Category Sales

BY BOB APOLLO For decades, sales pipelines have been built around the seller’s activities. Familiar stages like discover, qualify, demo, propose, negotiate, close  are deeply embedded in most CRM systems, forecasts, and reviews. But in today’s complex B2B environments, this approach tells us more about what the seller has done (or claims to have done) than what the buyer is actually thinking or deciding. It creates the illusion of progress but often masks uncertainty about whether the customer is truly ready to buy. Today’s buying decisions are longer, riskier, and more complex than ever. They involve multiple stakeholders, shifting priorities, and…

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by JEROEN COELEN A good sales call is to discover if your product/service suits their situation, problem and needs. Therefore, the more they talk about themselves, the better (80% them/20% you) You have a human in front of you, make sure they enjoy the conversation Don’t sell to those who don’t need you It’s up to you to guide the conversation, not them You don’t need a script, but you do need structure Stating your intentions for the call at the start always helps, asking for input too. If the call goes as planned, know what your preferred way of…

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Written by: Michael Welch Sales is about getting the right message in front of the right prospect. It’s as simple as it sounds, but over my career I’ve seen a substantial and accelerating evolution in the methodologies salespeople employ to accomplish that goal. Get Started with HubSpot's Free Sales Software Despite that change, one thing has remained the same in my mind: Successful cold outreach is built on strategy, not on chance. In this article, I’m going to look at two of the main outreach methods sales pros rely on to keep pipelines full. If you’re torn between cold email vs…

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BY GEORGE BRONTÉN I was interested recently to read a study in Nature Human Behavior showing that about 75% of social media shares are made without reading past the headline or even clicking through. Though this is horrifying, it doesn’t surprise me. After all, it happens in complex sales all the time. While the study’s authors (Sundar, Snyder, Liao, et al) don’t speculate about why so many shares are made without reading the article, I will. I suspect it’s a combination of laziness, confirmation bias, and a misplaced effort to be “efficient.” We see a headline that confirms something we already believe, we already believe it…

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PSA: There’s a companion podcast! I go into WAY more detail on my “Physics of Startups” podcast - available on Spotify, YouTube, & Apple Podcasts. Last week, we covered the theory behind SELLER-PUSH versus BUYER-PULL sales approaches, and the signs you’re operating in the SELLER-PUSH world. See that post HERE. To recap: The difference is that in a SELLER-PUSH approach, we think that the main force that closes a deal is “us convincing buyer to buy”, where in a BUYER-PULL approach, we think that the main force that closes a deal is “buyer trying to accomplish something on their to-do list.” The difference between PULL…

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by Rob Snyder I have now watched hundreds of founders’ sales calls. And in every single founder’s call, I find the same foundational error playing out in a thousand different ways. It causes the founder (and the potential customer) a world of pain. If you feel uncomfortable selling, or if your sales calls don’t feel smooth, this is probably why. We all seem to have the most basic misconception about sales, a backwards idea of what causes someone to buy something, or what causes a deal to happen. I think of this foundational thing - what causes purchases - as the physics of sales. At root, we all…

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Written by Benjamin Wenner Pinpoint where prospects disappear, what’s holding back conversions, and how to turn funnel data into marketing action that drives revenue. Your sales funnel is bleeding money.  Every day, potential customers enter your funnel, and somewhere along the way, they disappear.  The question isn’t whether you’re losing potential customers, it’s how many and where. Sales funnel analysis helps you find these leaks and fix them.  When done right, it can boost your conversion rates without spending any extra budget on ads. Start by mapping your funnel stages Before you can analyze anything, you need to understand what you’re…

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Written by: Mike Renahan Like most people, I don’t read all of the sales emails I get. When I do open an email, I skim its contents and immediately close out long, rambling messages, which is exactly why the search for the ideal email length is like Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail. It’s not about nitpicking word count; it comes down to holding the reader’s attention long enough to stick out in the never-ending sea of emails. One analysis of over 20 million cold emails found that the more people you email, the lower the open rates go. That statistic might as well…

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