XANT, the New Way of Selling

Artificial Intelligence in sales can not only increase revenue and sales opportunities, it can provide sales leaders with accurate reporting and a data-driven system for selling, explained Dave.

“Inside sales is the new way of selling. What differentiates it from what was done historically is the new technology – called sales acceleration technology – that enables a numeric, data-driven, highly scalable, highly measurable way of selling that is much more customer focused and accommodates customer buy cycles and behavior. An AI system of growth, as discussed previously, actually spans sales acceleration technology, MarTech and AI,” said Dave Elkington, in the Martech Series interview.

AI is Bridging the Gap Between Sales and Marketing

While sales and marketing have always been intertwined departments, today sales systems have become much more advanced and are bridging the gap between the two by providing seamless transfer for leads, accurate reporting and data-driven insights.

“In the ‘golden days’ of marketing, it was pure brand and advertising, billboards, and prints. It was very difficult to create measurable results and scalable unit economic models that drive efficiency in marketing. Sales was in the same boat where you had enterprise sales people carrying very large quotas and you had to trust that they’d come back at the end of the quarter or year with the big sale. It was the art of the sale vs. the science of the sale,” said Dave Elkington.

The category of sales acceleration do not belong solely under the sales budget of the sales department, he added.

“The lines are very blurred in the way the digital or high-velocity selling occurs because the marketing and sales funnel aren’t separate anymore. Marketing is generating this digital behavior and engagement and it’s then handed off to sales much more quickly. So this AI system of growth we provide can be used across this collaborative team,” said Dave Elkington, in his interview.

AI Solving Sales Challenges

Recent XANT research shows that among the top challenges for sales leaders is building high quality pipeline, and that better alignment between sales and marketing can be the solution for this challenge.

Sales teams using the XANT AI system of growth see revenue increases of up to 30% in just 90 days after implementation.

AA-ISP is the worldwide association dedicated to the advancement of the inside sales profession. The association provides a place for like-minded professionals to learn best practices in the structure, people, and processes of sales. It’s an organization focused on growing the inside sales industry and their careers.

“Our recent research shows the inside sales profession is on an upward trajectory,” said Dave Elkington, CEO, XANT, according to a company press release.

“According to The State of Sales report, which we created in 2017 in partnership with AA-ISP, inside sales professionals now represent nearly half of the entire sales workforce in the United States, and their numbers are growing. We expect this trend to continue, as sales leaders believe that in a truly effective sales organization, there should be an equal split between inside sales and outside sales professionals.”

In addition to confirming the growth of the inside sales industry, the report showed the time spent selling remotely by field sales reps increased 89 percent (24 percent to 45 percent) from 2013 to 2017. Sales leaders report their motivation for creating inside sales teams is “increased productivity.”

“Sales is still not taught in the curriculum of most universities, so it’s up to us and companies like XANT to help educate the next generation on the benefits of inside sales professionals,” said Bob Perkins, founder & chairman, AA-ISP.

“Combine the research from AA-ISP with XANT Labs’ best practices, and you have a powerful guide for sales strategies that are proven to work in today’s shifting markets.”

XANT was AA-ISP’s Acceleration Service Provider of the Year in 2016. As part of the renewed partnership, the company will be a marquee sponsor for the organization’s Leadership Summit. This is the largest gathering of inside sales leaders, to be held April 3-5 in Chicago.

This is a hot topic right now, for all professional roles: recently, the founder of investment company Bridgewater Associates, Ray Dalio, said that almost half of the jobs in the next two decades will be replaced by artificial intelligence.

Sales Taks That Can Be Performed by AI

According to XANT research, around 25 percent of sales executive’s time is being spent on administrative tasks. These will be decisions like: who to talk to, arranging a time to speak with them, determining the best way to contact. Salespeople need to do less administration and more selling, says Martin Moran.

Those 25 percent are increasingly being relegated to Artificial Intelligence (AI), shows Martin, in an interview with “The Leap” magazine.

“In the lead cycle, we can tell a salesperson if their prospective lead is worth their time, but we can also tell them a lot more. We can give them an optimal time of day to call, and whether they are more likely to respond to a mobile or landline call or an email,” said Martin Moran.

Sales acceleration platforms can help sales reps identify which deals are most likely to close. They can show when you are more likely to close or show you the last time someone contacted a decision maker.

The Death of a Salesman

In the age of e-commerce, you might be forgiven for thinking the days of the salesperson are numbered. However, the rise of machines and smart sales systems does not mean the death of the sales role, says Martin Moran.

