide next steps. Don’t control the conversation.

With consultative selling, the customer’s needs come before the product. Sales teams must learn this mindset shift.

Mastering Discovery to Uncover Buyer Needs

Asking the right questions is crucial. Discovery questions help salespeople grasp the customer’s true requirements, challenges, and motivations.

Frame open-ended questions that encourage detailed responses. Follow up with probing questions to go deeper. Useful examples include:

  • “Walk me through how you currently handle [relevant process].”
  • “What factors do you consider most important when evaluating solutions like ours?”
  • “How would successfully addressing [stated problem] impact your business?”
  • “Who within your organization would be involved in a purchase decision like this?”
  • “What hesitations do you have about pursuing a new platform right now?”

Resist talking exclusively about product capabilities. Guide a dialogue focused on the customer. Listen and take notes. Identify follow-up questions as needed.

Presenting Solutions, Not Just Features

Once salespeople grasp the prospect’s needs, they can tailor solutions accordingly. Avoid launching into a vanilla product pitch.

Instead, present a potential solution roadmap addressing the customer’s specific pain points. For example:

  • “Based on what you shared about [problem X], I think our [solution Y] would be a great fit. It offers powerful [relevant capability] to help you [achieve result].”
  • “Other customers like you who wanted to [goal] found [key features] valuable because they [enable desired outcomes].”
  • “From our experience helping [customer segment], the combination of [your need 1], [your need 2] and [your capability] points to [ideal product configuration]. This will allow you to [benefit 1], [benefit 2] and [benefit 3].”

Back recommendations with data. Provide tailored pricing and contract options. Be transparent about potential challenges. Position your team as a partner, not just a vendor.

With consultative selling, sales professionals become trusted advisors. They guide buyers to the right solutions, while building relationships for the long term. This customer-first approach is proven to close more deals in the B2B space.

Marketing and Sales Alignment for Superior Results

Marketing and sales teams share a common goal: driving revenue growth. But the two departments often seem misaligned. Marketing may pour effort into campaigns with little sales impact. Sales might waste time following up poor-quality leads.
By improving collaboration and strategy alignment across the funnel, marketing and sales can optimize impact.

Boosting Collaboration Between Marketing and Sales Teams

Miscommunication between departments often stems from differing mindsets. Marketers focus on branding and engagement. Sales prioritizes qualified leads and closing deals.

Bridging this divide starts with better collaboration:

  • Set regular meetings for marketing and sales leaders to discuss challenges and strategies. Don’t isolate.
  • Establish processes for smooth hand-offs of leads from marketing to sales. Define criteria for a “sales-ready” lead.
  • Create cross-department working groups to plan initiatives, set objectives, and remove friction points.
  • Share insights like campaign analytics, lead scores, and customer feedback to inform decisions on both sides. Break down data silos.
  • Conduct joint trainings to educate teams on strategies, deliverables, and how their work ties together.
  • Foster connections through team-building activities, idea exchanges, and recognizing cross-team achievements.

Increased transparency, communication, and insight sharing between departments ensures strategies and activities stay in sync.

Developing Cohesive Strategies Across the Funnel

Too often, sales and marketing strategies are developed in isolation. This leads to wasted efforts.

For optimal alignment:

  • Map the customer journey from first touch to close. Identify key stages and transition points between marketing and sales.
  • Define MQLs/SQLs together. Standardize lead scoring criteria so both teams qualify leads consistently.
  • Set shared goals around lead quantity, quality, and velocity. Track jointly.
  • Construct campaign narratives tailored to buyer stages. Content should smoothly progress leads down the funnel by addressing their evolving questions and needs.
  • Build marketing automation workflows with sales input. Score and segment leads based on behaviors that indicate sales readiness.
  • Conduct regular pipeline reviews together. Discuss trends, surface bottlenecks, and continually refine processes.

Marketing and sales each hold valuable perspectives. Blending these strengths creates cohesive strategies fine-tuned to the customer journey.

Customizing Campaigns and Assets to Buyer Stages

Too often, teams take a one-size-fits-all approach to campaigns and collateral. But content should be tailored to where leads are in their journey.

