When sellers lose a sale, we often hear something like: The other vendor had an in. Our competitor offered a lower price. We didn’t have the best solution. They decided to do nothing at all.

Why Social Selling Will Soon Just Be...Selling

Ago Cluytens
March 7, 2016

Back in 1997 when I started my career, there were two things that everyone believed were going to revolutionize commerce and industry. First there was the mobile revolution—upcoming mobile technologies were about to significantly impact how we interacted, shopped, and banked. The second was ecommerce, the prediction that brick and mortar enterprises were about to be displaced with "click" and mortars.

5 Changes in B2B Buying Behavior You Need to Know About

Ago Cluytens
June 9, 2015

The world around us is shifting—in virtually every way. Savvy sellers have caught on to the fact that B2B buying behavior is changing as well.

5 Ways to Get the Most Out of B2B Sales Training

Ago Cluytens
January 20, 2015

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.

Social Selling Tools: 5 Ways to Save Time, Stay Focused, and Generate More Sales

Ago Cluytens
December 18, 2013

According to recent data from the Social Media and Sales Quota report from Social Centered Selling, 78.6% of sellers using social selling outperformed those who didn’t. And social sellers were 23% more successful in terms of meeting and exceeding quota. The question isn’t if social selling works. It’s how.

5 Sales Coaching Myths We Can All Safely Ignore

Ago Cluytens
September 17, 2013

Sales coaching—working one-on-one or in small groups with firms and individuals in a highly focused manner to help them increase effectiveness, revenues, and sales—is a large part of what I do on a day-to-day basis. Done right, it’s one of the most powerful, impactful ways to increase revenue and boost individual or group performance.

Selling to the C-Suite: 3 Tips for Selling to C-Level Executives

Ago Cluytens
June 24, 2013

Most of my clients want to have better meetings with senior executives. Meetings that feel like conversations, not pitches. Meetings that build deeper relationships. Meetings that uncover more ways in which they can help their customers. Behind closed doors, when I ask what's holding them back, many will tell me things like, "I don't feel comfortable," "I have nothing to offer to them,"" or "I'm not at their level." Selling to the C-suite can be difficult, and getting a first meeting can be a real challenge. But, in my experience, the most difficult part is not getting the first meeting. It's getting the second one. Or the third one. It's keeping the relationship going.

5 To-Dos When Selling to Senior Executives

Ago Cluytens
April 18, 2013

Want to make more sales? Start by having better conversations. Think about it. You spent months chasing a senior decision maker or prospect, making calls, and sending e-mails, and they finally agreed to sit down with you. You invested significant amounts of time, effort, energy and—sometimes considerable—resources to win them over. And now you find yourself in a room with a senior executive. Now what?

5 Sales Prospecting Techniques You’ve Probably Never Tried (But Should)

Ago Cluytens
April 12, 2013

What is the #1 challenge or issue you face when it comes to growing sales for your business? When I recently reached out to my network and asked that same question, 75% mentioned sales prospecting as their #1 challenge. The problem isn’t that people don’t know what to do; it’s that what they’ve always done no longer works. Want proof? Think about the last time you met an actual decision maker at a networking event, and that conversation led to a sale. How about from a cold call? Trade show? Advertisement? The simple truth is this: if you do what everybody else is doing, you’ll get the same results everybody else is getting.

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