 When I run sales meetings, I always ask whether there are any events over the next thirty days that would give the team a chance to meet new customers.
During my time as fractional sales manager at one AV company, there happened to be two upcoming conferences put on by meeting planner associations—PCMA and MPI. "Is anyone going to the MPI meeting tonight?" I asked the team. One of the salespeople, we'll call him Doug, said, "Oh, I used to be a member of MPI, and I never really got any business out of there. I wouldn't bother." "Okay. Do you mind if I go?" I asked. My attitude was it was ridiculous not to try, but I could already see I wasn't going to convince him. He shrugged. "Sure, you can go. But I'm just telling you, you're not going to get anything out of it and everyone knows me already, so they already know to reach out if they need something." I got my business cards ready, parked at the event, and got out of my car. As I was walking in, I spotted a woman my age who was clearly dressed for a corporate event. "Are you by chance going to MPI?" I asked. "Yes, I just moved here from Washington, D.C.," she said. "What do you do?" "I'm a meeting planner and I have an agency where we manage events for associations and nonprofits. Most of my job is vendor management." A meeting planner, who owned an agency, who had just moved here and specialized in vendor management. There was no way she knew anyone from my company (including Doug). You can't make this up. "I'm Karl," I said. "I've never been to one of these either. Why don't we help each other out when we go in here so we're not just standing around with no one to talk to?" "That would be great!" The two of us went into the meeting and were able to introduce one another around and build our networks twice as fast as we would have on our own, and with half the effort! And sure, that involved introducing her to some competitors that also did live events, but we were already buddies. Before the night was over, I invited my new buddy to visit our AV company, and she happily agreed. The next week, she came in to have lunch with us and the CEO. We had a casual conversation, went through some event photos and presented her with our deck for her to look at. More importantly, we laughed, got to know each other, and brainstormed how we could work together. Within six months, we'd done three events for her company. Don't take for granted that every networking event you go to will be exactly the same as the last. Approach each one like new opportunities are waiting for you, because guess what? They probably are.  Your photo library is one of your best selling tools.
It’s a point I was sure to emphasize when I shared “20 Actions to Take Right Now,” to a room full of AV professionals. Your photo library is more than a highlight reel. It shows examples of innovative technology. It’s an important visual aid when a prospective client asks why a certain type of event technology is so impactful. Most importantly, it proves your expertise. Of course, when your photos are located across various google folders, hard drives and internal servers, finding the right one can be a long process. At best, it wastes the time of your sales team each time they need to find a specific image. At worst, it robs you of opportunities to make new connections when you can’t produce the pictures you’re talking about. Almost immediately, I heard dissent. “It would take weeks to overhaul our entire system.” “We have photos coming from freelancers and techs. Even if we reorganized everything, it would be impossible to upkeep the system.” “It’s more trouble than it’s worth.” That’s when I told them about MyLio. The photo search engine connects multiple sources of images without requiring you to move a single file. Even better – when the photos are tagged, they become searchable, allowing your team to find the images they need quickly. I also encouraged them to have photos that show off some incredible events using a variety of tech saved to their phones and tablets in a dedicated folder. That way, if you’re at a networking event or walking through a venue with a client, you have great images accessible at a moment’s notice. You aren’t reliant on an internet connection, and nobody has to wait for you to search through a hundred photos of your dog to find the picture you’re looking for. A few weeks after the keynote, (you can’t make this up - I promise it’s 100% true, although I changed the name to protect my friend, Steve) I received an email from Amy, one of the AV company owners in attendance. Karl, I wanted to thank you for sharing your easy tips for increasing sales - especially making sure you always have great event photos on hand. My flight leaving the conference was delayed, so I had some time to kill in the airport. I started looking through some of my favorite event photos and downloaded a variety of them to my phone. As we were boarding, I created an album and saved all the photos to it. I noticed the woman sitting next to me had an ILEA sticker on her water bottle, so I asked if she was a meeting planner. We got to talking and after a while she asked to see some pictures of association events that utilized LED screens. Normally, I would’ve been scrambling to get a strong enough connection to the airplane wifi to search through folder after folder of images. But because I saved the photos, I was able to quickly scroll through the album and find several examples. While I was scrolling, she noticed other tech she was interested in, and I explained how we used that, too. After we landed, we exchanged business cards. We’re scheduled to get coffee next week. I know she’s planning some upcoming meetings, so I’m hoping to walk away with an RFP. Thanks again! Best, Amy Your clients want ideas that inspire them, and being able to produce photos quickly when asked does just that. But you don’t need to wait to be asked. We live in the event space 24/7, but our clients don’t. What might feel like old technology or dated trends may still feel new and exciting for your clients. My recommendation? Consistently send photos that show off your work and will inspire your clients and prospective clients. If your photo library is organized, it makes it that much easier to find relevant images to send. Feel free to copy and paste the example below and add in photos that will inspire your existing and prospective clients. Hi [NAME], The last few months have been really exciting for us. We've had the opportunity to do some incredible events for our amazing clients. Below are some photos that I think might inspire you and give you ideas that could be implemented into your upcoming events. [INSERT PHOTO] [INSERT PHOTO] [INSERT PHOTO] One of my favorite parts of my job is brainstorming the next best event ideas with each of our clients. I'd love the opportunity to meet or jump on a call to talk about the trends we're seeing and my ideas for your next event. — [NAME] Join our AV Peer Group and subscribe to our newsletter to get more industry tips that will up-level your sales process and performance.  “I don’t know what we’re doing, but it’s working.”