For example:

  • Early Stage: Blog posts, ebooks, and guides that provide education and build awareness.
  • Mid-stage: Product demos, ROI analyses, and customer case studies proving value.
  • Late Stage: Trial access, proposal templates, and pricing/configuration options to facilitate decision making.

Similarly, messaging should directly address stage-specific questions and concerns. Avoid sending one generic pitch email – personalize messaging to where leads are at.

Customized, stage-appropriate content and outreach keeps prospects moving smoothly into and through the sales funnel.

By bridging departmental divides and tightening coordination, B2B companies gain an aligned revenue engine fine-tuned for buyer needs at each step. The results are more leads, shorter sales cycles, and accelerated growth.

Proven Negotiation Strategies for B2B Deals

Closing the sale is an art of negotiation. B2B deals often involve lengthy back-and-forth on pricing, terms, concessions and customizations. Sales teams skilled in negotiation maintain margins while keeping the deal on track.
Understanding Negotiation Styles

There are five main negotiating styles, each with pros and cons:

  • Accommodating: Makes concessions readily to build goodwill. Risks leaving money on the table.
  • Avoiding: Avoids or delays negotiations. May miss opportunities to advance deals.
  • Competing: Assertive and claims value aggressively. Can harm relationships if overdone.
  • Compromising: Seeks expedient middle-ground solutions. Can result in suboptimal terms.
  • Collaborating: Explores interests to find win-win solutions. More time-intensive.

Assess your natural style. Expand your repertoire to deploy the right approach per situation.

Researching the Buyer’s Strategy

Prepare by researching the customer’s negotiation history and tendencies. Leverage your network to learn:

  • What deals have they done with competitors? What terms did they negotiate?
  • Do they gravitate toward aggressive vendor negotiations or prefer more collaborative deals?
  • What concessions are reasonable to expect based on past deals?
  • Who are the primary decision makers and influencers? What are their negotiation styles?
  • Are they currently in a strong or weak business position that impacts their flexibility?

Forearmed with insights on the buyer’s style, sales teams can tailor their strategy accordingly.

Preparing for Common B2B Negotiation Tactics

Certain negotiation ploys are common in B2B deals. While staying flexible, prepare counter strategies:

Buyer Tactic: Open with an extremely lowball offer to anchor negotiations favorable to them.

Response: Counter with data demonstrating the value of your solution. Anchor back based on reasonable comps.

Buyer Tactic: Go dark after receiving your proposal and timeline, stalling progress.

Response: Check in periodically in a helpful, not pushy way. Ask how you can clarify or provide more data.

Buyer Tactic: Threaten to go with another vendor they know can’t meet needs, just for leverage.

Response: Calmly reinforce why you remain the best fit for their situation based on facts.

Buyer Tactic: Request numerous concessions all at once to overwhelm you.

Response: Address individually and stand firm on those not feasible. Offer alternative concessions.

While some degree of negotiation is expected, don’t cave on core aspects of the deal. Know when to walk away if customers demand unrealistic terms.

Framing Win-Win Solutions

Position negotiations as an exercise in finding the optimal solution for both parties.

  • Make the relationship and their success your north star, not just the immediate deal.
  • Uncover the root interests driving their requests to present alternative solutions.
  • Offer creative concessions like free pilots, expanded services, or future discounts that provide value but protect margins.
  • Share case studies demonstrating the ROI of your offering to justify pricing.
  • Ask the buyer for suggestions to make the solution work, involving them in crafting the deal.
  • Use phrases like “we’re on the same team” and “let’s find a fair outcome” to align negotiations.

With mutual understanding and creativity, win-win deals benefiting both customer and vendor become possible. Such partnerships forge lasting relationships.

Though negotiations inevitably arise, maintaining perspective of shared objectives keeps deals on track. Equipped with strategies tailored to common tactics, sales teams can confidently steer negotiations while advancing customer interests.

Analytics, Metrics, and Technology to Optimize B2B Sales

They say business is part art, part science. Make it more of a science with data. Sales teams should tap analytics, metrics and supporting tech to inject insight everywhere.

