Justin Topliff’s Post

Lucrum Partners Friday Morning Coffee Tip - March 8, 2024. If you are a #cro or #cgo or a founder-led #ceo, if your 2024 #gtmstrategy is built on these assumptions, you better pump the brakes ASAP. Here are three data points to consider.. 1) If you believe your team's sales process gains access to the right decision maker within your prospect accounts, consider this...... Corporate Visions research shows that since 2022, the C-Suite involvement in key decisions is up 108%. 2) If you believe your sales team is capable of driving executive level meetings, consider this. Corporate Visions research shows that 80% of key decisions involve executives, but #CRM data reveals that only 10% of seller interactions are with executive contacts. 3) If you believe your sales team is well skilled in developing and driving opportunities, consider this. Corporate Visions research shows that at least 40% of your current pipeline will result in "no decision. What if you could change your seller's selling altitude and your buyer's urgency to chose you? You can. The answers to these common #salesexecution gaps are available with Corporate Visions science backed value workshops. Our team can help.

New year, new… ICP? When was the last time you reviewed who you’re selling to? January is the perfect time to refine your ICP. Here are 3 reasons why—plus a handy checklist you can steal. → Reason #1 is purely practical. It’s a brand new year. Making it a natural time for planning and goal setting. If setting a goal is creating a target, then calibrating your ICP is aiming in the right direction. → Reason #2: Everyone’s in prospecting mode. Filling the pipeline is a top priority for every revenue team right now. If your ICP is stale, it could be setting you up to fail. → Reason #3: Align with internal and external shifts. Does your current ICP align with the best customers you brought in last year? With company-level objectives? With broader market and competitive trends? Revisiting your ICP now is a chance to factor in macro influences. Your ICP isn’t static. It evolves over time as the market changes. Taking the time to refine it now will pay huge dividends down the line.

Join our virtual briefing, chaired by VP expert Michele Buckley, to explore key strategies to shift sales behavior and drive revenue growth. Whether you're introducing a new product to market, changing your GTM positioning in the face of wider competition, or experiencing a shift in sales efficiency as you scale, this briefing is for you. Gain insights from peers in your field, receive a copy of research on this topic, and get answers to these questions: - What are the three factors required to shift sales behavior? - How can we break down research data on what truly motivates and demotivates salespeople? - What are the ways to reduce time and effort for sellers? Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn and grow with industry experts. Register here. https://lnkd.in/gQJhir8s

Over the last couple of weeks, I've attended multiple webinars from Pavilion, Gartner, and technology vendors about what's ahead for B2B Marketing and Sales in 2024.      If I had to choose one theme that's consistently come up—it would be alignment.      In the wake of an uncertain economy, reduced budgets, decreased revenue targets, and increased profitability expectations, forward-thinking B2B organizations are looking to unlock growth through alignment.      💡 Marketing teams are seeking alignment across functions by rolling out integrated campaigns and thought leadership initiatives, often with fewer teammates and lower budgets. In 2024 we'll see a shift from high volume "spray and pray" tactics to fewer well-orchestrated, targeted, higher impact activities that emphasize demand creation. Link to my Forbes article on thought leadership maturity is in the comments.      💡 Marketing, sales, and customer success teams need to work better together. It's not enough for Marketing to send a lead to sales and move on. In 2024 we'll see a shift to cross-functional success metrics (KPIs), like pipeline velocity. For more on pipeline velocity and other full funnel metrics, check out LinkedIn posts by Andrei Zinkevich, co-founder at Fullfunnel.io.       💡 According to Guy Rubin, Pavilion CEO Ambassador and CEO & Founder of Ebsta, maximizing win rates (42%) and reducing sales cycles will require Enterprise sellers to nurture 10-12 relationships with buying committee members. Aligning conversations to a customer's role on their company's buying committees will set top performing sellers apart in 2024. Link to Ebsta's 2023 B2B Sales Benchmarks Report in comments.      How do you plan to drive alignment in 2024? #marketingstrategy #b2Bmarketing #b2bsales

Shared this LinkedIn Sales Navigator tip with my clients today, so thought I'd share with my network too :) Buying committees are larger than ever, averaging 11 people, according to Gartner. And they are as fluid as ever, with people changing roles and companies at higher rates.   This change poses many perplexing questions for sales teams: what does my account buying committee look like? How has it changed recently? Who has the most influence? Further, do all the reps working the deal have consistent answers to these questions?   Relationship Map in Sales Navigator is a shareable map of the buying committee, visualizing all this in one easy-to-understand place. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/evh5EPWg

