Would you like to become a sales operations manager? Or are you considering hiring one?

Research from CSO Insights found that 79.1% of organizations in the technology industry already have a dedicated sales enablement initiative or function, compared to an average of 50% across other industries.

If you're like these companies, who need to create effective sales systems so salespeople can be productive and effective in their roles, then it's likely time to hire a sales operations manager.

So, what key skills and experience should a sales operations manager have? Let's dive in and take a look.

Sales Operations Manager

The goal of sales operations is to reduce friction in the sales process, so salespeople are successful in their day-to-day activities. A sales operations manager is responsible for supervising a team of sales operations specialists.

Leadership and prior sales operations experience are often required for a sales operations manager role. Sales operations managers often report to a VP or director of sales operations. A bachelor's degree is often required, and a higher level of education like a master's degree might be recommended for those applying to senior operations manager positions.

Sales operations managers should have the following skills:

• Business acumen
• Organizational skills
• Pipeline management
• Program management
• Analytics and reporting expertise
• Understanding of CRM and database software
• Experience with financial systems
• Prior people management experience

Sales operations manager salaries vary by company, job location, and years of experience. Here are a few average base salaries for sales operations managers.

1. $60,460 (Indeed)

This is the average salary for a sales operations manager in the United States. It was estimated by salaries submitted by sales operations manager employees and users, and from job advertisements on Indeed.

2. $76,033 (PayScale)

PayScale found that $76,033 is the average salary for a sales operations manager. Use the PayScale tool to enter you city, years of experience, skills, and education to get a customized salary estimate.

3. $93,876 (Glassdoor)

The national average sales operations manager salary in the United States is $93,876, according to Glassdoor. Filter the salary estimate by industry, company size, and years of experience to adjust the result.

4. $94,230 (Salary.com)

According to Salary.com, the average salary for a sales operations manager is $94,230. Create your own customized salary report to get a personal estimate.

Sales operations manager job descriptions often vary by company or the experience level the company is hiring for. Here are a few additional sales operations manager job description examples.

Sales Operations Manager Job Description Examples

1. Sales Operations Manager Job Description

This sales operations manager job description was created by Hewlett Packard.

Source: Indeed

2. Senior Manager Sales Operations Job Description

The senior sales operations manager job description was written by Skillsoft.

Source: Skillsoft

Sales operations managers are key to running a successful sales operation and enabling your sales team to do its best work. To learn more, check out this ultimate guide to strategic planning next.

 

"If you can find good people, they can always change the product/service. Nearly every mistake I've made has been in picking the wrong people, not the wrong idea." - Arthur Rock

Selecting sales personnel is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, challenge for any organization. Failure to achieve revenue targets, manage customer relations, and deliver service can be traced directly to hiring salespeople unequipped to carry out their assigned roles.

Recruiting is a commitment; it should consume about a fifth of the sales leader's time, and the process should be as well organized as the company's sales methodology and forecasting systems. The following mini tutorial is taken from my online video training program for sales managers. Follow these steps to recruit the best possible team that can bring about the best possible results.

How to Build a Sales Team

1. Define the Ideal Profile

The key to building a winning sales organization is understanding whom you want to hire. Why? Because thorough development and analysis of the ideal sales representative profile heightens your chances of recruiting the right person.

Here's how to start:

• Make your own list of essential salesperson characteristics. As the hiring manager, start by writing down your definition of a great sales representative.
• Ask company leaders to make a list. Ask management and members of the sales team to identify desirable sales traits.
• Test your top sales representatives. Ask your company's most successful sales representatives to complete a personality profile or psychological test administered by a third party. Record the data and look for common denominators among your top salespeople.

2. Think About Behavioral Types

Reviewing the basic personality types often encountered in sales can provide additional insight into hiring effective sales representatives. Understanding an applicant's most typical behavioral style when interacting with others can reveal how that person solves problems and makes decisions. And you can learn how flexible the applicant is in dealing with contrasting personality styles.

The four types:

1. Dominant: A dominant individual loves a challenge and is always ready to take on the competition. Dominant people are direct, positive, and straightforward. They continuously seek new horizons and like to make decisions quickly. Some consider dominants restless, because they become impatient and dissatisfied with the status quo. They are generally resourceful and adapt readily to new situations.
2. Cautious: Cautious people are humble, loyal, and non-aggressive. They are usually conservative, slow to make decisions until they have absorbed all available information, and sticklers for detail. Cautious individuals want to be appreciated and will go to extreme lengths to avoid stepping on someone's toes. They strive for a stable, ordered life, and tend to be more task- than people-oriented.
3. Interactive: These individuals are outgoing, persuasive, gregarious, and generally optimistic. Interested in people, they're poised in social situations; at an initial meeting they may greet you warmly by your first name, as if you've been friends for life. Interactive types may act on emotional impulse, making decisions based on a cursory analysis.
4. Steady: Usually amiable, supportive, and relaxed, steady individuals appear contented and laid back. Patience and deliberateness are their defining characteristics. People high in steadiness strive to maintain the status quo and avoid rocking the boat. They value relationships that they have worked hard to establish, and operate well in a team environment.

Matching the salesperson's personality to the job -- or even to the type of client he or she interacts with -- makes sense. But remember that people often display characteristics of two or more personality profiles.

3. Measure the Profile

Once you've compiled all your information on the sales position and the applicant's desired personality profile, boil it all down to five or seven objective, measurable characteristics. Why so few? Because you need to focus on key responsibility areas that drive success.

For example:

• 100% percent quota achievement for a minimum of five years
• Articulate
• Experience with opening new territories
• Regional sales experience
• Specific industry expertise

Create a measurement scale for each characteristic, like this:

[Ineffective] -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, N/A, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 [Effective]

and use it to rate each candidate during the interview session.

Don't be fooled by the profile's simplicity, or the fact that it measures only five characteristics. This is the distillation of sound input from numerous sources, as well as benchmark data based on the personalities and performance of your top sales representatives. Focusing your work in an easy to understand, simple format places the emphasis on implementation and results.

It's important to make this profile document available to everyone involved in the interviewing process, including recruiting firms.

4. Refine the Profile

To derive the most benefit from your new recruiting tool, interview a minimum of three candidates for each position, and make sure that every interviewer in the process rates each candidate from -5 to +5. Continue to refine the profile by gathering input from both internal and external sources.

Studies show that successful sales managers spend 15 to 20% of their time on recruiting. Whether or not there's an opening in your sales ranks, take the time to meet new candidates or reacquaint yourself with candidates whom you have been courting. When you least expect it, your top candidate may become available.

5. Strive for Consistency

Now that you have a plan to fill the pipeline with quality candidates, the next step is to systemize the process for choosing and winning the right candidate time after time. Communicating an established process to all involved parties not only saves time, but sends a clear, unified message to candidates that this company has its act together, increasing their desire to join the sales team.

The following model has worked in the past. Consider it as a foundation for your sales recruitment process.

1. Identify and document each stage in the interview process, and who (at least three people) in your company will participate.
2. Perform personality testing on your top sales reps. This provides a benchmark for evaluating candidates in one-on-one interviews.
3. Distribute to all participants an outline of the interview process, the ideal sales candidate profile, the interviewing scorecard, a list of base questions to ask every candidate, and the candidate's resume.

It takes effort to build a recruiting process, and even more to ensure that everyone follows the plan. But the result -- the creation of a winning sales team -- is guaranteed to make life less stressful for any sales leader.

To learn more, check out these hiring practice recommendations next.

You've been speaking with a prospect for a while. You've got a sense of their goals and their pain, and it seems like your offering is a great fit for their business.

You're all ready to set a date for a product walkthrough or start discussing contract terms, but then your prospect says something that stops you in your tracks.

"Can we talk about this next quarter? It's just not a good time for us to buy right now."

Great. Not only is this a deal you had in your pipeline, but you've also sunk a significant amount of time working with your prospect. And now they're not going to buy?

Prospects commonly use the sales timing objection to stall or force you to walk away. Although sometimes there are true obstacles, a prospect who wants to buy but truly can't right now will proactively let you know their timeline and exactly what's blocking them.

This objection is most often raised when a prospect doesn't feel a sense of urgency or hasn't seen enough value in your offering to buy. Use these timing objection responses to get to the heart of your prospect's hesitation.

Common Sales Objections Related to Timing

How many of these sales objections have you seen?

• It's not a good time.
• Call me back next quarter.
• I'll get back to you with at a better time.
• We'll think about it.
• I'll have to talk to leadership.

Sales objections related to timing can be difficult to overcome. Your prospect is busy and just doesn't have the time for you or your offer.

So, how can you respond to a sales objection? Here are a few responses you can use.

How to Respond to a Sales Rejection

1. "If money and resources were no object, would you be willing to start with our product today?"

If your prospect says no, they don't think your product is valuable. Find out why. If your prospect says yes, dig deeper to discover what logistical hurdles are standing in their way.

2. "What's holding you back?"

By getting your prospect to talk through their reasoning, you'll be in a better position to address their hesitation.

3. "When would be a good time to buy?"

