Gong Labs Blog - Generate More Revenue with Better Sales Conversations

“#1 blog on the Internet for sales”

Allobject(WP_Term)#1662 (11) { ["term_id"]=> int(29) ["name"]=> string(9) "Gong Labs" ["slug"]=> string(8) "research" ["term_group"]=> int(0) ["term_taxonomy_id"]=> int(29) ["taxonomy"]=> string(8) "category" ["description"]=> string(0) "" ["parent"]=> int(0) ["count"]=> int(41) ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" ["term_order"]=> string(1) "1" } Gong Labsobject(WP_Term)#1660 (11) { ["term_id"]=> int(381) ["name"]=> string(16) "Customer Stories" ["slug"]=> string(16) "customer-stories" ["term_group"]=> int(0) ["term_taxonomy_id"]=> int(381) ["taxonomy"]=> string(8) "category" ["description"]=> string(0) "" ["parent"]=> int(0) ["count"]=> int(3) ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" ["term_order"]=> string(1) "0" } Customer Storiesobject(WP_Term)#1859 (11) { ["term_id"]=> int(35) ["name"]=> string(12) "Product News" ["slug"]=> string(12) "product-news" ["term_group"]=> int(0) ["term_taxonomy_id"]=> int(35) ["taxonomy"]=> string(8) "category" ["description"]=> string(38) "Gong product release and company news." ["parent"]=> int(0) ["count"]=> int(2) ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" ["term_order"]=> string(1) "6" } Product Newsobject(WP_Term)#1856 (11) { ["term_id"]=> int(30) ["name"]=> string(16) "Sales Management" ["slug"]=> string(13) "sales-leaders" ["term_group"]=> int(0) ["term_taxonomy_id"]=> int(30) ["taxonomy"]=> string(8) "category" ["description"]=> string(0) "" ["parent"]=> int(0) ["count"]=> int(30) ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" ["term_order"]=> string(1) "2" } Sales Managementobject(WP_Term)#1854 (11) { ["term_id"]=> int(1) ["name"]=> string(14) "Selling Skills" ["slug"]=> string(3) "aes" ["term_group"]=> int(0) ["term_taxonomy_id"]=> int(1) ["taxonomy"]=> string(8) "category" ["description"]=> string(0) "" ["parent"]=> int(0) ["count"]=> int(23) ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" ["term_order"]=> string(1) "3" } Selling Skills

Customer Stories, Sales Management

CodeScience Maintains Visibility with Remote Sales Team Using Gong.io

By Gabby Hughes, March 16, 2018

“We’re a fast-paced organization that builds and brings commercial products to market for businesses that are growing quickly. And the majority of the company is remote.” You read that right. Remote. CodeScience has spent the last 10 years creating solutions to increase business’ bottom line and avoid the common pitfalls associated with growth. Their team, […]

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: […]

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 […]

Selling Skills

AI Didn’t Replace Me, It Made Me a Better Sales Rep – Here’s How

By Devin Reed, January 24, 2018

When we think of artificial intelligence (AI), it’s a very cool concept. Both Siri and Alexa live alongside us, performing Google searches and turning on our lights via voice, just like a human assistant would. Teslas are driving and parking themselves, and all this innovation raises eyebrows while making life easier. But if AI is […]

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 Management

How You Sell Is More Important Than What You Sell (Here’s Why)

By Chris Orlob, January 13, 2018

We’ve entered an era where how you sell has become as important as what you sell. Here’s why… Every product category is exploding in competition. Customers have hundreds of choices for any product type 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 at worst. Take marketing […]

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 […]