Research Centre

Credible research is the foundation of the Journal’s approach to understanding what works and what doesn’t in sales. Most importantly, it tells us why. Here you’ll find the latest research from academic institutions, top consultancies and industry sales leaders – including the Journal’s own specially commissioned research – interpreted from a business perspective.

2017 Q1 Research Review – edited by Jeremy Noad

January 29th, 2017 by

These pages aim to keep readers informed of recently published research on sales related topics, by including abstracts of peer-reviewed academic research published in a range of journals. In this edition, we have grouped them into four broad themes: sales performance, customer management, capability development, and behavioural studies. Each paper has a summary at the start. Sales performance A strong… 


Disrupt or defend?

January 29th, 2017 by

Delivering your most effective customer renewal message is your best opportunity to drive profitability. But what should that message be? When I last wrote for this publication, my piece addressed a messaging and skills approach for succeeding in what many B2B salespeople regard as the hardest but most rewarding type of sale: new customer acquisition. The skills approach I outlined… 


Aligning Sales and Business

January 21st, 2017 by

Sales Eductors Academy quotes a “recent study”… 


2016 Q4 Research Review – edited by Jeremy Noad

November 29th, 2016 by

These pages aim to keep readers informed of recently published research on sales-related topics, by including abstracts of peer-reviewed academic research published in a range of journals. We have grouped them in the following broad themes: sales performance; customer management; capability development; behavioural studies; and systems and processes. Improving sales performance is the goal of any sales leadership team. In… 


Real solutions

November 29th, 2016 by

This year’s Global Sales Transformation Event at the London Stock Exchange provided the opportunity for the first cohort of Consalia-Middlesex University Masters graduates to present their research findings. Carl Day, Channel Sales Director, Toshiba TEC UK: “Ethics – the DNA for value creation” Opening with the confession that he sells photocopiers, Day articulated his dilemma as being: how to professionalise… 


Sales professionals and revenue

November 29th, 2016 by

On average, 60.1% of a company’s revenues… 


Sales skills among emerging and established economies

November 3rd, 2016 by

Comparing Finland with the “new order” of global players. Finland may seem like a strange choice of country to act as a baseline when comparing sales skills around the globe. But consider the nation’s economic history and maybe it is a touchstone for how the rest of Europe is likely to evolve. As a country, Finland was Swedish ruled for… 


Brexit survey results

September 4th, 2016 by

Methodology The International Journal of Sales Transformation’s post-Brexit survey was carried out using Survey Monkey among a self-selecting group of subscribers to the Journal, in addition to the clients and contacts of CEB (Corporate Executive Board), Consalia, Cranfield University School of Management, the Summit Group, and the Women in Sales Awards. The survey consisted of 26 multiple-choice questions with the… 


2016 Q3 Research Review – edited by Jeremy Noad

September 3rd, 2016 by

These pages aim to keep readers informed of recently published research on sales related topics, by including abstracts of peer-reviewed academic research published in a range of journals. We have grouped them in the following broad themes: sales performance; customer management; capability development; behavioural studies; and systems and processes. In this edition, we start with three articles on sales performance…. 


Re-sharpening the customer focus in B2B markets: understanding selling as “marketing in action”

September 3rd, 2016 by

In today’s ultra-competitive markets it is imperative that salespeople work to continuously sharpen their customer focus. By comparing the new model of personal selling with the marketing process, this article provides an agenda for helping to make it happen. Introduction Despite the rise of online selling, in many markets – especially B2B – personal selling remains a critical component of… 


Delivering a step change

September 3rd, 2016 by

How a productivity programme for a major bank achieved success through the introduction of a behavioural operating model for branch teams and, most importantly, team managers. Introduction The banking group concerned in this study is a diverse retail and commercial bank with 14,760 branches (more than any other international bank), over 193,000 employees and 102 million customers worldwide. Currently the… 


Coaching for the Cloud

September 3rd, 2016 by

As part of his Masters programme, SAP’s Brice Faure researched whether a sustainable coaching methodology could support SAP sales managers during the process of transforming the business into the Cloud. The concept of coaching has been much discussed in recent decades and part of my project has been to understand what coaching means and embraces. Too often in my reading,… 


Time to get to grips with digital

September 3rd, 2016 by

By 2017, 60% of all US retail… 


A measured approach

April 25th, 2016 by

Two years ago Urgo Medical’s UK business embarked on a sales transformation. UK managing director Justin Cole maps out the journey. Ours is a market in which suppliers cannot easily influence the total demand for the sector’s products: that’s a function of the clinical requirement for the treatment of wounds, and hence the need for dressings and compression stockings in… 


2016 Q2 Research Review – edited by Jeremy Noad

April 25th, 2016 by

These pages aim to keep readers informed of recently published research on sales-related topics, by including abstracts of peer-reviewed academic research published in a range of journals. We have grouped them in the following broad themes: sales performance; customer management; capability development; behavioural studies; and systems and processes In this edition, we start with four articles on sales performance. The… 


Sales motivators – what drives your team?

April 7th, 2016 by

The data analysis provided here offers insight into what motivates “account managers”. Motivators are the extrinsic factors that determine whether your salespeople really get up in the morning “ready to rock and roll”’ – or not! The global data in the following charts provide insight into what motivates people from different regions. It will help sales leaders decide whether in… 


7 steps to cultural heaven

April 7th, 2016 by

Roger Brooksbank and Zahed Subhan explore how salespeople can help to grow a customer-led organisational culture. Abstract Since salespeople are at the cutting edge of a company’s overall marketing effort it means their knowledge of marketplace dynamics is second to none. High-performing companies understand the value of this knowledge and harness it by involving them in growing a truly customer-led… 


Tsunami of change in healthcare

April 4th, 2016 by

In 10 to 15 years, healthcare will… 


Sales managers’ skills, critical reasoning and motivators around the globe

January 30th, 2016 by

Continuing from the review of sales manager behaviours by region in the previous edition of the Journal, this time we are looking at regional variations in skills, critical reasoning and motivators (what motivates the individual sales manager) across the same group of sales managers. Data published in edition 1.3 (October 2015) indicated that sales managers in China were behaviourally less… 


Are sales managers coaching?

January 30th, 2016 by

While coaching is universally considered to be a vital predictor of salesperson success, benchmarking data from Blackdot suggests that sales manager coaching of reps is happening far less than expected and is highly variable in consistency. According to the report Unlocking Sales Manager Coaching Impact – A holistic approach for enhancing coaching outcomes, the typical solution has been to try…