If your prospect's answer doesn't sound all that different from their current circumstances, follow up with #9.

4. "What are your company's other priorities right now?"

It's possible that your prospect has several other pressing projects that need to be completed. If you have the whole picture, you'll be able to tell how much of an impact your offering can really make right now, or even better -- how your product can help achieve the other goals. If it turns out your prospect's goals are being pushed aside by management, follow up with #5.

5. "How can I help you get the resources you need to sell this to the decision maker?"

Determine where your prospect's having difficulty gaining traction, then help get internal buy-in.

6. "So is X goal no longer a priority for you?"

Tie your product to a tangible goal you and your prospect have discussed. This question moves the discussion away from the actual purchase process and back to the story of how your offering can improve your prospect's business. Follow up with #7 and #8.

7. "What happens to those goals if you don't act now?"

What's your prospect's Plan B? Maybe they have a good one, and in that case your offering may not be a good fit. But making your prospect realize they have no other way of solving their problems will get you back in the game.

8. "When are you hoping to achieve X goals by?"

If your prospect can't define this, you're either talking to them in the education stage or their problems aren't severe enough to warrant solving right now. But if they need to hit a goal in the next three months, there's clear pain to be addressed.

9. "If I call you back next quarter, what circumstances will have changed?"

Maybe your prospect is in the middle of a massive internal initiative and doesn't have bandwidth to talk to you right now. Maybe your prospect is waiting on a round of funding to come in.

Or maybe they're just stalling.

Get your prospect to evaluate whether anything -- their budget, their priorities, their goals -- is actually going to be different when you next speak. If they'll truly be ready to pull the trigger then, why not now?

10. "What's going to be different next quarter?"

A broader, rhetorical spin on #9. Question your prospect's motivations for brushing you off without coming right out and saying it.

11. "How are you performing against your end-of-year goals [as they relate to your product]?"

A good way to remind your prospect why they were talking to you in the first place. A prospect who saw absolutely no problem with their current business wouldn't have taken your call. Delaying a purchase will only make those problems worse.

12. "Here's the timeline for ROI if we start in X months. Does that work for you?"

There's that sense of urgency again. Remind your prospect that implementing a new product doesn't produce overnight results.

The question here is implicit -- can they really afford to wait to buy?

13. [Silence.]

"I hit the mute button and wait to see how my prospect continues," says Dan Tyre, sales director at HubSpot.

A prospect with a real objection will ask, "Are you there?" or wait for you to follow up, says Tyre. But if your prospect starts to waffle more or talking in a stream-of-consciousness, it's a good sign they're just brushing you off.

14. "Do you understand [product's] value?"

"In all my years of selling, nobody's ever said no," says Tyre.

Follow up with #15 to really drive this point home.

15. "Which part of [product] do you think would help your company the most?"

This question gets your prospect to reiterate their goals and forces them to tell you why your product is a good fit for them, instead of making them listen to you talk about it. It can also trigger important red flags -- for example, if you've been focusing on one area of your product but they bring up an entirely different area, it's a sign you need to restart the conversation on different terms.

16. "Is it the timing, or is something else concerning you?"

A timing objection may be a smokescreen. To find out what's really holding your prospect back, ask this question.

The buyer will either say something along the lines of, "Well, I'm worried about [different issue] … " or "It's not a good time to buy because [valid reason] ... "

In both cases, you'll uncover the true issue -- which you can then resolve.

17. "Why?"

Simple answers are sometimes the most effective. The buyer is probably expecting that you'll try to convince them it is a good time to buy, so this response will catch them off-guard (in a good way).

Once they've given you context, you can decide whether they're in a position to move forward or not.

18. "I understand, as a customer of mine was in a similar situation. They ultimately decided to purchase [product] because of [trigger event, challenge, opportunity] and [product's ROI]. In the past [X amount of time], they've seen [Y results]."

Your prospect has shared why they want to wait (see the previous question) -- but you think it's in their best interest to act sooner.

Use a relevant case study to make your prospect think twice about turning you down. After you've shown them evidence your solution works, they'll be eager to reap its benefits for themselves.

19. "Thanks for your honesty -- I don't want to waste your time or mine until you're ready to make a decision. In the meantime, can I send you any valuable content I find on [prospect's industry, market, challenge, role]?"

According to HubSpot sales director Dan Tyre, this response works well with prospects who can't buy soon no matter what you say. (They've already exhausted their budget for the year, the company's strategy is in flux, new legislation will go into effect soon and they need to gauge the implications, and so on.)

Pressuring them to buy will only make them screen your calls and emails. Instead, ask to periodically send them helpful content. You'll stay top-of-mind while adding value and building up your status as a trusted advisor.

When they are ready to buy, you'll be the first salesperson they contact.

20. "Sometimes when people say X, it really means Y. Is it safe for me to assume that's the case here?"

Sales pro Mike Rogewitz saves this question for those objections he just can't overcome. It's Sandler's Negative Reverse Selling methodology, and it goes something like this:

Prospect Sam: "I'm headed into a meeting; can you give me a call next week?"

Salesperson: "Sam, I've tried to connect a few times now. Typically, when this happens, it means this is a low priority for you at the moment. Is it fair for me to assume that's the case?"

Prospect Sam: "Well if you don't want to talk to me, then I'd rather not do business with you."

Salesperson: "Hey Sam, my apologies. I do want to talk, but I feel like I'm driving you crazy here with all these voicemails and missed calls. I'd hate to keep bothering you if it's not necessary. It might be best if you reach out when it's a better time."

Rogewitz warns, "It should never feel like you're taking revenge on an uninterested prospect by saying, 'You always say you'll call me back, Sam,' which turns the conversation into an accusation and, sometimes, an argument." He continues, "By keeping things constructive, you've put the negativity on yourself instead of on the prospect."

21. "Are there any large company events/initiatives coming up that would make this a priority?"

If a prospect is unwilling to commit to your timeline, it might be because their budget is uncertain, a large company announcement is on the horizon, or large industry event is looming that would make your timeline difficult to implement.

Ask questions like, "The timeline seems to be a stumbling block for us. Is there a company/industry event coming up that might be causing you hesitation to pursue an aggressive timeline?"

If the answer is, "Yes, I'm actually worried my budget might be cut next week." you know what the objection is and how to proceed. If the answer is, "No, our company has a lot of red tape, and I'm worried this timeline doesn't reflect that." you've still gotten to the bottom of the real issue and can move forward.

22. "Is there anything I can give you to make a stronger case to [decision maker]?"

Sometimes, your prospect might be hesitant to move forward simply because they've received pushback from their manager or the ultimate decision maker.

Ask if there's anything you can do to support your prospect and help them make a stronger case to their boss. This might look like a one-sheet of talking points, a case study, or an informative blog post.

A simple, "How can I help," can mean the different between closed lost and close won. 

Looking for more? Check out these tips to magically get prospects interested in you next.

 

Setting prices for your products can be tough.

Set prices too high, and you miss out on valuable sales. Set them too low, and you miss out on valuable revenue.

Thankfully, pricing doesn’t have to be a sacrifice or a shot in the dark. There are dozens of pricing models and strategies that can help you better understand how to set the right prices for your audience and revenue goals.

That’s why we’ve created this guide.

Whether you’re a business beginner or a pricing pro, the tactics and strategies in this guide will get you comfortable with pricing your products. Bookmark this guide for later and use the chapter links to jump around to sections of interest.

If only pricing was a simple as its definition. However, there’s a lot that goes into the process.

Pricing strategies take into account many of your business factors, like revenue goals, marketing objectives, target audience, brand positioning, and product attributes. They’re also influenced by external factors like consumer demand, competitor pricing, and overall market and economic trends.

It’s not uncommon for entrepreneurs and business owners to skim over pricing. They often look at the cost of their products (COGS), consider their competitor’s rates, and tweak their own selling price by a few dollars. While your COGS and competitors are important (as you’ll see in the various models below), they shouldn’t be at the center of your pricing strategy.

The best pricing strategy maximizes your profit and revenue.

Before we talk about pricing strategies, let’s review an important pricing concept that will apply regardless of what strategies you use.

Price Elasticity of Demand

Price elasticity of demand is used to determine how a change in price affects consumer demand. If consumers still purchase a product despite a price increase (such as cigarettes and fuel) that product is considered inelastic. On the other hand, elastic products suffer from pricing fluctuations (such as cable TV and movie tickets).

You can calculate price elasticity using the formula: % Change in Quantity / % Change in Price = Price Elasticity of Demand.

The concept of price elasticity helps you understand if your product or service is sensitive to price fluctuations. Ideally, you want your product to be inelastic — so that demand remains stable if prices do fluctuate.

Now, let’s cover some common pricing strategies.

It’s important to note that these aren’t necessarily standalone strategies. Many can and should be combined when setting prices for your products and services.

Competition-Based Pricing Strategy

Competition-based pricing is also known as competitive pricing or competitor-based pricing. This pricing strategy focuses on the existing market rate (or going rate) for a company’s product or service; it doesn’t take into account the cost of their product or consumer demand.

