Sales Operations

Sales Operations teams bring order to the chaos of selling. They support, enable, and drive front line teams to sell more efficiently. These posts can help you carry out that mission.

The Ultimate Guide to Customer Referrals

by Michele McGovern

Referrals make selling easier.

So why is getting and managing them so difficult?

This perplexing research may be the answer: 83% of customers are willing to give referrals. But just 29% of customers do it, a Texas Tech study found.

Apparently many salespeople don’t ask, don’t follow up when they ask or don’t know how to handle the referral.

But, “the referral mindset starts before a sale is made,” says Michael Tracy, Founder of Sales Journey. “See every prospect as a potential referral source. It’s about beginning the relationship with the end in mind.

How to generate more leads with social media

by Michele McGovern

If you think social media is the most powerful tool to generate more leads, you’re probably right.

But only if you use it strategically.

Nearly 75% of Internet users are on social media, the Pew Research Center found. Where else could you find that many leads?

“If you haven’t incorporated social media into your prospecting activities, you are working too hard,” says Lorraine Ferguson, author of The Unapologetic Saleswoman, sales trainer, coach and associate with Sandler Training.

So stop working so hard. Use these strategies to effectively generate more leads in the most popular social media platforms.

The Ultimate Guide to Lead Scoring to Get More Quality Sales

by Michele McGovern

All those leads – and so little chance of converting them.

It’s a frustrating reality for marketing and sales professionals: Only about 20% of leads convert to a sale, according to MarketingSherpa research.

But there’s promising news. Companies that handle leads well – through tactics such as scoring and nurturing – generate 50% more sales at a third of the cost, Forrester researchers found.

Bottom line: Companies that use lead scoring get more quality sales.

Lead scoring is just like it sounds. Leads get scored with numerical values you assign to different behaviors and activities. Then you decide if their total score is worthy of moving through your funnel.

20 skills Customer Success managers must have

by Michele McGovern

Most organizations lose too many potential customers in the journey from prospecting to closing.

That’s why an increasing number now have Customer Success managers: a calculated role to hold prospects tight in the pipeline with personalized attention.

More than half of companies that have adopted Customer Success programs see a direct connection between what Customer Success managers do and increased income, according to research from The Customer Success Association.

What was once a position just popular and prevalent in the SaaS industries is now an emerging tool in all industries to boost sales and customer satisfaction.

How Customer Success can unlock growth in existing accounts

by Michele McGovern

Existing accounts have the highest potential for growth.

So why don’t salespeople build more business with them?

They’re crazy busy and over-committed to finding new business.

Enter customer success – the person or people who can maximize business with existing customers. They hold the key to growth, according to research from Gartner.

Here’s why: The performance of a product or service doesn’t have a significant impact on customers’ decision to buy more. Aggressive selling doesn’t. And – surprisingly – exceeding customer expectations doesn’t impact their decision to buy again much at all either.

But when customers are confident in the people who helped them – salespeople, customer success reps and any other support pros – they’re 11% more likely to buy more. When the sales team creates “customer improvement” – giving a critical, unique perspective that helps customers succeed – they’re 48% more likely to buy more.

“Exceeding customer expectations through service doesn’t increase their likelihood to increase buying,” says Scott Collins, VP at Gartner. “But ‘customer improvement’ does increase the likelihood to buy.”

Time to rethink: Customer Service is actually a profit center

by John Larson

(This guest post is by John Larson, author of Capturing Loyalty) How many times has one of your customers approached you with an issue or a problem? For instance, “I purchased this product from you, and it does not work.” Or, “I thought this product had feature X, but I found out it doesn’t and…

5 ways your customer experience might be hurting sales

by Michele McGovern

The ideal experience motivates customers to buy again. Yet, many companies’ practices and policies discourage loyalty. Do you commit any of these common mistakes when it comes to customer experience?

These are the things that frustrate customers most when they try to buy a product, schedule a service or get help during their journey.

“When you give customers value and ease, they have little reason to go to your competitors,” says Kate Nasser, a management and customer service coach.

That’s why you want to avoid the customer experience issues that turn off customers:

The best place to advertise according to Nielsen statistic

by Michele McGovern

TV ads once ruled. A new statistic could change the thinking on that.

A recent Nielsen ratings survey finds TV ownership is on the decline for the first time in 20 years.

The ratings giant, which takes television ownership rates into account when producing the statistics that drive advertising rates, recently announced the amount of households that own a television has decreased from 98.9% to 96.7%, the result of high poverty and more consumers opting to watch their favorite television programs online.

Sales Operations

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