Blog Archives | SOAR Performance Group

Category: Blog

Oct

How to Win Your “Must-Win” Deals for the End of the Year

‘This deal is a must win’ – is a term that more and more leaders of commercial organizations will hear or say in Q4. Knowing which deals are ‘must win’ is important, but more important is understanding ‘how’ to win your must win deals. In our work with both the worlds largest technology organizations and many of the fastest growing, we have had the opportunity to work with sales, customer success and account management teams on those critical opportunities through our Must Win Deal Acceleration Program. We have seen first hand what works and what doesn’t. Here are the 3 things that you need to do if you want to win your must win opportunities this year:

Jul

Aligning Sales and Marketing to Drive Results

The end of a quarter/half year is always a time for reflection – this has never been truer than the end of Q2, 2020. The biggest thing that hit me as I was reviewing the past quarter’s accomplishments was just how much has changed in such a short time. In March, clients were completely uncertain. We were having daily discussions with clients that included questions like:

Should we reduce our forecast for the quarter to 0? What about the rest of our year?
We had 3 big events this quarter that were going to drive our leads, what do we do now?
How do we need to re-think our organization and structure?
What will we do now that we can’t meet with customers and prospects in person?

Jun

Leading vs. Managing a Sales Team

In every sales organization there are leaders and there are managers, however, the key differences between the two and when to apply leadership or management skills (or both) is often misunderstood. In the current environment, it is more important than ever to find the right balance between leading and managing your sales team. Many organizations are struggling to find this balance which is why we decided to revisit a panel discussion we had at an Atlanta Sales Leadership Community. During the meeting we got valuable insight from sales executives from BetterCloud, Ricoh Americas, and TransUnion on the topic of ‘Leading vs. Managing’ and what every sales leader should know.

May

The ‘Who’s Who’ You’re Underestimating in the Buying Cycle

When dealing with a complex account, every good seller will ask themselves this critical question… Who are the key players in the purchasing decision? The answer, unfortunately, is rarely as simple as it may seem. In today’s selling environment, there are a multitude of influences that affect purchase decisions within an organization. With widespread shifts in titles and organizational structures, it can be challenging to figure out how they all fit together and who the key players might be.

Increasingly, sellers are feeling the pressure to identify and understand the roles of anyone and everyone that could impact the purchase decision. At a Chicago Sales Leadership Community event, we sat down with sales executives from Prolifiq, Softchoice, and IRI to hear their thoughts on the issue. Here are the tips we gathered to help you win your next deal.

May

Customer Success + Sales Alignment = The Key to Accelerated Growth

The following piece is a collaboration between John Thackston of SOAR Performance Group and Tony Smart, Head of Services and Strategic Advisory at Gainsight.

While spending time with c-level executives across a broad range of companies over the past two months, three truths have become abundantly clear:

Everyone has re-written their forecasted plan for the year.
A huge majority are reducing their planned net new business sales, in some cases by as much as 80-90%.
The majority of planned growth is now expected to come from the existing customer base.

With these three truths in mind, executives are also coming to a stark realization.