Monday, September 30th, 2024

Keep on learning… to be successful

Learning is not just important; it’s essential for success in sales. When we saw the headline on the cover of this Journal (edition 9.5) “Do Salespeople Have Time to Learn” we were left with a massive feeling of déjà vu and drifted towards a discussion of what was top of the pop charts when we first heard that said. Thankfully,… 

Thursday, December 12th, 2019

Professional sales and the “differentiation conundrum”

How salespeople can make a difference in helping their organisation stand-out from competitors, in ways that resonate with customers. Article summary This is the fourth in a series of articles in which Dr Simon Kelly, Dr Paul Johnston and Stacey Danheiser explore customer value and differentiation. Here they draw from their own recent research, to focus on the role that… 

Tuesday, September 10th, 2019

Research identifies three key sales competencies

As B2B buying behaviour evolves, how can sales organisations adapt? This is the third of a series of articles in which Dr Simon Kelly, Dr Paul Johnston and Stacey Danheiser explore customer value and differentiation. In this article they offer an early view into their latest research around the roles and competencies required by salespeople to help their organisations differentiate… 

Tuesday, June 25th, 2019

Selling in a sea of sameness

When your competitors are floating in a sea of sameness you need to make sure you are waving not drowning. In the second of a series of articles in which Dr Simon Kelly and Dr Paul Johnston explore customer value and differentiation, they are joined by co-author Stacey Danheiser to ask: are you selling in a sea of sameness? In… 

Thursday, March 21st, 2019

Putting the value in value propositions

This is the first of a series of articles in which the authors explore customer value and differentiation. In this article Dr Simon Kelly and Dr Paul Johnston consider the importance of customer value and its criticality in building effective value propositions. They draw together their experience as marketing and sales practitioners, their recent academic and commercial research, and their… 

Tuesday, December 18th, 2018

Value propositions: the sales and marketing interface

In original research for his Doctor of Business Administration qualification Simon Kelly asked: How do sales and marketing produce business-to-business value propositions? Background I became interested in how sales and marketing work together (or not!) to produce value propositions at the turn of the millennium in my role as Marketing Director for BT’s Major Business Division (BTMB). In an increasingly… 

Saturday, October 31st, 2015

Align or die?

How do we re-engineer the sales and marketing interface for the benefit of our customers? Just as I sat down to write this article my email pinged. I tried to ignore it as I’d just come back from an excellent “Sales-Mind“ workshop that reminded me of the foolishness of multitasking. Then I saw the title – “Brands failing to align…