Chris Orlob, Author at Gong

Chris Orlob's Articles

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Sales Management

The VP Sales’ Job Tenure Has Shrunk 7 Months – This Trend Explains Why

By Chris Orlob, January 29, 2018

The VP of Sales’ average tenure has steadily declined the last seven years. Once standing at a healthy 26 months, it’s now just 19 months. 7 months of tenure have evaporated. 19 months on the job isn’t much time to make the impact you’re committed to making. This equates to a few quarters of getting […]

Does that make sense sales closing question

Gong Labs

Does it make sense to say “Does that make sense?” on a sales call?

By Chris Orlob, January 22, 2018

The question “does that make sense?” generates some strong opinions in the sales world. Many sales pros loathe the phrase and avoid using it at all costs, while others pepper their sales calls with it religiously. The argument against the phrase is simple: It sounds like an overused, “salesy” thing to say that you might […]

Sales Enablement, Sales Management

These 6 Questions Will Help You Choose a Conversation Intelligence Platform

By Chris Orlob, January 10, 2018

Choosing a conversation intelligence platform can be confusing, which is why we just launched a short buyer’s guide to help you make sense of your options. Even though the space is young, it has blown up with competing products and alternatives. Many of these options are designed for completely different types of sales organizations and […]

Gong Labs

A Sure-Fire Sign You’re Killing Your Sales Demo (According to New Data)

By Chris Orlob, January 8, 2018

I’m kicking myself. I forgot to include an incredible piece of data in our last post: According to new data, superstar sales reps are bombarded with questions during their demos compared to their peers. In the last post, we revealed hard data that said having business value conversations is a hallmark of a superstar sales […]

Selling Skills

“How” You Sell Is As Important As “What” You Sell – Here’s Why

By Chris Orlob, January 4, 2018

We’ve entered an era where how you sell has become just as important as what you sell. Here’s why… Every product category out there is exploding in competition. Customers have hundreds of choices for any category of product they want to buy. And all of them are more or less the same. Differentiation based on product features is short-lived at best, and non-existent […]

Gong Labs

This Is the Secret to Rising Through the Sales Leaderboard

By Chris Orlob, December 19, 2017

Sales reps at the top of the leaderboard talk about the business value of their offerings far more than product features or technical details. That’s no secret. What’s less known is that coaching a struggling rep to go from one to the other is the most decisive factor in helping them rise through the ranks. It’s the most […]

Product News

Introducing the Gong.io Mobile App

By Chris Orlob, December 18, 2017

Get your ears on every call, from wherever you are, with the Gong.io Mobile App It’s Saturday night as I write this and my wife is not impressed. I’ve been listening to call recordings on Gong’s brand new Mobile App for two hours straight! Yep… it’s here. Say goodbye to listening to podcasts and audiobooks […]

Gong Labs

If You’re Selling Alone, You’re Doing It Wrong (These Stats Explain Why)

By Chris Orlob, November 30, 2017

The next time your sales manager joins one of your sales calls or demos for the sake of “team selling,” be sure to thank him or her. You may be 258% more likely to close that deal than if you flew solo. The Gong.io data science team is at it again. We analyzed 21,392 B2B sales […]

Sales Enablement, Sales Management

These Are the Top Three Ways to Get Visibility Into Sales Conversations

By Chris Orlob, November 21, 2017

Getting visibility into your team’s sales conversations is the single best way to eliminate the “performance gap” between your few star salespeople and the rest of your team. But there are a few ways to go about doing that. The best way for you is going to depend on a few variables, such as the […]

Sales Management

Your Sales Effectiveness Programs Will Fail Without This Key Ingredient

By Chris Orlob, November 7, 2017

The key ingredient that makes all of your sales effectiveness programs generate strong returns comes down to this: Visibility into your team’s sales conversations. Understanding this concept is critical to avoiding wasted time, effort, and money with your company’s sales effectiveness programs. If you’ve been following this series, then you’ve learned two things: The #1 […]

Sales Management

This Is What Separates Your Star Reps from the Rest of the Team

By Chris Orlob, November 4, 2017

The difference between your star salespeople and your “middle-of-the-pack” reps comes down to ONE thing: Their sales conversations. Being “sold” on this fact is the first step to closing the sales performance gap between your best reps and the rest of your team. As of this writing, our data science team at Gong.io has analyzed over […]

Sales Management

This Is the Single Reason Sales Leaders Miss Their Number Today

By Chris Orlob, October 30, 2017

It’s not a lack of leads. It’s not inefficiency. It’s not even sales effectiveness (at least, as it’s generically defined). It’s more specific than that. It’s the “Sales Performance Gap.” This is the (vastly misunderstood) delta that separates the top 20% of your sales force from everyone else, creating a performance bell curve that looks like […]

Gong Labs

These 7 Words Are Guaranteed To Make A Sale

By Chris Orlob, October 16, 2017

A few weeks ago we published an article called These Are the Worst 13 Words to Use During Sales Calls, According to New Data. There are hundreds of articles that recommend the vocabulary to avoid in sales, but this was the first one to have hard data behind it. I sense that’s what made the […]

Gong Labs

This Is the Worst Way to Build Rapport, According to New Data

By Chris Orlob, September 26, 2017

“Part of what it means to have a powerful personality is that you can draw others into your own rhythms and dictate the terms of the interaction.” -Malcom Gladwell A new study on the science of sales conversations shows that “average” salespeople actively seek rapport with their buyers, while top salespeople pull buyers to seek […]