Often this sentence is said with pride after seeing a company’s revenue trend up. However, it’s a lot more insidious than one might think. That naïve positivity can lull people into a false sense of security, even as trouble prepares to pounce. If those in a sales and marketing organization don’t know what they’re doing right, they won’t know what they’re doing wrong when things start trending down. Marketing could be wasting too much money on ad spends to bring in leads when a different stage of the funnel needs to be improved. Maybe too much of the company’s success is riding on one salesperson, who may one day decide to move on and take their profits with them. Without an understanding of where a company is succeeding and the data to back it up, no one will be equipped to fix problems when they do emerge. Pull Your Sales Funnel Apart We’ve made the case for the integrated funnel and why dividing it into stages matters. It allows sales and marketing teams to be efficient as they map tasks to the buyer’s journey and improve performance. Visualize your funnel with all your leads inside it. Now, imagine there are funnels for each of your ideal customers and their buyer’s journeys nested inside of this greater funnel. If you want to be able to successfully optimize your sales activities, you must separate these funnels from one another. The need for more than one funnel is not just about the content within it. It is also vital to track the KPIs from these different funnels separately so you can tell what effect they have on the amount of money you are bringing in. Otherwise, when you have a problem with revenue, you won’t be able to tell where you need to bust out your magnifying glass and detect how to fix it. (Refer to this blog if you need a little reminder of which sales and marketing KPIs to track.) How You Disguise Your Problems and Successes The tendency to generalize leads causes sales and marketing professionals to overlook where they are winning and where they need to improve. There are three ways oversimplification creates risks of taking the wrong actions or even no action at all. Risk Point One: Generalizing about Your Funnels Let’s say a teacher has a classroom of twenty students. Half of them are average students, about a third of them are high-scoring students and the remaining students are disruptive and get failing grades. It wouldn’t be fair or accurate for the teacher to say, “All my students are problem students,” even if that small group draws the most attention. Treating all the students the same wouldn’t help any student in that class be successful. The same goes for your sales and marketing campaigns. You could say, “All my efforts are useless,” but if you haven’t been tracking your data, you have no idea if that’s true. In fact, the sales funnel for one of your offerings might have huge potential to draw more revenue even though the income from your other offerings has stalled. If you are looking at your results as a whole when you have multiple offerings, you can’t see the specifics of what is and isn’t working. You won’t be able to see where you should keep doing what you have been doing or where you need to change direction. Risk Point Two: Having Poor, Messy Data Let’s say a client has three offerings, but when they look at their revenue, they only look at the total rather than what comes in from each. Every month, when the client views their potential revenue and their deals, all they can see is whether the numbers are going up or down. Instead of asking why their deals aren’t closing, they should have data that identifies how many deals they have for the first offer, how many for the second, and how many for the third along with how each of those funnels are performing. That allows them to diagnose the individual problems. If you don’t have your CRM set up to demonstrate these data points, the real statistics are hidden from you. Even if you have the knowledge that different offerings have different success rates, unless you are collecting data, you won’t know how to act on that knowledge. Risk Point Three: Generalizing about Your Salespeople If looking at stats from all your sales funnels at once isn't helpful, lumping the performance of each of your salespeople together may be even less so. You might identify that your team has a 30 percent close rate, but you may have one salesperson with a close rate of 50 percent and another at 15 percent. The way you interact with these two different salespeople should not be identical if you want to make effective changes. Instead, the numbers should lead you to having personal interactions with the individuals on your team. Rather than give the sales team a blanket mandate to “sell more,” it’s more effective to take pointed action. That may mean focusing on helping the salesperson closing at 15 percent to improve, replacing them if necessary or supporting your top salesperson further until they reach superstar status. In the end, using broad generalizations without detailed data analysis can lead to major risks for any sales and marketing organization. By dissecting the sales funnel, tracking individual KPIs, and avoiding the oversimplification of data and team performance, you'll be able to see what your sales and marketing organization's strengths and weaknesses are. Using a more focused approach will allow you to do more of what works and less of what doesn't. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in our book Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Karl joined Justin Stoddart on the Think Bigger Real Estate podcast to dig into what makes sales meaningful and effective in an age of automation: real human connection. While many salespeople are tempted by the promise of working faster using technology, especially AI, Karl and Justin make a compelling case that being human is your competitive advantage.
