The Sales Intelligence Blog

Since Apple’s iPad mini came out last year, it has quickly become one of our favorite mobile business devices. This is an updated version of the popular productivity guide that we put out several months ago. Over time, we’ve found that the mini is the perfect size for portability, while offering a screen size that’s conducive […]

We’ve entered a new era of sales and marketing alignment. According to The Bridge Group’s Sales Development Metrics and Compensation Report nearly one half of inbound-focused inside sales reps now report directly to Marketing. While this may seem counter-intuitive to some, it actually makes a lot of sense. Marketing already owns much of the technology that can […]

Outsourcing part of the sales development role to an agent-assisted dialing service may not be as advantageous as expected. Not all software and technology are a good fit for all businesses. It depends on the sales cycle and the type of product being sold. With claims of 125 dials and 7-10 conversations per rep per […]

Call recording is an incredibly valuable tool for sales managers to leverage during sales coaching and training. It allows them to coach large teams at scale by granting them the ability to capture every call and be alerted when a specific situation or rep requires their attention. These calls can be stored in call libraries […]

For sales teams, the data value chain has never been more promising than it is right now. As your prospects go about their day, interacting with websites, smartphones and the social web, the behavioral data profile about them continues to grow. It’s possible to know more than ever about their product preferences, usage, interactions, peer […]

Bestselling author Chris Voss has negotiated some of the most difficult deals in history. As a lead negotiator for the FBI, he found himself in more than a few life-and-death situations. From his career in the FBI to his transition to being a business consultant, Voss consistently used a tactic to gain a powerful edge […]

The desk phone was once omnipresent in any work environment. But now, more and more companies are making the switch to VoIP. There can be several advantages to using browser-based telephony, including eliminating hardware costs and reducing telephony expenses. A key component of this shift is SIP trunking—a method of sending voice and other unified […]

Whoever said that 3.1 months was an acceptable sales onboarding ramp time must not have realized the implications of that statement, and they weren’t aware that many sales teams experience much longer ramp times. The reality is that this outdated standard is costing companies valuable time and money. Sure, it may have been unavoidable in […]

No matter how consistently you coach your reps or how well they’ve performed in the past, there are always times when sales teams struggle to hit their goals. This can be especially true at the end of a challenging quarter or year. Your reps may be giving it their all, but seem to be running […]

I know. It sounds like there should be a pill for that. Have you heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect? It’s a well-known phenomenon named after the social psychologists who first documented it. (That would be Prof Dunning and Prof Kruger from Cornell.) The first part of the Dunning-Kruger effect, to put it in sales terms, […]

A sales team’s lead response, and everything that surrounds it, makes or breaks their success. At its core, lead response is the amount of time that it takes for a sales team to respond to an inbound lead sourced from their site, an advertisement, or a partner. However, the enablement of a rapid lead response […]

Too many sales conversations are falling flat and failing to engage potential customers. And according to Forbes, 74% of customers choose the first company that adds value. How can sellers use artificial intelligence (AI) on sales calls to engage prospects and help them see value in every single conversation? The key to success lies in […]