Articles by kendra lee
This is the #1 reason lead generation doesn’t work
The number one reason b2b lead generation doesn’t work is not what you think. As a business owner, you want to get more leads from your email campaigns, events and webinars, SEO, and Google Ads. That’s to be expected. You’re investing time and resources. You’re planning your entire business strategy around anticipated sales. You have high hopes. All that is entirely responsible. But then, it doesn’t work. Sales frustrations with lead generation A sales rep laments to you, “I am getting a little worried.
What to Do with Sales Leads that Aren't Ready
Whether you’re in sales or marketing, you have a list you’re targeting and you’re using prospecting or email marketing to uncover who’s interested right now. But are you doing more than looking for immediate appointments from your target list? Because you should be. Yes, your ultimate goal with your B2B lead generation strategy is to identify qualified prospects who know about you, read what you send, attend your webinars, follow you on social media, and want to talk with you.
Convert More Inbound Leads by Coaching Sales Reps in 4 Steps
In the Client Buy Cycle, Awareness and Interest are the two easiest stages for sales reps to handle. This is because prospects in these stages are more willing to spend time talking in depth about their problems and needs. Your salesperson can build and nurture the relationship and be the first person to recommend the best solution. And contacts will listen, eager for the advice. Prospects in the Desire and Action stages require a very different approach.
How to Convert Leads Using Networking at Events
By Kendra Olney Lee How to generate leads at events was not top of mind when I attended conferences, seminars, workshops, local gatherings, or any other professional events early in my career. No, at that time I was too busy hanging out near the potted plants. Trying to blend in with the leafy fronds. Occasionally I wondered when the last time a fern was watered. More frequently, I was letting negative voices keep me from approaching my peers. What will I talk about? They don’t know me.
What to Do When Your Reps Are Losing Sales
If your sales reps are losing sales, it isn’t necessarily due to COVID. Nor is it the time of year. The fault lies with sloppy selling and poor sales discipline. The good news is you can restore your win rate once you understand today’s selling situation and where you are losing in the sales process. Selling in today’s environment is different, which makes it challenging. The issue, however, is not that you’re selling remotely. The fact is buyers are cautious right now.
Prospecting Attention for Fourth Quarter Sales
By Kendra Lee Here we are in the fourth quarter and you have a revenue target that you’re trying to achieve. It’s been a difficult year for selling and your sales funnel may not have produced what you wanted or needed. Your Sales Funnel Quandary Now you’re in a quandary as to where to focus your attention. Do you prospect? Or will prospecting take your attention away from closing business? Is there no business to close at the moment?
5 Post-Pandemic Ways to Succeed
By Kendra Onley Lee I can picture a future where we return to restaurants, local shops and baseball games. I can’t see us returning to work in the exact same way we operated before the pandemic hit. More people will want to work from home and business owners will move to remote environments to save money. This is great news for anyone who wants to work in their pajamas.
5 Sales Topics for Turbulent Times
By Kendra Lee These are turbulent times and in sales and lead generation, you’re wondering what the heck do I do? After you’ve called all your clients, shared your COVID-19 response plan, and told them how you’re prepared to support them remotely, what more is there to say? We’ve never gone through this before and there is no roadmap for how we should sell or market. There are a lot of questions and I know you want to step carefully. Some people are shell-shocked. Some are scared.
How to Meet Fourth-Quarter Sales Targets
It’s fourth quarter, which means the final year-end push whether you’re motivating your team or yourself to meet sales targets. Here’s a list of resources to guide you to find and close Q4 sales. I’ve included a bunch of different formats, so use the one that will galvanize and inspire you and your team. There are only a matter of weeks left to sell this year.
Cold Calling Perfection: A 10-Point Assessment
In email prospecting, one of the first things I recommend is that you send yourself a draft before hitting send. That way, you experience what it’s like for the prospect you’re emailing – from the perceived length to the content and call to action. You can quickly see where you need to make adjustments to grab your prospect’s attention and get a reply. But in cold calling, how do you assess if what you’re or your salesperson is doing is right?
Sales Metrics: 15 KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to Monitor
by Kendra Lee • Jan 16, 2019 You can’t achieve your revenue sales goal without monitoring interim sales and marketing metrics. Author: KLA Group CEO Kendra Lee Most business owners focus only on the end goals: closed sales and net new clients. But focusing only on the end goal won’t ensure you’ll achieve it. You have to look at how you’re doing all along the way to the closed sale. Now the question is, what to watch?
