AI Is Turning Technical People Into Salespeople.

Everyone who interacts with customers needs sales skills, but it doesn’t mean they need sales training. Let’s talk about Hannah.

In the world of sales, training is often seen as the key to unlocking performance excellence. And while that's true to some extent, there's a missing piece of the puzzle that can elevate sales training initiatives from good to extraordinary. That missing piece is a clear team purpose.

Lead nurturing tends to get complicated fast and there are plenty of marketers who will tell you that you need to build a comprehensive buyer's journey that covers the intricate experience each prospect takes. But not every business is ready for complex lead nurturing. Here's what companies need to crawl before they walk.

Channel sales and marketing has more moving pieces and it's harder to get accurate data than marketing and selling directly. This means that the need for strong channel managers is critical. Below is an overview of how The Channel Institute trains channel marketers to help them deliver successful and repeatable partner marketing programs. We call this framework: P.A.C.K.A.G.E.S.

Business partners are not all created equally. MANY partner programs fail to take this into account with programs that assume all partners have similar skills sets, goals and marketing and sales teams. One of the foundational modules we cover in our channel training programs is called the Partner Growth Matrix. The chart is shown above, and the big idea here is that this framework helps channel managers understand the key traits and skills partners possess at each stage of their development.

The moment marketing hands a lead over to a sales team is the ultimate test of collaboration between these two historically warring tribes. When things go wrong, millions of dollars of sales pipelines fail to materialize. Getting it right is holy grail of sales and marketing team collaboration, but it requires facing difficult truths and re-inventing sales and marketing roles. Consider this statistic: On average, only around 27% of B2B leads are actually qualified, according to a recent report by MarketingSherpa.

A recent WSJ piece on the topic of Office Outsourcing has reignited the globalization debate. The headline pretty nails it: Next Wave of Remote Work Is About Outsourcing Jobs Overseas. Most of the conversations are about the politics of globalization, but for many of us, that (cargo) ship sailed a long time ago. The real story is what happens once a global team is in place? What are the challenges or hiring and managing international remote teams? If done wrong, hiring overseas with the goal of saving money can be one of the most expensive decisions a company can make.

Companies should consider revising their messaging to better promote their services to prospects. An easy way for marketers (and salespeople) to make this change is by reviewing the long-standing 4Ps of marketing by adding 3 more Ps into this marketing pool.

How does a company continue to run globally while consolidating locally?

SaaS companies are no longer growing a billion percent per quarter which means we're doomed! As analysts predict how many layoffs it will take to keep Wall Street bonuses flowing and stop these stocks from going the way of crypto, all "as a Service" companies should take a breath and focus on how they can retain their customers. To do this, we need to actually pay attention to Customer Success teams. So, let's talk about how to help customer-facing teams improve client retention.

This post looks at a company who replaced their sales and marketing team and focused on building a community of prospects, customers and partners. Is this the future of B2B Sales?

Developing effective global teams is hard work. Reduced travel makes this harder, especially when it comes to developing and maintaining strong working relationships. This case study looks at a team development framework and how it helps fix a dysfunctional global team. Who better to lead us through these challenging times then our old friend and team building expert, Mr. Axel. DOWNLOAD THE CHAPTER HERE

The business world continues to shift from a product-driven environment to a services-driven environment (SaaS, PaaS...anything "as a Service"(aaS)), but customer-facing reps have not changed how they engage with their customers, and this results in lower close rates and higher churn.

Teams who have a clear and compelling purpose perform better while experiencing lower employee turnover. Any sales leader should seriously consider their team's purpose when looking to improve performance. Energized sales teams spread positive energy to clients. Being excited about what one sells is contagious. Forget the company purpose, focus on the team. This, I believe with all my skeptical heart.

It’s much easier to sell stuff when markets are hot and companies have cash to spend. As the legendary Warren Buffett allegedly said, “only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked.”Here are a few important ideas for making sure you are ready for when the tide goes out. And be warned, that water is cold 😉

Working remotely makes companies nervous. Many of us have been doing it for decades, but it is still new, and new approaches towards working suggest risk. Companies want the opposite; they want to find ways to de-risk.

When it comes to growing globally there is an old saying that a business should standardize wherever it can and localize wherever it must. Below is a simple, but important framework teams can use to help you get there. While this approach can be used across any line of business, I have focused on sales teams in this example. With remote work and digitalization of business accelerating, deciding what to standardize versus localize can make the difference between conquering markets and going home empty handed.

Teammates are working far, far away, characters frequently catch up via video (ok, hologram) calls, data security is nightmare, Chewbacca doesn’t wear pants and everyone wears masks. So here are 8 lessons Star Wars can teach us about working in a hybrid / remote world…(Star Wars geeks only, please)

Here is the first lesson for managing people across cultures: don’t be a seagull. Seagulls are those big awkward birds that fly in from out of nowhere, they squawk a lot, and then fly away leaving behind a giant mess. Anyone who has worked for an international organisation has likely encountered a seagull manager.

Kyle Hegarty, Managing Director at Leadership Nomad (a division of TSL), wrote the book, “The Accidental Business Nomad,” about succeeding in business across cultures. Listen as he talks to me from Singapore and explains problems he encountered and recommendations for avoiding those mistakes. He talks about how to understand the deeper levels of language and why a prostitute wouldn’t take the translation job he offered!

While bosses say they want their people back face-to-face, employees want more flexibility deciding where they work, and this is leading to more businesses taking a middle path commonly called hybrid work. But this approach can be harder than bringing people back to the office or having them work fully remote. Welcome to the complicated world of hybrid work.

This course—with global leadership expert Kyle Hagerty—provides the core foundations needed to create a customized overseas expansion plan. Each lesson is complete with real-world examples to highlight how you can make the most of your overseas growth.

An excellent #recommendedreading list from an even more amazing person Kathrin Bussmann, Ph.D.& her #globalbrand: https://lnkd.in/drQGErt#Verbaccino, #TheWorldlyMarketer, #DigitalFirst, #thinkglobal, #contentstrategy, #globalbusiness, #globalmarketing, #globalmindset, #CQ, #brandleadership