Key Sales Metrics to Track

Metrics make managing performance and processes scientific. Relying on intuition is guesswork. Focus tracking on metrics that guide impactful decisions like:

  • SQLs (sales qualified leads): Lead quality reveals if marketing tactics work and sales prospecting is effective.
  • Sales velocity: Time to progress leads through sales funnel. Longer cycles indicate inefficient processes.
  • Win rate: Closed deals divided by qualified opps. Low win rate means flawed sales execution.
  • Average deal size: Track along with win rate to gauge revenue impact of changes.
  • Customer lifetime value (LTV): For renewal-driven businesses, high retention and upsell to existing customers is crucial.
  • Sales activity metrics: Call and email volume, demos scheduled, meetings held. Helps identify activity level and capacity gaps.

Set realistic goals and monitor trends. Generic industry benchmarking is less meaningful than your own baselines. Review metrics weekly/monthly with sales teams.

Leveraging CRM and Sales Technologies

A good CRM centralizes prospect and customer data for informed selling. Enterprise-level options like Salesforce offer extensive analytics – if optimized.

  • Maintain disciplined data hygiene in the CRM through guidelines, training and monitoring. Garbage in, garbage out.
  • Build dashboards and reports tailored to sales’ needs: pipeline trends, projected revenue, deal forecasts, due tasks etc.
  • Tag or group records (e.g. by lead source or product interest) to enable segmentation for analysis.
  • Automate workflows for reminders on stalled deals, lead follow-ups, contract renewals etc.
  • Integrate marketing automation and email tools to track prospect engagement.
  • Use add-ons like Salesforce Einstein to surface insights. AI can identify trends and predict outcomes.

The right technology stack supplies a wealth of data. Equally important are the people and processes enabling smart analysis and action.

Fine-Tuning Strategies Using Data and Analytics

Data becomes actionable when tied to decisions. Use insights to fine-tune:

  • Lead generation – Identify most promising lead sources based on SQL conversion rates. Adjust sourcing efforts and budgets accordingly.
  • Prospecting – Track outreach effectiveness for sales campaigns. Double down on channels with highest response rates.
  • Sales segments – Analyze win rates, deal sizes and cycles for different product lines, industries, or customer types. Target the sweet spots.
  • Sales stages – Long delays at specific deal stages signal inefficient hand-offs. Improve collaboration between biz dev, sales engineers, and post-sale.
  • Pricing – Compare win rates for deals with discounts versus standard pricing. Set optimal deal thresholds for approvals.
  • Competitors – Assess win/loss post-mortems to learn which players you compete with most and their strengths. Sharpen strategies accordingly.
  • ROI – Forecast and track revenue impact of improvements to demonstrate tangible benefits.

Data is a strategic asset – when molded into forward-looking insights. Invest in the people, workflows and technology to learn and optimize continuously.

With the right metrics framework, CRM foundation, and analytical culture in place sales teams can methodically improve performance. Measure what matters, analyze relentlessly, and refine based on what the numbers say. This scientific selling creates results you can count on.

Developing a High-Performing B2B Sales Team

If revenue growth is the engine of business, sales teams are the engine of revenue. Investing in the right talent, training, and motivation transforms average teams into sales powerhouses.

Hiring Salespeople with Essential B2B Skills

Sales roles require a specific skillset. Beyond just closing skills, look for people with:

  • Communication: Active listening, framing questions, explaining concepts, crafting presentations and proposals.
  • Research: Qualifying accounts, identifying stakeholders, analyzing buyer needs.
  • Technical: Understanding your products, competitors, and industry landscape.
  • Interpersonal skills: Building rapport and relationships internally and with prospects.
  • Perseverance: Tenacity to power through rejections and keep prospecting.
  • Organizational skills: Juggling various opportunities while tracking detailed data.
  • Adaptability: Adjusting pitch and strategy based on prospect type and feedback.

The ideal hire combines these soft skills with intrinsic drive and a learnable aptitude for sales processes.

Effective Sales Coaching and Training

Classroom-style sales training only goes so far. Effective coaching focuses on each individual’s needs through:

  • Roleplaying to practice pitches, objections and scenarios. Give real-time feedback.
  • Sitting in on sales calls and reviewing recordings together. Identify strengths and areas requiring polish.
  • Shadowing top reps to learn by example how they frame conversations and qualify prospects.
  • Providing templates and best practices for tracking data, maintaining pipelines and other day-to-day tasks.
  • Goal setting and progress monitoring for both behaviors and results. Praise progress.
  • Encouraging peer-to-peer mentorships so colleagues can learn from each other.
  • Motivational talks addressing attitudes, mindsets and healthy performance habits.