Instead, a competition-based pricing strategy uses the competitors’ prices as a benchmark. Businesses who compete in a highly saturated space may choose this strategy since a slight price difference may be the deciding factor for customers.

With competition-based pricing, you can price your products slightly below your competition, the same as your competition, or slightly above your competition. For example, if you sold marketing automation software, and your competitors’ prices ranged from $19.99 per month to $39.99 per month, you’d choose a price between those two numbers.

Whichever price you choose, competitive pricing is one way to stay on top of the competition and keep your pricing dynamic.

Cost-Plus Pricing Strategy

A cost-plus pricing strategy focuses solely on the cost of producing your product or service, or your COGS. It’s also known as markup pricing since businesses who use this strategy “mark up” their products based on how much they’d like to profit.

To apply the cost-plus method, add a fixed percentage to your product production cost. For example, let’s say you sold shoes. The shoes cost $25 to make, and you want to make a $25 profit on each sale. You’d set a price of $50, which is a markup of 100%.

Cost-plus pricing is typically used by retailers who sell physical products. This strategy isn’t the best fit for service-based or SaaS companies as their products typically offer far greater value than the cost to create them.

Dynamic Pricing Strategy

Dynamic pricing is also known as surge pricing, demand pricing, or time-based pricing. It’s a flexible pricing strategy where prices fluctuate based on market and customer demand.

Hotels, airlines, event venues, and utility companies use dynamic pricing by applying algorithms that consider competitor pricing, demand, and other factors. These algorithms allow companies to shift prices to match when and what the customer is willing to pay at the exact moment they’re ready to make a purchase.

Freemium Pricing Strategy

A combination of the words “free” and “premium,” freemium pricing is when companies offer a basic version of their product hoping that users will eventually pay to upgrade or access more features. Unlike cost-plus, freemium is a pricing strategy commonly used by SaaS and other software companies. They choose this strategy because free trials and limited memberships offer a “peek” into a software’s full functionality — and also build trust with a potential customer before purchase.

With freemium, a company’s prices must be a function of the perceived value of their products. For example, companies who offer a free version of their software can’t ask users to pay $100 to transition to the paid version. Prices must present a low barrier to entry and grow incrementally as customers are offered more features and benefits.

High-Low Pricing Strategy

A high-low pricing strategy is when a company initially sells a product at a high price but lowers that price when the product drops in novelty or relevance. Discounts, clearance sections, and year-end sales are examples of high-low pricing in action.

High-low pricing is commonly used by retail firms who sell seasonal or constantly-changing items, such as clothing, decor, and furniture.

What makes a high/low pricing strategy appealing to sellers? Consumers enjoy anticipating sales and discounts, hence why Black Friday and other universal discount days are so popular.

Hourly Pricing Strategy

Hourly pricing, also known as rate-based pricing, is commonly used by consultants, freelancers, contractors, and other individuals or laborers who provide business services. Hourly pricing is essentially trading time for money. Some clients are hesitant to honor this pricing strategy as it can reward labor instead of efficiency.

Skimming Pricing Strategy

A skimming pricing strategy is when companies charge the highest possible price for a new product and then lower the price over time as the product becomes less and less popular. Skimming is different than high-low pricing in that prices are lowered gradually over time.

Technology products, such as DVD players, video game consoles, and smartphones, are typically priced using this strategy as they become less relevant over time. A skimming pricing strategy helps recover sunk costs and sell products well beyond their novelty, but the strategy can also annoy consumers who bought at full price and attract competitors who recognize the “fake” pricing margin as prices are lowered.

Penetration Pricing Strategy

Contrasted with skimming pricing, a penetration pricing strategy is when companies enter the market with an extremely low price, effectively drawing attention (and revenue) away from higher-priced competitors. Penetration pricing isn’t sustainable in the long run, however, and is typically applied for a short time.

This pricing method works best for brand new businesses looking for customers or for businesses who are breaking into an existing, competitive market. The strategy is all about disruption and temporary loss … and hoping that your initial customers stick around as you eventually raise prices.

(Another tangential strategy is loss leader pricing, where retailers attract customers with intentionally low-priced items in hopes that they’ll buy other, higher-priced products, too. This is precisely how stores like Target get you — and me.)

Premium Pricing Strategy

Also known as premium pricing and luxury pricing, a prestige pricing strategy is when companies price their products high to present the image that their products are high-value, luxury, or premium. Prestige pricing focuses on the perceived value of a product rather than the actual value or production cost.

Prestige pricing is a direct function of brand awareness and brand perception. Brands who apply this pricing method are known for providing value and status through their products — which is why they’re priced higher than other competitors. Fashion and technology are often priced using this strategy because they can be marketed as luxurious, exclusive, and rare.

Project-Based Pricing Strategy

A project-based pricing strategy is the opposite of hourly pricing — this approach charges a flat fee per project instead of a direct exchange of money for time. It is also used by consultants, freelancers, contractors, and other individuals or laborers who provide business services.

Project-based pricing may be estimated based on the value of the project deliverables. Those who choose this pricing strategy may also create a flat fee from the estimated time of the project.

Value-Based Pricing Strategy

A value-based pricing strategy is when companies price their products or services based on what the customer is willing to pay. Even if they can charge more for a product, they decide to set their prices based on customer interest and data.

If used accurately, value-based pricing can boost your customer sentiment and loyalty. It can also help you prioritize your customers in other facets of your business, like marketing and service. On the flip side, value-based pricing requires you to constantly be in tune with your various customer profiles and buyer personas and possibly vary your prices where your customers vary.

Download our free guide to creating buyer personas to easily organize your audience segments and make your marketing stronger.

Like we said above, these strategies aren’t necessarily meant to stand alone. We encourage you to mix and match these methods as needed.

Now, let’s discuss how to apply these strategies to different businesses and industries.

Pricing Strategies Based on Industry or Business

Not every pricing strategy is applicable to every business. Some strategies are better suited for physical products whereas others work best for SaaS companies.

Product Pricing Strategy

Unlike digital products or services, physical products incur hard costs (like shipping, production, and storage) that can influence pricing. A product pricing strategy should consider these costs and set a price that maximizes profit, supports research and development, and stands up against competitors.

👉🏼 We recommend these pricing strategies when pricing physical products: cost-plus pricing, competitive pricing, prestige pricing, and value-based pricing.

Digital Product Pricing Strategy

Digital products, like software, online courses, and digital books, require a different approach to pricing because there’s no tangible offering or unit economics (production cost) involved. Instead, prices should reflect your brand, industry, and overall value of your product.

👉🏼 We recommend using these pricing strategies when pricing digital products: competition-based pricing, freemium pricing, and value-based pricing.

Restaurant Pricing Strategy

Restaurant pricing is unique in that physical costs, overhead costs, and service costs are all involved. You must also consider your customer base, overall market trends for your location and cuisine, and the cost of food — as all of these can fluctuate.

👉🏼 We recommend using these pricing strategies when pricing at restaurants: cost-plus pricing, premium pricing, and value-based pricing.

Event Pricing Strategy

Events can’t be accurately measured by production cost (not unlike the digital products we discussed above). Instead, event value is determined by the cost of marketing and organizing the event as well as the speakers, entertainers networking, and overall experience — and the ticket prices should reflect these factors.

👉🏼 We recommend using these pricing strategies when pricing live events: competition-based pricing, dynamic pricing, and value-based pricing.

Services Pricing Strategy

Business services can be hard to price due to their intangibility and lack of direct production cost. Much of the service value comes from the service provider’s ability to deliver and the assumed caliber of their work. Freelancers and contractors, in particular, must adhere to a services pricing strategy.

👉🏼 We recommend using these pricing strategies when pricing services: hourly pricing, project-based pricing, and value-based pricing.

Pricing Strategy Examples

Pricing models can be hard to visualize. Below, we’ve pulled together a few examples of pricing strategies as they’ve been applied to everyday situations or businesses.

Dynamic Pricing: Chicago Cubs

I live in Chicago five blocks away from Wrigley Field, and my friends and I love going to Cubs games. Finding tickets is always interesting, though, because every time we check prices, they’ve fluctuated a bit from the last time. Purchasing tickets six weeks in advance is always a different process than purchasing them six days prior — and even more so at the gate.

This is an example of dynamic pricing — pricing that varies based on market and customer demand. Prices for Cubs games are always more expensive on holidays, too, when more people are visiting the city and are likely to go to a game.

Another prime example of dynamic pricing is INBOUND, for which tickets get more expensive as the event nears.

Freemium Pricing: HubSpot

HubSpot is an example of freemium pricing at work. HubSpot provides a CRM for free (forever), but charges for access for other marketing, sales, and service tools.

Moreover, within those marketing tools, HubSpot provides limited access to specific features. This type of pricing strategy allows customers to acquaint themselves with HubSpot and for HubSpot to establish trust with customers before asking them to pay for additional access.

Penetration Pricing: Netflix

Netflix is a classic example of penetration pricing: entering the market at a low price (anyone remember when it was $7.99?) and increasing prices over time. Since I joined a couple of years ago, I’ve seen a few price increase notices come through my own inbox.

