Allego, a sales training, learning and coaching software, recently accepted its first funding round of $7.5 million from General Catalyst. Yet, Yuchun Lee, CEO and Co-Founder of Allego, swears the company has no plans to touch it.

We recently wrapped up our seventh annual B2B Buyers Survey, and, as always, were intrigued to hear straight from more than 200 executives who had been directly involved in a B2B purchase decision (with 72% being the primary decision maker) in the past 12 months.

LinkedIn has launched new features for Sales Navigator, which the company stated will position users to expand existing customer relationships, acquire new business and maximize sales productivity. The new Deals feature aims to help reps better understand and manage pipeline.

Intercom, a customer messaging platform, has released new chatbot technology designed to accelerate sales by helping users create their own custom bots without code.

Scout, a new sales technology platform from the Miller Heiman Group, is designed to leverage data and analytics to predict which seller actions are the most effective. The platform aims to combine Miller Heiman Groups’ strategic selling methodology with analytics-driven technology to improve sales performance and drive deals.

An outbound sales cadence is a must-have for your sales process, but not every cadence is identical. Your outbound sales cadence will vary based on your industry, audience and corporate culture. That means each organization needs to create a totally unique cadence, as there is no one-size-fits-all template.

Shared Spaces, a new sales enablement platform from Showpad, aims to help sales teams build custom sites for prospects and facilitate personalized interactions between buyers and sellers. It is positioned to provide a secure and navigable space where relevant content can be easily tracked and shared for an improved buyer experience.

Since the introduction of SPIN selling in the early ‘80s, the world of B2B customer engagement has seen steady innovation. Telephone cold calling, voicemail and emails became vital tools used to let prospects know you wanted to talk to them. When you did get a positive response, face-to-face meetings for problem discovery and PowerPoint presentations to drive the impact of your solution home became the standard. B2B selling was ruled by the conventional wisdom of seasoned sales executives who had control of the information. Through vast experience and advanced training in strategic and positional selling, they knew exactly how to win. It was a seller’s market and a game of inches.

In 2007 it took a little more than three-and-a-half cold calls to reach a prospect. These days it takes eight. Each year it will take more. The trend is rapid and clear. What is to be done?

Showpad, a sales enablement platform, unveiled augmented reality and 3D model capabilities for its iOS app designed to provide an immersive and interactive buying experience.