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We asked three fi nalists in the… 

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… 

A majority of sales leaders in the UK believe that they will suffer a decline in business following the decision to leave the European Union, according to a poll conducted by the Association of Professional Sales (APS) in the immediate aftermath of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. Just under two thirds (63%) of those who took part in… 

Sales leaders and other senior executives are playing a waiting game following the UK’s 23 June referendum vote to leave the European Union. At the same time, many respondents to an International Journal of Sales Transformation survey were going into an information-gathering cycle to understand the repercussions in relation to their customers and markets. Some 90 senior businesspeople from around… 

Cranfield School of Management’s KAM Club is 20 years old. Where is key account management headed over the next 20? Economic, technology and consumer trends were all on the agenda as key account managers, academics and speakers gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Key Account Management Best Practice Club at the Cranfield School of Management, 16-17 March. Participants… 

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… 

How business development is proving to have a transformational impact on the sales and business process. The term “business development” will conjure up different connotations depending on who you canvass opinion from; it often gets classed as demand generation or inside sales to name but a few. In fact the roles that these functions perform and the skillsets required are… 

AstraZeneca’s Florent Edouard discusses how cross-functional working equips pharma to compete in today’s complex healthcare ecosystem. To succeed in today’s competitive landscape, pharma teams need not only to be motivated, but also diverse in terms of business origins, male-female ratio, their geographic mix, and a blend of experienced versus new blood, digital versus traditional, analytical versus emotional, and strategy versus… 

Are you, your team members or your customers relationship driven, achievement driven or growth driven? It makes a difference. Brian Tracy in his many books and tapesI claims that 50% of any sale is a “transfer of enthusiasm”; in other words, it is something quite independent of the skill sets that so many organisations spend so much money investing in…. 

How the investment community works and why SV is good not only for marketing, but also for KAM. There are two schools of thought about the topic of shareholder value (SV). One school, led by Professor Hugh Davidson, argues that it leads to short-termism. The other school, to which I belong, argues that short-termism has been endemic in Western economies… 

Here are some simple thinking tools to help with problem solving and make us better managers. If someone asked you whether you were certain that your sales incentive programme was effective, what would you say? What about if they asked whether you knew whether your firm’s advertising was working? Or how about if they asked if you knew the impact… 

Bob Apollo on Building Scalable Businesses Market segmentation has traditionally been based on demographic factors such as company size, sector and location. But these simple characteristics are hopelessly inadequate predictors of which specific organisations you should focus your marketing and sales energies on. That’s because in any complex B2B sales environment, there will be a set of specific unique-to-you structural,… 

The ISMM announced during the recent 2016 BESMA Sales Summit and BESMA awards ceremony at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel that it is seeking to rebrand “in order to provide an overall more effective offering for its members, including enhanced benefits, greater networking opportunities nationally, together with broader education and training”. A message posted on the ISMM website on 22 March… 

A recent study by global sales and marketing specialists ZS Associates has found that strategically investing in sales force effectiveness (SFE) can boost sales performance for medtech companies by 2-8%. The firm ran a year-long study to measure the effect of SFE initiatives – such as sales territory redesigns, account planning processes, training or coaching initiatives and new compensation structures… 

Internationally renowned sales research pioneer, Professor Neil Rackham has joined the Association of Professional Sales (APS) as patron. He is known for his groundbreaking scientific research into complex selling, which formed the foundation of the SPIN Selling methodology. His book, SPIN Selling is ranked number one in the top 10 “how to sell” books of all time. Professor Rackham, who… 

Long popular in the United States, sales competitions are now beginning to take off in Europe. Co-hosted by Haaga-Helia and Turku Universities of Applied Sciences. The second European Sales Competition takes place in Helsinki, Finland on 1 June. “The aim of the competition is to raise the appreciation of professional sales work, to learn the concept of selling at a… 

Leadership and millennial expert, Dr Mary Collins is Senior Executive Development Expert at the Royal College of Surgeons Institute of Leadership. She offers some expert advice on how to attract the female millennial into sales. Given the unique motivations of the female millennial, how can companies best engage them to ensure they attract and retain key talent and elicit the…