In this conversation, Karl shares candid stories and experiences in relationship-driven industries, where going beyond surface-level interactions leads to trust and lasting impact. He explains how to use Iceberg Selling to build rapport with curiosity and authenticity, be more present, and apply emotional intelligence to every client interaction. Whether it’s taking the time to understand a client’s life, brainstorming ways to provide value beyond your core service, or shifting from an impersonal list of clients to a focused network of trusted partners, Karl offers a grounded, real-world roadmap to selling with depth and intention. He even tackles the tension between being efficient versus being effective, reminding us that while we should be efficient with our work, we should never be efficient with people. Listen to the full conversation on your favorite podcast app, visit Think Bigger Real Estate's podcast page or watch the video above to explore how you can be more present, show more empathy, and add more value to your sales approach.  “We go to tons of networking events, but it’s always the same crowd. We never meet anyone new.”
This is a common problem my clients have when they start dedicating time and resources to networking and new client outreach. They fill up their calendars with networking events and attend them religiously but rarely find that they’re making new connections – and even less of those new connections turn into new customers. There’s a simple reason for that: attending an endless slew of networking events on autopilot and getting intentional about networking is not the same thing. When you treat networking events like another item on your to-do list – something to get through quickly and then cross off – you won’t see even a fraction of their value. But when you enter each event with a clear set of goals and a plan to achieve them, you’ll start to see some results. Here’s what you can do before, during, and after networking events to get the maximum impact. Before the Event If there are other people in your current network who you think would benefit from the event, invite them to attend! By having a buddy, you can work together to make new connections and benefit from established connections the other already has. Next, try to determine who may be attending the event. Is there a meeting planner who “liked” the event on LinkedIn? Is there a vendor who is on the board of the association? Try to get an idea of who will be at the event and then check out their LinkedIn profile, as well as their company’s LinkedIn profile. If they’re already in your CRM, read the notes. Look for any common connections or interests you may have. Once you have an idea of who will be at the event, create a list of the 5 or 10 people you absolutely want to meet. These should be people you think you’d be able to work with in the future and could easily connect with. If you can find their LinkedIn profile, consider reaching out ahead of time so you’re on their radar, too. Before you go to the event, take some time to plan how you’re going to network. Is a friend going with you who can help facilitate conversations? Do you plan to walk around introducing yourself to people? Or would you prefer to hang out by the bar or coffee station to introduce yourself to people as they come by? Regardless of what your plan is, coming up with one ahead of time helps you determine the best way to make your connections. Prepare your top 3 conversation starters so you aren’t stuck wondering what to say when somebody on your list walks by. It may seem silly – but it goes a long way in giving you confidence. Google and ChatGPT are your friends here. Finally, consider things you may be able to offer to a new connection. Is there an upcoming event you can give them an invitation to? Is there anyone in your network who may be an asset to them? It’s important to enter conversations with new clients by showing that the relationship can benefit both of your businesses. During the Event Stick to your plan. Once you arrive, identify the people on your list and make sure you talk to each of them. After each conversation (definitely not during it!) make a note on your phone about what you discussed. If you make any tentative plans to meet, write it down. If you say you’ll share something, make note of it so you don’t forget. And, of course, hand out plenty of business cards. After the Event The name of the game is… follow through! Connect with the people you met on LinkedIn immediately. How immediately? From the train or before you leave the parking lot. Suggest a time for the coffee date you talked about or remind them of your promise to send those pictures you mentioned – and first thing the next morning, do it! The next day, put each new contact into your CRM, make the introductions you said you would, and foster the connections as they grow into real opportunities. Showing up to a networking event is not enough. Showing up and only talking to people you have strong existing connections with isn’t getting you new work. You need to be intentional about showing up with a clear plan to make new, meaningful connections and follow through with them. For more AV industry tips that help you grow your client base and get more out of your sales efforts, join our AV peer group and subscribe to our newsletter!  When a client tells me they lost a prospective client after their proposal because they got unlucky, I’m always tempted to pick the situation apart. Of, course, there are times when it just doesn’t go your way – venue fees for outside AV support makes it impossible to have competitive pricing, an incumbent vendor wins the bid, they change their mind about what they want – the list goes on.