Source

Despite their increases, Netflix continues to retain — and gain — customers. Sure, Netflix only increases their subscription fee by $1 or $2 each time, but they do so consistently. Who knows what the fees will be in five or ten years?

Premium Pricing: AWAY

There are lots of examples of premium pricing strategies … Rolex, Tesla, Nike — you name it. One that I thought of immediately was AWAY luggage.

Does luggage need to be almost $500? I’d say no, especially since I recently purchased a two-piece Samsonite set for one-third the cost. However, AWAY has still been very successful even though they charge a high price for their luggage.

This is because when you purchase AWAY, you’re purchasing an experience. The amazing branding and image AWAY portrays for customers make the value of the luggage match the purchase price.

Pricing is a Process

Thinking about everything that goes into pricing can make your head spin: competitors, production costs, customer demand, industry needs, profit margins … the list is endless. Thankfully, you don’t have to master all of these factors at once.

Simply sit down, calculate some numbers (like your COGS and profit goals), and figure out what’s most important for your business. Start with what you need, and this will help you pinpoint the right kind of pricing strategy to use.

More than anything, though, remember pricing is an iterative process. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll set the right prices right away — it might take a couple of tries (and lots of research), and that’s OK.

 

Most sales trainers and experts agree that the best sales reps prospect fearlessly. But what "fearless" truly means is up for debate.

To me, being fearless doesn't mean plowing past a prospect's objections and desperately trying to turn their "no" into a "yes." Instead, true fearlessness is accepting the "no's" with just as much grace as the "yes's."

If a buyer doesn't want to talk to you for a half hour, you can't and shouldn't make them. Your determination to get one particular prospect to agree to a meeting means you have less time to find five new prospects who would welcome your invitation.

Once you have the right conception of "fearless" prospecting, use the following four one-liners to grab your prospects' attention and entice them to take another call with you. Some buck conventional sales wisdom, but I guarantee you'll blaze through your call list with increased speed and effectiveness if you give them a try.

Attention-Grabbing Sales Prospecting Phrases

1. "We haven't met before."

Prospects often perceive a sales rep's friendliness as familiarity, and this can confuse them. Have they met you before? Do they know you from somewhere? They'll likely spend the first minute of your conversation wondering if and how you know each other. But when it becomes evident that this is a sales call and the rep is in fact a stranger, they feel tricked, and become angry.

Take the guesswork out of your intention by stating up front, "We've not met before," or "I don't know you." This sets the prospect's expectations and ensures they don't feel the rep is bamboozling them. In the long run, being straightforward and honest is always better than relying on cheap tricks to perk buyer interest.

2. "This call will take three minutes."

During prospecting calls, many reps say something along the lines of "this call will only take a few minutes." But the lack of specificity is a red flag to prospects. They know that "a few minutes" doesn't actually mean a few minutes -- it means however long they're willing to listen to you talk.

Set a clear finish line so the prospect isn't desperately trying to think of a way out of the conversation while you're talking. A time limit allows the prospect to concentrate on the content of your speech because they know they won't be on the phone long.

In addition, this keeps the conversation brief, and shorter, more frequent touches are always better than longer and less frequent contacts in sales.

3. "I don't know much about your company."

Sales reps should research their prospect's organization before a call and demonstrate that knowledge while on the phone. So why would you tell your prospect "I don't know much about your company"?

The answer is simple: Prospects respond more positively to curiosity than credibility. Every sales rep strives to portray themselves as an expert, but not many take on the role of a curious student. And this latter approach is more appealing to buyers.

Just make sure to follow this statement up with an insight that shows off your knowledge. For example:

"Now, I don't know much about your company, but I noticed that you just launched your third software release this year. What have the results been like?"

Sell the prospect on your curiosity first, and then demonstrate your credibility. This will earn you more interest than the other way around.

4. "I'm lost. Can you help me?"

Use this phrase to get start a conversation with the prospect. Or say something like, "This is my first call to your organization and I'm not sure where to start."

Not only does this disarm the prospect, but it also sets the expectation that you need their help, and they need to decide if they'll help you or not. If they don't help you, it lets you know that you should spend your time prospecting elsewhere.

Words like "help", "lost", and "start" are easy expressions to understand and connect with. It's likely your prospect has needed help, was lost, or had trouble getting started with something -- this is a great way to connect with them.

5. "Our companies have spoken in the past, but I haven't reached out before. I'm trying to decipher the notes from the previous account manager who spoke with you."

This comes in handy when you inherited an account from someone else and you're not sure where to start. And it can be used if your company has had a prior relationship with a prospect's company.

Similar to the previous phrase, you're relying on the customer to help you out. Frame it in a way where you're seeking assistance from them and express your genuine interest in learning more about the company.

6. "I'm looking to get more detail or background about your executive and what they like or don't like about sales calls."

If you're talking to an executive assistant, ask them about what their executive is expecting from a sales call. You could even add something along the lines of, "I'm doing my prep to understand exactly what they're looking for."

Not only will you build a connection with the assistant, but you'll have an idea of what you should include or avoid when speaking with the executive in a future sales call.

7. "Thank you."

Maybe you're calling for a referral to the right person to talk with about your product. If the contact gives you the name and email address of the appropriate colleague, don't drag the conversation out. Simply thank them, wish them a pleasant day, and end the call.

But you're not done yet. After you've hung up the phone, pick it up again and call the same person back. When they answer (and it's highly likely they will since you just talked with them), say the following:

"I'm sorry to call you back, but I forgot to ask you -- why is John the person to talk with about this?"

I find that this two-call approach yields far more information than if the rep tries to cram all their questions into one long conversation.

Again, frequency trumps duration. Two five-minute calls are more agreeable to the prospect and more valuable to the rep than one half-hour long meeting.

To learn more, check out these sales prospecting techniques you should be using next. And gain even more sales insight at YourSalesMBA® Blog and listen to the SalesMBA® Podcast.

Who thinks they have enough time in a day?

If you're in sales or marketing, I'm willing to bet you answered 'no' to that question. Most of us are constantly pulled in many different directions and, as a result, are forced to multitask all day long.

Finding time in a packed schedule can be challenging, especially when you're trying to find free time in your own schedule as well as ten other peoples'.

The best way to minimize extraneous time spent on simple tasks is to outsource that work to a third party -- in this case, a group scheduler. A group scheduler will enable you to mitigate unnecessary back-and-forth emails, and ultimately reduce friction in your workflow.

Here, we're going to explore some of the best group scheduling tools you might use to create a more effective scheduling process. But first -- what should you look for in a good group scheduling tool?

A group scheduling tool needs to meet a ton of requirements to be considered "good." Simply having integration with your calendar apps isn't enough.

Nowadays, a good scheduler has powerful sales integrations. Your tool should be able to integrate with:

• Calendar apps (iCal, Outlook, Google Calendar)
• Sales automation tools (ex. Lead generation, growth, email, etc.)
• Customer relationship management software (CRM)

Most group scheduling apps are able to find common times to meet, but some have additional features such as being optimized for mobile functionalities, privacy, speed, and transparency.

Next, let's explore our favorite 19 scheduling tools. The descriptions below will give you an idea of the capabilities and scope of our favorite apps.

1. HubSpot Meetings

Price: Free

HubSpot Meetings simplifies and automates what used to be a very arduous and often manual process.

Fully integrated with HubSpot's free CRM, the Meetings function allows you to:

1. Cut out back-and-forth scheduling emails
2. Provide transparency and flexibility for your team or prospects to schedule with you when they see you're free
3. Smooth out the lead-capture process by asking key client questions before the meeting even happens

The tool can be embedded in your site and set to reflect your branding on client and in-team communications. Once a client inputs their information to create a new meeting, their data is collected into a database, which you can use for future contact with them and to grow your clientele as you get more connections.

HubSpot Meetings also offers the option for group meeting links. You can alter the settings so that you receive notifications once new meetings are created, and include critical meeting information within the link such as meeting length, subject matter, etc.

2. Doodle

Price: Tiered pricing, from free to $69/year depending on the plan

Doodle is arguably the best scheduler available for smartphones on the market. Currently compatible with iOS and Android, Doodle relies heavily on the polling function to crowd-source available meeting dates.

Doodle first lets you set up a MeetMe page, where you can display your free times and choose your designated branding. You can set up a poll of your available dates and times and let people vote on time slots that are convenient for them by sending them a link via email or directing them to a URL.

It offers several response options -- not just the yes/no binary -- and allows choosers to rank or explain responses. You can see who has responded and who hasn't and keep responses to a limited number if needed. It's compatible with most commonly used calendars.

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3. Boomerang Calendar

Price: Free

Boomerang Calendar is a Google extension that connects with your Firefox or Chrome browser. Once it's installed, it plugs into your Google Calendar and Gmail, so if you don't use those email services, this might not be the choice for you.

Bibi Lauri Raven, founder of BibiBuzz, describes Boomerang Calendar as such:

"It's seamless and doesn't add to 'app clutter.' It also takes into account the different time zones and is integrated in Gmail, Chrome and my Google Calendar. While I'm emailing, I can easily pull up my calendar to let folks pick the best time to have a call. They only see the times I'm available, not my other appointments and activities."