“There’s no truth to that at all; I’d argue the opposite. If I’m buying something low value, that’s relatively commoditized, I don’t need someone to sell it to me, I just need a frictionless e-commerce relationship.

The e-commerce relationship is going to be fully automated and will only get smarter, says Martin.

“But as you go up the stack, as sales transactions become bigger and more complex, then there will always be human intervention,” adds Martin.

How AI Helps Humans Build Relationships

AI is a great help to build an environment where a salesperson interacts with a prospect, adds Martin. Especially in a landscape where face-to-face communications is increasingly rare, AI can help the modern salesman create the context where they can refine sales their skills. Technology is there to help build an enduring relationship between human beings.

“I don’t think there’s ever going to be a total replacement of the art of selling, so to speak. People are still going to buy from people,” said Martin.

To read the full interview, click here.

AI is here to stay and it’s not just changing the market, it’s shaping the way we live and work. In the sales industry, the growing sophistication and accuracy of predictive analytics is creating significant advances. However, inbound marketing and sales (along with many other functions and sectors) must continue to advance their use of AI in ways that they can build consumer trust.

State of Artificial Intelligence 2017

The study shows that even as AI continue to become more widespread, consumers continue to feel trepidation around the technology.

41 Percent Do Not Trust AI

When presented with a list of popular AI services, 41.5 percent of respondents could not cite a single example of AI that they trust. 

• As with many technological advancements, acceptance is growing most quickly on the East and West Coasts;
• In New England, only 36.6 percent of consumers reported a lack of trust for AI;
• Only 38.0 percent of West Coast respondents report lack of trust;

Nearly half (49.2 percent) of consumers in the Middle Atlantic region (NY, PA, NJ) report a lack of trust in AI.

Respondents in this area are especially wary of its use in industries that have historically required a human touch (such as financial planning, hiring or medical diagnosis). Only nine percent of respondents trust AI with their financials, and only four percent trust AI in the HR hiring process.

How to Build Consumer Trust for AI

So what do these results mean? For vendors whose offerings are centralized on AI implementation, you have your work cut out for you to demonstrate safety and reliability and to generate trust. For industries that are indirectly impacted by AI (especially sales), the message should be clear: always be respectful of privacy.

Artificial Intelligence can bring fantastic results to sales teams, both in revenue as well as productivity.

We must continue, as sales professionals, to use AI for the benefit of our customers, in way that they will consider useful and welcome, as opposed to invasive or “creepy.”

You can find the executive summary of the “State of AI 2017” study here.

The rules were developed in partnership with XANT CEO, Dave Elkington, and highlight actionable items that sales representatives can work on to improve their performance.

The Laws of High Velocity Selling

The 12 immutable laws of extreme velocity sales were published recently in Forbes Magazine and they are as follows:

Be a Playmaker
Have More Conversations
Have Better Conversations
Sprint Between Conversations
Be Pleasantly Persistent
Build Rapport Virtually
Qualify Your Lists
Leads Have Need
Run Cadence Plays
Compelling Sales Content
Specialization is a Team Sport
Manage to Leading Indicators

Learn More on Inside Sales from the Experts

In his latest article on Forbes Magazine, Ken Krogue summarizes and explains each rule and demonstrates why acting on each of these would help maximize your potential in sales. The goal is to focus on having more and better conversations with your prospects, at the same time looking to minimize time-wasters. High velocity selling will help you win more customers, increase revenue and keep you from falling behind on your quota.

You can read the full article from Ken Krogue here.

Ken plans to include these laws in a new book meant to help sales professionals with highly effective sales techniques. Ken Krogue, the founder of XANT, has over two decades of sales experience and writes regularly for Forbes Magazine.

He is author of “The Art of Cold Calling and the Science of Contact“, “LinkedIn Inside Sales Tips“, “Data-Driven Sales Prospecting.“

XANT Chief Marketing Officer Mick Hollison recently shared new research on the state of sales with

Brian has been selling for more than 25 years and helps companies increase revenue and reduce sales cycles by understanding how their customers make purchasing decisions.

On the podcast, Brian and Mick discussed the general sales outlook and important trends for 2016. Citing XANT’s Business Growth Index research, Mick shared valuable sales industry insights that explain why salespeople have every reason to remain optimistic in 2016.

The following is a short summary of their conversation, and you can listen to the full sales podcast here.

Sales confidence

The start of 2016 was dubbed by many as the worst start to a year in the history of both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones. Many companies, particularly in the tech industry, saw their valuations plummet. There were a lot of contributing factors, but analysts reported that many companies were obsessed with growth at all costs, rather than striving for customer success and profitable growth.

