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In a major step forward for professional selling, UK professional body the Association of Professional Sales has highlighted the achievements of 15 young salespeople who have become the first to complete a new, nationally recognized apprenticeship in sales. The pioneering 15 have successfully completed the Level 4 apprenticeship for sales executives. They have been trained by their employers and the… 

A career in selling can be vibrant, fast-paced, bold and exciting. It can also be demanding, challenging and subject to long hours in a busy, target-driven environment. But the sales function is the bedrock of any business so, if you’re committed to developing client relationships and providing valuable solutions, sales can be a highly rewarding, dynamic and fulfilling long-term career…. 

Never before have there been so many options for students, apprentices and aspiring sales professionals to study and gain valuable qualifications and commercial experience. Academic sales programmes are available to those anticipating a sales career either as university and college courses for undergraduate students on leaving school or at postgraduate level. Postgraduate options (often aimed at more experienced individuals) include… 

In the UK, sales apprenticeships are programmes that allow people to study for a professional qualification while being paid and receiving on-the-job training. Sometimes, off-site classroom training is also involved. Apprenticeships typically last one to three years. They’re open to anyone over the age of 16 and not in full-time education. As there’s no upper age limit, apprenticeships can be… 

Sales competitions are attracting the attention of students from around the world because they are a great way for sales course participants to showcase themselves in front of prospective employers. Equally, many corporate employers have embraced sales competitions as a convenient way of checking out the best of the new crop of sales talent. Competitors who perform well are likely… 

Different industries have different pay scales for sales jobs. Research the industries you’re interested in to discover whether they’re a good match for your salary expectations. In the UK, entry-level sales salaries start at between £18,000 and £21,000, and can rise to £28,000 plus commission. The average entry-level salary is around £24,000. As you progress through your career, expect middle… 

Artificial intelligence. Computer systems that are capable of learning by themselves. Companies are increasingly finding AI applications within sales – for instance, to identify potential customers or to predict the best time to call a customer. B2B – business-to-business. When a business interacts and completes transactions with another business, such as a wholesaler and retailer. For example, one company might… 

A job in sales can give you the skills to become a future business leader. The skills you need Many people think that to be successful in sales you need to be able to talk. It’s true; being able to communicate well is massively important but the “gift of the gab” is not required now, and frankly, never was. What… 

Account-based marketing is increasingly recognised as a highly effective approach to working with key accounts, so is of major interest to key account managers looking for new approaches. November’s KAMBP explored how to use ABM and KAM together. Bev Burgess, Senior Vice President & Practice Lead, and Dave Munn, President and CEO, introduced ITSMA (the Information Technology Services Marketing Association)… 

How a relationship-based group coaching model can improve performance. As a salesperson and subsequent sales leader with more than two decades of experience, on-the-job learning has provided me with valuable insights and business management skills. However, given the rapidly evolving business environment, I realised the need to embark upon a continuous learning path. On learning about the SAP Master’s programme,… 

Breaking down complexity to boost sales performance. There’s no denying it, the buying process is more complicated, longer and involves more stakeholders than ever before. But in contrast to this change, product life cycles are becoming much shorter and salespeople are feeling the pressure. Getting to grips with increasingly complex products and solutions in a short time means salespeople not… 

Nick de Cent is in conversation with Philip Stylund, discussing sales strategy post-COVID-19 and the blended world of the future. Nick de Cent: In these times of great uncertainty, do you predict that the rush to online sales that we’re seeing will further broaden the divide between simple and complex sales in B2B? And what I mean by that is:… 

How to manage and lead through the current crisis with the wisdom of Aristotle. In a recent London Business School poll, we asked an audience of over 1,000 senior executives how as leaders they would like to look back on the current crisis. They could choose from five possible outcomes – for them personally as well as for their organisations:… 

We asked leading academics, professional bodies and consultants for their views on how sales leaders can best respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Unprecedented is a word we hear being bandied about a lot since the emergence of the COVID-19 virus. Nevertheless, the situation we all face is indeed unprecedented, and the world will never be exactly the same again, even… 

Bob Apollo on Sales Methodologies In recent articles in this series, I’ve taken a look at some of today’s most widely adopted B2B sales methodologies. Many sales methodologies (in the interest, no doubt, of selling more books and training courses) claim to have a uniquely effective approach. Yet, and perhaps inevitably, each methodology has its strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots…. 

Report from the Cranfield KAM Best Practice Forum 26 September 2019. Key account managers are always striving to find better ways to cooperate and co-create value with their opposite numbers in purchasing. Similarly, professional purchasing managers are always striving to obtain the best possible deal for their organisations and get away from entirely price-focused negotiations. So the most recent KAM… 

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… 

Barry Gray is preparing for the last great polar challenge. Here he talks mind-set and leadership. As Barry “Baz” Gray prepares to follow in the footsteps of his hero Sir Ernest Shackleton, he has a sense of history and his potential place amongst the pantheon of polar explorers. “For me it’s about doing something that’s never been done,” the former… 

How salespeople can make a difference in helping their organisation stand-out from competitors, in ways that resonate with customers. In our book Value-ology (Kelly, Johnston and Danheiser 2017), we drew attention to Qvidian’s research that showed 58% of deals end up in no decision because the customer has not been convinced of the value being offered, which means your biggest… 

Following my initial two “Spotlight on…” articles on Sandler and Strategic Selling, I now want to turn my attention to another long-established, widely adopted and still-relevant sales methodology: SPIN® Selling from Huthwaite International. The concepts behind SPIN® were the result of extensive research by Neil Rackham and his colleagues into the patterns of success and failure in complex B2B sales….