However, there are also plenty of situations where lack of preparation is easily disguised as bad luck, and they typically come down to the same problem: lack of research. Here’s the scenario: a call comes in from a buyer who wants a quote. You start by identifying all the details on the surface. For association meetings or nonprofits where information about events is typically public, there is likely a lot you can learn to come prepared to your first discovery call. But why stop there? If you really want to set yourself up for success, it’s time to dig deeper. Check Your CRM For the Customer Open whatever application you use to build orders and manage clients, like Flex, LASSO, Rentman, Pipedrive, etc. and check to see if the customer is in your system. Have they spoken to a salesperson at your company before? Have they requested (and received) a quote previously? Did you win the job, and if so, was there any feedback? If not, did they give any feedback as to why? In the case of one of my clients, they found that the organization had issued an RFP years ago, and the team pulled together an in-depth proposal. Ultimately, they were not awarded the business or given any feedback as to why (although, the potential customer did go with their incumbent provider). However, they realized they still had all the assets, brand guidelines, and research from the last proposal logged in their system, which they were able to use as a resource. Research the Buyer Let’s say the customer wasn’t in your system – it’s time to do a little research on the buyer. A quick LinkedIn search will tell you how long they’ve worked at the organization and where they’ve worked in the past. Check any previous employers against your CRM, too. It’s possible that even if you haven’t worked with their current organization before, you have worked with the buyer directly or indirectly. That may be why you received the RFP! If you do find an organization they previously worked for in your CRM, ask yourself all the same questions as above. You may find that someone on your team has an existing relationship with the buyer. Find Shared Contacts The events industry is small, so even if you haven’t worked with the buyer before, there’s a good chance somebody in your professional network has. Reach out to your AV industry friends to learn as much as you can about the contact. When one of my clients asked around about a buyer who had reached out, a freelance technician who’d been on one of their shows answered honestly. You might find out some incredible things about working with the client. You may also find the opposite. Regardless, the more knowledge you have the better. It’ll help you find common ground, understand the nuances of their communication style, and help you stand out from other teams they may be talking to. When one of my clients asked around about a buyer who had reached out, a freelance technician who’d been on one of their shows answered honestly. “He can be difficult to work with,” he shared. “He seems like a nice guy, but he’s very particular about how he wants information communicated and who everything should be shared with.” My client asked the tech more questions and then used that information to influence the processes outlined in the proposal, making it much more specific to the buyer’s taste. All of this is to say, you don’t have to (and shouldn’t) leave your sales up to fate. Doing as much preparation as possible makes it that much more likely that the initial proposal will align with the buyer’s expectations and their business will be yours. For more best practices for live event proposals and tips to get more out of your sales process, join our AV peer group and subscribe to our newsletter! In a recent episode of the Teaching Journeys podcast, Karl joined host Dave Roberts to explore what it takes to build high-performing sales teams in a way that puts human relationships first. The conversation touched on the foundational pillars of effective sales leadership, the importance of aligning values and motivations, and the transformative power of mindset for individuals and organizations (and, of course, Iceberg Selling).
Building Sales Teams that Thrive Creating high-performing sales teams starts with a healthy culture. Too often, organizations prioritize tactics before values—but success is rarely sustainable without a shared purpose. Karl emphasizes the importance of building intentional, positive environments where people feel connected, supported, and clear on their “why,” both personally and for the overall business. When a team aligns with common goals and values, high performance comes easy. This alignment includes understanding each team member’s unique strengths and motivations. Rather than forcing one-size-fits-all strategies, effective leaders tailor their coaching to the individual—helping people succeed on their own terms. The result is greater engagement, consistency, and trust. Leadership That Empowers, Not Controls Leadership plays a critical role in shaping team dynamics. Karl shares that the most impactful leaders don’t micromanage, they enable. They invest in understanding their team members and create space for growth. When leaders prioritize collaboration and vulnerability, they build a culture where people feel safe to use their own their own experiences. The Power of Iceberg Selling Of course, Dave and Karl did a deep dive into Karl's Iceberg Selling framework, which invites sales professionals, and everyone else, to look beneath the surface of any given situation. Success comes not just from features and benefits, but from uncovering the deeper motivations, fears, and goals that drive decisions. In particular, they focus on the Ownership and Drivership mindsets. When salespeople in particular adopt these mindsets, they shift from reactive to proactive—from simply following the process to leading with intention. Great sales teams don’t just happen. They are built—with clarity, culture, and the courage to go deeper. Check out the episode on Youtube.  Jordan initially didn’t understand why I was telling him to look at his company’s reviews. After all, he had extremely positive, long-term relationships with most of his clients. I told him it would only take a minute, so he pulled up his Google listing. Low and behold, among the 10 reviews he had, one was for two stars.
