Tuesday, June 25th, 2019

Cruise line receives sales award

Royal Caribbean Cruises have been presented with the APS Investor in Sales award for passing the professional registration assessment. Professional registration with the APS demonstrates a commitment to ethical selling and the Investor in Sales award is granted to sales teams when more than 50 percent pass an exacting test. So far, more than 130 salespeople in the company’s pan-European… 


Tuesday, June 25th, 2019

APS expanding globally and locally

The Association of Professional Sales held its first meeting in francophone Africa on 19 June. The inaugural event in Dakar, Senegal, featured a presentation by Emmanuel Delvaux, Global Sales and Marketing Director, Schlumberger. Delvaux, who also doubles as International Development Manager of the APS, discussed “The art of negotiation: what challenges for a win-win approach?” Meanwhile, in the UK, the… 


Tuesday, June 25th, 2019

Study uncovers sales leadership challenges

The overwhelming priority for sales leaders is improving sellers’ ability to communicate value while their top challenge is hiring, a new survey from global performance improvement company RAIN Group finds. Top Sales Leadership Challenges and Priorities brings together the views of 423 sales, enablement, and company leaders to better understand their greatest obstacles and primary focus over the next 12… 


Tuesday, June 25th, 2019

Win Rates

Win rates are an important metric for… 


Friday, March 22nd, 2019

2019 Q1 Research Review – edited by Jeremy Noad

These pages aim to keep readers up to date with recently published research on sales-related topics. The review highlights short abstracts of academically peer-reviewed research from a range of academic journals. In this edition, the abstracts focus on three themes: sales performance; customer management, and sales-related behavioural studies. Sales performance Salespeople’s ability to learn impacts value-based selling approaches This paper… 


Friday, March 22nd, 2019

Should sorry be the hardest word?

New research reveals a formula for communicating an apology that generates greater customer satisfaction and loyalty after a service failure. Service recovery paradox Have you ever had a service problem with a customer and worried about the negative impact it would have on your relationship and long-term revenue prospects? Maybe they won’t renew. Maybe they won’t buy more. And, worse,… 


Friday, March 22nd, 2019

Creating a sales control system

This project from 2016 explores how to create a sales control system designed to deliver a company’s key objectives. Introduction Sales is no longer an independent isolated function within an organisation, but is an integral and cross-functional part of a company’s strategy (Storbacka et al 2011). Sales now not only executes the strategy, but helps create and drive the strategy… 


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,… 


Thursday, March 21st, 2019

Alliance sales: the third-generation sales model

Alliances between organisations can be marriages made in heaven, or they can go horribly wrong…. When organisations are first formed, whether in garages in Silicon Valley or back bedrooms in Bangalore, the original founders use the first-generation sales model to grow the business. That is, they “sell to” people. They sell to fellow enthusiasts to convince them to join the… 


Thursday, March 21st, 2019

Transitioning from sales training to sales education

As part of a wider professionalisation of the sales function, forward-looking companies are discovering the benefits of sales education as a way to equip their people to thrive in today’s complex and challenging business environment. Today’s business landscape is challenging in multiple ways: it’s super competitive; technology is forcing us to deal with change and adapt our go-to-market models at… 


Thursday, March 21st, 2019

Putting the value in value propositions

This is the first of a series of articles in which the authors explore customer value and differentiation. In this article Dr Simon Kelly and Dr Paul Johnston consider the importance of customer value and its criticality in building effective value propositions. They draw together their experience as marketing and sales practitioners, their recent academic and commercial research, and their… 


Thursday, March 21st, 2019

Forecast accuracy remains an oxymoron

In general, deals won have been less… 


Tuesday, December 18th, 2018

The “Fourth Value Conversation”

What is the “Fourth Value Conversation”? We asked Tim Riesterer, author of The Three Value Conversations. Q: What is the “Fourth Value Conversation” and why is there a need for it now? We’re calling it “Expand Value”. It’s that part of the customer conversation lifecycle where you’re looking to ensure more renewals, communicate price increases and generate upsells and cross-sells… 


Monday, September 24th, 2018

2018 Q3 Research Review – edited by Jeremy Noad

These pages aim to keep readers informed of recently published research on sales-related topics, by including abstracts of peer-reviewed academic research published in a range of journals. In this edition, we have grouped them into four broad themes: sales performance, customer management, behavioural studies and systems and tools. Sales performance Top-performing salespeople contribute significantly to the success of their firm… 


Friday, May 18th, 2018

2018 Q2 Research Review – edited by Jeremy Noad

These pages aim to keep readers informed of recently published research on sales-related topics, by including abstracts of peer-reviewed academic research published in a range of journals. In this edition, we have grouped them into four broad themes: sales performance, customer management, capability development, and behavioural studies. Sales performance Sales organisations need to transform Professional sales and sales management are… 


Monday, March 12th, 2018

2018 Q1 Research Review – edited by Jeremy Noad

These pages aim to keep readers informed of recently published research on sales related topics, by including abstracts of peer-reviewed academic research published in a range of journals. In this edition, we have grouped them into four broad themes: sales performance, customer management, behavioural studies, and systems and tools. Sales performance Value-based selling is critical for sales excellence A value-based… 


Saturday, December 16th, 2017

2017 Q4 Research Review – edited by Jeremy Noad

These pages aim to keep readers informed of recently published research on sales related topics, by including abstracts of peer-reviewed academic research published in a range of journals. In this edition, we have grouped them into three broad themes: sales performance, customer management and behavioural studies. Sales Performance Can inexperienced sales professionals get lucky without working smart or hard? Inexperienced… 


Wednesday, December 13th, 2017

Edinburgh Napier honours sales research pioneer

World-renowned sales expert Neil Rackham has been awarded an honorary degree from Edinburgh Napier University. The ceremony on 25 October saw Professor Rackham honoured alongside luminaries from the charity and education sectors. Professor Rackham pioneered “consultative selling” and has been a consultant to executives at more than 40 of the US Fortune 500 companies. He has worked with bosses at… 


Wednesday, December 13th, 2017

What works in sales enablement

According to CSO Insights, only 13% of… 


Friday, September 22nd, 2017

2017 Q3 Research Review – edited by Jeremy Noad

These pages aim to keep readers informed of recently published research on sales-related topics, by including abstracts of peer-reviewed academic research published in a range of journals. In this edition, we have grouped them into four broad themes: sales performance, customer management, behavioural studies and systems and processes. Sales performance Applying adaptive selling plays a critical role in sales performance…