Each year, our goal for the RAIN Group Sales Blog is to provide you with research, ideas, and insight to help you unleash sales potential.
From blog posts to new white papers, ebooks, infographics, webinars, and research, we've published a treasure trove of content in 2018 to help sellers, sales managers, and sales leaders reach top performance.
Below we've rounded up our most popular content from the year that will guide you on your path towards sales success.
Our Most Popular Content from 2018
Blog Post: How Many Touches Does It Take to Make a Sale?
How many touches does it take to make a sale? The simple answer is: more than most people think! According to our Top Performance in Sales Prospecting research, it takes an average of 8 touches to get an initial meeting (or other conversion) with a new prospect. But the initial meeting is just the beginning. It takes a lot more to make the sale. In this article, we share how to generate more conversions in fewer touches, bring more opportunities to proposal and win them, and hit your sales goals more often.
Blog Post: 21 Powerful, Open-Ended Sales Questions
Broad, open-ended sales questions are great for helping you find out what's going on in your prospects' and clients' worlds. They also help you connect with buyers personally, understand what's important to them, reshape their thinking, and create better futures for them. The importance of asking the right sales questions can't be understated. Here are 21 open-ended sales questions you can use that will help you complete the picture of your clients' needs.
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Infographic: The Sales Leaders' Guide to B2B Sales Growth 2019 |
Blog Post: What is Sales Training?
The global market for sales training is approximately $4.6 billion, yet most sales training fails to deliver lasting results. This is because most companies do not define and approach sales training properly. To deliver effective sales training, you need to redefine what sales training is. You need to focus on changing your sellers' behaviors to drive results and reframe training as a change management initiative. In this article, we redefine what sales training is and provide important tips on how to deliver the most successful training.
Blog Post: 7 Ways to Build Rapport in Sales and Connect with People
There's a lot more to building rapport and trust than making a positive initial connection with someone, but it sure is a good start. Having a strong connection with someone makes them more likely to share their aspirations and afflictions with you, two things you need to know about your buyer if you want to succeed in sales. When you build rapport, you want to make a sincere connection. Too often, chit-chat before a sales call seems contrived…because it is. Here are 7 ways to build rapport and make genuine connections with people.
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Blog Post: How to Write a Proposal
"Can you send me a proposal?" Sellers love to hear these six words from buyers. Once you submit a proposal, you can move forward to the win. While a good proposal summarizes what you've already discussed and agreed to, a proposal is, at its core, a persuasive document that communicates to buyers why they should buy, and why they should buy from you. In this article, we share eight key sections to include in a proposal if you want to be in the best position to win the sale.
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Guide and Worksheet Download: Goal Setting Worksheet: A Powerful Guide to Setting and Reaching Goals |
Blog Post: 7 Ways to Give Your Prospecting Emails a Makeover
Email is one of the top ways to break through and secure meetings with targeted buyers. In fact, 80% of buyers say they prefer to be contacted by sellers via email. It's an essential part of any prospecting plan. However, too many prospecting emails fall victim to common mistakes that kill response rates. Here are 7 email makeover ideas to help improve your emails so you can start seeing dramatic differences in buyer response rates and increases in your sales results.
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Ebook and Webinar: The 9 Habits of Extreme Productivity |
We hope you enjoy this content, and that it helps you on the way to achieving your sales goals. We look forward to bringing you much more in 2019, so stay tuned.