Insight

Can the forthcoming apprenticeship programme for B2B sales catalyse a new era of professionalism? If anything underlines why we so desperately need the new Level 6 Degree Apprenticeship, it is the sustained effort a dedicated group of sales leaders and educationalists have had to put into educating government about business-to-business sales as a career and to convince the “powers that… 

Nick Lee on… Statistical significance testing List time around, I explained the concept of endogeneity bias, and how it might influence how much trust you can have in the results of studies you see reported in the media, and also research projects and white papers you might read yourself. This time, I’m going to deal with the other major problem… 

The precise proportions vary a little depending on which researcher you listen to, but the general conclusion is remarkably consistent: the majority of meetings with salespeople generate little meaningful value for the potential customer. They often turn out to be a complete waste of their time. A big part of the explanation can be found in studies which conclude that… 

Are sales force incentives linked to drug sales volumes the best way to motivate individual reps? With the performance of the sales force directly linked to the bottom line, ensuring representatives are well motivated and incentivized is a critical ingredient in any company’s financial health. Yet, with the huge amount of change reshaping the pharma landscape – from digital to… 

How do we achieve a balance between input and output measures to manage sales performance effectively? Lucy is what many people would call a “high achiever”. She had always been focused on delivering the best service for her clients and always supportive of her colleagues and her organisation. Lucy always looked forward to Christmas time. It typically marked the completion… 

Surprisingly little research has been conducted to uncover the major challenges for KAM implementation in professional service firms. Here, the authors discuss how to identify and address them. Professional Service Firms (PSF) provide specialised advice to their customers, and are characterised by knowledge intensity, low capital intensity (in fixed assets), and a professionalised workforce, which makes them distinct from companies… 

Managing sales talent effectively through robust hiring and development processes is only half the story; we need to align these daily processes with company strategy… and we should be developing sales talent far earlier. Hiring and developing salespeople is costly – there is absolutely no doubt about that. According to a recent blog by Chally Group , while a low… 

For the past few columns, I introduced critical issues in designing your own research, with a special focus on how to design experiments. For the next few columns, I’m going to build on those pieces to some extent, to explore a set of issues that I see as perhaps even more important – and especially so in today’s world. Specifically,… 

Bob Apollo on Building Scalable Businesses Long ago and far away, there was a time when “selling to the C-level” was a credible and often effective strategy. Dozens – maybe hundreds – of sales books were written on the subject. If you could successfully sell to the top, so the authors claimed, sales success would surely follow. Now, there’s no… 

The truth may hurt, but being a good loser is a key strategy for future success. Business has been using client feedback to sharpen performance since the year dot and Loss Reviews have long been part of the competitive sales cycle. But the process fell out of favour with many corporates because the information it provided wasn’t valued – why… 

Pressure on the sales function has placed the salesperson in the uncomfortable position of dealing with complex, unrelenting ethical dilemmas on an almost daily basis. The sales department has never been more important to the organization. Given clearly established metrics and direct revenue contributions that connect to financial performance, coupled with an essential role in creating customer value, it is… 

How to prepare, execute, and learn from a new way to listen Last issue, we shared with you our thinking around “The Art of Discovery” (International Journal of Sales Transformation, September 2016/Issue 2.3). We discussed a nearly universal problem faced by salespeople: that “selling” is equated with “pitching.” Day in and day out, it involves a process that includes: a)… 

Hiring, developing and retaining salespeople have been something of a dark art. It’s often expensive and inefficient, but new talent-management techniques are bringing us into the 21st century. Skilled professionals have credibility with customers, and you can’t afford to compromise the credibility of your brand by sending second-best into the field Dr Beth Rogers In their 2015 Harvard Business Review… 

For the past couple of columns, I’ve been discussing various issues around how to think scientifically and do experiments. In this column, what I want to do is bring a close to this series by presenting a couple of basic designs that could be used to generate knowledge of what works and what doesn’t in sales forces, including a “not-quite-experimental”… 

Jim Collins’ Good to Great has been the inspiration for many CEOs who are determined to elevate their companies from run-of-the-mill to lasting greatness. There are many lessons to be learned from the book but one of the most significant is the idea that, before organisations can stand a chance of realising their potential, they must get the right people… 

When organisations talk about their sales process, they are usually thinking in terms of a sequence of sales activities, typically encapsulated in a series of pipeline stages, which are designed to move a prospect from first contact to a successful sale. There’s overwhelming research to prove that having a formalised sales process has helped many organisations to improve sales performance…. 

Dr Roy Whitten and Scott Roy discuss what to do before the pitch and how to do it. The biggest problem my salespeople have is that they just don’t listen well enough!” The speaker was vice-president and director of sales for a division of one of the world’s largest telecoms companies. He continued: “Or, if they do listen, they only… 

In the last issue of the Journal, I wrote about the importance of thinking like a scientist. In simple terms, this is the process of asking the right questions, and avoiding assumptions and ideologies about what “should” be the right answer. If you’ve digested that column, and are ready to think about how best to go about answering those questions,… 

Bob Apollo on Building Scalable Businesses In the majority of sales organisations, a high percentage of sales revenue is generated by the same minority of top sales performers, quarter after quarter. According to research published by the CEB in The Challenger Sale, this performance gap between top salespeople and the rest is amplified in complex, high-value sales environments. They found… 

It pays to take time to learn about Asian culture and etiquette if you want to do business in this thriving region. In the ever-shrinking global landscape, expanding your experience to include an overseas placement is fast becoming mandatory. Forcing yourself out of your cultural comfort zone and into an unfamiliar environment gives you the opportunity to blend information and…