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The spiral of value leakage starts when organisations fail to focus on the customer and what they value. Instead, businesses should focus on creating “infinite value”. Peter Drucker is famous for making the following observation: “Because the purpose of a business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two (and only two) basic functions: marketing and innovation.” If… 

Is challenging a customer’s preconceptions through disruptive… 

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… 

JOURNAL EXPANDS EASTWARDS: A delegation from the aSSIST, part of the Seoul School of Integrated Sciences and Technologies, met recently with the Journal to discuss licensing content in Korea. Dr Yong Joo Choi (second right), vice-chancellor led the delegation that met with Journal chairman Dr Phil Squire (right) and editor-in-chief Nick de Cent. He was joined by Dr Jackie Chung… 

Association of Professional Sales fellows are inspiring the next generation of salespeople via the “APS Sales in a Box student initiative to promote professional sales as a career in secondary schools. The programme provides guidance for anyone to promote professional sales as a career and is especially important in the context of employers admitting their first intake of B2B Sales… 

Salespeople make on average four attempts per lead to contact a prospective customer, a recent survey has found. Email and phone calls are still the most common touchpoints for sales teams: the most common pattern was a single email – 32% of respondents used that method, accounting for 61% of first contacts – while the second most common cadence is… 

It would be hard to argue against the idea that we’re living in an age of analytics. For many large organisations selling to the public through B2C channels, analytics has become a critical competitive weapon, whether it’s our favourite online shopping site tempting us to make another related purchase, or our local supermarket ensuring that they don’t run out of… 

No one likes having to inform customers… 

In our previous article in this series, “The classic performance dilemma”, we presented a brief outline of the properties of effective sales performance measurement systems. In this follow-up article, we focus on a widespread practice in sales organisations: the use of sales targets or goals. We highlight the key issues associated with performance targets and offer guidelines to minimise their… 

Selling value is essential to today’s sales professional. We speak to President of Capmatic, Alioscia Bassani to uncover his tried-and-tested techniques for selling value to the C-suite. This sales process uncovers the CEO’s critical business needs and develops value solutions that address the long-term business challenges of concern to senior executives. Ask Alioscia Bassani what business he’s in and his… 

Three easy-to-remember quotes from buyers will help get you on their wavelength. Let’s be honest: nobody likes being “sold to”. We like to think that we are controlling the buying cycle, whether it’s a personal purchase or a corporate procurement. If we experience “blatant” or “clumsy” sales tactics, then we react badly; but, if we feel the salesperson is contributing… 

In an original project submitted for his Doctor of Professional Studies qualification, Phil Squire asked: How can a “client-centric values” approach to selling lead to the “co-creation” of a new global selling mind-set? Here’s what he found out. In 2002, I conducted an interview with the Chief Information Officer of IMS Health, a large, global, pharmaceutical company. The subject of… 

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… 

The old saw states that a poor workman blames his tools. These days, it could also be said that a successful sales manager credits his tools for guiding his success, but to use the tools available to them, sales managers need help. Manual systems for managing commissions and other sales processes don’t capture data in a form that allows fast… 

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… 

Revenue attainment was 23 percent higher for organizations that invest over $5,000 in their sales managers compared with those which invest nothing. However, only 8% of participants make such a substantial investment in their managers. The findings are in a report from Miller Heiman Group’s research arm, CSO Insights, published recently. The 2017 Sales Manager Enablement Report Sales Managers: Overwhelmed… 

Scotland’s Edinburgh Napier University’s sales programme has received international recognition from the US-based Sales Education Foundation (SEF). Its Craiglockhart-based business school has been included as one of the “Top universities for Professional Sales Education” in the organisation’s 2017 magazine. The SEF, which recognises universities that prepare students for successful careers in professional selling and help to raise the status of… 

Global IT research and advisory company, Gartner announced on 6 April that it has completed its acquisition of CEB Inc. CEB, formerly the Corporate Executive Board, is a provider of best-practice and talent-management insights, and best known in sales circles for The Challenger Sale book and the more recent The Challenger Customer, as well as associated development programmes. CEB lists…