“I’d never engage with this company again. Constantly micromanaging and they didn’t even pay me on time!” Jordan recognized the name – disgruntled audio tech who had worked with them on exactly one show. “That’s not even a client!” he rubbed his eyes. “And he’s only telling half the story. He was constantly on his phone, so we told him it had to be out of sight the entire day. After the show, he sent his invoice but didn’t give us his bank transfer details, so we had no way of paying him and he didn’t respond to anything until the invoice was past due.” “Aren’t you glad you googled your reviews?” I asked Jordan, and he looked at me like I was crazy. “Not really. It’s not like I can do anything about it.” That’s where Jordan was wrong. Sites with ratings, like Google, GlassDoor, Yelp, and BBB understand that malicious and fictitious reviews do happen, which is why they have an appeal process. In the meantime, he could respond to the comment and tell the story from his side so people understood what really happened. Not to mention, he could ask other clients and freelancers to rate his company to counteract the low star rating. Unfortunately, bad reviews, often unearned bad reviews, are inevitable. I say this, not to scare you, but to show you that knowledge is power. There are plenty of ways to fix or at least lessen the impact of negative reviews, but you can’t do damage control if you aren’t aware of the damage in the first place. In Jordan’s case, he wasn’t able to get the review removed, but he reached out to clients and was able to get enough 5-star reviews that the impact to his average was minimal. He also realized how many live event clients and contacts he’d never received reviews from because he never asked. I often hear clients say that it’s awkward to ask for reviews, but if you have a script in place and make it part of your post-show process, it gets much easier. Below is a template for a review request you might send after an event to encourage your customers to leave a positive rating and reviews. Hi [NAME], Thanks again for partnering with [YOUR COMPANY NAME]. We really enjoyed producing your event on [DATE] at [VENUE]. If you had as good a time working together as we did, we’d love for you to take a minute to leave us a rating and review on one or all of the following platforms: - Google [INSERT LINK] - Yelp [INSERT LINK] - BBB [INSERT LINK] - Facebook [INSERT LINK] If there’s anything else we can help you with in the future, please reach out. We’re ready to talk about planning your next event any time. Thanks, [NAME] Want more helpful AV industry tips? Join our AV Peer Group and subscribe to our newsletter to up-level your team and increase sales performance.  In order for any company to successfully improve its sales process, there needs to be a way to measure the effectiveness of specific sales and marketing efforts. Team members from both departments must also take ownership of the KPIs that directly relate to their roles. Of course, the first step is to determine which metrics are actually KPIs (or key performance indicators). There's certainly no shortage of metrics from which to choose! But identifying the ones that truly reflect the health and power of your sales process is a fundamental step toward measuring effectiveness — and ultimately making adjustments as needed. Let's dive into some of the more common sales and marketing metrics, see which department should take ownership of them, and also discuss ways you can keep all of your team members on the same page. Common Marketing KPIs Many marketing teams will use the following metrics as KPIs as they monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their campaigns:
Common Sales KPIs After a prospect moves past a certain point in the sales and marketing funnel, it's important for the marketing team to hand the prospect off to the sales team — which means the sales team will have an entirely different set of KPIs to quantify their effectiveness at converting leads and closing deals. Some KPIs your sales team may look at include:
Apart from the above metrics that focus on activities your sales team is expected to perform, it's also helpful to measure the makeup of and changes within your sales population (that is, the leads in your sales pipeline). The following metrics are helpful for this:
Keeping Sales & Marketing in Alignment The above metrics are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to potential KPIs. And we haven't even mentioned common high-level KPIs, like revenue, close rate, leads generated, cost per lead, or ROI. Nevertheless, the important thing is to make sure your KPIs are relevant to actual business success and that your sales and marketing teams understand which metrics they own. Setting up a KPI scorecard is only half the battle — it's vital that team members understand their role in the overall sales process and which KPIs they will be held accountable for. Whenever you first institute an integrated scorecard (and whenever you adjust it in the future) make sure that your expectations are clearly communicated to both teams (perhaps in a joint meeting). Keep the lines of communication open throughout any sales or marketing campaign. At the end of the day, identifying which metrics are actually KPIs for your company and communicating ownership expectations to each team will help you to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your efforts, and ultimately improve your company's sales performance. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in our book Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources. If you were taking your family or friends on a road trip, you wouldn't just get in the car and start driving in a random direction. At the very least, you'd first agree on where you were going. Then, as the driver, it's your responsibility to plan your route and any stops along the way.
As a salesperson, you're a guide, helping your customer reach their desired outcome. So why not plan in advance the same way you would if you were any other type of guide? Khalil Benalioulhaj and Martin Holland invited Karl on their podcast, the Cash Flow Contractor, to talk about how Iceberg Selling helps you prepare to be the best guide you can be to your customers. To show someone how to reach a desired outcome, you first need to share a vision. Karl, Khalil, and Martin discuss how salespeople, and entrepreneurs working in a sales capacity, can co-create that vision with their customers and lay out the path from the starting point to that eventual outcome. This episode applies the principles of Iceberg Selling to the construction industry and its unique set of challenges. So, how can exploring the 90% below the surface apply to services like commercial and residential building or remodels? Watch the interview on YouTube or visit their website for links to your favorite podcast platforms.  