Sales

Cold Calling Advice From a 16-Year Sales Vet

Talking to people on the phone is easy, right?

In a world enamored by text, phone calls aren't as common as they used to be, making it all the more awkward when you have to run outbound calls as part of your job. Add in prospect resistance, and you've got a recipe for a very difficult day.

But cold calling still offers an amazing opportunity to drive leads, which is why most B2B businesses still practice it regularly.

So, how do you succeed?

To get expert cold calling advice, our VP of marketing Nadia Milani sat down with Tom Slocum, a 16-year sales veteran and GTM consultant at The SD Lab. He shared some smart tips to guide you no matter your experience or comfort level.

Keep reading for the top highlights from our recent installment of The Closing Show Live or watch the full video.

(Or, skip to minute 24:02 to hear playbacks and reviews of real cold calls.)

How to Create a Killer Sell Sheet [+ 5 Great Examples]

Sell sheets are a great way to ace that first impression. Short, sweet, and designed to promote the best of your business in a concise one-page package, a killer sell sheet goes a long way in nailing those all-important early interactions with a prospective customer.

The days of six-panel brochures are long gone; here’s how to create and send winning sell sheets using Proposify.

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:

Social Selling Guide: 7-Step Process & Recommended Tools

With nearly 5 billion people using at least one social media platform, your target audience is at your fingertips. Social selling takes this opportunity and runs with it.

You can use social selling to connect with hard-to-reach decision makers, drive pipeline, and stay in touch with leads.

But social selling is complicated. 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 software should we be using?

The answers await. In this guide, we dive into social selling techniques, examples, platforms, and more.

Tough Year? Here's How Pro Sellers are Prepping for 2024

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.

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.