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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… 

Victoria Williams is Vice President and Sales Director at GSK. She describes the transformation that has occurred in pharmaceutical sales and urges women to put themselves forward and avoid over-questioning their capabilities. Selling has changed vastly in the past 20 years with the emphasis now on value. If I compare today to when I was a medical representative in Nottingham,… 

Trang Chu is an executive leadership coach and founder of Tallgrass Way where she works with high-profile executives in investment banking, private equity and law firms. Previously, she was a managing director at Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch. She explains how success correlates as closely to confidence as competence. She can be contacted on www.trangtchu.com. Companies that embrace diversity tend… 

Annmarie Neal is Chief Talent Officer, Hellman & Friedman LLC, and has held the same role in both Cisco Systems and First Data Corporation. She is also the founder of the Centre for Leadership Innovation. She explains how having a strong sense of self is probably one of the most essential traits of leadership. There are several reasons why women… 

Dr Beth Rogers PFHEA is a sales educationalist and researcher at the University of Portsmouth Business School. Her advice to employers is to improve their sales pitch when it comes to attracting female talent and focus on rewarding those who deliver results, not “face time” in the office. The distribution of women in sales across various industries and different levels… 

Nicola Robinson is UK & International Sales Director, Kettle Foods and was previously Field Sales Director, Coca-Cola Enterprises. Winner of Best Sales Director, Women in Sales Awards 2014, she shares her advice for women starting a career in sales and why she’d like to see more open dialogue on the supports needed to retain female talent. She talks to Deirdre… 

Too many women believe that if they keep their heads down, work hard and meet their targets, they’ll be recognised as sales experts on the merits of their work and rise through the ranks. However, what really separates successful sales leaders from the pack is their ability to self-promote. We’re all aware of the depressingly disproportionate number of women at… 

Hiring and onboarding is an expensive and time-consuming process. It pays to get it right. The costs of recruitment are on the rise again, with an increase of around 50% from 24 months ago, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development; meanwhile, four out of five employers are saying that the competition for well-qualified talent has increased over… 

Professor Mark Johnston explores the conundrum of the high-performing, low ethics salesperson. Organizations strive to hire, train, develop and enable salespeople to reach a high level of performance. Of course, as every sales manager knows, only a few can truly be considered “high performers”. Research on high-performing salespeople suggests they are different and often require sales managers to “adjust” their… 

Nick Lee on… The myth of natural talent Why the superstar culture is bad for both the “stars” and the rest of the team. One of the more pervasive ideas in the popular perception of success in almost any field is that of the “natural”. What I mean is that we humans appear to be almost hardwired to explain the… 

Bob Apollo on Building Scalable Businesses What can businesses do to ensure that they establish the platform for predictable, reliable and sustainable revenue and market share growth? I’m going to assume that you have a product or service that people want to buy. But that’s clearly not enough. I want to highlight three critical (and timeless) principles that have always… 

Ethics is the foundation stone for trust between sellers and buyers. A core task for all sales professionals is to ethically balance responsibility to shareholders with a duty of integrity towards customers. At work, sales professionals are much more likely to be driven by following rules than in their personal lives. Rules are an insufficiently robust mechanism to guide behaviour… 

Sales professionals now have a new option to gain a high-status sales qualification. This year, Middlesex University – in conjunction with global sales transformation company Consalia – is making its award-winning Masters programmes available to individuals and small groups for the first time. Consalia marketing director Phil Linter tells the Journal: “Previously we’ve only been able to offer professional sales…