All companies want to be more successful — whether that means bringing in more revenue, being more efficient, or both. A common thread that's interwoven through all successful sales and marketing operations is careful data tracking and evaluation. It's especially important when assessing digital marketing strategies. This kind of tracking is accomplished most effectively with an integrated scorecard. What is an integrated scorecard? It's a scoring system that includes data points from all metrics in the buyer's journey, including both traditional marketing data and CRM data that the sales team can see. Simply put, an integrated scorecard is a way to track what's working and what's not on both sides of the aisle: marketing and sales. How To Set Up an Integrated Scorecard The highest-performing sales and marketing companies assign specific owners and targets to each section of the integrated scorecard. They also set up target numbers to contextualize each section. For instance, if a student receives 155 points on a test, that's a great score if 175 points is the maximum they could receive. But what if the maximum score is 3000 points? Not so much. In the same way, 155 marketing emails opened may or may not be a good "score," depending on the total amount of emails sent out. The good news is that with modern automation software and CRMs, it's become much easier to track such specific metrics. Sales and marketing data can now be driven by detailed information about customer interactions at each stage of the buyer's journey, and each stage (and sub-stage) of the sales and marketing funnel can now be assigned to specific team members, who will take ownership of the results. Where Does the Scorecard Data Come From? The majority of the data used in an integrated scorecard originates from a few key data points. The most critical sources often include:
If you set up your automations to send data directly into your integrated scorecard, with a minimum of manual data entry required, these reporting tools can work wonders for your data collection and tracking. If you're not sure how best to set up that kind of workflow, keep in mind that there are tech tools on the market (like Easy Insights) that can aggregate data from multiple sources and present the information in a single, easy-to-read dashboard. As a result, you can see all your digital marketing metrics in one place. The Importance of Well-Monitored Data Well-monitored (and well-understood) data can supercharge your digital marketing performance, enabling you to make agile, data-driven decisions that improve your results. It can also reveal critical errors that would not be readily apparent otherwise. For example, imagine that you're running a Google Ads campaign to send traffic to your website. Your marketing team carefully examined search traffic data and competitors' landing pages and collaborated with your sales team to form a keyword-based strategy. Then, the keywords were coordinated across the ads and the landing page to which the ads led. Everything was done "by the book." By the end of the first week, you see that 150 leads had clicked on your ads, and between 10-15% had clicked through to the Google submission form on your website landing page. So far, so good! But then you notice something odd: When website visitors reached your landing page, they weren't taking the next step and completing the contact form. In fact, not a single visitor submitted the form! With that data in hand, you decide to dig further... and you discover that the company that created your Google submission form on the website hadn't set up the permissions correctly. In other words, leads were unable to enter any of their information into the form. Once you identify the problem, you quickly take steps to correct it — and your leads start pouring in. Now, imagine the scenario above without well-monitored data. Would you have suspected a technical issue was the culprit, or would you have simply concluded that your marketing strategy was off-base? How long would it have taken you to identify the real issue? As you can see, careful data tracking and evaluation of digital marketing, made easier by an integrated scorecard, can save a ton of time and money when things go sideways. Judge Your Digital Marketing Efforts With an Integrated Scorecard Simply tracking how many leads enter your funnel and how many end up buying isn't enough to judge your digital marketing strategy's overall effectiveness. To make the most of carefully crafted marketing automations and a well-organized CRM, every team must have KPIs in their integrated scorecard — and each KPI must have a readily discernable purpose for being tracked. Some key questions your KPIs should answer include the following:
Answering questions like these and making any adjustments that are needed will help you progressively craft a winning sales and marketing strategy that delivers consistent results. Granted, it may take some work to set up an integrated scorecard for your business, direct the flow of sales and marketing data toward that scorecard, and get all of your team members on board with a new approach. But the rewards of doing so far outweigh the cost — and in the long run, you're virtually guaranteed to see improved sales performance as a result. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in our book Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources.  The third best practice of Iceberg Selling is to build rapport with customers, colleagues, or whoever you happen to be interacting with. While building rapport always includes showing authentic interest in the other person's "iceberg"—particularly the 90% that you can't see on the surface—it also includes sharing your iceberg with them, too.
Karl's interview on episode 181 of The Insight Interviews podcast, with Steve Scanlon, dives into the human qualities of iceberg selling. It particularly emphasizes the role of self-awareness in sales, explaining how understanding and addressing internal beliefs can drive significant improvements in performance. Shifting the focus from closing a transaction to deep, authentic connections leads to greater sales success. And, as Karl and Steve discuss, truly connecting with others begins with knowing yourself. One of the key takeaways from the podcast is how understanding the hidden psychological barriers that salespeople face can unlock new levels of success. Karl elaborates on the importance of embracing vulnerability in sales and how genuine human connections—rather than hard-selling tactics—can make all the difference. Whether you're in leadership or are a front-line sales representative, these insights will help you approach your sales process with more clarity, confidence, and connection. Karl and Steve also discuss how, for sales leaders, the iceberg selling approach provides a refreshing take on how to build a team that not only performs but thrives in a challenging environment. By shifting focus from sales quotas to personal growth and connection, sales organizations can foster a culture of sustainable revenue and growth. Listen to it here or on your favorite podcast platform.  For many in the corporate world, meetings have the reputation of being time-wasting, soul-crushing exercises in futility. However, when sales meetings are designed and presented correctly, few activities contribute more to collective creativity, collaboration, and organizational growth.
