Sunday, January 29th, 2017
The Smart Sales Method 2016: The CEO’s Guide To Improving Sales Results For B2B Technology Sales Teams
Joe Morone, Karen Benjamin and Marty Smith This book is aimed at CEOs and sales leaders who feel their organisations have not yet won their fair share of their potential market. Co-author Joe Morone tells readers: “You have great products and services. You’ve amassed a dedicated team. You have loyal clients realising tangible success with your offerings. But improving sales…
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…
Tuesday, November 29th, 2016
Real solutions
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…
Saturday, September 3rd, 2016
From sales to leadership
Tim Walbert, CEO, Horizon Pharma, explains how doing right by the patient can still lead to significant profits, but hiring the right sort of sales representatives is crucial. Tim Walbert helped to launch two of the world’s biggest-selling drugs, Humira and Celebrex, and is now in charge of a $3 billion company with big ambitions – plus he knows what…
Saturday, September 3rd, 2016
Sales Leadership: the dynamic management of paradoxes
Leading modern sales forces requires us to develop synergies between paradoxes that may initially appear irreconcilable. I’m aboard the “Baie de Seine”, the ferry that covers the route Portsmouth–Bilbao. I am sitting at the back of the vessel watching the foamy trace it leaves on the sea and the seagulls that escort the ship, relentlessly defying the winds. It’s a…
Thursday, April 7th, 2016
Listen, validate, inspire
Jim Steele, President of Worldwide Sales and Chief Customer Officer of InsideSales.com talks about the use of cutting-edge science to accelerate sales for some of the world’s top companies. To have the chance of one “rocket ride” to success in a career is exciting enough. But Jim Steele, Chief Customer Officer of Provo, Utah headquartered InsideSales.com is now riding his…
Thursday, January 28th, 2016
Women who lead
We asked three women for their views…
Monday, July 6th, 2015
Return on Character
Nick de Cent, Editor of the International Journal of Sales Transformation, recommends Return on Character by Dr Fred Kiel is based around original research and wider studies of psychology, genetics and neuroscience. Exploring the relationship between the character of business leaders and company performance, Dr Kiel found that character-driven leaders and their teams consistently deliver five times greater returns for…
Monday, July 6th, 2015
Relevance by Phil Styrlund
Nick de Cent, Editor of the International Journal of Sales Transformation, recommends Relevance by Phil Styrlund, Tom Hayes and Marian Deegan sets out to explain how we can avoid commoditisation by seeking to be relevant. They advocate four key principles in this search for relevance: authenticity, mastery, empathy and action. This book is easy to read and packed with personal…
Monday, July 6th, 2015
Sales Growth: Five Proven Strategies From The World’s Sales Leaders
Nick de Cent, Editor of the International Journal of Sales Transformation, recommends Sales Growth: Five Proven Strategies From The World’s Sales Leaders is by those bright sparks at McKinsey. Authors Thomas Baumgartner, Homayoun Hatami and Jon Vander Ark offer a practical blue-print for achieving this goal based around what world-class sales executives are doing to find and capture growth and…
Sunday, July 5th, 2015
Hard yards
Head of sales for global snacks company Mondelez International, Andy Tosney talks about how simplification and standardisation of sales processes is transforming the organisation and delivering a powerful boost to company revenues. Andy Tosney is passionate about what he does…. “I’ve never had a day in my life when I’ve woken up and not wanted to go to work. I…
Wednesday, July 1st, 2015
We all sell something
Where selling was once seen as the “white-collar equivalent of cleaning toilets”, now it’s the skill that everybody needs. We’re all salespeople today. The problem is that too many people in society – including a worryingly large number of leaders at the top of big corporations – remain in denial about this plain, simple truth. We used to think of…
Saturday, April 11th, 2015
Aligning strategy and sales
Harvard Business School’s Dr Frank Cespedes tells Nick de Cent why strategy is even more relevant in an era of constant change. NdeC: Does strategy still work in an era of constant change? What is the role of a business strategy in these conditions? FC: Some now say that strategy is less important – and may, in fact, be an…
Saturday, April 11th, 2015
Key transformational trends in selling
Organisations need to understand how selling is evolving and to involve sales leadership in developing strategies to thrive in the new environment. Summary Professional selling is undergoing significant and unprecedented change that, in turn, profoundly impacts the role of the professional salesperson. Change has always been part of professional selling; however, the scale and speed of that change has…
Tuesday, April 7th, 2015
You lead to serve
EMC vice-president and one of the driving forces behind the Association of Professional Sales, Andy Hough talks about leadership, career development and his aspirations for the sales profession. You lead to serve – this key principle has guided Andy Hough throughout his career, and it’s one that he has sought to demonstrate right from the outset, even while participating in…
Tuesday, April 7th, 2015
Character wins through
Is there link between a leader’s character and business performance? Research conducted by Dr Fred Kiel and his team indicates there is. Here, he talks to editor Nick de Cent. NdeC: Can you summarise the link between high-character leaders* and business performance? FK: We studied the lives and leadership skills of over 100 CEOs. We interviewed and surveyed these CEOs,…