What's Your Value? Chew On This
Selling is a lot like baking. When you do it well, your clients want more. Prospects want to buy from you. Here's how. I love to bake. Every Sunday I make three batches of chocolate chip cookies for my family of three boys. Friends who stop by know the cookie jar will be full and ask to dip in. No kid or adult is immune, and they can never stop at just one.
Webinar " The Top 5 Ways to Prospect & Close Q4 Business
In spite of starting her career in accounting, failing IBM’s entry-level sales exam, being given a territory that had never bought anything, and being told she couldn’t sell without an engineering background, Kendra Lee entered the sales profession and proved those naysayers wrong. She turned her knowledge of numbers into her own approach to lead generation taking her to the top 1% of sales professionals for each IT company where she sold.
Webinar " How to Build an Email List That Converts
In spite of starting her career in accounting, failing IBM’s entry-level sales exam, being given a territory that had never bought anything, and being told she couldn’t sell without an engineering background, Kendra Lee entered the sales profession and proved those naysayers wrong. She turned her knowledge of numbers into her own approach to lead generation taking her to the top 1% of sales professionals for each IT company where she sold.
I Dealt With Postpartum Panic Attacks By Channeling Mister Rogers
Any parent who has spent time at home caring for their children (which is to say: every parent I have ever met) knows the feeling of being marooned.
How to Avoid the Sales Prospecting Rabbit Hole
Before you give up on a customer prospect, make sure you've addressed these five questions from KLA Group's Kendra Lee. Sometimes it’s hard to give up on prospects who you’ve called, and called, and called. You’ve left voicemails, sent emails, and researched them on LinkedIn. Even though you’ve never spoken, over time, these prospects feel like people you know. Suddenly you’re comfortable calling repeatedly. If you could just get in the door, you know they’d want to meet with you.
What You Need to Know About Your New Business Development Plan
Leads slip through your fingers when your new business development approach is off. Business owners don’t understand the fundamental law of how new business development actually happens. If you’re stuck in a mentality of looking only for opportunities that will close in the next 90 days not only is that shortsighted but it’s wildly expensive and wrong. What are you doing with the leads that aren’t ready to do anything in 90 days?
Why I Wish My Kids’ Classrooms Had Chalkboards
My daughter’s second grade teacher hand-wrote a classroom update to the parents each week, her name signed with a beautiful cursive flourish. She used a wooden pointer to teach U.S. geography and phonics. She had an upright piano in her class and played it regularly. She was the only teacher in the school whose classroom did not have an interactive whiteboard. This all ran anathema to the modern classroom.
Why I Wish My Kids’ Classrooms Had Chalkboards
My daughter’s second grade teacher hand-wrote a classroom update to the parents each week, her name signed with a beautiful cursive flourish. She used a wooden pointer to teach U.S. geography and phonics. She had an upright piano in her class and played it regularly. She was the only teacher in the school whose classroom did not have an interactive whiteboard. This all ran anathema to the modern classroom.
The Wildly Overblown Children's Birthday Party: Can We Be Done?
This is a submission in our monthly contest. January’s theme is “Wild.” Enter your own here! You know what’s wild? Kids’ birthday parties in the new millennium. Their Pinterest perfection, their thematic orchestration. They’re wildly popular, and wildly horrible. I know, I know, I’m taking a risk here in sharing my true feelings about children’s birthday parties. My children are still quite young. They stand a fighting chance of getting invited to another birthday party in their lives.
The Radical Act of Paring Down Holiday Consumption
As many of us take full advantage of holiday shopping deals and steals, we may be wise to listen to our January selves. January Self deals with the inevitable excess leftover from the holiday season. January Self is the one who joins the gym after all the holiday cookie consumption and the one who exterminates all the tinsel and pine needles from the carpet. Of particular importance are the credit card bill(s) that January Self may have the pleasure of opening after a holiday spending spree.
10 steps contact centres should take to prepare for GDPR
On the 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will completely change how organisations working within the EU can collect and hold data. The new, much stricter rules will increase data privacy for individuals while providing regulatory authorities with the power to heavily fine businesses that don’t comply. With the GDPR clock well and truly counting down, here are 10 steps every contact centre needs to take now. 1.
The Best App for Keeping Up With Your Mom Friends
It’s likely that your mom talked to her friends on either a cordless phone or at the end of a curly-corded device that stretched into other rooms if she was lucky. She would laugh and shout above the din of your household mayhem. You were always amazed by how she could seem so cheerful talking to her friends when moments ago she was glaring at you for using your shirt as a napkin. Today, the momversation by phone is usually a text transaction.
