Research Centre

How do we re-engineer the sales and marketing interface for the benefit of our customers? Just as I sat down to write this article my email pinged. I tried to ignore it as I’d just come back from an excellent “Sales-Mind“ workshop that reminded me of the foolishness of multitasking. Then I saw the title – “Brands failing to align… 

As part of his MSc Professional Practice in Sales Transformation, Sony Mobile’s Russell Keating explores how to unlock more sales through a strategic understanding of his client’s key concerns as well as those of his own organisation. This project relates to work with one of the largest mobile phone operators in Ireland, referred to as the “client” throughout this paper…. 

Researchers from Loughborough University suggest that commercial sales “scripts”, and a great deal of communication training, fail to identify what really works to convert callers to clients and optimize the customer experience. Here, they explore evidence-based training for sales conversations – the Conversation Analytic Role-play Method. How do you know that your telephone sales calls, “recorded for training purposes”, are… 

Tony Douglas investigates the role and relevance of university sales competitions to sales education from the perspective of business school students. Professional or personal selling has not been regarded by academics in general – nor indeed practitioners – as a profession that can be (or should be) taught at university (Douglas, 2011; Rutterford, 2011; McCourt, 2011). Though this may well… 

Much has been talked about the nature of value propositions but how do KAMs go about the act of proposing value? Paul Johnston explores KAM distinctiveness, social context and identity. What makes a key account manager distinctive from other salespeople? Much has been researched and written about KAM best practice (see for example Rackham, 1995; Payne et al, 1998; Ulaga,… 

Average sales turnover across firms surveyed by… 

RESEARCH SOURCES Independent win-loss reviews commissioned by PRP clients between 2012-2015. More than 100 individual companies interviewed, all in B2B arena. 80 %+ independent win-loss reviews commissioned by chief sales officer, occasionally the CEO. Business sectors: technology, process outsource, finance, engineering support services and electronics. Geographies: UK, Europe, APAC and North America. Almost all clients chose to review specific deals… 

Key takeaways There are clear common themes across all regions, especially notable is Planning and organising. “You would have thought that this would be a key factor for sales managers to be strong but clearly not!” comments Andrew Dugdale of SalesAssessment.com, the company that provided the data. Also notable by its absence is Interpersonal sensitivity – “yet another key sales… 

What did companies prioritise? The first section of the report reveals that, at the overall level, Relationship & value building (farming) takes top priority. However, it is not an emphatic victory – it comes out on top because half the respondents rated it in their top three. People & competencies is a strong second overall and Brand & proposition completes… 

Methodology This dataset was provided by a sample of 500 people who sat the Core Sales Skills module of SalesAssessment.com’s Universal Sales Skills Audit (USSA) during Q1 2015. The sample consisted of a block of anonymised data, with a random start point in the USSA candidate database. This random sample included candidates from the UK, USA, Dubai, Jordan and Egypt…. 

Forrester Research forecasts that one million US B2B salespeople will lose their jobs to self-service eCommerce by the year 2020. Its report Death Of A (B2B) Salesman estimates that, of the 4.5 million US workers employed in B2B sales and sales-related professions in 2012, just over 20% of all B2B salespeople will be displaced. Author Andy Hoar explains: “While B2B… 

As businesses start to compete on their ability to perform and deliver results over time, contract terms are becoming the new platform for successful selling, argues the IACCM’s CEO Tim Cummins. Successful selling has never been an easy task. As time passes, it seems to become harder. Buyers are increasingly informed, aggressive and often cynical. Internet search has disrupted the… 

When SAP set out to update its go-to-market approach, sales enablement also embarked on its own journey in support of the process. Axel Ferreyrolles talks about his voyage of discovery. With the advent of “the cloud”, shifting market conditions and changing customer expectations, enterprise application software giant SAP understood that it had to adapt. For Axel Ferreyrolles, head of sales… 

Dr Roy Whitten and Scott Roy discuss how selling can be a catalyst for change and a force for good in the developing world. Selling stuff to poor people – sounds shameful, doesn’t it? Well, it isn’t ¬– that is, if you want them to actually use products that can literally change their lives. Sanitary latrines that prevent contamination of… 

Tim Riesterer, chief strategy officer at Corporate Visions, explains why articulating a customer’s “unconsidered needs” can make you stand out. The proposition Does the following scenario sound familiar? It’s your first sales conversation with a prospect in the field. There you are, face-to-face with a potential buyer, launching into your pitch. So far, so good. Why wouldn’t it be? You… 

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

At the recent APS Annual Conference, Gill McKay of MyBrain International explored how neuroscience can help transform our coaching style. We’re probably all aware of the benefits of effective coaching: transforming salespeople into sales champions; maximising their potential and motivating people to be the best they can be; increasing engagement and talent retention; driving accountability; developing a more agile organisation;… 

As part of his MSc Professional Practice in Sales Leadership, Sony Mobile’s Gustavo Mancera describes how research and reflection led to a new mind-set and approach that created differentiation in the marketplace. The problem to be addressed The rapidly changing market affected the entire team´s mind-sets including myself. We had fallen prey to negative mind-sets (Squire, 2009) while struggling to… 

Does coaching work best when team members are not even aware it is happening? Angie Dixey investigates. As organisations increasingly turn to coaching to help improve sales performance and develop talent, performing the role of “coach” has become a commonplace responsibility for sales managers. Yet, even as organisations continue to expect this activity from their managers, the issue of whether… 

New research suggests the most successful programmes pursue a calculated blend of sales training and coaching activities. The bar has been raised. In a world where businesses are becoming increasingly proficient at managing a range of multi-channel, multi-touch and highly customer-focused interactions, how can we ensure that our newly recruited salespeople measure up to customers’ expectations? Toward this end, many…