Friday, March 13th, 2026

A question of (purchase) complexity

In a world where technology has outpaced the theory, how do we define a new operating framework for sales and marketing? Here is a question that, in my view at least, should not still need asking in 2026: what is the actual difference between marketing and sales? Ask ten senior commercial leaders and you will get ten different answers. Ask… 


Friday, March 13th, 2026

Sales Leadership 101 – Are sales and marketing aligned around the customer?

Use this checklist to assess your current interface with marketing – and the customer. If you can’t answer “yes” to the following questions or don’t know the answers, it may be time to revisit the alignment between sales and marketing in your organisation – and your customer focus. 1. Go-to-market strategy 2. Buyer confidence and customer focus 3. KPIs, accountability… 


Friday, March 13th, 2026

A game of two halves

Are sales and marketing functions strategically aligned to optimise business? We asked a range of experts – practitioners, academics and consultants – six questions about the interaction of sales and marketing in a B2B environment. We sought their views on how well sales and marketing organisations typically collaborate to support the aims of a business. We asked them how the… 


Friday, March 13th, 2026

Building bridges between sales and marketing

For businesses to thrive, sales and marketing need to reforge their relationship. I’ve been writing about sales and sales management since the mid-1980s – that’s around 40 years. For almost 20 years, I was heading up a marketing communications agency. So, I’ve observed the sales and marketing relationship from both perspectives. During much of that time it is fair to… 


Friday, March 13th, 2026

A strategic approach to ABM

ABM Is no longer a marketing tactic; it’s a commercial operating model. Account-Based Marketing (ABM) has an identity crisis, but not because it is losing relevance. Quite the opposite. ABM has become so commercially potent that describing it as a marketing approach is no longer accurate.  In nine years of running the Global ABM Conference, we have witnessed ABM evolve… 


Friday, March 13th, 2026

A critical new mandate for marketing

What if marketing, sales, sales enablement, and customer success align around a mandate to eliminate barriers to buyer confidence and ensure customers achieve their desired business. There’s a growing recognition that the challenge in complex B2B sales isn’t just about creating demand or building pipeline. The challenge lies in ensuring that we eliminate the barriers to buyer confidence – before,… 


Friday, March 13th, 2026

Beyond the “war”: 20 years of research on the sales and marketing interface

20 years on from HBR’s seminal “Ending the War” paper, how can business leaders align sales and marketing to maximise market performance? When Philip Kotler, Neil Rackham, and Sujay Krishnaswamy published “Ending the War Between Sales and Marketing” in Harvard Business Review (2006), they gave managers a language for an enduring organisational tension. Sales and marketing, they argued, were structurally… 


Monday, November 24th, 2025

Selling strategic investments

How to use capital budgeting as a sales methodology. Abstract Capital budgeting is a fundamental process in corporate finance involving the evaluation and selection of long-term investments that are in line with a company’s strategic objectives. When employed as a sales methodology, capital budgeting helps sales representatives present their products and services as strategic investments to potential clients. This approach… 


Monday, November 24th, 2025

The value of brand identification in sales

Your brand’s secret weapon: the salesperson connection you’re probably ignoring. When a salesperson identifies with the brand, they don’t just work for a company, they see the brand’s wins and losses as personal. It’s easy as a sales leader, or a field sales rep, to focus on territories, quotas, and compensation plans – but that’s not the whole story. In… 


Monday, July 7th, 2025

Success in an “AI-first” world

Top-performing go-to-market teams have aligned on three objectives that unlock success in a so-called “AI-first” world, according to the State of Sales Enablement Report 2025 from enablement platform Highspot. The survey found: The 11th edition of the State of Sales Enablement Report surveyed some 350 enablement (46%), marketing (21%), sales (12%), and revenue operations (10%) professionals. +


Thursday, April 10th, 2025

Sales Tips 101 – Making a career of sales

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Thursday, April 10th, 2025

The Joy of Learning: seven wisdoms

Why leadership inspiration, collaborative learning, and joy impact us all. Wisdom 1: Learning starts with a curious mind “I have seven wisdoms for you. What you do with them is up to you. The only thing I ask of you is to remember them.” “The first wisdom is about curiosity. Any learning starts with a curious mind. Be curious and… 


Wednesday, April 9th, 2025

A Strategic Edge

How an MBA can enhance performance for sales professionals and leaders. In today’s competitive business landscape, exceptional sales performance requires more than persuasive communication and relationship-building skills. As markets become increasingly complex and data-driven, an MBA education can provide a significant competitive advantage for both salespeople and sales leaders. Here, we’ll explores how the strategic framework, analytical capabilities, and leadership… 


Wednesday, January 8th, 2025

Firms look to step up enablement but Gen Z wary of AI

Investment in enablement tools such as sales content management and automation, training and coaching, buyer engagement, strategy and planning, and recent research is poised to increase, according to a 2024 survey by Seismic, an enablement firm headquartered in San Diego. Generation Enablement Report: The Rise of Enablement’s Influence found that most organisations (89%) plan to retain or increase investment next… 


Monday, April 22nd, 2024

News in brief April 2024

The Institute of Sales Professionals has announced that two training organisations have joined the ranks of its endorsed training organisations. Competitive Edge is an awardwinning trainer that helps to develop high-performing sales teams and leaders. Meanwhile, Alate Business Growth specialises in business-tobusiness sales training for technology companies, across IT, telecoms, and software as a service (SaaS) in diverse global and… 


Monday, April 22nd, 2024

Education inspectorate grades Consalia’s Senior Sales Leadership apprenticeship programme outstanding

Consalia’s Senior Sales Leadership apprenticeship programme has been graded outstanding by UK education inspectorate Ofsted, the sales business school announced recently. The inspection took place over three days in February. Questionnaires were sent in advance to employers and apprentices and the government inspectors also conducted detailed interviews with Consalia’s Academy Team, apprentices, employers, and delivery partners Middlesex University and Runway… 


Monday, April 22nd, 2024

Is sales training dead?

Is sales training dead? I recall reading a blog about the issue on LinkedIn back in 2016. Of course, it sought to refute this premise. That was then, but what of today? Well, the sales landscape has undoubtedly moved on, driven by evolving business practice, technology, and the advance of relatively new disciplines such as sales enablement. Firstly, the traditional… 


Wednesday, October 11th, 2023

Time for CPD

Do salespeople have time to learn? Salespeople hold extensive power, influencing buying decisions that potentially have significant commercial impact and which can dictate both the future trajectory of their customers and the success of their own organisations. With so much responsibility falling on the shoulders of their salespeople, why then don’t more companies embed a learning culture within their sales… 


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… 


Tuesday, September 5th, 2023

Opening a conversation

Continuing our new series of sales tips, Bob Apollo discusses five things to bear in mind when preparing for your next significant sales conversation. How we plan and prepare for a sales conversation has a huge impact on the outcome. Preparation: +