As she mentioned, it's a tool that is very well-integrated with your email and calendars. As you're typing up an email, you can embed your schedule into the text body. There are a few other methods too, but its main appeal is that it's centralized and operates entirely within your email page. The event is created once an invitee selects a time, and that time is automatically recorded in your calendar.

However, the plug-in is a bit of a contradiction -- it's privacy-oriented in that it protects the details of your schedule from being shown, but in order to use the service, you have to grant it access to some of your private information, including your calendar, contacts, and email.

This might not be the service to choose if you or your invitees prefer a certain degree of online anonymity.

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4. Mixmax

Price: Tiered pricing, starting from $9/month to custom pricing for enterprise

Mixmax is a scheduler built into your email. Compatible specifically with Gmail, this platform is particularly great for those who work in sales. Some of the sales features it includes are:

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator integrations
• Salesforce auto-create features
• Sales dialer
• Beast mode

Mixmax makes email scheduling easy. You can use customizable templates to send emails, track opens and clicks, send notifications, and use slash commands to get your clients scheduled. You can even embed links and other media within the email using Mixmax.

Here's how Yura Riphyak, Founder and Chief Product Officer at YouTeam, puts it:

"This scheduling tool stands out for one simple reason: it allows you to schedule meetings directly in the body of your email. Not only does this facilitate the conversion in outbound outreach campaigns, but it also cuts excess friction in all communication points that leads to a meeting."

Austin Mullins, founder of Conversion Creatives, also uses Mixmax. He appreciates the ability to throw links directly into your emails -- "Since prospects don't have to click-through to see available times, it increases the likelihood of them actually choosing a time," he says.

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5. WhenIsGood

Price: Basic and account plans are free, premium plans are $20/year

WhenIsGood is a very simplistic option, but it's effective for group scheduling. Though other options might be better for those who need a feature-intensive service, this is a good option for your basic needs.

First, you create an account and set up a calendar covering the days you're available. You can choose time slots based off of your meeting length requirements and select the time window you're available. Once you've chosen a time window, you can add your information and create the event.

Creating the event generates three links. Each link has a purpose:

• One is to make changes to your calendar
• One is to send out with meeting invites
• One is to handle to poll outcomes

When you send out the link for people to choose from your availability, they select the times that work for them and it syncs with your poll outcomes link. From there, you can decide the ideal meeting times for everyone involved. It doesn't have the most integrations, but it does the trick.

Kaleigh Moore, copywriter extraordinaire for SaaS and eCommerce businesses, uses the tool and describes what she likes about it here: "My favorite meeting scheduler is a very no-frills tool called WhenIsGood. The basic version is free and does everything I need -- plus it's extremely simple to use. No training or downloading or anything required by any party. Just a simple way to crowdsource the optimal meeting time for two or more people."

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6. YouCanBook.Me

Price: $10 per calendar per month, $108 per calendar per year, $192 per calendar per two years

YouCanBook.Me is another popular group scheduling tool for teams. It's a simple but powerful tool. The system integrates with GCal, Office 365, and iCal. Additionally, the tool is good for large organizations because you can use the calendar to book multiple people, services, or locations.

It's optimized for mobile and customizable -- you can tailor your colors and notifications to fit your needs. Its customer booking system allows your clients to choose their specified times in the correct time zone. You can add buffers between appointments and adjust appointment length.

Ryan Farley, co-founder of LawnStarter, describing why he loves YouCanBook.Me: "I absolutely love using YouCanBook.Me for calendar scheduling. Scheduling meetings without it can take half a dozen back and forth emails at a time. Instead, I just send someone my booking link and say, "To make things easy, want to find a slot that works for you here?" Additionally, I can block off times on my schedule, and manage the length of time slots I want available."

Jeroen Corthout, co-founder of Salesflare, echoes that sentiment, although he notes that "the design is not as modern as some other tools, but it's highly customizable and can fit any workflow you want to build."

Overall, it's a great tool for teams and groups looking to shave off a few hours per week in back-and-forth emails.

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7. 24Sessions

Price: Pricing available upon request.

24Sessions is a feature-rich group scheduling tool that is a favorite among high-functioning sales teams. It also includes video and screen sharing, which makes it a great tool to serve most sales meeting functionality.

Clients can book their meetings based off of your availability. The calendar accounts for time-zone differences and allows for data tracking. It syncs with GCal and Office 365.

Keller Tiemann, founder of Leadsurance, describes why he loves the tool:

"It covers the most important things like integrating a calendar on our website, or a standalone landing page, for our prospects and clients to schedule meetings. It also automatically creates calendar appointments and reminders for everyone and sends out links to the video chat meeting room. 24Sessions offers dial-in features, meeting recordings, the ability to host multiple participants, and a lot of other features that allow us to use it for everything from scheduling demos to supporting our most complex clients. It has made scheduling and hosting efficient and timely meetings completely seamless for us."

If you're looking for a feature-heavy one-stop-shop for sales teams and group scheduling, this is a good solution for you.

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8. TimeTrade

Price: Pricing available upon request.

TimeTrade is a solid group scheduling tool. It's mobile-optimized, and you can match clients to employees and services. Additionally, the tool allows you to enable video calling for appointments, and you can connect TimeTrade to your CRM to facilitate easy process flow.

Paul Granger, founder of Website Promoter, loves the mobile-focus of TimeTrade -- "With 80% of mobile device users claiming to never leave home without their phone, you can safely say that one of the best ways to do automate group scheduling would be through their favorite device."

Notifications are easily enabled for both you and your customers. You can set your own rules for meeting design and availability, and even check out your analytics using this tool.

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9. Cogsworth

Price: $49/year

Cogsworth is a scheduling service with a focus on smooth customer experience that integrates with Office 365 and GCal. It's customizable based on location, availability, and services provided.

Through a step-by-step question process, you can schedule your appointments. You'll have to input:

• What type of meeting you want (and how long)
• With whom you want to meet
• A time zone, date, and time
• Your name
• Your phone number
• Your email
• Confirm your meeting

You can orchestrate appointment buffers and time zones into your calendar, send out notifications, translate text, and make sure your calendar embeds into your website.

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10. Skedify

Price: Tiered pricing, $333-$1673 per month depending on your plan

Skedify is a solid option if you have a large organization with vast, complicated scheduling needs. It's pretty good for teams or franchises because you can add a certain teams' available time and sync individual calendars within the master calendar.

It allows you to choose:

• The location of your meeting
• The time
• The people who should attend

Skedify offers plenty of integrations -- it allows you to assign tasks and track customer experience, while adhering to necessary security measures.

Johan Vandecasteele, co-founder at LeadStreet, uses Skedify with a few of his clients. As he puts it, "it works great with complex situations. One client has more than 100 franchises, and you can schedule a meeting with any of them directly from the website. We build a custom sync with HubSpot that works super smoothly."

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11. MeetingBird

Price: Free for up to 25 meetings a month, $9/month for Pro

MeetingBird is a Chrome extension created by the inventors of Front, which acts as a group email for multiple people. Your calendar is displayed in conjunction with your email. In order to use this tool, you must have Office 365 or Gmail.

It offers plenty of the same operational abilities as many other apps in this list -- displaying your calendar to respondents, creating events and notifications, providing meeting templates, and offering poll generation.

However, it stands out uniquely in one way -- it allows you to save time for yourself. And that's really the point of all these things anyway, isn't it?

Baptiste Debever, head of growth at Feedier, says, "It's a very versatile and integrated tool. It plays nicely with the G Suite tool and can also be integrated with Zoom. All-in-all, I like the tool, and it powers most of the features I need, for free."

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12. Calendly

Price: Tiered pricing, from free to $12/year depending on your plan

Calendly is a very common choice for tech entrepreneurs. It has a very simple and aesthetically pleasing interface. It's user-friendly and offers cross-software compatibility, making it a popular choice for external clients. It connects with Outlook, Microsoft Office 365, iCal, and Google Calendar.

To use the tool, you simply enter your availability into Calendly, which then provides you a link to your calendar. When communicating with people you need to set up a meeting with, just send them your link, and it will show them times you are available.

They can then choose a meeting name, time, length, and location. This will generate a meeting on your calendar, and a notification will be sent to remind you and your invitees before the meeting begins.

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13. ScheduleOnce

Price: $7.50/month for one user, $10/month for up to 10 users

ScheduleOnce is a good tool for sales teams. It prioritizes easy connection between your companies' prospects and sales team to feed directly into the funnel.

It's easily embedded into your website, marketing, and email marketing campaigns, so rather than just merely allowing for lead capture, your prospect can immediately schedule from their first point of contact.

It then automatically distributes the meeting information to the appropriate team members. These events will be synchronized across all of the participants' calendars.

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14. Acuity Scheduling

Price: Starting free for one person, and ranging up to $50/month for large companies

The functionality of Acuity Scheduling is wide-ranging, but the more you pay, the more you get out of the service.