Great article from #harvardbusinessreview, "New technology is overwhelming sales teams". This must become a top down priority across the organization. I have witnessed too many examples of someone in the org making the decision to purchase a "new tool" for sales / sales dev because they believe it will address whatever gap they are seeing. While that might be true, if you are just going to post an announcement with a video tutorial of how to use the new tool, you shouldn't expect the outcome you were promised during the sales cycle. Do you really need the new tool or do you have the ability to address the identified gap with what you have, but it's just not known or being used appropriately. You have to invest in how this tool fits into your existing tech stack and GTM. You have to invest in the enablement of the tool. You have to understand what trade-offs this tool might lead to and you have to be willing and able to iterate and adjust based on feedback from those using the tool. I have always found starting with a small "beta" group that represent the user group that the tool is primarily for and work from there before rolling it out to the larger organization. For example, a tool purchased to help your SMB sellers may not be the best tool for your Enterprise sellers and vice-versa. Or your sales dev team and your AE team. If your teams don't understand the how to effectively use the tool "certification" and the why of the tool, "how does this make your job easier, more efficient, etc." you just bought a tool that will not be heavily adopted, because it is another tool on top of everything else they are being used to leverage. Strategy, process, tools, and enablement all need to be aligned across the orgs using the tools... if not, you get low adoption for the company that purchased the tool and you most likely get churn for the company that sold the tool. Everybody knows the definition of insanity... this is avoidable in this area if you really make this a top down priority and continue to evaluate it. #GTM #gtmstrategy #sales #salesenablement GTM United https://lnkd.in/gFAmvnsH Summary of HBR article below: Technology has long been used to boost seller productivity, but sales leaders are telling us that efficiency gains have become slower and more expensive. This is because technology intended to help sell frequently makes the salesperson’s job more cumbersome. Sales organizations’ tendency to run most tasks through the sales rep requires an increasing number of complex systems to support.

“Sellers spend 72% of their time on non-selling tasks and only 28% on selling tasks.” My team and I saw this stat as a problem. Not optimizing your sales organization can impact: • Conversion rates/Quota attainment • Financial well-being • Burnout • Poor culture Here are something things to consider if you’re experiencing this: • An effective, easy-to-use CRM software • More in depth sales training highlighting this problem • Transparent onboarding expectations • Clearer value proposition Jaden Vogelman Brent Gleason Jerrick Mennen and I had to the opportunity to present this research this past week at the Keith Molter Networking Event! Great work, gents. Source: Gartner NL #network #salesorganization #efficiency #purdue

In our latest Accelerate Series Webinar, our founder and CEO, Ian Hameroff, discussed our proven 5-step process for conducting effective competitive analysis.  🌟 Drawing from decades of industry expertise, Ian shared invaluable insights and actionable competitive analysis strategies. Check out our latest blog post for our top highlights from the presentation. 👇 #B2bsales #B2Bmarketing #B2Btech #webinar #blog #competitiveanalysis

'A seller reaching out to me. Wow, that sounds so interesting! 🤩' Said no one, ever. Yeap, that's the sad reality. But this doesn't mean you should get rid of your sellers. You need to support them in becoming thought leaders. We need to make sure our sellers are seen as relevant people in their fields. Someone who provides insightful information. And who knows my challenges and supports me in overcoming them. If your sellers only reach out to prospective buyers when they want to sell, they will be missing out on lots of great opportunities. Adopting a social selling strategy can be the start of this. Make sure that their online footprint is strong, that they have quality connections following them on social and that they have a consistent engagement and content sharing strategy. Everyone would like to know more about a challenge they have or a solution to improve their lives. Almost no one would like to feel chased around and hunted because they are budget holders. #SocialSelling #ModernSelling #Sales https://lnkd.in/dYhN7P7R

Are you struggling with unreliable forecasts? You're not alone. Inaccurate sales predictions continue to plague organizations across every industry. Without visibility into the buyer's journey, forecasting becomes a frustrating guessing game rather than a scientific process. The fallout includes missed quotas, strained resources, and the inability to accelerate the pipeline. But it doesn't have to be this way. You have the power to create true forecasting certainty. Join us for an exclusive webinar on September 26th to gain insight into the complementary elements of our ground-breaking sales conversation and process models. These proven frameworks empower your team to uncover buyer motivations, needs, and blockers through strategic sales conversations. By guiding buyers through their journey, your team gains actionable intelligence to understand, anticipate, and influence deal progression. The result is reliable forecasts grounded in qualitative and quantitative insights, not hypotheses. During this insightful 1-hour webinar, you will learn: ✔️ How Architecting the Deal Model© supports reliable and consistent forecasts ✔️ Insights into buyer behavior and how they decide and reveal information throughout the sales process ✔️ Key shifts in upskilling sales conversation skills that 💠 Reduce Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) 💠 Improve Win/Loss Ratios 💠 Increase Sales Cycle Efficiency ✔️ What sales leaders and CXOs must do to align their salespeople to achieve quantifiable benefits from a repeatable and sustainable sales conversation framework Register today to reserve your spot: https://buff.ly/3Ev57Cb If you cannot attend, please register to access the recording. ⭐ All attendees, as well as viewers of the recorded webinar, will be eligible for a no-obligation 30-minute deal review. #B2Bsales #forecast #salesforecast #salesconversations #ArchitectingTheDeal #saleseffectiveness