Tuesday, May 26th, 2020

Decision contentment or buyer’s remorse?

Identifying a B2B buyer’s post-decision “cognitive states” – consonance and dissonance – and how to accommodate them. Cognitive dissonance is experienced when a person suffers from the unpleasant and conflicted state of being “in two minds about something” – in other words, concurrently holding two or more contradictory cognitions (ie, perceptions, attitudes or beliefs). The concept became popularised among marketers… 

Friday, December 13th, 2019

They’re only words!

In the digital era, perhaps more than ever before, it is becoming increasingly apparent to advertisers that they must carefully consider what vocabulary will most likely resonate with members of their target audiences in order to communicate effectively with them. Should salespeople be following this lead? Some ten years’ ago I authored a book featuring 52 separate selling skills.* One… 

Friday, September 22nd, 2017

Perfectionists versus pragmatists

Most learning models that encourage salespeople to adapt their selling styles to meet the needs of different buyer “types” don’t easily translate across to B2B selling scenarios. The author proposes a new model based on personal experience. The new model being proposed here provides a more practical learning tool, at least for those salespeople for whom it has been designed… 

Sunday, April 23rd, 2017

Culture change for salespeople in the financial services industry: a past, present and future perspective

Based on anecdotal evidence, personal observation and experience, the authors examine the challenges still being faced by some of the UK’s leading financial institutions in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis – specifically, their need to navigate high standards of ethicality in the way their sales operations are organised and executed while also maintaining their effectiveness. In the… 

Saturday, September 3rd, 2016

Re-sharpening the customer focus in B2B markets: understanding selling as “marketing in action”

In today’s ultra-competitive markets it is imperative that salespeople work to continuously sharpen their customer focus. By comparing the new model of personal selling with the marketing process, this article provides an agenda for helping to make it happen. Introduction Despite the rise of online selling, in many markets – especially B2B – personal selling remains a critical component of… 

Thursday, April 7th, 2016

7 steps to cultural heaven

Roger Brooksbank and Zahed Subhan explore how salespeople can help to grow a customer-led organisational culture. Abstract Since salespeople are at the cutting edge of a company’s overall marketing effort it means their knowledge of marketplace dynamics is second to none. High-performing companies understand the value of this knowledge and harness it by involving them in growing a truly customer-led… 

Monday, July 6th, 2015

Best practice for running an effective salesperson onboarding programme

New research suggests the most successful programmes pursue a calculated blend of sales training and coaching activities. The bar has been raised. In a world where businesses are becoming increasingly proficient at managing a range of multi-channel, multi-touch and highly customer-focused interactions, how can we ensure that our newly recruited salespeople measure up to customers’ expectations? Toward this end, many…