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Gong Labs

Closing Techniques In Sales are Dead — This Data Explains Why

By Chris Orlob, May 24, 2018

I have some bad news — by the time you try those slick closing techniques you read about online, it’ll be too late. Your deal’s fate will already have been sealed. The actions you take earlier in the sales process define your outcome. Not even the fanciest closing technique can change that. Imagine an asteroid on a collision […]

Sales Management, Selling Skills

The Impact of GDPR on Sales Could Cut Your Pipeline in Half—Here’s What You Can Do About It

By Chris Orlob, May 18, 2018

Starting May 25th, the impact of GDPR on sales and marketing teams could force you to experience a serious pipeline drought. Why’s that? Because your contactable marketing list may be cut in half. The standards for achieving consent on your marketing list will become much higher, and a huge portion of many companies’ email lists will be considered non-compliant […]

Gong Labs, Selling Skills

Cold Calling Tips: 17 Proven Techniques to Master Your Cold Calls

By Chris Orlob, May 3, 2018

This probably isn’t the first cold calling post you’ve read. There are TONS of sales tips and techniques all over the Internet about cold calling. In fact, try Googling “cold calling tips” to see what I mean. Millions of cold calling articles will appear. So why does the world need yet ANOTHER post on cold calling? […]

Gong Labs

The 12 Best Objection Handling Skills for Sales You’ll Ever Read

By Chris Orlob, April 27, 2018

Objection handling techniques are all over the Internet. What makes this (one of) the BEST posts on objection handling you’ll read this year? It’s the only one that involves hard data. We studied 67,149 sales meetings from our database of five million recorded calls. The team analyzed them with AI to identify what that correlates with success, based on […]

Gong Labs

Cold Call Opening Lines that Work, According to New Data

By Chris Orlob, April 19, 2018

Many salespeople swear this is one of the best cold call opening lines: “Did I catch you at a bad time?” At one point, they were right to think so. Here’s the theory behind it: People like to say “no.” It makes them feel in control. So when you ask “Did I catch you at a […]

Sales Management

VP of Sales Success Comes Down to These Two Levers

By Chris Orlob, April 10, 2018

I’ve had a blast watching our VP of Sales grow revenue faster than any SaaS company I know. Unfortunately, his results aren’t typical. Here’s what most VPs of Sales are in for: If this is your first crack at the VP of Sales job, bullseye is on your back. Fortunately, generating more revenue is simple. (Notice, I didn’t say easy.) […]

Sales Enablement, Sales Management

The ROI of Call Coaching In Sales

By Chris Orlob, April 9, 2018

Calculating the ROI of call coaching for your sales team seems hard to pin down at first. But it’s actually incredibly simple, and you may be surprised at just how lucrative call coaching can be. Where you might go wrong in your attempt to calculate ROI is by trying to tie it nebulous outcomes that have too many root causes […]

Gong Labs

Cold Calling Is Dead, Unless You Follow These Rules

By Chris Orlob, March 29, 2018

Is cold calling dead? No. But it is a game of inequality. On paper, the average success rate is dismal (as low as 1.48%*). As a result, many people conclude that cold calling is dead. But averages often obscure what’s really going on. Here’s the reality… Most salespeople are failing miserably at cold calling. Much […]

Gong Labs

This Is How Successful Salespeople Handle Objections, According to New Data

By Chris Orlob, March 12, 2018

In the Gong Labs series, we publish data from analyzing sales calls with natural language processing and AI. Subscribe here for future research. — Successful sales reps do six things differently when handling objections. Five of them are intuitive. The sixth one, not so much. Let me explain. We pulled 67,149 call recordings from our […]

Sales Enablement, Sales Management

The ROI of Ramping New Sales Hires Faster

By Chris Orlob, March 6, 2018

Investing in ramping new sales hires faster is some of the strongest ROI you can generate as a sales leader. But somehow it often takes a back seat. Especially if sales enablement isn’t a dedicated function at your company. We know that ramping sales hires is probably important, but there are only so many hours […]

Gong Labs

This Bad Habit Keeps Your “Average Reps” Below Quota

By Chris Orlob, February 27, 2018

The key difference between your superstar sales reps and your average reps comes down to sales conversations. But… how exactly are their sales conversations different? Dozens of ways. Many of which are specific to you and your team. But here’s one BIG difference we found through our data analysis research: Superstar reps have business- and […]

Gong Labs

Star Sales Reps Follow This Vital Process During Their Sales Calls

By Chris Orlob, February 11, 2018

Following a structured sales call process is vital to your success. Outsiders of the sales profession often believe that salespeople are “fly by the seat of your pants” types. The mental image they carry of salespeople is they are the type who “wing it.” They think salespeople are improvisers. But according to some compelling new […]

Gong Labs

9 Secret Elements of Highly Effective Sales Conversations

By Chris Orlob, February 5, 2018

Sales conversations are what make your top-performing reps so good at selling. But not everyone is clear on that. Maybe you assume they’re just naturally talented. That the best salespeople are born, not made — which is great news for them, but not so good for your B and C players (or for you, unless you […]

Sales Management

7 Sales Coaching Tips You Can Start Using Today

By Chris Orlob, January 30, 2018

Learning a few sales coaching tips might be the most important thing a sales manager can do today to improve their team’s performance. Seem like a bold claim? The numbers don’t lie. The better the sales coaching program, the better a team performs. Sales teams with the best sales coaching programs: Have better close rates: […]