All paid plans are compatible with Google Apps, Office 365, Exchange, and Outlook. Video conferencing is emphasized as well, so Zoom, GoToMeeting, and Join.me are integrated.

The tool isn't simply for embedding a scheduler into your site, although it does allow you to do that. It also enables you to control invoicing, accounting, payments, and mass emailing. Your clients can see your schedule and book their own time to see you. The easy access makes it simpler to reschedule and pay you online.

In some ways, it's the Swiss Army knife of schedulers.

Here's how John Doherty, founder of Credo, describes their decision to switch to Acuity: "We've tried most of the scheduling tools out there, and recently decided that we're going to move all of our scheduling to Acuity Scheduling because it gives us API ability to do custom integrations for our platform, still allows for custom redirects for goal tracking, and lets us add multiple users to multiple meeting types as needed."

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15. Rallly (Web)

Price: Free

In contrast to the Boomerang Calendar function mentioned earlier in this list, Rallly is the best option for those who worry about their private information being exposed.

It does have drawbacks, however -- such as a lack of widespread email integration, the inability to choose times, and a general dearth of deep customization capabilities.

It is poll-based like many of the other apps and plugins in this list, but unlike the others, Rallly allows its poll respondents to retain their anonymity, even if they decide to engage in the discussion portion. After you create your poll, you can invite people by sharing the link or emailing them.

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16. FreeBusy

Price: Tiered pricing, from free to $16+/month depending on your plan

FreeBusy is often a favorite option for B2B companies, specifically because it integrates with so many different services. It operates as a Chrome extension or plugin for Outlook email.

Here are the calendars it supports:

• Outlook
• Oracle
• Microsoft Exchange
• Office 365
• OwnCloud
• Salesforce
• Facebook
• Google
• IBM Verse
• iCloud
• Yahoo
• Zimbra
• Zoom (for video calls)

When you sign up, you get a unique URL that hosts your calendar. You can send that link to people who want to schedule with you, and they can sign up on your page, or you can add participants to a meeting you create and offer one of your available times.

If that doesn't work, they can reference your URL. You can also include buffer times around your meetings, so you're not rushed. Additionally, you're able to restrict certain individuals from requesting meeting times.

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17. Vyte.in

Price: Tiered plans, from free to $10/month for Pro; custom pricing for enterprises

Vyte.in is a scheduler that works best with iOS. It's a poll-based system that lets users vote on suggested meeting times and dates once they receive an email from you with the information.

Vyte.in remembers respondent's availability and then suggests meeting times to you. It records your meeting time in your calendar once everyone agrees on the details. Of course, respondents can also just look at your calendar with the custom URL Vyte.in generates.

The Pro feature is where it really shines -- Pro allows you to build-in buffers (much like FreeBusy) between meetings and prevents you from overbooking yourself by enabling you to write down dates even if they're tentative.

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18. Meetin.gs

Price: $12/month or $129/year per organizer

Meetin.gs is a personal scheduler that is compatible with Google applications and Office 365. It works best via mobile devices that operate on Android and iOS. Like many other applications, it allows you to make your own page -- with a unique URL you can send out -- devoted to your calendar. You can customize the length, location, and style of meeting you want, then send out invitations.

This app allows the user to see all of their meetings on a timeline and takes agenda or meeting notes within the application for everyone to access. The crowd-sourcing and sharing feature make it easy to pass notes or agendas to your employers or employees.

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19. X.ai

Price: from $8 per month

X.ai is debatably one of the most unique apps in this list, as it's run entirely by artificial intelligence. Once again, if privacy is your concern, this may not be the service for you, but if you prefer efficiency, this is a good option.

It's compatible with Google apps, Okta, and Outlook. When you register your account, you allow access to all of your pertinent information -- calendar, contacts, email, IDs, etc.

When you set up an event, email the invitee and CC your bot's email address, which will be given to you as you set up. In the email, you write down the bot's name and then the event instructions. If further clarification is needed, the bot can email the invitee with your schedule availability and can hash out the details from there. Once a meeting is agreed upon, an invite will be sent to all involved parties.

Max Benz, founder of EasyContent, explains why the tool is particularly helpful: "You might think that the term 'AI' is used too often, and you might be right, but this tool definitely solved my pain point. The tool allows me to set up meetings via email or Slack. X.ai lets me directly create meetings, but it also takes over the conversation to find a suitable date and time for a meeting if needed. Basically, it acts as my personal 'AI' assistant … which was a bit weird first (but results speak for themselves)."

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Ultimately, the options are endless for group scheduling tools. The choice is up to you which one fits your personal workflow. Whether you value privacy, efficiency, or transparency, any one of these services would be worth investigating for your business.

If you're looking for a quick and easy way to schedule meetings or appointments, check out HubSpot Meetings.

What is a sales opportunity, and when do you know it's not a lead anymore?

There is no single, universal definition. However, some common misconceptions deserve to be clarified because the concept of an opportunity impacts your sales process, your ability to qualify, and your alignment with marketing (if you can't agree with marketing on what an "opportunity" is, you'll have all kinds of challenges in scaling your sales). In this article, I am writing about a first-stage opportunity, immediately after it's converted from a lead -- the true starting point of your selling process.

Even a brand-new sales rep knows that a "sales opportunity" is when you are working with a qualified prospect who has a good chance of becoming a customer. But what does "qualified" mean, and how do you know the chance of a deal is not imagined? After all, typically only 10 to 15% of B2B sales opportunities become deals.

This might seem like a picky point, but the definition of "sales opportunity" at your company has significant bearing on forecasting accuracy. If each rep has a different conception of what entails an opportunity, they'll move leads through the CRM sales stages at wildly varying paces. With such inconsistency across your sales team, good luck projecting revenue with any hope of accuracy -- you need to define clear sales process stages to ensure deals are being categorized correctly. It's also possible salespeople are taking shortcuts in the sales process because they don't understand the value of accurate forecasting, and believe that appearing to have more opportunities in the pipeline is better.

Let's start with the definition of a lead. A typical B2B "marketing-generated lead" is an inbound top of the funnel inquiry; for example, a white paper or eBook download. A "sales-generated lead" is an outbound asset -- maybe a person an SDR called and got interested in learning more or scheduling a call.

But a "sales opportunity" is more than a "lead," and herein lies the rub. Many think that a lead becomes an opportunity when you qualify based on BANT criteria -- Budget, Authority, Needs, Timeline. However, as the name of this article suggests, that's not the case in my opinion.

The reason is this -- it should not be necessary to know the prospect's budget, timeline, or authority right at the very beginning when you're just deciding whether you have enough there to convert the lead to an opportunity. If the prospect tells you that she has budget and a 30-day timeline to buy your product then you have yourself a nice late-stage opportunity with maybe an 80% chance of closing, not a first stage opportunity that typically comes only at a 10 to 15% win rate.

So, if BANT does not a first stage opportunity make, what does? At the most fundamental level, I believe all sales opportunities should share three traits. Start with these, and then layer criteria particular to your company on top.

Sometimes there's confusion between a lead and a prospect. A lead is an unqualified contact, while a prospect is a qualified contact who has been moved into the sales process.

So, how can you move leads and prospects to opportunities? Look for these characteristics.

Characteristics All Sales Opportunities Must Share

1. Pain

I think we can all agree that a lead needs to have some sort of pain (AKA need) before they can be converted into an opportunity. People generally buy to reduce pain, so if there isn't pain, there probably isn't a high likelihood of a sale.

However, it's the job of the sales rep to identify that pain. Just because a prospect doesn't explicitly express the pain to you out of his or her own volition doesn't mean there is none. To be successful in sales, a sales rep needs to develop the right qualification skills to bring that pain to the surface and pull it out of prospects by asking carefully crafted questions.

This goes for inbound leads as well. It's great that a prospect downloaded an eBook from your website, but that might just mean they want to learn the content. So the rep still needs to qualify for pain before converting the lead into an opportunity.

2. Interest

The next thing I look for is interest. For example, the prospect might be aware of their problem, but does that mean they're interested in solving it? Ask them how long they've had this problem. If they say it's been around for 20 years, then why would they care to solve it now? They've lived with the issue a long time without being bothered by it. There is clearly little interest in solving it. Executives must pick and choose their battles, and the most acute pain will get solved first.

3. Fit

Let's say you have a prospect who has a pressing need and a strong desire to solve the problem. Just one issue. They operate a three-person company, and your product is made for businesses with 100+ employees. Does this person represent a sales opportunity?

No, because they're not the right fit for your offering. They might want to buy your product, but the salesperson shouldn't sell it to them. Since the product and the prospect's situation aren't well aligned, it's a recipe for an unhappy customer. And unhappy customers often take to online review sites to express their frustration.

What You Don't Need to Qualify a Sales Opportunity

In my opinion, these three traits are the only criteria salespeople need to establish before converting a lead to an opportunity in their CRM.

Sales reps who qualify with the BANT framework might be a bit confused. Where's the budget qualification? The timeline? The authority?