Webinar " 8 Ways to Get More Sales Out of Your Marketing Leads
In spite of starting her career in accounting, failing IBM’s entry-level sales exam, being given a territory that had never bought anything, and being told she couldn’t sell without an engineering background, Kendra Lee entered the sales profession and proved those naysayers wrong. She turned her knowledge of numbers into her own approach to lead generation taking her to the top 1% of sales professionals for each IT company where she sold.
Seven Ways to Deal With Sales Rejection - ChannelE2E
How you deal with sales rejection determines if the customer door remains open for the long haul. Use these seven techniques to overcome rejection. Rejection is everywhere in sales. Cold calling. Email prospecting. Proposal presentations. Closing. Follow up.
Listening to Your Prospects' Silence
One of the biggest challenges in selling is trying to keep contacts engaged when you’re prospecting. Business owners and C-level executives often have too much going on, which causes delays in scheduling meetings and making decisions. Even the most high-priority projects can fall by the wayside. That means when you’re prospecting, your message has to be doubly compelling to catch their attention. So, what do most salespeople do?
Emails Don't Sell... - ChannelE2E
Many small businesses believe you can use nurturing emails alone to gain access to new prospects. That’s just not how it works. Kendra Lee explains why. Emails don’t sell. People do. Yes, I know I’m going to take a lot of flak for that, especially from the digital marketers. But the reality is if you are in a business-to-business selling environment, emails do not sell. Emails can open doors. I should know.
Cold Calling Is Not Dead - ChannelE2E
Don’t bother with calling. Nobody picks up their phone anyway. Or do they? In an era when pundits think Cold Calling is Dead, Kendra Lee explains otherwise. The hot topic in sales recently is that cold calling is DEAD. The lead generation landscape has changed. Publish good campaign content and people will flock to you. Engage on social media to begin prospecting conversations. Don’t bother with calling. Nobody picks up their phone anyway. But I disagree – emphatically. Cold calling is not DEAD.
Why Your New Business Development Approach Is Failing - ChannelE2E
You’re so busy looking for the opportunities to close in the next 90 days, you’re not doing anything with those who told you to stay in touch longer-term. Business owners don’t understand the fundamental law of how new business development actually happens. If you’re stuck in a mentality of looking only for opportunities that will close in the next 90 days not only is that shortsighted, but it’s wildly expensive and wrong.
How to Know If You're Selling High Enough in the Organization - ChannelE2E
If you sell too low in the organization then your strategic recommendations will fall on deaf ears. Instead head this way, KLA Group's Kendra Lee says. Every successful salesperson knows that you’re supposed to sell to the decision maker. It’s one of the primary qualification questions in requirements gathering right out of the gate: who will be making the decision? The contacts you’re speaking with are quick to affirm that they are indeed the decision maker. They ask key questions.
7 Tips for Writing Better Sales Content
Instead of the marketing phrase “click here,” use “read how now” or “you’ll want to read this before you send another prospecting email.” Doesn’t that sound much more intriguing? In sales prospecting, instead of “let me know”, use “click reply to let me know.” Writing copy, emails and marketing materials is one of the most avoided tasks in marketing and sales. Why? Everyone wants to write that perfect copy that inspires prospects to take that next step in the sales process.
One Essential Sales Tool You May Be Missing - ChannelE2E
Do your sales and marketing teams know your ideal target market? Do you? KLA Group's Kendra Lee explains how MSPs & VARs can retool for the right market.
How to Earn Customer Referrals: Two Smart Steps - ChannelE2E
The majority of buyers report that they overwhelmingly trust word-of-mouth recommendations from peers and colleagues. These referrals drive purchasing decisions more than most other factors. You know that referrals are a great way to keep your pipeline filled with qualified leads, but when you ask, you strike out. “Sure, I’m happy to refer you – just as soon as I think of someone,” they reply without fully meeting your eyes when asked. Or, clients tell you they don’t know anybody to refer.
When Sales Reps Aren’t Selling, What’s the Real Problem? - ChannelE2E
So often when sales reps aren’t selling the first inclination is to blame the sales rep. But maybe management should try these 7 corrective measures. So often when sales reps aren’t selling the first inclination is to blame the sales rep. They aren’t making calls. They aren’t going on enough appointments. They don’t know how to close. The opportunities are too small, not qualified, the wrong solution.
The Key to Sales Success: What Makes You Different? - ChannelE2E
Many companies come to us with no sense of what makes them unique. They feel as if they’re exactly the same as their competitors. Here's how to change. Many companies come to us with no sense of what makes them unique. They feel as if they’re exactly the same as their competitors. Their goal is to run more frequent lead generation campaigns, or hire salespeople who will dial faster and shout louder than their competition.
