Boy Dad x2, Co-Founder @Stage2Capital, Prof @HarvardHBS, Founding CRO @HubSpot, Author of Best Sellers, The Science of Scaling & The Sales Acceleration Formula
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Articles by Mark Roberge
The cold calling framework every rep needs to beat the summer sales slump
Cold calling might be the most dreaded activity in sales, especially during a slow season. As someone who‘s trained countless sales professionals at HubSpot, Stage 2 Capital, and Harvard Business School, I can tell you it’s also one of the most misunderstood. I run an exercise in some of my HBS classes. We have students make real cold calls selling $20 pizzas to local businesses. I'd say out of 1,000-or-so calls, students generally manage to sell five or six pizzas.
Six Sales Books You Need to Read Right Now
The sales learning curve is steep. So, it's important to hear from experts, who have developed the skills to deal with sales challenges over decades. You'll find it's much easier to learn from their mistakes, instead of just jumping in feet first. You might currently be picking up the phone, shouting "PLEASE BUY MY PRODUCT", hanging up, and waiting for them to come crawling back to you. This also might not be working.
An Easy Guide For Decorating Your Home With Flowers
Decorating trends change a lot with time. But interior decorators and homeowners agree that one thing never goes out of style. What is it, you ask? The answer is easy as pie: floral arrangements! Even the dullest room can look bright, full, and radiant with classic floral accents! Fresh flowers provide a quick lift to any space. With the beauty of blossoms, they can emphasize a room's style and little details.
The Product-Led-Growth (PLG) Playbook for B2B Startups
SaaS businesses dominated the tech IPO market over the past few years. Will Product-Led-Growth (PLG) businesses do the same in the coming decade? I believe so. I remember back to 2005 when many public equity investors were skeptical of the SaaS business model, citing doubt that public company CIOs would ever trust their data in the cloud.
Die richtige variable Vergütung
Ich war der vierte Mitarbeiter bei Hubspot. Die beiden Gründer hatte ich während unseres gemeinsamen Studiums an der MIT Sloan School of Management kennengelernt - zwei schlaue Köpfe mit einer großen Mission: Sie wollten Unternehmen bei der Einführung von "Inboundmarketing" unterstützen, ihnen also dabei helfen, mit online angebotenen Inhalten potenzielle Kunden auf deren Webseiten zu locken. Meine Aufgabe bestand im Aufbau des Vertriebsteams.
Inbound Sales: How to Sell the Way Prospects Buy
Today, the information that buyers need to make a purchase decision is just a click away. The power in the buying and selling process has shifted from the seller to the buyer. The buying process is transformed. And that means to keep up with today’s empowered buyer, the sales process needs to transform too. Whether your sales process relies on inbound leads or targeted outreach, whether you’re a big company or small, whether your sale is complex or simple; inbound sales is relevant.
The Sales Acceleration Formula
Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to Go from $0 to $100 Million Narrated by: Robert Feifar Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins 4.8 out of 5 stars 4.8 (13 ratings) 1 title per month from Audible’s entire catalog of best sellers, and new releases. Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks and podcasts. You will get an email reminder before your trial ends. Your Premium Plus plan is $14.95 a month after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.
Selling Through Influencers: The New Challenge With Inbound Sales Adoption
Every day, I see many sales reps face a new challenge – one I'm hoping some of you can chime in on. I'm hearing more and more salespeople complement their outreach with inbound sales approaches and use technology to listen for prospects entering the buying process. Almost everyone I speak to is extremely bullish about the approach. Most claim to have more calls turn into qualified opportunities that close faster.
Ready for the Future of Sales? 9 Experts Predict What to Expect [SlideShare]
This post originally appeared on HubSpot's Sales blog. To read more content like this, subscribe to Sales. Did you know that Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” was actually just an allegory for the changing nature of the European sales model in the early 19th century? While that might just be an urban legend, sales is once again undergoing a universal and fundamental change in order to meet the demands of a more informed and increasingly digital world of prospects.
How to Leave Sales Voicemails People Actually Want to Respond To
Has your name ever been on a salesperson's call list? Did you receive a lot of voicemails from that salesperson over the course of a few weeks? Think back to those sales voicemails. Were they valuable? Did you learn anything that helped you? Or were the voicemails a carbon copy of the company's elevator pitch? I probably receive about 20 calls a day from various salespeople. Here is a sample call sequence I receive from a salesperson. [Tuesday at 9 a.m.]: "Hi Mark. This is John from XYZ company.
A Classic Way to Create a Sense of Urgency in Your Prospect
Whether or not you participate, we all know that Black Friday creates a painful sense of urgency in consumers that those of us in the non-retail world battle with constantly. And while thousands urgently indulge in Cyber Monday, we cringe every time a prospect responds with, "Can you get back to me in a month?" It's very likely that your prospect forgets your name by the time you reach out a month later. At HubSpot, lacking urgency is the number one objection we face in the sales funnel.
