Thursday, April 20th, 2023

Salespeople and leaders differ on key aspects of buyer centricity

Recent research highlights differences in how sales leaders and sellers view the best ways to engage with prospects, but the majority agree that buyer centricity is the right approach overall – that’s according to a study conducted by sales training specialist ValueSelling Associates and L&D publication Training Industry. A significant majority of sales leaders (61%) believe it makes sense to… 


Thursday, April 20th, 2023

Three sales books with a difference

A trio of important research-based sales books are in the pipeline this year and all are well worth checking out for different reasons. Book 1 The first of these is Transforming Sales Management: Lead Sales Teams Through Change by Grant Van Ulbrich, set for launch on 3 May 2023 along with the “Scared-So What” personal change app, which will be… 


Thursday, April 20th, 2023

Does your organisation have buyer-centric sales skills?

Fewer than half of sales leaders and… 


Tuesday, February 14th, 2023

The SAP Masters alumni community: An ongoing transformational journey

You’ve achieved you Masters, but what next? Can the alumni group help to continue the transformation journey? By November 2019, our SAP Masters cohort was really hitting our stride. Collectively we (and I especially) were seeing success with our papers, we were learning new skills and many of us were seeing growth within our teams as our leadership practices improved…. 


Tuesday, February 14th, 2023

What does it take to transform?

Tackling obstacles to transformational leadership in corporations. As middle managers, we sit at the intersection of the executives who have power and the employees who can create momentum. However, corporations are collections of people scattered across multiple departments with many hierarchies. While the organisation may appear to be united in reaching its ultimate objective, behaviour appears to be independent and… 


Friday, September 30th, 2022

ISP events 8.5 2022

Details of upcoming events can be found at the Institute of Sales Professionals website. https://www.the-isp.org/events Leadership in Sales (setting clear direction and getting out of the way!) – Sales Leader Round Table Tuesday 4 October 2022, 09:00 The impact of people culture to build trusting teams – Live Sales Leader Round Table Wednesday 5 October 2022, 08:30 Humanising the sales… 


Thursday, September 29th, 2022

Making conflict work

While conflict needs to be managed well, it can also be productive. Conflict is a frequent challenge among business relationships with customers, partners and suppliers. Inside organisations, conflicts within teams and cross-functionally are also common, yet sales professionals often feel ill-equipped to manage conflict well. Unresolved conflict can spread and grow, and result in stress and well-being issues for those… 


Monday, July 4th, 2022

Without character, ethics is just a rule book

Almost every leader claims to be ethical in business, but do they have the character to foster trust? Ethics, necessary but not sufficient Corporate scandals from Enron to Freddie Mac occurred despite the fact that the organizations and individuals leading them were operating in environments governed by a code of ethics. Yet, people still behaved poorly. Why? Why do people… 


Friday, April 22nd, 2022

ISP events 8.3 2022

Details of upcoming events can be found at the Institute of Sales Professionals website. https://www.the-isp.org/events Sales Cycle Best Practice – New Thinking Thursday 5 May 2022, 09:00 Push Back Against Post-Pandemic Procurement Pressure Tuesday 10 May 2022, 09:00 Buyer Behaviour – What are the key drivers in the decision-making process? Tuesday 24 May 2022, 09:00 Improving your Proposals Wednesday 25… 


Tuesday, January 11th, 2022

The power of relationships and purpose

Digital is enhancing the way we manage business and sales organisations, but analytics are underpinned by relationships and human behaviours. The value tied up in customer relationships is vast but hard to measure; purpose is now a profit centre and predictable human behaviours can help us to forecast sales more accurately. These were just three of the key takeaways from… 


Monday, January 10th, 2022

TOTAL Coaching

Developing and implementing a coaching culture within a sales environment to effect real transformation in coaching across your organisation. Throughout my career in sales leadership with SKF, the Swedish-based world leader in supply of bearings, seals and rotating equipment solutions, I have considered the importance of continual improvement in individual and team performance to be a fundamental element towards success…. 


Monday, January 10th, 2022

Character to lead

We interviewed Kelly Garramone and Phil Styrlund to understand how character is a key driver of organisational success in sales. They explained how sales organisations can take part in some ground-breaking research that will drive performance. What is character science? Pioneered by Dr Fred Kiel (amongst others), character science is a new field of study that was born out of… 


Monday, January 10th, 2022

Creating an effective coaching culture

How embedded is coaching in your organisation? Let’s explore the fundamental question first: does coaching work and is it worth investing in a coaching culture? The use of coaching has increased, complementing established learning interventions and the research evidence of its effectiveness is robust. A recent review of quantitative studies concluded that workplace coaching does show a good effect size… 


Monday, January 10th, 2022

Is coaching the critical sales management skill?

It’s all about time, skills and mindset. Successful sales managers must master a range of important skills. They need to make sure that they recruit the right people and help them to realise their potential, encourage their teams to follow and contribute to the organisation’s learned best practices, ensure that opportunities are well-qualified, that pipelines are well managed and that… 


Monday, January 10th, 2022

ISP events 8.1 2022

Details of upcoming can be found at the Institute of Sales Professionals website. https://www.the-isp.org/events +


Friday, November 26th, 2021

Looking to 2025

Way ahead 50% of chief sales officers… 


Friday, November 26th, 2021

Foreword

As we tentatively emerge from the pandemic, the consensus is that selling has moved on significantly – and not just in the most immediately apparent ways like the switch to the hybrid selling world of virtual and in-person engagement and the accompanying transition from field sales to inside sales. Such changes will be persistent, despite some shortcomings (such as issues… 


Friday, November 26th, 2021

Technology

Q: What are the top-three new agenda items that sales leaders will be thinking about for 2022? IM: Buying behaviours have evolved tremendously throughout the digital age, seeing the most accelerated growth specifically throughout the pandemic, and sellers must rapidly adapt accordingly. Working and living in the same space caused many people to rethink what is important to them, leading… 


Friday, November 26th, 2021

The Professional Bodies

Australian Institute of Sales, New Zealand Institute of Sales – Stuart Edmunds, Director; Association of Professional Sales – Andrew Hough, CEO Q: What will be the top-three agenda items for sales leaders as businesses emerge from the pandemic? SE: 1) Staffing (retention, attraction, development – with the skills shortage). 2) New-customer acquisition and accelerating pipeline. 3) Increasing virtual/remote selling capabilities…. 


Friday, November 26th, 2021

The Practitioners

Waldemar Adams, Global Senior Vice President, SAP Customer Success COO Office; Grant Van Ulbrich, Director, Sales Transformation – International, Royal Caribbean International Q: What will be the top-three agenda items for sales leaders as businesses emerge from the pandemic? WA: 1) Ensure customer success. 2) Budget achievement and growth plans. 3) Manage their teams successfully, with empathy. GVU: Our focus…