Welcome to «The Pipeline» — a weekly column from HubSpot, featuring actionable advice and insight from real sales leaders. Most sales trainers and experts agree that the best sales reps prospect fearlessly, but 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…
On average, salespeople who send at least one follow-up email after no response reach a 27% reply rate. Those who don’t send one get stuck at a 16% average reply rate. You don’t want that 11-point gap to cost you a major contract or prevent you from exceeding quota. In this post, I’ll show you…
Looking to motivate your sales team to smash their goals next quarter? There are many tools to coach your sales team into the best version of themselves, but one that’s often overlooked is the sales performance evaluation. A sales performance evaluation is a chance for a manager and a sales professional to align their goals…
Approaching a task armed with the tools, systems, and knowledge you need just feels better than walking in unprepared. This is especially important for sales professionals — and sales organizations are making greater strides to ensure their reps are successful on the job. Touching upon this point, there was a notable 20% increase in the…
Did you know that a disagreement between founders can lead to an entire startup business failing? In fact, 65% of startups fail due to founder conflict (Noam Wasserman, author of The Founder’s Dilemmas). Even small disagreements can come to light during the startup due diligence process when investors look into your company before deciding to…
Your sales pitch can make or break the deal. Trust me, after 16 years in sales I’ve seen it time and time again. Fumble the pitch and a prospect goes cold. Sales reps need to have their pitch perfect before meeting with a customer. It’s about perfecting your opening line, your verbal business card, and…
With nearly 90 million active buyers, Etsy is one of the biggest ecommerce marketplaces for vintage and handmade products. Etsy used to be my go-to source for unique crafts and gifts from independent small businesses and mom-and-pop shops. Over the years, I’ve even dabbled in selling jewelry and vintage on Etsy, so I’ve seen how…
We all know the “obvious” traits high-performing sales reps exhibit. I‘m sure you’ve read plenty about the value of qualities like empathy, ambition, and confidence throughout your career — but you didn’t click on this headline because you want to hear more about those conventional, played-out traits. Now, did you? No, you’re here for some…
We previously wrote about how Americans are leaping into entrepreneurship at record rates. Among those who opened for business in 2023, the home services category saw the highest growth, with 278k new openings. From wallpapering to carpentry, those who help homeowners upgrade their abodes are pocketing millions. Source: Bloomberg It’s not hard to see why. The housing…
Your LinkedIn headline is your first impression with potential employers, clients, and connections. In a sea of profiles, it’s your one-line opportunity to grab their attention and convince them to click through and learn more about you. We know: It’s tough to reduce your skills, experience, and ambitions into a few words in any context.…