If you are able to establish B, A, N, and T during a first call, then you don't merely have an opportunity on your hands -- you practically have a deal! The prospect is far more advanced than a first stage opportunity.

By definition, an opportunity means that you have a chance of selling a customer -- not a guarantee. A fully BANT-qualified prospect is essentially a guarantee. An opportunity is a prospect who has pain, interest in solving that pain, and fit. A salesperson can pick up on the budget, timeline, and authority throughout the sales process to further qualify (or disqualify) the opportunity.

Using these three criteria to upgrade leads to opportunities ensures that sales managers and leaders analyze apples to apples in reporting. Once you've established the milestones a lead needs to satisfy to be considered an opportunity, put similarly well-defined criteria in place for the other stages in your sales process. Clear exit criteria ensure consistency and repeatability -- the foundations of a strong sales process.

To learn more, check out the sales cycle explained in less than 500 words next.

So you’ve just been promoted to sales manager -- congratulations!

You were a top-performing individual contributor in your previous position, but in your new role you won’t be able to do everything yourself. Making that transition and becoming an effective coach and leader aren’t easy.

In your first three months as a manager, you’ll have to learn an entirely new set of processes -- some related to sales, some not. You’ll have to accomplish three primary tasks:

1. Learn to empower your reps
2. Scale your own management process
3. Foster team growth

The most important exercises you’ll need to undergo in each area are outlined below. Good luck, and happy managing!

If you don’t get to know them, you will have no idea what scares them, what inspires them, what motivates them. -- Bo Schembechler, football coach

1. Assess your strengths as a manager

Before you became a sales manager, you should have thought hard about why you wanted to be a front line manager. A great book that I would recommend to anyone in leadership is Peter Drucker’s On Managing Yourself, one of the Harvard Business Review’s 10 Must Reads. The book focuses on knowing yourself.

“One cannot build performance on weaknesses, let alone on something one cannot do at all," Drucker writes. If you understand your strengths, your team will follow your lead.

A few questions to ask yourself as a new manager are:

• What is your leadership style?
• What is your management style?
• What is your coaching style?
• What are your strengths and areas of improvement?

Once you understand your strengths as a leader, share them with your reps so they know how best to communicate with you and how your work styles mesh.

2. Get to know your team

Your team has a collective goal, but each of your team members are unique individuals and should not be treated the same. This might sound challenging, but it’s one of the coolest aspects of a managerial role. Each person on your team will have their own set of motivations, goals, challenges, and way of thinking. If your company offers a training around situational leadership, I would highly recommend it.

Caring about your team as individuals will go farther than you think. If you believe in each rep for their unique strengths, chances are you’ll be in the back of their mind the day they doubt themselves. And believe me, that day will come sooner than you think. We all need guidance and empowerment.

3. Understand how your team wants to be managed

One of your first acts as a sales manager should be to set up meetings with each person on your team.

Eventually, you’ll have two weekly meetings with each of your team members: one for forecasting and pipeline review, and one for coaching, career discussions, or any other topic determined by the rep (more on that later). But for now, your top priority should be understanding the shape your future meetings will take, and that means figuring out what your team members need out of their professional relationship with you.

Below are a few questions that you can ask in your initial meetings with your team members:

• What does success mean to you?
• What is your biggest strength?
• What is one thing you would like to improve on?
• What would prevent you from achieving your goals?
• What do you think makes a good leader?
• How do you like to be managed?
• How do you like to receive feedback?
• What do you look for in a coach?
• What motivates you day-to-day?
• How can I help you be better?

4. Create a team-wide weighted pipeline

One of your responsibilities as a sales manager is to roll up a weekly or monthly forecast to your head of sales.

A weighted pipeline, which assigns a value to each potential deal (a combination of the deal’s value and its stage in the sales process), serves as a snapshot of what your total pipeline is “worth” at this point in time. Deals in early stages are weighted less than deals that could close this week, and no deal is weighted at 100% until it closes.

To build a weighted pipeline, group all potential deals by their stage in the sales process and sum their value. Then, multiply the total value of each stage by the weight assigned to that stage (your company should have standard weights you can use).

Here’s an example of how to put together a weighted pipeline:

Discovery call with an influencer (5% weight)

• Deals: 50
• Potential value: $100
• Weighted value: $5

Discovery call with a decision maker (7% weight)

• Deals: 33
• Potential value: $66
• Weighted value: $4.62

Presentation/demo with an influencer (20% weight)

• Deals: 17
• Potential value: $34
• Weighted value: $6.80

Presentation/demo with a decision maker (40% weight)

• Deals: 8
• Potential value: $16
• Weighted value: $6.40

Budget approval (60% weight)

• Deals: 12
• Potential value: $24
• Weighted value: $14.40

Legal approval (70% weight)

• Deals: 10
• Potential value: $20
• Weighted value: $14

Contracts sent out (80% weight)

• Deals: 12
• Potential value: $24
• Weighted value: $19.20

In this example, although the total potential value of all your team’s deals is $284, the weighted pipeline more accurately represents your pipeline’s current value -- $70.42.

Even for deals in late stages, things can go wrong. So I recommend generating a pipeline that’s four times your goal. Read on to find out how to accurately assess your reps’ pipelines.

5. Schedule forecasting meetings with each rep

To build a weighted pipeline, you’ll have determine which deals to include and which to omit. Set up a weekly forecasting meeting with each of your reps to assess their pipelines and offer guidance.

Handle each meeting a bit differently with each person while keeping your fundamental pipeline questions the same. Once you provide a pipeline cadence, your conversations will start to flow without even asking the questions.

A few forecasting questions are listed below to help guide you:

• Who is the economic buyer?
• What does the landscape look like when the contract is going to be signed? (Is your rep going to physically camp out at the prospect’s office? Will they walk down to Legal?)
• What stage is this deal in? (Use the deal stages in your CRM for uniformity.)
• Why would they buy now?
• Is there a cash flow or budget issue? How can we solve it?
• What is their timeline?
• What is the consequence if they don’t buy now?
• How many roles are you speaking with? Does this cover all the departments that need to be involved?
• Where is this initiative coming from? Will the CEO/anyone C-level need to give final approval?
• What is the purchasing, legal, and procurement process?
• Is there a deal size threshold that triggers a legal review?
• How strong is your champion?
• Do we have access to and the cell phones numbers of all people involved in this deal?
• How can I help?

Make it clear that the forecasting meeting is about collaboration. Your top reps will want to know that you’re there to help and provide guidance, not interrogate them.

6. Set a weekly optional meeting with each rep

As a manager in today’s fast-moving environment, I recommend setting two short meetings with your reps per week. The first, outlined above, is about deal forecasting. The second should function as a general meeting to help your reps grow. This can cover a range of topics, from career guidance to call reviews to specific coaching.

I like to keep these meetings to 30 minutes to keep them focused, and let my reps choose the topic. This ensures that we’re covering areas that are relevant for them and will actually be useful.

7. Set a weekly, monthly, and quarterly cadence for your team members’ sales activity

A weekly cadence for metrics in sales can promote effective behaviors amongst your team by giving them a concrete goal to work toward.

Some ideas for a weekly cadence meeting to drive accountability are:

• Weekly calls
• Meetings booked per week
• Qualification calls per week
• Weekly product demos/presentations
• Weekly goals

Have reps self-report on either hitting or missing these goals. If they miss, ask them to create a plan outlining their plans to get back up to speed.

To set these goals, compare your reps’ benchmarks to company benchmarks. On average, how many deals does a rep need to close to meet their quota? How many demos or presentations do they need to deliver to make that number? How many meetings do they need to book?

Work backwards until you know the average number of outreach activity each rep needs to complete per week, adjusting their individual targets as necessary. A rep who already exceeds these targets won’t need much hand-holding, but a rep whose activity level is a half of what it needs to be will require some ramping up.

8. Define your hiring process

As a manager, you’ll be directly responsible for hiring new members of your team, so you’ll need an interviewing and evaluation strategy. You should also think about what other resources are available to you -- for example, are there people on your team who could help you evaluate potential candidates?

Your company will have a hiring playbook, but you’ll need to develop a profile for your ideal candidate as well. Use the questions below to guide your interview process:

• What type of candidate are you looking to hire?
• How many years of experience are you looking for?
• What key attributes define your most successful rep?

Bonus tip: Even if you think you have an all star hire on your hands, don't skip the reference checks. You never know what you might find out!

9. Create a peer mentor program

A peer mentorship program can often serve as a leadership initiative path for the members of your team that show interest in taking their career to the next level. Assign each level you manage a peer buddy and create guidance for the mentor program. Whether it’s shadowing, reviewing calls together, or weekly check-ins, peer mentors provide an extra perspective that adds a valuable additional perspective to your coaching.

10. Foster peer-to-peer learning environments

Collaboration won’t just happen -- as a manager, it’s your responsibility to create situations that foster it. For example, a weekly team meeting is a great way to drive cross-team collaboration on deals in progress, where everyone is helpful and supportive.

Define your team incentives and what drives your team. Does a team dinner drive results? Do people get excited about spending time outside of work with one another? Find the events or activities that make your team “click” (and also improve performance), and then double down on them.

