Sales and Marketing – BL – 1

The search term “Claude sales plugin” covers a range of products that do very different jobs. Some add structured workflows for tasks like account research or call prep. Others connect Claude to a CRM or meeting tool so it can work with real data. Comparing what each tool actually does... Read more »

Fewer than half of sales reps hit their targets. In Q3 2025, overall quota attainment sat at 43.24%. That means most sales reps missed the number they were measured against.... Read more »

Sales reps are hired to sell, but most of the week disappears before they get to it. Updating the CRM after calls, drafting follow-up emails, and pulling together deal notes compress the actual work of prospecting and closing into whatever time is left over.... Read more »

Sales reps spend the bulk of their day in Google Workspace — sending emails, building docs, booking meetings, or chatting with colleagues. But if you ask John MacDonald, Global Director of Google Workspace Growth Strategy & Solutions, very little of that time is optimized for actually selling smarter.... Read more »

CRM scalability allows teams’ most important tool to support more users, data, and workflows as the business grows. A scalable CRM keeps records clean, whether a team manages 5,000 contacts or 5 million.... Read more »

Zylo’s 2026 SaaS Management Index reports that, measured against industry-recommended utilization levels, organizations leave an average of 36% of SaaS licenses unused. A software procurement checklist can help teams catch waste, risk, cost, and adoption issues before a contract is signed.... Read more »

The best enterprise CRM software unifies customer data across large, complex organizations while supporting demanding requirements for security, governance, integrations, and AI oversight. Compared with small-business tools, enterprise CRM software is designed for greater organizational scale, more complex permissions, multi-region requirements, and deeper integration with the broader business stack.... Read more »

Revenue operations tools are the connected software systems that help marketing, sales, customer success, and other revenue teams work from shared data and processes across the customer lifecycle. A CRM can serve as the system of record. Still, a RevOps stack usually also includes specialized tools for data quality, automation,... Read more »

Prospecting methods are repeatable ways sales teams identify, prioritize, and engage potential buyers. Choosing the right methods matters more than choosing the right channels. The channel is often replaceable; the method usually is not.... Read more »

The best conversation intelligence software records, transcribes, and analyzes customer conversations, then turns them into coaching, pipeline insight, and quality assurance at scale. Conversation intelligence (CI) software uses transcription and AI analysis to surface what is actually said on calls and meetings, replacing selective memory with searchable evidence.... Read more »

CRM security has never been more important — and customer data has never been more exposed. Every new integration, remote employee, and AI-powered workflow creates a potential entry point, making data protection a growing priority for organizations that rely on a CRM.... Read more »

According to HubSpot’s 2026 Sales Trends Report, 79% of sales professionals say AI helps them pull actionable insights. Yet many teams still lose important call context in scattered notes and secondhand summaries.... Read more »

The global average cost of a data breach reached $4.99 million in 2026, according to IBM’s 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report. For any company that relies on a CRM to manage customer relationships, that figure points to a direct business risk: a breach can expose the same customer... Read more »

HubSpot acquired Warmly, an AI-powered pipeline generation platform, earlier this year. Its founder and former CRO’s LinkedIn headline reads “Keegan Otter (Software Cowboy 🤠)” — with his headshot above it, superimposed over an AI-generated desert backdrop, in a John B. Stetson hat.... Read more »

My client owed my company nearly $5 million. I went to their office to collect a payment. The CEO wasn’t there, so I walked into the CFO’s office instead. In staffing, payroll is due every week—miss it and you’re in serious trouble. The CFO told me they weren’t allowed to... Read more »

The Fundamental Truth of B2B Sales In the world of high-stakes prospecting, it is always a "no" until it is a "yes." There is no reason to give up on a prospect you are pursuing. It doesn't matter if your contact refuses to grant you an opportunity and instead suggests... Read more »

For as long as we have had the CRM, salespeople have complained about it being "Big Brother," like sales managers watching them—as if they have the time. Let me provide you with a better way to think about your sales relationship management. Instead of worrying that your sales managers are... Read more »

After four years of pursuing this client, I finally got a leader to take my call. I asked him why we had never had a chance to meet with them. He asked me what our markup was, and I said it was 40 percent. He said the markup had to... Read more »

When we say creating value, we mean that our conversations are valuable to our contacts, stakeholders, or our champions. For as long as anyone can remember, salespeople spent time talking about their company, their clients, and their product or their service, even though it doesn't create value for your contacts.... Read more »

Your buyers and mine want to buy. ... Read more »

I didn't spend a lot of time in high school. Most days found me walking miles to the banquet restaurant where I washed dishes. I stayed there until it was time to close the kitchen, walking home covered with water. But old Miss Milano complained about me being too skinny,... Read more »

A sales maturity model is a structured approach that helps sales organizations grow revenue by moving clients through progressive stages of value. Instead of selling once and moving on, the salesperson guides the client toward better outcomes over time.... Read more »

This strategy is for you if your clients argue with you about your pricing. When I was selling light industrial staffing, my clients would ask for a lower markup, even though temporaries were already a lower price than an employee with the benefits of healthcare, a 401K, two paid weeks... Read more »

One strategy I’m about to start testing with some of our affiliate management clients is using the top converting SEO pages with AI systems like ChatGPT and Claude, analyze the client’s pages, and do a gap and audience analysis.  By taking the topics that are converting on the client’s own... Read more »

When budgets tighten and finance teams look at marketing spend, and invoicing is one of the first things they go to.  Their goal is to hold onto money as long as possible, so net 30 and net 60 become an easy win including affiliate network invoices.  While this works for... Read more »

Instagram is allowing creators that meet the requirements like 1,000 followers, 18 years or older, etc… to add up to 30 affiliate links (or others) to their reels. Here’s how it works, and that it is open to vendors that are both verified in the native list, use third party... Read more »

There are multiple features that should be standard across all affiliate networks and platforms, but they aren’t.  Some charge fees for them, some include them free, while others don’t have them because their tech stack is outdated.  If these features are not on your platform, you’re likely disadvantaged to your... Read more »

I’ve been sitting on this post for over a year, it’s an opinion piece with action items mixed throughout.  I’m posting now because of the client leads have been coming in over the last 7 or 8 years where they heard “affiliate is a low risk channel”, “there’s marketers and influencers... Read more »

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