To be sure, it's important to find a balance between leaving space for the expression of ideas and providing clear guidance on the scope and purpose of the meeting. The key here is structure. Create a clear agenda that has buy-in from all key stakeholders. As a result, you'll be able to develop useful and efficient sales meetings. Here are some critical steps to take along this line: Step #1: Set Intentions. Create Connections. Setting intentions is exactly what it sounds like. Before each sales meeting, you need to make it clear to all participants what you hope to achieve through the meeting. Creating connections, however, is especially vital if you're beginning to bring your sales and marketing teams together via integrated meetings. It may be a good idea to use the first combined meeting with both departments as a sort of "brainstorming session." Open the meeting by having each participant share something about themselves. This could be a professional or personal win, someone they want to recognize or thank, or an icebreaker exercise that gets people excited and engaged in the meeting. This shouldn't take up too much time. However, it is an essential tool in making each person feel heard and valued. Then, proceed to get a consensus on what the partnership between sales and marketing should look like. Get your team members to share enough ideas that everyone starts to get excited about what the future could look like. Set the stage with this first meeting. Then, future integrated meetings can focus on ideas, initiatives, and actions through the lens of that original vision outlined by your team. Step #2: Remember Why You Are Meeting Hopefully, you've already made the point of the meeting clear long before it actually begins. But it never hurts to introduce a meeting by clearly stating the goals. This can be especially helpful if team members are used to participating in a certain type of meeting, but not necessarily the type you're currently holding. Whether it's sharing knowledge, creating accountability, or attacking a specific problem, make sure everyone knows what the objective is, and how you want them to participate. Step #3: Evaluate Where You Are Right Now There are, without fail, two key pieces of information you need for any successful journey: your desired destination and where you are now. We already alluded to the desired destination in step #1(and we'll discuss it more in step #4)... but what about your team's current state? How are sales and marketing collaborating? Is there still room for improvement? Which sales and marketing tactics are proving effective? And which ones aren't performing up to expectations? Where are the bottlenecks in the sales pipeline? You'll likely need to use a mixture of qualitative and quantitative information to arrive at an accurate analysis of your current situation. Again, this is why it's crucial to properly prepare any team members who will be attending. Enable them to show up with the data and anecdotal information to make the best use of everyone's time. Step #4: Align on Where You Want to Go Many corporate employees are used to weekly, rinse-repeat meetings where they can mostly tune out. But when every meeting is geared toward a particular outcome, things change quickly. At some point during the meeting, you need to explicitly name the problem, challenge, or initiative you have come together to solve. This should only be done after everyone has had a chance to provide their input — after all, your view of what the issue is may change during the course of a truly productive, collaborative meeting. Nevertheless, once the issue has been clearly defined, it allows everyone on the team to focus on solutions — both collectively and individually. It's important to note here that this doesn't just have to involve overarching business outcomes. It may be appropriate in some meetings to focus on more granular results. These include reducing the number of unqualified sales leads, clarifying marketing communication to increase customer satisfaction, and so forth. Step #5: Chart the Path Forward Once the team has been aligned on a desired outcome or destination, it's time to specify which solutions should be focused on, and come up with tactics to support those solutions. This may involve a standalone meeting — e.g., a strategy or working session. As the names suggest, strategy sessions are more focused on conceptual troubleshooting. Conversely, working sessions involve the nitty-gritty details that transform a strategy into an active business process. Step #6: Plan Next Steps and Create Accountability Every meeting should have clear next steps — including owners of those steps, requirements, and deadlines (or at least approximate timelines). Make sure all participants agree. Everyone should leave the meeting understanding what's expected of them. Don't leave anything vague! If you even get the slightest sense that an aspect of your plan might still be somewhat nebulous, or that a team member doesn't quite understand what they need to do, clarify, clarify, clarify until it can't get any clearer. Don't confuse insistence on clarity with micro-management. The latter is counterproductive and discouraging; the former is essential for the smooth operation of any business and leads to increased discipline and accountability among your team members. Step #7: Always Support Commitment With a Recap No one should ever leave a meeting, no matter how positive, thinking: "That's nice, but I doubt anything will come from it." It's important to remind your participants that it's everyone's responsibility to support the team and do what they have agreed to do. One of the most effective, yet simplest ways to do this is by providing each meeting participant with a recap after the meeting ends. This is often provided via email in the form of a brief summary along with a list of action items, and each item's owner. In-person recaps can also be effective. Supporting the team through solid recaps builds trust, collaboration, accountability, and good habits. (You may even find these good habits sneak into other meetings as well!) If you keep these seven key steps in mind as you design your meeting agendas, you'll undoubtedly find that your sessions become more productive, your teams become tighter and more focused, and your overall sales process becomes smoother and more efficient. Remember, you don't want your meetings to crush souls — instead, they should help your team crush their sales goals! Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources.  In a thought-provoking conversation on Chris McNeil’s podcast, Karl Becker shares transformative insights into selling as problem solving. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to improve their influence and connection, both professionally and personally.
Karl begins by exploring the power of building connections with others, drawing on his own experiences of adapting and connecting to create a sense of belonging. Whether in sales, leadership, or consulting, this ability to build meaningful connections lays the foundation for solving problems and driving success. Success doesn't always mean doing everything yourself. It means empowering others to contribute their best, too, whether that refers to your customers or your teammates. This mindset shift has profound implications for sales leaders and professionals alike. Karl emphasizes to Chris that every challenge, conversation, or opportunity is like an iceberg—90% lies beneath the surface. By embracing curiosity and seeking to understand what’s hidden below, sales professionals can uncover deeper motivations, address unmet needs, and create long-lasting value for their clients. The podcast also highlights the importance of co-creating solutions with clients. By engaging in authentic conversations and genuinely understanding their world, you move beyond transactional sales to establish trust and shared ownership of solutions—leading to stronger relationships and more natural outcomes. For anyone in sales, leadership, or influence, this episode is packed with actionable insights. Learn how to shift from a "close-first" mentality to a service-driven, long-term value mindset. Listen to the full interview on your favorite podcast platform or on the Thought Leadership Studio website.  Meetings are at the very core of sales and marketing integration. In fact, they are one of the most critical factors in orchestrating the type of cooperation that ultimately results in closed sales. In addition, they promote regular, meaningful communication between teams and departments, which helps to prevent disagreements and misalignments that can lead to conflict.