11. Don’t solve your team’s problems for them

This can be really hard as a first time manager. You most likely came from doing very well in an individual contributor role yourself, so it’s tempting to just do your reps’ work or tasks for them. Avoid this temptation! Your team will learn and grow with your help, but their effort should be in the forefront.

Allowing your team to solve problems on their own is also empowering. Ask them to explain to you the process of how they got there and provide feedback to them if you are asked. Letting them develop their own solution will build your team members’ confidence more than if you simply tell them what to do.

Remember: It’s never about you. Being a manager is about your people and how you serve them.

12. Always solve for the company first

As an individual contributor, you spend most of your time thinking about yourself -- whether you’re going to hit your number this month, what you need your manager’s help with, what you want your next career move to be, and so on. As a manager, you should be thinking more big-picture. Put your company before your team, and put your team before yourself.

Your legacy as a manager won’t just be about your performance and your number. It will be about the impact and and development of your people. The best days for front line managers are the days their people over-achieve and receive promotions for their hard work and dedication. This is what matters.

Sales managers empower, lead, support, and guide reps, but that’s not all we do. We get to make an impact on each individual’s day-to-day experience and overall quality of life. It’s not easy, but when you look back? Wow -- it is rewarding!

The commercial use limit resets at midnight PST on the first day of each calendar month. LinkedIn won't lift the limit if you request it. You will never see the exact number of searches still available -- and if you run through your searches too quickly, the warning may not show up.

After you hit the limit, you'll still be able to see search results, but only a very small number.

How to Work Around the LinkedIn Commercial Use Limit

Searching for contacts by name on LinkedIn doesn't count. So, if you're looking for "Jane Doe," typing her name into the search box at the top of every page will have no impact on your usage count.

Browsing your first-degree connections from your connected page doesn't count either.

And exploring the "People You May Know" feature doesn't count towards the limit.

Finally, you can search for jobs via the jobs page without penalty.

Here's what does count:

• Searching for LinkedIn profiles (either on the site or app) using keywords and/or filters.
• Clicking on LinkedIn profiles from the People Also Viewed section on the right sidebar.

It's also worth noting browser plug-ins that run searches or view profiles on your behalf might count toward the limit. These third-party tools will search for and view accounts in the background. If you're frequently going over and don't know why, I suggest disabling these apps.

Frequently reaching the commercial use limit is a good sign you should buy Sales Navigator. LinkedIn Premium Essentials and Career plans still include the commercial use limit.

And learn more about how to write an effective LinkedIn headline here.

We know that best-in-class sales organizations use a consultative sales process. But what does that really look like?

A sales process is consultative when the stages and actions align with the customer’s buying experience and are defined in terms of the customer relationship.

It's only successful when sales leadership and the sales force execute with dedication and competence. That's why a true consultative sales framework has both a process component and a human component. Let's dig into each.

Consultative Sales Process

A typical consultative sales process is made up of six stages. Each stage maps out winning behaviors and strategies. Here's an example:

• Stage 1: Target and Qualify
• Stage 2: Explore and Assess
• Stage 3: Access and Develop Solution
• Stage 4: Present Solution and Follow-up
• Stage 5: Negotiate and Close
• Stage 6: Implement, Follow Through, Assess Results, and Expand

The sales process stages should help guide salespeople in qualifying, closing, expanding business, and building relationships.

Each stage should define the objective, best practice activities, tools, models, and customer actions that signal readiness to advance to the next stage (for example, the customer agrees to a meeting in stage one or provides access to the executive buyer in stage two).

There should also be a list of sales coaching questions related to each stage. Some examples in Stage two would be: What business problem is the customer trying to solve? Have I reached the executive sponsor?

The stages must align with the buyer's journey: The process buyers go through to become aware of, evaluate, and purchase a new product or service.

Here's a typical buying cycle, along with the corresponding salesperson action.

Stage 1: Target and Qualify

The customer becomes aware of a business problem. Alternatively, the salesperson creates a pre-stage one opportunity by introducing an idea or challenge that is not yet on a customer’s agenda, or raises the visibility of an issue the customer has underestimated.

For example, a salesperson speaking with a company that offers online educational courses might say, "Some of your competitors have seen a decrease in online course subscribers as our economy has come out of the recession. Luckily, I've been able to help them find new avenues for attracting new business."

In this scenario, the salesperson identifies a problem, or a potential problem, the company or its industry is facing, and teases a solution.

Stage 2: Explore and Assess

Customers assess how much of a priority the issue is, determine their options, and develop decision criteria and decision process. Salespeople can help their prospects by sending them how-to blog posts, offering to run a consultative call, and sending them relevant content resources.

At this point, the salesperson would send case studies about how they've helped similar businesses overcome dwindling subscribers. They might also share relevant research or other articles that take a closer look at the state and future of online education.

And don't forget about video. Sending a helpful TED Talk or webinar is also a great way to grab a prospect's attention and provide valuable educational resources in an engaging manner.

Stage 3: Access and Develop Solution

Customers research, compare solutions, narrow down choices, and refine decision criteria. The salesperson must differentiate, focus on business outcomes, and prove value.

How will your solution differ from your competitor's? Make sure that's clear for your prospect. In our online education example, this might look like the following: "Many of our competitors offer to help you buy subscriber lists. We believe emailing thousands of people who have never signed up for your service is a bad customer experience. Instead, we help you target relevant subscribers at the right events, with the right ads, at the right time. This allows you to build a relationship instead of pitching your classes before your audience even knows who you are and how you can help them."

The salesperson has clearly outlined how they're different from others in their industry and the unique solution they offer for their prospect's business.

Stage 4: Present Solution and Follow Up

Knowledgeable customers make their selection and negotiate. Skilled salespeople will have already involved procurement prior to this stage. You should already know what steps need to be taken for your prospect's organization to buy a new product or service. That knowledge is crucial for presenting a solution with a realistic timeline.

Make sure you understand what the procurement process is and confirm that the solution you've laid out meets your champion's expectations.

For example, "I know that before I present to your executive team, your finance and paid advertising teams need to sign off on our solution. Do you think we will able to get their approval by the 14th of this month? And if so, would an executive presentation be realistic by the 20th?"

By securing your champion's agreement to the timeline, you have a more concrete plan forward, which makes follow up easier.

Step 5: Negotiate and Close

Customers make the purchase. Salespeople support implementation and follow-up. When a close is imminent, it's more important than ever to make sure your prospect feels supported.

You never want to lose a deal that's close to the finish line because you took attention off of nurturing a "done deal" and shifted it to a prospect higher in your funnel.

Check in with your late-stage prospects regularly. Ask if they have any questions or concerns. And get ahead of any red flags that might arise. If you touch base with a prospect who says, "My manager has approved the deal but is dragging her heals to sign the paperwork," ask if it would be appropriate for you to reach out directly to that stakeholder to answer questions or provide a gentle nudge.

Giving your champion prospect the backup they need is crucial at this stage.

Step 6: Implement, Follow Through, Assess Results, and Expand

Customers are in an evaluation mode. In the post-purchase stage, customers implement, measure outcomes, and evaluate performance against the sales promise. They decide on the future of the relationship. Salespeople must discuss results, prove value, and build on the rapport they previously created.

It is at the intersection of sales process and the buying process that sales are made. Marketing must step up to the plate and support the sales force not only with qualified leads but with knowledge sharing, research, and insights into industry and customer priorities, personas, and challenges. At that point, it is up to salespeople to build on that foundation to understand their customers on an individual, granular level to solve their business problems.

It has been my experience in building sales processes that almost all sales organizations have the fundamentals of an effective process within their reach -- but most don’t reach.

Defining a sales process doesn’t take significant blocks of time. To start, pull together a diverse team of sales leaders and top performers, operations, service, and marketing people to map out and capture elements such as key milestones in how customers buy, best practices, tools, customer actions, and models for each stage.

Consultative Salespeople

A consultative sales process is powerful because it clarifies for salespeople what is expected. Additionally, it guides sales managers in what to coach and evaluate.

A sales process, however, is not a silver bullet -- nor is it cast in stone. Instead, it's a map that detours and changes based on conditions. The sales process should also be flexible enough a salesperson can adapt it using their best judgment.

The success of a consultative sales process takes more than even the most clearly defined stages, models, and tools. What you won’t find laid out in the sales process are the salespeople tasked with carrying out the process, the sales managers committed to coaching to it, and sales leadership that fosters an open and supportive culture. These stand equal with process.

Just as customers’ buying patterns have dramatically changed, so too has what it takes to be a consultative salesperson. To execute, salespeople need a number of new skills and resources, including deeper knowledge, a higher level of skill, greater creativity to bring new perspectives and ideas to customers, better sales tools, and most importantly, committed sales leadership and coaching.

A new emphasis has been placed on sales process, but as essential and valuable as a consultative sales process is, success depends on the ability and dedication of sales leadership and the sales force to execute. In his book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," Robert Pirsig makes a point worth remembering: The instruction book -- i.e., the process -- is only as good as the driver.

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