Customized coaching maximizes each rep’s potential. Make it a consistent, one-on-one activity, not just a one-off training event.

Motivating and Incentivizing Sales Teams

Beyond competitive compensation, sales teams thrive on:

  • Leaderboards to create healthy competition and recognition for top performers. Celebrate wins publicly.
  • Contests and SPIFs (short-term sales incentives) to spur activity around key goals and campaigns. Keep them fun.
  • Non-cash rewards like additional vacation days, gift cards, or public praise from executives.
  • Career progression opportunities through upskilling, management paths, and participating in hiring.
  • Culture focused on learning, growth, and mutual support. Lead by example.
  • Autonomy in managing opportunities combined with guidance on best practices as needed.
  • Feedback channels like rep advisory councils or anonymous surveys to keep pulse on morale.

While money is an effective motivator, purpose, progression, flexibility and belonging also drive performance. Foster an environment where reps feel valued and take pride in their work.

By hiring right, coaching continuously, and inspiring excellence, sales leaders equip their teams to thrive. Invest in supportive systems and keep your finger on the pulse of rep sentiment. Sustained achievements come down to engaged, empowered people working collaboratively toward shared goals. Make your sales team a competitive advantage.

Key Takeaways

  • Map the B2B buyer’s journey to identify the optimal sales entry points at each stage. Guide prospects through their convoluted decision making process.
  • Take an orchestrated approach to lead generation using content, digital tactics, events and referrals. Then execute targeted outreach to engage decision makers.
  • Ask discovery questions early on to understand customer pain points and frame your solution accordingly. Transition to consultative selling.
  • Foster collaboration between marketing and sales to align strategies and campaigns to each buyer stage for seamless transitions.
  • Research prospects’ negotiating tendencies and prepare counter strategies for common negotiation tactics to smoothly advance deals.
  • Rely on data-driven insights, not gut feel. Track key sales metrics, optimize your CRM, and continuously improve processes using analytics.
  • Look beyond pure sales skills when hiring. Soft skills like communication, resilience and adaptability enable high performers. Then coach reps individually to capitalize on strengths.
  • Motivate teams through competition, incentives, and an engaging culture focused on learning and growth. Sales achieved together stays together.

The B2B sales process differs from B2C sales in nearly every way, requiring tailored strategies across target research, prospect outreach, deal negotiation and team leadership. By adopting the proven best practices covered, sales organizations can boost productivity, retention, and revenue growth. Now go forth and sell, armed with this B2B sales playbook.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What are the most important metrics we should track for B2B sales?
A: Focus on SQLs, sales velocity, win rate, average deal size, customer lifetime value, and sales activity KPIs. These give visibility into lead quality, process efficiency, sales execution, and capacity needs.

Q: How many leads should each rep handle at once?

A: There is no single right number. Take into account sales cycle length, rep experience levels, and your conversion benchmarks. Target enough active opportunities per rep to hit goals without overburdening.

Q: What B2B sales skills are hardest to teach?

A: Soft skills like emotional intelligence, listening, and adaptability are difficult to instill if not innate strengths. You can coach reps to refine these over time, but some lack the inherent abilities.

Q: How much time should reps devote to prospecting versus working current leads?

A: An even split is often ideal. Dedicate 50% to progressing pipeline opportunities and 50% to filling the funnel through prospecting. Adjust if conversion rates point to issues on either end.

Q: How do we get sales and marketing teams to collaborate more?

A: Facilitate cross-team meetings to set joint goals, train on how efforts unite, and establish processes and hand-offs. Also share insights and data between the teams.

Q: What information should sales reps capture in the CRM?

A: Log every prospect touchpoint, keywords of needs and pain points, next actions, contextual details to inform strategy, and any information learned to pass to customer success.

Q: How often should we refresh target account lists?

A: Review your ideal customer profile and target accounts quarterly. As companies evolve, reassess fit. Add emerging companies; cut those no longer aligned.

Q: What’s better – a targeted or generic sales pitch?

A: Personalized pitches addressing the prospect’s needs almost always outperform a generic one-size-fits-all approach. Do your research beforehand to customize messaging.