Sales negotiation can be a nerve-wracking process. Without the right knowledge or tools at your disposal, getting to the best agreement can be elusive. In this podcast, RAIN Group's President Mike Schultz discusses how to overcome your fears, gain confidence, and leave behind some common misconceptions about sales negotiation. Click through to read a summary and listen to the full sales podcast...      

When it comes to business development for professional services, one of the biggest challenges professionals face is finding time to do it all. After all, you don't sell full-time. Your work, whether it's consulting, accounting, or engineering, is what you do full-time. And that makes it very difficult to find time to create and develop the relationships necessary to bring in new business. There simply are not enough hours in the day to do it all. As a result, business development activities are unplanned and inconsistent, which leads to limited touches and prospects slipping through the cracks due to lack of follow-up. While I cannot create more hours in the day, I can give you some business development tips that will help you become more effective with the balancing act of selling and doing.      

A sales negotiation can be lengthy, nerve-wracking, and complex. For many sellers, every negotiation adds at least one gray hair. The challenge is that too many people find themselves in a sales negotiation, but they don't understand the underlying dynamics of how sales negotiations work. To help you master the art of sales negotiation, we've created the OP2eRA2 Sales Negotiation FrameworkSM. Following, you'll find a brief primer on the key points...      

What makes a great negotiator? Negotiation is a craft that can be learned by just about anyone, as I discussed in my recent podcast with RainToday. There are, however, certain characteristics of great negotiators that are difficult to develop through the even the most rigorous of training initiatives. They are qualities you either have or don't or that develop over years of experience, coaching, training, and self-reflection. If you have them, you're ahead of the game. If you don't, negotiation success may be elusive. Great sales negotiators share 7 qualities that guide their success.      

There's been a bit of a gold rush around the term "insight selling" in the last several years. Research from a variety of sources, including RAIN Group, has confirmed a simple fact: Buyers buy from sellers who are sources of ideas. So now everyone's trying to do it. But the cold reality is that most sellers don't bring new and valuable ideas to the table. In fact, only 39% of executives say that meetings with salespeople are valuable and live up to expectations.* So what do you need to do to provide real value to buyers? In this new 22-page guide, Mike Schultz and John Doerr, Presidents of RAIN Group and bestselling authors of Insight Selling answer this question. They share tips and strategies that will help you drive change and win more sales right away. Download Your Guide to Insight Selling Success now.      

Recently we released our new white paper, Your Guide to Insight Selling Success. Like anything, insight selling comes with its own potential pitfalls. To help you avoid them, we have outlined the most common insight selling mistakes. Some points are tactical, and others strategic.      

It's that time of year again. The leaves have fallen from the trees, the temperature has dropped, and the calendar is filling up with holiday parties, ski trips, and family gatherings. Thanksgiving marks the start of the holiday season, the time of year when we reflect on the relationships we have with family, friends, customers, and co-workers. Thanksgiving in particular is a time to give thanks and show your appreciation.      

At RAIN Group it's our mission to help you unleash your sales potential. Through the RAIN Selling blog we strive to bring you the freshest sales research, tips, and strategies that will help you make breakthroughs in your sales results. In 2014 we did just that and we did it with gusto. We produced more webinars and blog posts than ever and even found time to publish a new book. But if you didn't have a chance to read through all of the new sales content this year, don’t worry. Below are the top 10 most popular pieces from 2014.      

57% of the purchase process is complete before buyers have their first interaction with a seller.1 This is one of the most cited statistics in the sales world these days—as if it's some kind of big news. Wait...so you mean buyers do research and talk internally before they bring in outsiders? No way, dude! That's, like, revolutionary! Puh-leez... In fact, all it says is that thoughtful buyers explore ideas with their internal colleagues. They discuss what they want to do, what they want as an outcome, and what the options are to get them there. They get their ducks in a row to an extent, before consulting with outsiders. Seems logical to me.      

There's one question I wish I got asked more when working with leaders looking to invest in B2B sales training. That question is, "What will it really take to get the best results?" If you're a seller, you can probably relate to the experience of a well-meaning trainer giving examples from an industry that had nothing to do with yours. Or maybe they didn't have a credible track record to back up their claims. And when the training was over, it was back to business as usual the next morning. No learning. No change in behavior. No results. Ask the average trainer what business they are in, and they will likely answer "I am in the training business." When I'm asked the same question, however, I answer "I'm in the sales performance improvement business." This isn't simply semantics. The way I see it, a sales trainer's job is to deliver results for their clients. In our case, the results come in the form of measurable, observable improvements within the salesforce. These changes don't make themselves happen. We've found that when 5 factors are in place, our clients get the most out of their B2B sales training.      

How many of your accounts take advantage of your full suite of products and services? How much more could you be selling to your existing accounts? 10%? 20%? 50%? More? What effect would that have on your bottom line? Growing existing accounts is a huge, untapped opportunity. In our research, we found that high performers in strategic account management have significantly higher revenue growth, profit growth, and client satisfaction compared to the rest. In 5 Keys to Maximizing Sales in Existing Accounts, RAIN Group Presidents Mike Schultz and John Doerr share what high performers do differently than the rest and 5 of the key areas where most companies have significant room for improvement. Download 5 Keys to Maximizing Sales with Existing Accounts Now.        

