How Do You Set a World Record? Having Guy Kawasaki on Your Side Doesn’t Hurt

As usual, the seed of a seismic shift begins with a Big Idea. That’s the easy part. Then comes the impossible mission: Making it work.

This is the challenge Ken Krogue and his company are facing this week.

Ken, Founder and President of InsideSales.com, and CEO Dave Elkington, and their collective team decided to create and run the equivalent of a major trade show online.  So far so good. The savings in facilities, travel, catering, booths, printing, computer/internet and labor are clearly a great idea. The ability to prepare up until the very last minute (no need to worry about locking down travel arrangements) is pretty appealing as well.

Here’s the impossible part: Since the focus is sales, the team wanted the top sales minds in the world to present. They scoped out 62. While they were at it, they also decided it would be great to set a world record for a virtual sales trade show.
Read more…



Get an MBA in Sales Leadership in One Day

Inside Sales Virtual SummitWhat are your organization’s biggest sales challenges?

Get answers to your toughest questions from the top minds in sales at the Inside Sales Virtual Summit on June 20. This exciting online trade show features 62 sales experts, including 11 well-known authors.

It’s like getting an MBA in Sales Leadership in a single day.

Here is a sampling of the topics that will be covered:
Read more…



What Gregg Popovich Can Teach You About Inside Sales

Basketball hoopGregg Popovich. The name strikes fear in the hearts of 7-foot-tall, 320-pound men. Mainly because he’s a basketball genius. But what we’re here to talk about today is what he can teach us about inside sales — which is a ton. This should be fun.

Pop, as he’s affectionately called around the NBA, employs a different coaching philosophy than most of his peers. And with four titles and counting, it’s probably working out OK for Old Pop and the San Antonio Spurs, don’t you think?

So how does he do it?
Read more…



Top 25 Klout Scores at the Inside Sales Virtual Summit

Harnessing social media is a powerful way to draw attention to your industry, to reach out to potential clients and to generate conversation on important topics. But how can you know if your efforts are actually influencing other people?

Welcome to Klout.

Klout allows you to literally measure the influence you have on other people. At least in the world of social media. It works by asking users to connect their social media accounts to Klout. These networks (which include Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Wikipedia, and Instagram) are then entered into a Klout algorithm which measures data points.
Read more…



HubSpot’s Secret Weapon for Massive Lead Generation

Marketing Success: Traditional marketing techniques are ineffective. Hubspot's secret weapon unlocks the future of lead generation and solves current marketing problems.

Traditional marketing techniques are quickly becoming ineffective and outdated.

People can place themselves on a do-not-call list. DVR has decreased the effectiveness of TV commercials. Email spam blockers are getting progressively better at keeping unsolicited email out.

While these tools are great for consumers who can now conduct their own online research on products and services, it has made the marketer’s job much more difficult.
Read more…



How to Use Video to Generate Leads and Close Sales

Video TechnologyLeads can be expensive, and sometimes the conversion ratios on traditional lead sources like pay-per-click are poor.

For that reason, businesses are seeking new and creative ways to bring visitors to their websites.

Video can be an extremely effective tool, both to generate leads and to encourage sales conversion.
Read more…



Inside Sales Virtual Summit: The Biggest B2B Online Sales Event Ever

On June 20th, the Inside Sales Virtual Summit launches as the largest virtual sales event. Ever.

The historic virtual event will be authenticated by Guinness World Records as the largest online sales event, with sessions by over twenty sales experts and more than ten sales authors.

The Inside Sales Virtual Summit will feature a series of speakers focusing on sales best practices. Speakers include big time players like:

Guy Kawasaki, author of Art of the Start, Jeffrey Gitomer, author of Little Red Book of Selling; Matt Dixon, author of The Challenger Sale; Barry Trailer, co-founder of CSO Insights;  Aaron Ross, author of Predictable Revenue; Jon Miller, VP of Marketing at Marketo; Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing; Sam Richter, author of Take the Cold out of Cold Calling;  Josh James, CEO of Domo; Lori Richardson, CEO and Founder of Score More Sales; and InsideSales.com‘s own CEO, Dave Elkington and President, Ken Krogue.
Read more…



4 Inside Sales Association Resources You Can’t Live Without

Inside Sales Association Founder Bob Perkins

American Association of Inside Sales Professionals Founder Bob Perkins is happy to see industry growth.

Where do you go to find answers to your most pressing inside sales questions?

A mountain of information is available online. Time is such a precious commodity, though. Sometimes you just need a go-to source, somebody you can trust to hit you with the good stuff.

The American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP) provides a powerful online resource that’s jam-packed with actionable advice from industry experts. In addition to facilitating learning and networking through its popular AA-ISP Leadership Summit, the association is building a first-class knowledge center.

Let’s take a look at four inside sales association resources that you might not know about, but are well worth your time.
Read more…



Sales Metrics Smackdown: Are These 3 Inside Sales Metrics Overrated?

Sales Metrics MiseryAre you sure that you’re tracking the right sales metrics?

It’s not always as easy as it seems. The trick is to monitor the meaningful data without losing sight of what’s really important.

That’s why InsideSales.com has invested in research to identify the most actionable inside sales metrics. And we’ve created a free cheat sheet called “12 High Velocity Metrics that Actually Increase Results.”

All 12 provide valuable information for sales leaders, as long as you have an effective way to keep track of them. But your reps might have a hard time seeing the value of some of them.

We asked our reps which metrics they think are the most overrated. Their answers offer a powerful glimpse into their thinking. These insights reveal common sticking points where you may want to spend more time educating your team.

Overcoming internal objections and keeping your staff motivated is at least half the battle.


Read more…



The Demise of Outside Sales: Inside Sales Replacing Old-School Model

The Demise of Outside Sales: Inside Sales Replacing Old-School Field Model

This graph shows the increase of inside sale reps between 2010 and 2020. The years 2014 and beyond are projected and are highlighted in a different color.

MDeverywhere’s sales reps use to spend their days driving from meeting to meeting trying to talk to busy medical professionals.

Restricted by geography and drive time, they often attended only a handful of appointments each week.

“Our sales reps spent more time driving from Point A to Point B than in meetings, which is where we needed them,” says Elin McNally, marketing director of the expert medical billing service company based in Waltham, Mass. “The overhead was high and the loss of time was unacceptable.”

MDeverywhere decided it needed to improve its sales process. So in 2007, the company switched to a high-velocity inside sales model.
Read more…