Stephen Howell
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Leveraging AI to Solve Today’s Sales Problems
As the business world becomes increasingly competitive, companies are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to help them stay ahead of the curve. And one area where AI is having a particularly significant impact is in sales. One of the biggest challenges facing sales teams today is keeping up with the sheer volume of data that…
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How Can I Better Understand and Meet the Needs of My Customers?
The key to understanding your customers’ needs is to be proactive and open to learning from them. By actively seeking customer feedback, you can gain a deep understanding of their interests, challenges, and goals. Common types of customer needs include price, experience, function, feeling, compatibility, personal and social. Your ability to detect and currently interpret…
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Objection Handling is a Crucial Part of the Sales Process
Handling objections is a crucial part of the sales process, as it allows you to address concerns and objections that prospects and clients may have about your product or service. By effectively handling objections, you can build trust and rapport, and ultimately close more sales. But handling objections can be difficult, especially if you are…
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Why is sales prospecting so difficult today?
Sales prospecting can be difficult for a variety of reasons. Some common challenges include: Competition: With so many companies and products on the market, it can be difficult to stand out and get noticed by potential customers. Changing consumer behavior: With the rise of the internet and social media, consumers have more options and information…
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An Interview with ChatGPT
There has been a lot of chatter around ChatGPT. What is ChatGPT? So, I asked ChatGPT and ChatGPT responded. What follows is a verbatim transcript of my interaction with ChatGPT. What is ChatGPT? ChatGPT is a variant of the GPT (Generative Pre-training Transformer) language model that is specifically designed for conversation and chat applications. It…
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Not All Sales Leads Are Equal – Some Are Better Than Others
Not all sales leads are equal, some are better than others. Lead scoring helps separate out those leads that might be the better than others. Still, high scoring leads may not convert to closed won opportunities. So, just how do you close the gap? Couple lead scoring with opportunity scoring to understand which leads are…
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Best Practices for Outbound Prospecting by Email – It All Starts with the Subject Line
It all starts with the subject line. The primary goal of the subject line of your sales emails is to get prospects to open it. That is it, that is the only goal. The subject line must spark curiosity and interest on the part of the prospect. It must be compelling and engaging. It must…
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It Is Game Over for Field Sales – Now It Is Time for Inside Sales to Take the Field
Field sales has died, and no one noticed. Witness the dawn of inside sales. The last three years (2020-2022) have been hard for salespeople and hastened the decline of field sales. What was once normal was turned upside down during the pandemic and a new normal established. The pandemic forced field sales teams to operate…
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Cold call with a purpose. Prospect using iBANT – Interest and Intent, Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing
The fundamental purpose of cold calling is to engage prospects in conversations that progress to the next step. The goal of these calls should be to move beyond an interruption to a scheduled call that leads to a predictable outcome – a sale. Anytime salespeople make calls to someone they have never spoken to before…
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Is Cold Calling Dead? Cold Calling exits stage left. Informed Calling enters stage right.
Is cold calling dead? There are many common misbeliefs about cold calling that include it is a waste of time, it is for losers, it makes you depressed, it is hard, to name just a few. Common myths about cold calling include calls are for whoever picks up the phone, cold calls do not result…