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“More human than human”: The motto of the Tyrell Corporation, from the 1982 film Blade Runner. Recently watching that movie again, in preparation for a showing of the sequel Blade Runner 2049, I was struck (as I often am) by the interesting differences in what we can imagine the future to be like for different technologies. Of course, Blade Runner… 

If, as many successful scale-ups are, we are on a mission to challenge the status quo and to get our prospective customers to think differently about their critical business issues, we would be wise to ensure that we are accommodating diverse perspectives and experiences within our own organisations. I’m not talking about the demographic dimensions of diversity – of age,… 

In a February 2018 paper titled “Boosting your sales ROI: How digital and analytics can drive new performance and growth”, McKinsey authors argue that driving sales growth today requires fundamentally different ways of working, as well as outstanding execution across large, decentralized sales teams and channel partners. Advances in digital and analytics mean that sales leaders can drive and scale… 

This year’s European Sales Competition will take place in downtown Paris near the near Champs Elysees on 30-31 May. Hosted by Euridis Business School, the competition is open to students from 20 participating universities. Bernard Hasson, General Manager at Euridis Business School explains that the competition distinguishes itself by featuring real buyers playing the roles of IT buyers on the… 

Virgin Media Business Specialist Sales Desk Manager, Emma-Leigh Waters won big at the 5th annual Women in Sales Awards Europe ceremony held at the Sheraton Grand Park Lane last December. She was voted Best Woman Sales Newcomer and Most Distinguished Sales Woman of the Year. “I have come back from the experience feeling more inspired than ever before,” she told… 

Early supporters of the Association of Professional Sales have the opportunity to be recognised as Founding Fellows of the APS, the organisation has announced. This unique offer is open until 1 July 2018. An APS spokesperson said that the APS is looking ahead to a breakout year with a jump in membership and corporate supporters. “As we build on strong… 

The Association of Professional Sales (APS) launched its first overseas chapter on 1 March as part of expansion plans in Asia. Held at the Central Public Library in Singapore, the theme of the event was “Redefining the Sales Profession – Engage. Empower. Elevate”. The packed programme was opened by Venkat Subramanyan, Board Member and Director, Sales Effectiveness and Execution Excellence,… 

We asked three participants in the 2017… 

The first participants in a landmark government… 

In previous articles of this series in the International Journal of Sales Transformation, “Managing and Measuring Sales Performance” and “Setting Sales Targets”, we presented an outline of the properties of effective sales performance measurement systems guidelines to minimise the unintended consequences of sales targets. In this last article of the series, we address employee motivation and its relation to sales… 

Over the past year or so, I’ve written a series of columns on important issues around how science works, and how this can be applied to your job in the sales force. I looked at how to think like a scientist, how to ask good questions, how to design research to answer those questions, and how to watch out for… 

I’m not sure that what you might describe as the “traditional” approach to sales skills development – sending salespeople on an occasional formal sales training course based on one of the many standard methodologies – ever delivered consistent results in terms of driving sustained performance improvement. And that was in yesterday’s relatively static marketplaces! In today’s fast-changing business environment, sales… 

Despite high employment, UK labour productivity growth remains weak while job prospects of many adults are hurt by poor basic skills such as literacy and numeracy – that’s the view of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD. A recent report from the inter-governmental organisation, Getting Skills Right: United Kingdom says that to boost the country’s growth, productivity and… 

World-renowned sales expert Neil Rackham has been awarded an honorary degree from Edinburgh Napier University. The ceremony on 25 October saw Professor Rackham honoured alongside luminaries from the charity and education sectors. Professor Rackham pioneered “consultative selling” and has been a consultant to executives at more than 40 of the US Fortune 500 companies. He has worked with bosses at… 

The National Sales Conference, which is supported by the Journal, has broken previous records for attendance, exhibitor numbers and sponsorship, organisers Lincoln West claim. This year’s event took place at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena on 30 November. Now in its fourth year, the conference saw some 600 delegates attend a packed programme of presentations including a keynote by celebrity sports coach… 

When Whitbread’s Learning & Development team was looking for a novel approach to enhancing frontline employees’ skillsets they hit on the idea of using theatre directors and performers to communicate key messages. The owner of the Premier Inn and Costa brands has built a sales university focused on two themes: the art of communication and negotiation. Head of Sales &… 

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…