Wednesday, October 11th, 2023
Gazing into the future
We look into our crystal ball to understand how technology is reshaping business and wider society via Industry 4.0. We recently sat down with Henrik von Scheel, a leading speaker on AI and an expert on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. As the originator of the term, he is highly regarded by businesses and governments for his insight into digital trends….
Wednesday, September 6th, 2023
The AI balance sheet
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…
Tuesday, September 5th, 2023
Transform for the future
Anticipating the future puts you ahead of the game. Here is an innovative guide to driving change. Part I: We couldn’t possibly do that! How the “future readiness movement” began. It was the midst of the pandemic, and it was my first team meeting as I embarked in my new role as the Chief Operating Officer for SAP Asia Pacific…
Tuesday, September 5th, 2023
GenAI for sales messaging
Gartner has devised its Generative Value Messaging…
Monday, September 4th, 2023
Sales, media and marketing need three years to prepare for AI
A survey of 600 UK human resources managers and directors working in sales, media and marketing conducted in May 2023 indicates they will need three years to be ready for the impact of AI on the workplace. However, all of them believe it will deliver benefits. Fewer than one in five (18%) said they would be fully prepared for the…
Monday, July 10th, 2023
How AI is disrupting sales and marketing
McKinsey research (published 11 May 2023) suggests…
Wednesday, July 5th, 2023
Complexity will save salespeople
What are tomorrow’s most important sales competencies? We’re entering a “brave new world of sales”, fuelled by the convergence of evolving B2B buying behaviours and the availability of AI-based new technologies. Is change the only constant, or do some of the traditional attributes of a successful salesperson remain important? I think it’s clear that many relatively simple pre- and postsales…
Thursday, April 20th, 2023
Sales AI in its own words
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…
Thursday, April 20th, 2023
Sales leadership and CRM
What role should sales leadership play in their organisation’s deployment of CRM? A CRM application lies at the centre of the technology stack of most sales organisations. It often represents one of the most significant investments made to support sales effectiveness. And yet both organisations and users often express frustration with both the user experience and the quality of the…
Monday, February 13th, 2023
Ethical principles in AI-guided selling
As AI-guided selling takes hold, ethics remains an important foundational principle. Today, AI can do things that humans could never do before like finding the quickest route to a destination; personalising suggestions for books, films, music, and clothes; identifying new chemical compounds and medical treatments; predicting equipment failures and coordinating maintenance across complex supply chains; using quality-assurance data to improve…
Monday, February 13th, 2023
3 key business technologies for 2023
3 key business technologies for 2023 1….
Friday, November 26th, 2021
Technology
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…
Friday, November 26th, 2021
The Professional Bodies
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….
Friday, November 26th, 2021
The Practitioners
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…
Friday, November 26th, 2021
The Consultants
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:…
Friday, November 26th, 2021
The Academics
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…
Friday, November 26th, 2021
This time it’s personal!
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…
Friday, November 26th, 2021
No going back
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…
Monday, April 26th, 2021
The triumph of data over intuition
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…
Friday, April 23rd, 2021
Supercharging our sales conversations
Selling power comes not from how much conversation we manage to get through, but the quality of the conversation. Supercharging sales is the overall theme of this edition of the International Journal of Sales Transformation, so I thought it might be appropriate to focus on a topic that has long been a focus of mine: how can salespeople supercharge their…