Shifts in Consumer Behavior And Technology Four years ago, Andy Hoar writing for Forrester Research, famously postulated that a million B2B sales representatives would be displaced by 2020. Andy asserted that the combination of digitally enabled self-service models and the retirement of previous generation buyers who are replaced by digital-native buyers would form new […]

[ 2 -3 min read ] Without A Clear And Adaptive Sales Strategy, Customer Acquisition Efforts Fail We have heard paraphrased versions of this again and again. Despite this, sales leaders frequently find themselves managing in situations of strategic ambiguity. As the pace of change continues to accelerate, sales leaders are quickly learning management agility […]

  Several years ago, in my last position as a major account executive, my brand new first-line sales manager asked me to sit down with him so he could give me my new quota for the year. I told him that I did not care what quota number he assigned to me and that the quota […]

Whether you’re a numbers person or not, here are 21 stats that every technology sales leader should know.   Sales Quotas & Win Rates 1. Only 60% of companies say that quotas are set as a collaborative effort between the CEO with input from senior management. (CFO Alliance) 2. 64% of sales organizations reported correct […]

Why do we accept 60% quota attainment? It seems every day I see another news story read or an article discussing the fact that somewhere between 40% and 50% of B2B sales reps in the US fail to attain their quota numbers. Why is that? There is a plethora of tools and applications available to […]

A few days ago, I had a conversation with a member of our Board.  As a Director who sits on several high tech start up boards, she has attended more than her share of Board reviews. Her comments could be summarized in saying that Sales Leaders who are not making their numbers all say the […]

Sales VPs today are spending exceedingly disproportionate amounts of time trying to figure out what is going on in their sales teams in order to ensure sufficient pipeline generation. This is an acute problem for sales and revenue leaders as it is often causes reps to fail to make quota.  Pipeline generation is often measured […]

Cien co-founder Margot Carter will attend EY’s annual Strategic Growth Forum from November 13-17 in Palm Springs, California to represent Cien and engage with other thought leaders in technology.  Cien uses the power of AI to identify and track key selling attributes and improve the performance of sales teams. For more information, you can download […]

AI company showcases new guided selling capability Dallas and Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 25, 2019 Cien Inc., the leading provider of AI-powered sales productivity solutions, today announced its participation in the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Open Innovation Challenge and the unveiling of its new AI-powered “Cien Mentor” feature. MWC is the largest mobile technology event in […]

Cien launches study on artificial intelligence and the future of sales. Cien, the artificial intelligence company that helps companies predict and improve their sales productivity, has been named “Customer Hero” by Salesforce.com. Every year Salesforce.com recognizes customers whose innovative technology and implementations have made them heroes to the people with whom they work. Cien was […]

Cien Featured on Emissary.io Cien was featured along with Salesforce and Conversica on Emissary, the world’s first sales intelligence network. Emissary mentions Cien’s Global Study on the Future of Sales. In this study, we found that 88% of sales professionals expect artificial intelligence (AI) to make their jobs easier in the next 10 years, not render […]

What makes a Salesforce user different from someone who uses, say, Pipedrive or Nimble? Just like an iPhone user tends to be different than an Android user, it’s common knowledge that someone who uses Salesforce tends to work at a larger or more mature organization than those that don’t. In fact, they’re 5 times more […]