Select the content CATEGORY and/or article TAG from the dropdown menus to find the sales topic you need. Then press the FILTER BUTTON to display list of relevant articles. Use the SEARCH CONTENT field (top left) to search by author or for a specific phrase or word.
Search hundreds of articles on sales by keyword or author's name. Simply enter your search phrase/word and click the search icon.
Here, we explore why salespeople need help creating urgency with executive decision makers. Stalled proposals and “no decisions” are arguably the biggest threat to your sales pipelines. There’s a good chance you lose more deals here than you lose to your traditional competitors. The big challenge often comes down to how you make your case to an executive buyer. It’s…
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 five broad themes: sales performance, customer management, capability development, behavioural studies and systems and processes. Each paper has a summary at the start. Sales performance…
There’s a proper time to provoke the customer – it’s just not when you’re trying to keep them or get them to pay more, research shows. Provoking the customer, challenging the status quo, leading with an unexpected insight: these kinds of message are the lifeblood of the disruption-minded story you need to tell when you’re the outsider intent on convincing…
Review and summary of sales talent analytics findings based on data from over 1,000 recent Sales Account Manager assessments. This “hybrid role” is one that many organisations use as the bedrock of their sales strategy. To have a core of salespeople able to carry out a straightforward account management function, while also being able to fulfil a new-business sales role…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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….
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…
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…
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,…
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…