How Morale Changes as a Startup Grows
Research examining employee happiness and how it relates to the length of time since a startup has launched shows a systematic dip in morale in years three and four — and the faster a startup is growing, the more serious the decline. Since low morale can lead to turnover that can cripple a small company, leaders need to invest in culture to limit this dip. Two ways to do this are to increase transparency and employee recognition programs.
How to Read a Book a Week: Step-by-Step Guide
This year, I've taken the plunge to read a book every single week. Over the past few years, I've stacked books on top of books (recommendations from podcast guests, friends, etc.), and it became a never-ending list. As the books started stacking up, so did the excuses. "I don't have enough time..." "I can't read fast enough..." "I'll do it next year..." Like many of you, I had every legitimate excuse not to take on this challenge.
Dr. Robert Cialdini's Technique That'll Get Buyers Interested Before They Ever Meet You [Interview]
Editor's note: Dr. Robert Cialdini is a world-renowned expert on influence and persuasion. The below is an interview with Cialdini conducted by Harvard Business School senior lecturer Mark Roberge about Cialdini's upcoming book, Pre-Suasion. You can preview the book here. Mark Roberge (MR): I'd love to hear the key learning from your new book, Pre-Suasion.
10 Sales Leadership Lessons From 10 Years at HubSpot
I have attached a simple bottoms up sales and marketing template that accounts for these factors and can help with the planning process. There are five “silent killers” in the bottoms up planning process that can be the difference between goal attainment or an off quarter. As executives, we have a great sense of the top-line revenue goals we aspire to. However, we rarely do the proper sales and marketing bottoms up planning to support these goals.
Sick of Slimy Sales Tactics? It's Time to Join the Movement [Petition]
What’s the worst slimy sales tactic you’ve run into? Was it an overly aggressive “Buy Now!” pop-up, or maybe a late night cold call that sent shivers down your spine? Sadly, I’m sure there’s been far more than any of us want to remember. I’ve been outspoken about the ineffectiveness of slimy sales in the past. Look, I get it. I know 42% of sales reps admit to struggling with prospecting.
Why Doctors Are the Sales Model of the Future
Last Tuesday, I had two interesting meetings. In the morning, a salesperson pitched me on their sales compensation software. The salesperson, as expected, showed up with their 20-slide generic pitch deck, filled with their company mission statement, case studies, feature set, and pricing. It was the worst meeting of the week. All the information he showed me I had already consumed on their website.
The Sales Forecast: 9 Expert Predictions About the Future of Sales
Did you know that Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” was actually just an allegory for the changing nature of the European sales model in the early 19th century? While that might just be an urban legend, sales is once again undergoing a universal and fundamental change in order to meet the demands of a more informed and increasingly digital world of prospects.
How to Interview a Sales Rep Candidate for Coachability
Coachability: the ability to absorb and apply coaching. Coachability is the most significant influencer of my hiring decision. As I think back to most of the rock stars we hired, their coachability was the personality trait that really stood out in their interviews. Evaluating this characteristic consumed the majority of my interview. Here is the three-step process I employed to evaluate this characteristic.
The Right Way to Use Compensation
Idea in Brief The Challenge A start-up often changes direction as it grows. As the strategy shifts, it’s critical that the employees who bring in the revenue—the sales force—understand and behave in ways that support the new strategy. The sales compensation system can help ventures achieve that alignment. The Prescription Revise the incentive system to focus salespeople on new goals at each growth phase.
Beyond Tinder: 22 Conversation Starters For All Our Networking Needs
Are you from Australia? Because you meet all my koalifications. Conversation starters like the one above give me joy daily. I follow Tinder Nightmares, an Instagram account surfacing real stories from real users. But deep behind the comedy of these sometimes desperate attempts to trigger a relationship is a real issue ... Starting conversations is difficult. And awkward. And just all around uncomfortable.
Why Millennials Make Great Salespeople
Let’s face it, millennials get a bad rap. In the past, we’ve been quick to dismiss this generation as lazy, narcissistic and self-concerned. But smart businesses know there’s two sides to every story, especially when it comes to building a 21st century sales organization. Today’s buyers are empowered by the Internet and are demanding more personalized, more relevant, and more helpful interactions with salespeople as a result. Millennials are well positioned to deliver this promise.
How HubSpot Scaled Through Science and Social Selling
*Editors Note: Live updates from the Sales Hacker Conference NYC are brought to you by PipelineDeals. PipelineDeals is simple and useful CRM software in the cloud. Follow us @pipelinedeals. This session is titled How Hubspot Scaled Through Science and Social Selling by VP of Sales at Hubspot, Mark Roberge Old School Sales vs. Modern Sales – Prospecting Old school salespersons used a salesperson-centric method for prospecting.
Improving Sales and Marketing Alignment: The Marketing and Sales SLA
As companies continue to increase the percentage of leads that originate from inbound marketing, effective alignment of sales and marketing becomes a critical area of organizational design. If the two departments are managed as separate silos, the system fails. For companies to achieve growth and become leaders in their industries, it is critical that these two group be properly integrated The Problem Marketing is measured against aggressive lead quantity goals.
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