Well, that's how sales and marketing meetings are supposed to function. In the real world, many company sales meetings end up wasting everyone's time. Maybe they lack focus and structure; maybe they've become occasions for a team leader to dictate strategy behind a facade of "collaboration." Whatever the case may be, all too often meetings in the corporate world are counterproductive, frustrating, and exhausting. It doesn't have to be that way. You can develop, promote, and chair meetings that generate creative ideas, yield actionable results and promote genuine alignment and collaboration between your sales and marketing departments. But to hold an effective sales meeting, setting the appropriate tone must be at the top of your list of best practices. Approach Sales Meetings With a Spirit of "Teaming" The stereotypical corporate meeting involves a leader on one side who's rigidly following a series of bullet points, lecturing his or her audience about decisions that have already been made, and generally sucking all the air out of the room. Not surprisingly, on the other side you have disengaged, bored team members who clearly view the sales and marketing meeting as a hardship to be endured rather than an opportunity to be heard. If that describes your organizational sales meetings, even to a small degree, it's vital to initiate a company-wide mindset shift that will counter those bad habits. The shift should be toward "teaming" — in other words, cultivating a positive mindset and unifying around a shared goal. The most effective way to enter productive sales and marketing meetings is to remember that you are coming together to create results, not to dictate or be dictated to. Meetings should be spaces for team members to share observations and ideas, and even ask for support as they work to understand and fulfill their roles in the sales funnel. For instance, think of a marketing team that isn't sure of which direction to take a new piece of content. Perhaps in a meeting, one of the marketing managers asks the sales team for observations on what leads seem to be most interested in. That conversation could open up completely new angles for the marketing team to consider as they continue to develop and implement their content strategy. Key Tone-Setters for Effective Sales Meetings As you reflect on ways to prepare for effective sales and marketing meetings, there are some important principles you must keep in mind when it comes to setting the right tone. These include the following points: 1. Effective sales meetings must have structure. It's no secret that sales meetings without structure fail to accomplish their intended purpose — if, indeed, they have a clear purpose at all. Meetings, like sales and marketing initiatives, live and die by strategy, processes, and people. In other words: you need a strategy for how to run meetings in the first place; you need processes in place that make your meetings efficient and useful; and you need to make sure your people are contributing and receiving value at those meetings. 2. Sales and marketing meetings must have an agenda. Whatever form your sales meeting structure ends up taking, a clear agenda needs to be an integral part of it. It's crucial that whoever leads the meeting has an agenda already in place, and that any critical resources or key assignments are given to participating team members well in advance. When your team members have a few days to look at and think about the items on the agenda, they'll be in a much better position to share useful feedback and observations during the meeting itself. In fact, you may even want them to suggest additional items be included on the agenda — and if you ask them far enough in advance, you may be surprised at how much feedback you receive, and how valuable it is! 3. Successful sales meetings include logistical planning. The importance of creating a meeting environment that's conducive to collaboration and learning shouldn't be overlooked. Obviously, you'll want to hold your meeting at a time when everyone can pay attention, and at a location as free of distractions as possible. Moreover, for the sake of efficiency, it's helpful to have any meeting resources or hardware primed and ready to go. For example, you may want to ensure that whiteboards and markers are clean and new, or that any digital content you plan to share is preloaded and ready to play. 4. Effective sales meetings are selective (in terms of attendees). Don't just invite everyone to a meeting. Select your attendees according to who will really benefit from the information to be discussed, as well as who is in the best position to add value to the meeting. It's usually best to keep your meetings small: four to six people is typically a comfortable number. Additionally, you usually shouldn't invite more than eight people if you want full participation and engagement. 5. High value sales meetings encourage a collaborative headspace. A good meeting covers what the sales and marketing teams will co-create in the future — not the mistakes that one team or the other made in the past. Re-fighting past battles is useful to nobody. Make sure all meeting attendees understand that this is a time for forward-looking collaboration and construction, not for complaining or airing personal grievances. Everyone should approach the meeting ready to listen with genuine respect to the ideas presented by their fellow attendees. This is the only way meetings will become greater than the sum of their parts. If you incorporate these key "tone-setters" into your planning process, then you'll be in an excellent position to run an efficient, well-structured, valuable meeting. And even if your organization does require a significant mindset shift towards true collaboration, the effort to make that change is well worth the effort. Doing so can eventually result in sales and marketing meetings that yield actionable results — and in turn, those actionable results can lead to more closed sales and higher profits for your business. Look out for next month’s blog, which will focus on creating an effective meeting agenda. Learn More About Hosting Successful Sales Meetings A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in a new book called Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources. |
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