Despite this rough start, Mick noted that sales leaders have every reason to remain optimistic about the rest of 2016 and into 2017. The Business Growth Index revealed that more than 75 percent of sales leaders predict either steady or accelerated sales growth in 2016 thanks to a projected 31 percent increase in year-over-year sales growth between 2015 and 2016.

Also, despite longer sales cycles and decreases in close rates, companies saw a 10.8 percent bump in sales opportunities and a 10 percent increase in deal sizes.

The changing nature of sales

In the last decade, there has been a significant transformation in how organizations are approaching sales. Companies are employing a greater number of inside sales reps as they fight to become more cost-effective and productive in reaching buyers.

Historically, everyone thought you needed face-to-face conversations in order to close major deals, but now we’re seeing examples of inside sales teams closing seven-figure deals without ever leaving the office.  

Oddly though, while the sales industry’s demand for sales professionals outstrips the supply, sales as a profession continues to lack the respect of many other positions. Brian specifically pointed out how odd it is that sales can be one of the most lucrative fields in business, yet people don’t think of it the same way they do other professions.

Mick suggested this is in part due to the current educational system. There are a wide range of majors and fields of study, but very few universities offer courses that focus on selling. That means we aren’t building up the pipeline of sales superheroes.

Interesting findings

Mick and Brian wrapped up their conversation by discussing a few other interesting discoveries regarding the current state of sales. Both were pleased by the growing levels of diversity, with women making up 42 percent of sales professionals and ethnic minorities representing 34 percent of sales teams.

Mick also highlighted the most desirable traits managers should look for when trying to hire top sales talent. While resiliency and ambition are typically seen as great indicators of success, sales managers should also be on the lookout for individuals with empathy.

Listen to the full sales podcast here.

Utah Business

The winning CEOs shared their secrets to success – from sales to leadership to change management. We thought it would be valuable to pass along some of their top tips so you can take advantage of their hard-earned wisdom.

1. Think big

“Think big. You have to think big and have big, hairy, audacious goals,” Pluralsight CEO Aaron Skonnard said. “You have to have a big vision: a clear North Star. And then you have to lead your organization with a lot of clarity around that vision.”

2. Focus on vision, team and culture

“I’ve realized that a CEO focuses on vision, team and culture,” Traeger Grills CEO Jeremy Andrus said. “And if you can get those three elements right, you win.”

3. Create a community of alignment

“Create a community and align everybody’s interests,” XANT CEO Dave Elkington said. “Once you create a community with aligned interests and aligned beliefs, everything goes so much easier.”

Hopefully, you found some solid takeaways in this advice. See the other CEO of the Year winners below:

• Scott Altman, Ballet West
• Richard Beard, People’s Utah Bancorp
• Patrick Byrne, Overstock.com
• Lew Cramer, CBC Advisors
• Wallace Davis, Peopletrail
• Richard Hunt, Hunt Electric
• John Sperry, InMoment
• Teresa Whitehead, Citywide Home Loans
• Spencer Young, Young Automotive Group

Whether he’s showing Boy Scouts how to build a campfire, running football drills, educating business executives on military strategy, or helping companies create high-velocity inside sales organizations, Ken loves to share his knowledge and insights with the world.

And that’s what the XANT founder is determined to continue doing despite some recent health challenges caused by a scary head-on collision.

On Sept. 2, 2015, Ken survived a serious automobile accident when a large truck traveling 55 mph plowed into his Chevy Silverado in Springville, Utah.

The force of the impact crumpled his hood, shattered his windows and slammed his truck into a steel barrier.

“I’m lucky the air bag deployed because it saved my life,” he says.

When I talked to Ken recently, he wanted me to give his colleagues, customers and friends in the industry an update on his road to recovery and some of the cool things he’s been working on in the past few months.

“I’m grateful that this happened because it’s caused me to get back to the basics of life,” Ken says of the accident, noting that he’s strengthened relationships with his family and started to live a healthier lifestyle.

You can read Ken’s personal account on his blog, kenkrogue.com

Writing projects put on hold

Ken has wanted to write a couple of books about inside sales for a long time. In 2009, he took a few months away from the office to work on one book of best practices and another about XANT’s company story. He made a lot of progress and came close to publishing something at that time.

But business was booming, and the company wasn’t sure it wanted to give the book publisher the electronic rights, so the project was shelved.

“In hindsight, I wish I would have finished it then because it would have helped us in a lot of ways,” Ken says.

In 2015, Ken decided it was time to publish the books, and he resumed working on one of them – until his automobile accident.  The crash totaled Ken’s truck and sent him to the hospital with a broken arm, serious whiplash and a concussion.

