Friday, February 26th, 2021
Fast forward to the future
Waldemar Adams explains how SAP’s sales organisation moved quickly to adapt in a year of dramatic change. iJosT: What do you think are the most important issues around sales currently? W A: What we see is that we are anyhow in a transition in the world of selling that has now accelerated because of the pandemic situation. Most of it…
Friday, February 26th, 2021
Need to know for 2021
Q: What do you see as the “new sales normal” emerging post-Covid? What will be different from before over the longer term? Mark Davies: A few things, all of which were trends that were occurring anyway (the Covid-forced recession has just accelerated these trends). Firstly, the trend whereby customers buy via digital channels will intensify. This is because customers know…
Friday, November 6th, 2020
What’s your customer’s unique value story?
Do you have compelling answers to three crucial customer questions: why change, why you, why now? Generic value propositions, while they might be of some use in persuading potential prospects to make initial contact with you as a potential vendor, aren’t very helpful when it comes to setting your customer’s expectations about the specific value that they will derive from…
Friday, November 6th, 2020
The Magic 6
How to lead virtual (and hybrid) meetings. In spring 2020, meetings changed. Instead of physically meeting up with colleagues, everything moved online during lockdown. Of course, sales teams have been catching up with colleagues in the field by phone or video chat for years, but, in March, everything went remote: team meetings, client meetings and much, much more. While meetings…
Thursday, May 28th, 2020
Sales leaders’ top 10 wish list
What are the top sales leadership priorities for the coming months? What are sales leaders looking to accomplish? What would they do if money were no object? To find out, the RAIN Group Center for Sales Research surveyed 423 sales, enablement, and company leaders. Respondents were asked about the importance of 16 different potential priorities and asked the $64,000 question:…
Tuesday, May 26th, 2020
Cross-cultural sales into China
This study, adapted from a 2018 University of Portsmouth Business School MA Sales Management dissertation, explores the adaptive sales model and its suitability for cross-cultural sales into China. The author was surprised at the lack of cross-cultural awareness and understanding in global sales and communication, with even established exporting enterprises lacking an ability to fully engage and communicate effectively with…
Thursday, December 12th, 2019
AI and sales
As tech companies move to digitize the front office, digital start-ups have been flooded with cash in recent years, as they search for a way to use historical data such as emails and customer call logs to help average salespeople emulate the best. The following passages (in double quotes) taken from a recent story in Fortune magazine ask whether AI…
Tuesday, September 10th, 2019
CSOs’ top three 2019 priorities – Gartner
1. Improve effectiveness of sales development activities…
Tuesday, June 25th, 2019
Debunking the myths about the future of sales
A Harvard Business School professor’s insights into the science of sales. In this interview with Deirdre Coleman, Frank Cespedes, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, dispels the myths surrounding technology’s impact on the future of sales and why the need to rethink sales also means rethinking sales leadership. He considers the social and financial impact of sales productivity, and stresses…
Thursday, March 21st, 2019
Acquisition is not the same as expansion
In sales, acquiring new business and expanding existing relationships is not the same thing – in which case, why do so many companies have the same conversations with prospects as they do with customers? Over the past two years we have undertaken new, original research focused on existing customer conversations. After a decade of hype surrounding the provocative selling approach,…
Tuesday, December 18th, 2018
ABM: a foundation for partnership
Bob Apollo on Building Scalable Businesses Account-based marketing (ABM), along with its all-embracing cousin “account-based everything”, have been touted by its promoters as a miracle cure capable of halting the precipitate decline in conventional marketing effectiveness – and derided by cynical detractors as just another over-hyped trend. As with most new(ish) trends, the reality is probably somewhere in between. The…