One of the biggest untapped opportunities to increasing sales and profit is growing your existing accounts. Consider: Retaining current customers is 6 to 7 times less costly than acquiring new ones (Source: Bain & Company) Repeat customers, on average, spend 67% more (Source: Bain & Company) 60% of companies believe they should be generating 25% or more revenue from strategic accounts (Source: RAIN Group) The question is not if you should be selling more to your accounts, it's how should you do it. Here are 6 tips to get you started.      

In our 5 Keys to Maximizing Sales with Existing Accounts report, we shared the ways in which high performers outdo the rest to grow their accounts and achieve their financial goals. At the top of the list? Providing value. The more value you provide your accounts, the more willing they'll be to buy, keep buying, and expand their relationship with you. Click here to watch the complimentary webinar now.      

75% of B2B buyers use social media to make decisions according to IDC research. Sellers who use social selling are 51% more likely to exceed quota1, and 89.9% of top sellers view LinkedIn as essential2. It's still the case, however, that many sellers are just getting started with LinkedIn. Mostly it seems they don't know what to do. Here are 15 ideas for spending 15 minutes a day selling with LinkedIn. I challenge you to do this for at least 15 days in the next month. After the 15 days you'll have a good sense of whether LinkedIn should be a part of your selling routine.      

Companies take lots of actions to grow accounts. Some work better than others. However, none of them work very well if you don't take care of one important action up front. We at RAIN Group studied more than 370 companies that engage in formal strategic account management, and published the results in the Benchmark Report on High Performance in Strategic Account Management. We asked: What ACTIONS do you believe contribute most to your efforts to maximize revenue from accounts? We then split the results into 2 groups: high performers and below-average/average performers in SAM. Here's what the high performers do to maximize revenue at their accounts.      

When it comes to growing accounts, challenges abound. In our Benchmark Report on High Performance in Strategic Account Management, we asked: Consider the challenges your company faces in strategic account management. For each factor indicate how challenging it is to your company's SAM efforts. Here are the results.      

Years ago, I was working for a company that had just made the decision to go public. After a lengthy deliberation, the company chose a particular big-five firm (at the time there were five) to handle the preparations for our public offering. Curious, I asked the chief financial officer how he made the decision. He invited me to his office and showed me a chart of all the qualifications and decision criteria and how each firm stacked up. It was obvious there was a clear winner. Then he asked me if I wanted to know how he had really made the decision. Of course, I said yes. He said, "Close the door." Intriguing...      

Retaining current customers costs 6-7x less than acquiring news ones, and improving customer retention rates by a mere 5% can increase profit per customer by 25%-95%. So it makes sense that top companies focus on building relationships, increasing loyalty, and selling more to current customers as a growth strategy. Based on our extensive research in strategic account management, we've identified 10 steps you can take to replicate their successes. View the infographic now.      

"It was like a phantom swooped in in the eleventh hour and killed the sale." We've all been there...You had a series of great meetings. You built rapport and developed a strong, trusted relationship. You uncovered (and got agreement) on the buyer's needs—needs that they didn't even know they had. You spent days working with your delivery team to scope the project and craft the proposal. You sent it off to your contact and called him at the time you had scheduled to review it: Buyer: "Thanks for putting this together. You've really hit the nail on the head outlining our company’s needs. I like the phase-by-phase approach you're proposing, allowing us to make adjustments along the way. I just need to have Brian take a look and give the green light." You: "Wait. Brian? Who's Brian?"      

Sales training is often approached with a car wash mentality: You're in, you're out, and you're ready to sell. But this isn't how real learning happens. This isn't how you help sellers raise the bar and change how they sell. It's time for an entirely new approach to sales education; an approach that overhauls the way sales training is conceived, designed, and executed over the long-term. An approach that drives real behavior change and results. In this white paper, Mike Schultz and John Doerr, Co-Presidents of RAIN Group, show you how developing a sales university not only builds sales team capability, but also enables sellers and transforms the way they sell. Download World-Class Sales Training: How to Build and Implement Your Own Sales University now.      

The most successful organizations implement a systematic sales training process for getting sellers up to speed quickly, developing the skills and knowledge they need, supporting their ongoing sales efforts, and driving top sales performance. But how exactly do they do this? In the new webinar 5 Elements of World-Class Sales Training Programs, RAIN Group President Mike Schultz provides insight into how the most successful organizations structure their sales training initiatives to produce sellers who consistently exceed their targets and bring in the most revenue. Click here to watch the free webinar now.        

Selling works when an organization, and its sellers, excel in certain key areas. The Sales Competency WheelSM is a graphical depiction of these areas. Not every seller must do everything in the Wheel (e.g., not every seller must fill their own pipelines or drive account growth), but every sales organization needs to make sure the right people are good in the right areas to unleash maximum sales potential.      

Some buyers are conditioned to try certain tactics to lower your price. Maybe they've read about negotiation in books or were trained to use pressuring strategies. When buyers take this kind of positional and win-lose approach, their goal is generally to gain the most for themselves at the expense of the seller. For example, savvy buyers know that many sellers will be especially vulnerable to manipulation just when a contract is about to be signed. It's tempting at this point for the seller to give the buyer what they want and lower the price instead of digging deeper to uncover if their concerns are valid, or a bluff. Here are 6 common tactics buyers might use to gain a positional advantage, and ideas for how to respond.        

Email prospecting is a hot topic these days—and it should be because it works. Or at least, it works when it's done right. Before you type up your next sales email, make sure you attend to these secrets to success. Read more for 8 sales email secrets.