As a result, he had difficulty concentrating, thinking clearly, speaking and writing, and his energy levels plummeted.

“Obviously, I put my book on hold while I started trying to heal,” he says. “They gave me this cool cast for my arm that I could take off to shower.”

Then Ken and his “cool cast” embarked on a series of meetings with various doctors. He soon discovered how hard it is to get time with a neurologist, but he eventually found a good one, who taught him a lot about brain trauma.

“One of my friends told me if I didn’t take the concussion seriously and address it, the effects would linger,” Ken says. “He recommended a clinic in Provo that is one of the nation’s leading clinics for concussions.”

So Ken enrolled in Cognitive FX led by Dr. Alina Fong. Her team guided Ken through cognitive therapy, including a series of brain games and exercises.

“I had previous mild brain trauma from playing football and this auto accident had compounded things. The therapy was intense; it wears you out,” Ken says. “It took eight hours a day for five days. Monday and Tuesday were exhausting. By Thursday morning, I remember just feeling great. They performed a brain scan on Friday, which showed significant improvements.”

Ken found he could think and speak more clearly, but he still had trouble writing.

“It’s still really hard to hold my head and body up after about 2 p.m.,” he says. “If I lie down and rest, I can pick up later where I left off, but if I try to push through it, I get exhausted.”

A healthier Ken

The truth is, before the accident, Ken was already trying to do too much and wearing himself out.

“I hadn’t been eating and sleeping well or exercising, and that had caught up with me,” he says. “I was on the verge of diabetes, and I had let some of my family responsibilities slip.”

Ken traveled to San Diego to spend time at the Optimum Health Institute. He exercised, took health classes and ate healthy food.

He also started using a Bemer device, which improves blood circulation through some pretty cool science.

While he’s away taking time off from the office, Ken is enjoying the opportunity to spend meaningful time with his wife and kids. He has become enamored with the Aaron Ross business model that makes room for family.

And with the help of his friends at SnappConner PR, CEO Cheryl Snapp Conner and Tom Post, a former managing editor at Forbes, he is getting back into the writing groove.

“Writing these books is the best way I’m going to contribute to our business and this industry that I love so much,” Ken says. “I want to codify our inside sales best practices into something that can be used at scale.”

Ken still struggles to sit at a keyboard and bang out prose, so he is speaking his thoughts into a voice recorder. He sends those recordings to an editor, who is helping him draft his articles and books.

His goal is to have the first book ready by the time we host the XANT Accelerate customer conference in May. He’d like to finish the second book by Dreamforce in October.

In November 2015, Ken joined Jill Rowley and Koka Sexton on stage at the Sales Hacker conference in San Francisco to discuss social selling strategies. In February, he and Koka teamed up for a webinar on how to use LinkedIn for sales, and he delivered a keynote at the RootsTech family history conference in Salt Lake City.

“I’m doing great emotionally and mentally,” Ken says. “I’m just struggling physically a little bit. I have to say no to a lot of things. I can’t juggle multiple conversations and projects as well right now, but I’m grateful to all my friends and family who have supported me through this.”

Read Ken’s personal account on his blog. 

]]> https://www.insidesales.com/sales-best-practices-microsoft-webcast/ Tue, 13 Oct 2015 15:52:37 +0000 https://xantblogupdate.local/sales-best-practices-microsoft-webcast/ XANT Chief Marketing Officer Mick Hollison joined Mathieu Loury, senior vice president of global merchant solutions for MasterCard Advisors, on Microsoft’s Modern Workplace webcast.

They shared insights on how the buying experience has changed and how today’s sellers can reach the right customers with the right message at the right time.

Here are a few of the sales best practices highlighted in the webcast:

• Call web leads within 5 minutes: Immediate response is crucial.
• Be pleasantly persistent: Follow up 6 to 9 times. Most reps only follow up 1 to 2 times.
• Leverage data science: Identify the best leads and the most effective ways and times to contact them.

To see the full webcast, visit the Modern Workplace site.

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“Predictive analytics is the next phase of enterprise software,” Elkington told CNBC.

The XANT sales acceleration platform analyzes more than 100 billion sales interactions from leading companies like ADP, Microsoft and Groupon, he noted.

The platform uses these insights to help companies sell smarter, sell faster and sell more.

“You’re going to see anywhere from 50 percent to 100 percent uplift in productivity,” Elkington said. “But more importantly, you’re going to see a 30 percent uplift in revenue, and that can be as quick as 90 days.”

Watch the full CNBC interview here: