Hot Topics

Business is changing faster than ever. And sales is transforming to meet the rigour and pace of this demanding new environment – new concepts, new skills, new technology. The Journal keeps you up to date with it all, focusing on the key issues in a straightforward, easy-to-read style.

Time for CPD

October 11th, 2023 by

Do salespeople have time to learn? +


The AI balance sheet

September 6th, 2023 by

What will be the impact of artificial intelligence on business? There is a fierce debate (not to mention a lot of hype) surrounding the future impact of artificial intelligence, related both to its potential benefits and also to the not inconsiderable dangers of introducing AI into business and society. On the one hand, AI investment has been growing rapidly over… 


Sales AI in its own words

April 20th, 2023 by

We’ve seen the hype, but what is the future of AI in sales? You were either asleep for the past few months or marooned on a desert island if you missed the hype surrounding ChatGPT, OpenAI’s artificial intelligence chatbot that was launched in November 2022. The system quickly became a social media sensation due to its detailed responses and articulate… 


Sustainable sales

February 14th, 2023 by

What does it mean, and does it add value to businesses? In a world where sustainability is the new buzzword, is “sustainable sales” just greenwashing or can it genuinely support the creation of a company’s unique selling proposition? Academic concepts sometimes languish through lack of action as they cannot be translated into professional practice; however, this article defines sustainable sales… 


Quarterly forecasting or healthy pipeline?

February 14th, 2023 by

Sales operations are having a golden era. Organizations that understand this will come out winners in the years to come. Tomorrow is happening now – like, now now! From forecasting to demand management, sales operations is moving from an enabler to a player, but the move must be intentional; it will not happen by coincidence. Here’s why. The business of… 


Technology

November 26th, 2021 by

Q: What are the top-three new agenda items that sales leaders will be thinking about for 2022? IM: Buying behaviours have evolved tremendously throughout the digital age, seeing the most accelerated growth specifically throughout the pandemic, and sellers must rapidly adapt accordingly. Working and living in the same space caused many people to rethink what is important to them, leading… 


The Professional Bodies

November 26th, 2021 by

Australian Institute of Sales, New Zealand Institute of Sales – Stuart Edmunds, Director; Association of Professional Sales – Andrew Hough, CEO Q: What will be the top-three agenda items for sales leaders as businesses emerge from the pandemic? SE: 1) Staffing (retention, attraction, development – with the skills shortage). 2) New-customer acquisition and accelerating pipeline. 3) Increasing virtual/remote selling capabilities…. 


The Practitioners

November 26th, 2021 by

Waldemar Adams, Global Senior Vice President, SAP Customer Success COO Office; Grant Van Ulbrich, Director, Sales Transformation – International, Royal Caribbean International Q: What will be the top-three agenda items for sales leaders as businesses emerge from the pandemic? WA: 1) Ensure customer success. 2) Budget achievement and growth plans. 3) Manage their teams successfully, with empathy. GVU: Our focus… 


The Consultants

November 26th, 2021 by

Mark Davies, Founder, Segment Pulse Limited, Visiting Fellow, Centre for Strategic Marketing and Sales, Cranfield School of Management, and The Advanced Services Group, Aston Business School; Dr Mark Hollyoake, Director, Customer Attuned and Associate Lecturer, University of the West of England; Tim Riesterer, Chief Strategy Officer, Corporate Visions; Dr Philip Squire, CEO, Consalia; Philip Styrlund, CEO, The Summit Group Q:… 


The Academics

November 26th, 2021 by

Dr Frank Cespedes, senior lecturer, Harvard Business School; Professor Mark Johnston, Professor of Marketing and Ethics, Rollins College; Professor Nick Lee, Warwick Business School; Dr Colin Mackenzie, specialist lecturer, Edinburgh Napier University; Dr Javier Marcos, Associate Professor, Strategic Sales Management and Negotiation, Cranfield School of Management; Dr Beth Rogers, Visiting Fellow, Cranfield School of Management Q: What will be the… 


This time it’s personal!

November 26th, 2021 by

In the bold new world of sales, a mental shift is required. The pandemic turned the whole world upside down: it made us shift our priorities away from things that we once thought were important to new ways of working and living. As people switch careers and re-evaluate how they spend their time, naturally their behaviours have fundamentally changed. In… 


No going back

November 26th, 2021 by

What should B2B sales leaders be prioritising in 2022? As we head towards 2022, sales organisations are emerging from a tumultuous two years. Across many markets and industries, the sales function has had to cope with transformational changes that have been compressed into a short period of time. Inevitably, some sales organisations have managed to adapt better than others. They… 


The Trust Dividend

September 28th, 2021 by

The strategic implications of trust building in B2B client relationships and the way towards enhancing them to create mutual economic value. Trust is recognised as a central concept in relationship marketing (Blois 1999) and this may be attributed to the significant impact on many outcomes in this area (Seppanen, Blomquist and Sundquist (2007). This paper considers the strategic implications of… 


The role of trust in sales

September 27th, 2021 by

If we expect our customers to trust us, we need to develop both an internal and an external culture of trust. Trust is an essential foundational element in any sales environment, and it can (and must) take many forms. Perhaps the most obvious manifestation lies in the relationship between the salesperson (and the vendor they represent) and the customer’s decision-making… 


Four steps to embedding ethics

September 27th, 2021 by

Sales ethics is essential in the new normal. Good business strategy Many companies, even entire industries, struggle to remain open during this ongoing period of challenging economic uncertainty. Business models that were shifting prior to the pandemic, such as the move from instore shopping to e-commerce, have accelerated because of the pandemic. Businesses are adjusting strategies to stay ahead of… 


THE VALUE OF TRUST ONLINE

September 27th, 2021 by

OVER ONE THIRD (35%) OF UK ONLINE… 


The three truths of sales enablement

July 26th, 2021 by

Like any change-management programme, effective sales enablement is not rocket science but remains challenging to deliver. I am constantly amazed by the poor understanding of enablement in the go-to-market space. Many overcomplicate it; others oversimplify and dismiss its value. I recently delivered a webinar with the Sales Enablement Society, titled “The Only Enablement Operating Model You’ll Ever Need.” In that… 


Do millennials have a chance?

April 26th, 2021 by

The theme of my research is to explore the extent to which companies need to adapt and change to cater to a multi-generational workforce, define what the distinct differences really are using facts data, and in the process also draw out similarities. I will look at how stereotypes and unconscious bias skew realities, responses and attitudes. My research seeks to… 


The triumph of data over intuition

April 26th, 2021 by

How businesses must adapt to the new world of virtual selling. When the Coronavirus pandemic swept across the world in 2020, it is safe to say that all industries were dramatically disrupted and forced to reassess their operations and ways of working. However, the sales industry was one of the business sectors that was significantly turned on its head by… 


Omnichannel here to stay for B2B sales

April 23rd, 2021 by

Covid-19 has cemented omnichannel interactions as the…