The Number One Reason Lead Generation Doesn't Work - ChannelE2E
Your sales team has no new appointments & no clear prospects. So what's wrong with your marketing & lead generation? Kendra Lee explains. “I am getting a little worried. I’m not getting any results from my lead generation activities. I’ve done a ton of activities, but all to no avail. No bites, no sales conversations … nada,” a sales rep lamented to me recently. “I’ve changed my target market. I’ve changed my prospecting activities. Why isn’t lead generation working for me?” She was nearly in tears.
Microsoft Unveils Server Design Aimed at Speeding Cloud Setup
Microsoft Corp. is offering up a new server design that it hopes will influence the rest of the data-center industry, a move that keeps pressure on hardware vendors like Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. to lower the price of cloud infrastructure.
Vendor Perceptions and Realities in the World of SME
There is definitely a litany of advantages to working for a company as well known and world renowned as SAP--the primary one being our reputation as a first-class organization. But the downside to having your logo on the side of stadiums and on billboards that people see as they walk through airport terminals is that there is the perception--and I stress the word perception--that SAP is too large to provide solutions for small and midsize companies.
Special Report: All About Growth
A Penton Technology Channel Group spotlight on strategies for partners to grow their businesses. New customers. New offerings. New adjacent markets. In this special edition, Penton’s channel brands examines all the way VARs and MSPs are funding new growth, finding growth prospects and managing it internally. If you’re looking to add muscle in the next year, then this package is for you.?
CenturyLink to Buy Level 3 for $34 Billion in Cash, Stock
CenturyLink Inc. agreed to buy Level 3 Communications Inc. for about $34 billion in cash and stock, creating a more formidable competitor to AT&T Inc. in the market to handle heavy internet traffic for businesses.
Qualcomm to Buy NXP Semiconductors in $47 Billion Deal
Qualcomm Inc., the largest maker of mobile-phone chips, will acquire NXP Semiconductors NV in a transaction valued at $47 billion, aiming to speed an expansion into new industries and reduce its dependence on the smartphone market.
New Fujitsu-Lenovo Alliance May Mean More Consolidation in PC Market
Fujitsu Ltd. shares surged to a nine-month high after the Japanese company revealed it was in discussions with China’s Lenovo Group Ltd. about collaborating on everything from research and computer design to manufacturing.
The CIO's Ever-Changing Role
The chief information officer (CIO) job title is one that seems to cover an ever-changing combination of roles, responsibilities and duties, especially over the past few years, as the cloud and its associated technologies become more prevalent. The job title of the CIO is one that is morphing to meet new requirements from all areas of business. Overseeing everything from rogue cloud usage to business units developing their own cloud environments can be a lot to manage.
New Windows 10 Update Could Provide Selling Opportunities in New Verticals
Microsoft Corp. plans to release an update to Windows 10 software in the spring that will add creative features especially conducive for virtual and augmented reality. The update will be free to current Windows 10 users and will include tools to invent and share 3-D objects, said Microsoft Windows chief Terry Myerson.
Migrating SMB Clients to the Cloud? Beware of These Five Common Mistakes
Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) want to lower operating expenses and improve application performance. That's why so many of them are counting on solutions and service providers like you to migrate their IT operations to the cloud. Emergent Research predicts that 78% of U.S. small businesses will be fully migrated to the cloud by 2020. That’s a gigantic opportunity for channel partners who know how to get the job done right. Just be careful because cloud migrations can quickly go haywire.
Yesterday, the Cloud. Today, IoT. Tomorrow's Tech Trend? Blockchain.
Time to put the blockchain hype to the test. After a year of promises that the technology would revolutionize Wall Street, anyone can now download an entire blockchain specifically built for financial services.
Dyn Hack Shows IoT Brings Channel Huge Security-as-a-Service Opportunity
A Chinese security camera maker said its products were used to launch a cyber-attack that severed internet access for millions of users, highlighting the threat posed by the global proliferation of connected devices.
Biggest Ever Women-in-Computing Conference Belies Fragile Gains
The 12,000 women technology workers cheering at Houston’s Toyota Center arena this week are a far cry from the 500 who showed up for the first Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.
8 Endpoint Security Strategies for MSP Success
As the managed services market continues to grow, it’s more important than ever that MSPs find ways to differentiate themselves. That means not only offering superior services to their clients, but also partnering with solution providers who are committed to supporting and enabling MSPs to maximize their cost efficiency, profitability and client retention. Here are eight key security traits for successful next-gen MSPs: 1.
Intel Fourth-Quarter Sales May Miss Estimates on PC Doldrums
Intel Corp. gave a disappointing forecast for sales in the current quarter, signaling lackluster year-end demand for personal computers, servers and the chips that run them.
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