Wednesday, October 11th, 2023

Don’t sacrifice effectiveness

Five negative effects of sales efficiency. Efficiency in the sales process is a good thing, right? Well, it all depends on what you mean by “efficiency”. The definition of “efficient” is: “achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense.” In parentheses, the Google dictionary notes, “(especially of a system or machine).” And it’s that last part, I want to… 


Friday, July 7th, 2023

Scared of change? So, what?

Grant van Ulbrich is Global Director of Sales Transformation at Royal Caribbean Group. His learning journey has taken him via a Master’s in Leading Sales Transformation to a doctorate in sales transformation, a new book, and the creation of a bespoke model for personal change. Q: What motivated you to create a new personal change model for sales? A: I… 


Thursday, July 6th, 2023

Sales Transformation: Leading and selling within and beyond the organisation

In this summary of his doctoral thesis, Grant Van Ulbrich explores how his public works have highlighted how sales can be transformed to sell within and beyond an organization. Introducing sales transformation to Royal Caribbean Group ignites a SPARK I had learned through my first and second public works the importance of developing your successor by giving everything of oneself… 


Wednesday, July 5th, 2023

Sales leaders should position technology as “teammate”

Analysts suggests that sales organizations which actively position technology as a “teammate” for sellers – rather than just another tool – will unlock seller productivity and enable highquality deals. Speakers at the Gartner CSO & Sales Leader Conference 2023, in Las Vegas on 16-17 May, explored how technology – particularly artificial intelligence – is key in augmenting the unique value… 


Tuesday, May 26th, 2020

People-centred change

This project explores a new approach to change management to enable better value for people. “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change” To a certain extent, I agree with this quote, attributed to Einstein, not because it is from a man recognised as a genius, but because it seems to make sense. There is a qualifying aspect in… 


Tuesday, May 26th, 2020

Igniting a SPARK

How to introduce a collaborative change methodology to further support embedding of a sales academy into an organization. “How will I introduce a collaborative change methodology to further support the embedding of the SPARK Sales Academy into our organisation?” Simon Sinek (2011) tells us to start with “why”. My concern begins to formulate by asking myself, “Why did my sales… 


Monday, March 12th, 2018

Three often-overlooked topics to enhance sales practice

Why the three topics of coaching, change management and stakeholder engagement should be considered more seriously in the development of sales managers and sales professionals identified as high performers. Introduction I identified three topics I considered to be important to sales that were not usually taught or self-selected by salespeople, and that I believed would help outperformance in the long… 


Sunday, April 23rd, 2017

Culture change for salespeople in the financial services industry: a past, present and future perspective

Based on anecdotal evidence, personal observation and experience, the authors examine the challenges still being faced by some of the UK’s leading financial institutions in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis – specifically, their need to navigate high standards of ethicality in the way their sales operations are organised and executed while also maintaining their effectiveness. In the… 


Saturday, January 28th, 2017

Collaborating to change

Some 18 months ago, BT Global Services set out on a major programme of sales and marketing transformation. We talk to Chris Blundell about the story so far. There was a time when Chris Blundell spent his time driving from customer to customer in a yellow van – back in the day Blundell was a telecom engineer. Now, however, his… 


Saturday, January 28th, 2017

Born to transform

Incoming Executive VP & President of International Business at Allergan, Marc Princen is invigorated by what he does best – building and transforming businesses – and he’s about to apply his extensive leadership experience in his new role in the medical aesthetics, eye care, GI and neurology space. Marc Princen is a newbie having just taken up his position with… 


Saturday, September 3rd, 2016

Delivering a step change

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… 


Thursday, April 7th, 2016

7 steps to cultural heaven

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…