Industry news
Carrots and sticks are both long and skinny
The carrot or the stick? The motivating properties of these organic materials have been debated for centuries, but unless your new sales hire is a dog, she is more likely to be interested in an attractive incentive plan. And that's where it gets tricky—what's the best way to compensate a new sales hire while they're still getting up to speed? Give them a guaranteed salary during on-ramping with no performance increases, and you might find all of their deals close the day after training. Put too much emphasis on performance, and they might breeze through training to get onto selling. Gartner analyst Dave Egloff believes there's a better way to incentivize sales new hires.
Hindsight on 2020 is 2020
2020 will forever go down into the annals of history as a crappy year. The coronavirus has killed nearly 400k Americans, decimated large swaths of our economy, isolated millions, and forced high school chemistry students to conduct volatile experiments at home. However, if you look closely, there are some positive developments that may last well beyond the pandemic. No, we're not talking about getting to wear sweatpants every day. From accelerated digital transformation to new opportunities to embrace diversity and inclusion, there are a number of other wonderful changes that Salesforce has conveniently cataloged on their blog. 2020 is still not off the hook—not by a long shot.
In the groove
With awards and most other things, the customers are always right
According to recent research (thanks Google!), every technology provider that has ever existed is either "leading" or "world class." With so much hearty self-promotion in enterprise tech, it might seem impossible to find the leaders who lead more than the other leaders. In times like these, actual customer feedback can be especially valuable. That's why Groove is very pleased to share that it's one of the highest-rated Customers' Choice providers for North America according to the 2020 Gartner Peer Insights "Voice of the Customer: Sales Force Automation" report. If you're in-market for a sales engagement platform, I think you know where this is leading.
It's 2021! Wait, our sales teams are still remote?
On January 1, 2021, we were supposed to leave all the trials and tribulations of 2020 behind. Unfortunately, the coronavirus didn't get the memo, which means that there's never been a better time to master the art of managing a remote sales team—except maybe 9 months ago. I think we can all agree to let bygones be bygones and instead focus on kicking off 2021 with the right strategies to improve your team's digital selling skills. Are you doing all you can to connect with buyers across the cold and vast digital void? Groove has assembled five strategies for managing remote sales teams that you should look at today. Time is ticking...
Learn something new
Read this. It's TIME.
Learn a language. Finish Schitt's Creek. Conduct more research to craft the perfect sales pitch. What would you do with more time? While some Einstein (THE Einstein) said you can't make time, it is possible to make some changes in how you spend it so you can be more productive. Did you know that TIME stands for Treasured, Investment, Mandatory, and Empty? Well, according to sales consultancy The Rain Group, it does. So what's their four-part strategy for focusing your time on what matters most? For that, you'll have to read the article. Don't have time? You will soon.
Awkward conversations are for dinner parties, not B2B sales
"It's great to meet you. Now let me tell you all about me." No one would ever start a conversation this way (except maybe on Tinder), but it happens all too often in B2B sales. Maybe not in those exact words, but sales people are frequently too focused on communicating value propositions instead of having an engaging conversation. So, just go do that—if only it was that easy. Conversational sales is an art, but it can be mastered. According to sales training organization The Valla Group, conversational sales starts with insight.