For decades, salespeople scrunched their faces when I mentioned “how buyers buy”. I heard comments like: “I know what they need.” or “I understand exactly how they buy: price, price, price.”
But sellers only close 7%  of their prospects (and far, far less if using marketing automation).
If you understand how buyers buy, why do you have less than a 40% [...]

Depending on the selling approach you’re using, you are closing between .6% – 7% , regardless of size of solution or industry.
These numbers are far lower than they need to be: so long as your primary focus is on making a sale and you focus on needs assessment and solution choice (factors which are the buyer’s final considerations), and ignore the [...]

You’ve done your homework. You’ve found the right buyers – prospects with needs you can fulfill and can afford your solution. You’ve nurtured them, contacted them, met with them, scored them, pitched them, networked with them, sent them gifts. But only a small fraction buy.
Where do they go?
Industry lore believes that 80% of your prospects will purchase [...]

Sales folks like having control. You ‘understand the need’, ‘manage the relationship‘, ’follow the digital footprint’, send the ‘right’ data at the ‘right’ time.
But what, exactly, can you be in control of? You are in control of the details about your solution, and how it’s used in a particular setting, and the data you seek from prospects. You certainly have [...]

Recently, I asked 15 marketing automation leaders to define Lead Scoring for me. Every one gave me a different answer!

What does your pipeline consist of? How long have the ‘opportunities’ been in the pipeline? How accurate is your/your team’s forecasting?