Latest News

KEEP UP TO DATE with the latest sales news from around the world, including stories and developments with a commercial, educational and political theme of potential interest to sales leaders and their teams.

Character wins through

April 7th, 2015 by

Is there link between a leader’s character and business performance? Research conducted by Dr Fred Kiel and his team indicates there is. Here, he talks to editor Nick de Cent. NdeC: Can you summarise the link between high-character leaders* and business performance? FK: We studied the lives and leadership skills of over 100 CEOs. We interviewed and surveyed these CEOs,… 


ISMM sales director joins APS

April 7th, 2015 by

Former Institute of Sales & Marketing Management sales director Ben Turner has joined the Association of Professional Sales as director and general manager. As the new general manager, his role is to drive the association forward as a full-time resource. “I buy in massively to the vision and the goals of the APS,” Turner tells the Journal. His new role… 


Industry leaders launch UK sales body

April 7th, 2015 by

The Association of Professional Sales (APS) is the only professional association run by sales professionals for sales professionals – that’s one of the unique selling points for the new not-for-profit organisation setting out to represent sales professionals in the United Kingdom. “The sales profession needs a body that has credibility with senior practitioners, employers and the UK public,” says Andrew… 


World-class speaker line-up for first annual conference

April 7th, 2015 by

Keynote speaker at the Association of Professional Sales’ first annual conference is Stanford University’s Zakary Tormala, who will be discussing how and why people make buying decisions. Dr Tormala will offer an overview of current methodologies and the sales behaviours advocated within them to support momentum in the buying cycle. He will be joined during the opening morning by Tim… 


“Crossing the Chasm” revisited

April 7th, 2015 by

When Geoffrey Moore published the first edition of Crossing the Chasm over 20 years ago, it rapidly became a B2B sales and marketing classic – rated by Inc. magazine as one of the top-ten marketing books of all time. Moore’s focus on the behavioural chasm that exists between innovators and pragmatist buyers was a revelation to a generation of technology… 


Coaching style of management

April 7th, 2015 by

New research by Angie Dixey at Oxford Brookes University presents some interesting findings for organisations actively aiming to encourage managerial coaching. Dixey’s dissertation How Managers Experience Their Role As Coach: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis explored how the “preference towards a conversational nature of managerial coaching supports the sentiment found in leadership theory that coaching should be a way of managing,… 


What qualities define performance?

April 7th, 2015 by

Verbal acuity, an achievement-oriented personality, the ability to display situational dominance and inward pessimism are the key attributes of high-performing salespeople compared with their less-successful counterparts, according to a specialist in “sales linguistics”. Writing in Harvard Business Review on 18 March, Steve W Martin asked the question: “What separates high-performing salespeople who exceed their quota from underperformers who miss their… 


Sales leaders toast Journal launch

April 7th, 2015 by

Sales leaders and academics gathered in the City of London on 26 February to celebrate the launch of the new International Journal of Sales Transformation. Celebrated author Professor Neil Rackham gave the keynote speech highlighting the importance of bridging the gap between sales academics and practitioners in terms of building a vibrant sales profession. He said: “The new International Journal… 


Marines inspire Toshiba TEC’s development focus

April 7th, 2015 by

In the crowded UK office equipment market, what are the chances a manufacturer could double sales through its dealer channel within five years? Not only is it a tough goal but it’s one that Toshiba Tec UK expects to achieve a year ahead of schedule, according to the Indirect Division’s sales director Carl Day. Day attributes much of the success… 


Powerful women across the world celebrate sales achievements

April 7th, 2015 by

High-achieving saleswomen in India have been celebrating the first ever Women in Sales Awards. The winners were announced last month. Ruchita Taneja Aggarwal, who is Director, North & East India Sales Head for Citibank, celebrated winning the award for Best Woman Sales Director and the overall accolade of “The Most Distinguished Saleswoman of the Year”. She says: “I hope this… 


Simply the best

April 7th, 2015 by

In the male-dominated profession that is sales,…