Sales

How to Align Your B2B Sales and Marketing Teams

With more metrics, more channels, and more trends, B2B marketing and sales alignment isn’t going to get any easier in 2023.

So, we chatted with Jessie Lizak, CMO at BDEX, and Eddy Bahnam, Founder and Sales Consultant at EB3.

This dynamic duo cohosts Whiskey Wednesday, a weekly evening podcast that brings sales and marketing together like never before.

Jessie and Eddy work on improving sales and marketing alignment within their in-house roles. PLUS they collaborate together to grow Whiskey Wednesday (with Jessie bringing the marketing expertise and Eddy bringing the sales swagger), regularly chatting with experts in both fields on their podcast.

Needless to say, they’re really in the trenches.

Keep reading for their hot takes or catch the full episode here:

9 Social Selling Tips from a Pioneer of the Strategy

We sat down with social selling expert and coach Evan Patterson to get his piping-hot takes on the strategy. He’s been social selling since back when it was all manual, without fancy intent tools to help.

If you’ve been asking these questions, you’re in the right place…

How do we find the right people to sell to on social media?

How can we get our company on board?

What should and shouldn’t we measure?

The answers await. So keep reading for Evan’s very best social selling tips.

Or catch the full episode here:

Tough Year? Here's How Pro Sellers are Prepping for 2023

Sometimes ho ho ho feels more like whoa whoa whoa. As in…How can I close a couple more deals before everyone disappears? And how can I make our solution a priority for my leads come January?

Maybe you’ve had a tough year and gotten a lot more “Nos” than you’re used to. Or maybe your year was okay, but with the slowness of the holiday season settling in, you’re starting to worry about further economic downturns.

When the sales environment is tough, it can be challenging to stay upbeat and confident. But stay upbeat and confident you must.

During our holiday episode of the Closing Show Live, called Sleigh Your Targets, we chatted with four sales experts to help us buck up for the final push of Q4 and the year ahead: Tyler Lessard from Vidyard, Amy Volas from Avenue Talent Partners, sales trainer James Buckley, and sales development director Jesse Gittler.

Watch the full live event for their best tactics or keep reading for our favorite takeaways.

Sell Like You: Own Your Unique Sales Style to Unlock Growth

Do you put more trust in “the experts” than yourself?

Are you always searching for the next best framework?

These are signs that you’re struggling with mediocrity. Not because you are mediocre, but because you haven’t yet tapped into your unique style and personality as a salesperson.

When you’re out of alignment, your results will be so-so.

Jeff Bajorek, the creator of the #SellLikeYou movement, says that helping sellers believe in themselves is worth more than skill training. He laid down some piping-hot motivation on our recent episode of the Closing Show Live. And in this case, a video is worth a million words.

Catch the full episode here for his walkthrough of how to get yourself aligned with who you truly are. Or, keep reading for his step-by-step process to hone your unique selling style and transform your potential.

“You’re the secret ingredient to your own success.” - Jeff Bajorek, Sales Trainer

How to Write a Sales Proposal Designed to Close [+ Templates]

If you’re working on a sales proposal, there are probably two things you care about:

1. That the proposal will close.

2. That you won’t have to spend hours creating it.

You shouldn’t have to guess what to write, wrangle obnoxious software, or pretend to be a graphic designer.

Our actionable guide to creating a sales proposal will help you cover all the necessary details to win over your prospect—all while saving hours of time.

Plus, we’ve got examples and templates from a variety of industries, from consulting to construction.

Here’s what we’re covering:

• What is a sales proposal

• 3 sales proposal examples

• What to include in a sales proposal

• How to write a sales proposal

• 7 tips for sales proposal writing

• How to follow up on a sales proposal

8 Pro Tips for Asking Better Sales Discovery Questions

You can ask discovery questions that impress your buyer and show them that you’re the right person to help them. Or…you could totally blow it and bore them with the same basic questions they’ve heard on every other sales call throughout their entire career.

So, how do you make sure your discovery questions set you up for success?

We chatted with Hannah Ajikawo, CTM consultant for Skaled and a top voice in sales on LinkedIn, to learn how we ask better questions and improve the buying experience.

Click here to watch the full interview, or keep reading for Hannah’s best advice.

Ramp Up Your Revenue with Customer Success Expansions

When customers sign up, they’re putting you to the test. Most accounts don’t give you all of their business right away. They give you a taste and see how you can handle it.

Customer success holds the keys to limitless revenue potential.

We sat down with our very own Jasper Goodwin, Customer Success Team Manager at Proposify, and Nick Brown, Senior CSM, to get all of the details on how they grow accounts from dozens of users to hundreds.

Keep reading for all of their truth bombs on customer success expansions or catch the full interview in this episode of the Closing Show Live.

A Sales Pro Shares 7 Tips for Better Discovery Calls

For an account executive, discovery calls are the only phase of the sales process that will happen 100% of the time. It’s not guaranteed that you’ll make it to the next step.

So you need to deliver every chance you’ve got.

Your discovery calls have a massive impact on your closing rates, your deal sizes, and how short your sales cycle is. They matter that much.

During the most recent episode of the Closing Show Live, we sat down with Daniel Hebert, Director of Sales at Q4, to learn how he approaches discovery calls and how he trains the reps on his team.

Click here to watch the full interview, or keep reading for Daniel’s best tips.

Expert Advice to Guide Your Sales Career Path

It’s a common trajectory: do one to two years as an SDR and then become an AE. But what if your career path in sales looks a little different?

In our latest episode of The Closing Show Live, we sat down with Kristen Twining, the SVP of Global Sales for Illusive, an enterprise cybersecurity solution for preventing ransomware and other cyber attacks.

Kristen's had an uncommon career trajectory, transitioning straight out of college into a field sales role, and then going somewhat backward to work as an SDR before becoming an inside sales director and ultimately a senior vice president.

We asked her what makes a great AE, how to get a job as an AE, and how to transition into senior management.

Kristen loves being mentored and mentoring others. Keep reading for her hard-earned advice, or watch the full interview here.

Sales Is Tough: How to Adapt to the Current State of the Market

When we look back at mid to late 2022, will we see the start of a major recession or a small market correction?

No one knows for sure.

What we do know is that because of this uncertainty, selling is hard right now.

So, we sat down with Asad Zaman, CEO of Sales Talent Agency, during our latest installment of the Closing Show Live. We uncovered the current state of the market and what sellers can do about it.

Click here to watch the full interview, or keep reading for Asad’s best tips.