Monday, April 7th, 2025
McKinsey boosts digital marketing presence
Marketing leaders who prioritize customer-first marketing capabilities to boost their understanding of customer needs can grow 28% faster than their peers, according to strategic management consultancy McKinsey. The consultancy has stepped up its presence in the digital marketing operations and technology (DMOT) sphere with the acquisition of ET Medialabs (ETML), a leading performance marketing and analytics agency in India. The…
Thursday, January 9th, 2025
Who’s really in the driving seat?
Ever since the term “marketing” was coined there’s been a debate over whether it should take precedence over sales The longstanding debate over whether sales or marketing should be more central to a business strategy is crucial for understanding how businesses can grow and thrive. Each function plays a distinct role in generating revenue and building long-term relationships with customers,…
Thursday, January 9th, 2025
Omnichannel, AI and the future of B2B sales
How are B2B buyer expectations changing and where is B2B sales headed? In the previous edition of the Journal, we ran a story on McKinsey’s ninth global B2B Pulse report (released 12 September), which questioned 4,000 B2B decision-makers across eight major industries. This identified how B2B suppliers are responding to “consumer-like” purchasing demands from buyers. Here we talk to the…
Wednesday, September 18th, 2024
An open letter to supplier CEOs: do you want a huge competitive edge?
Rethink your selling strategy and shift it to a value-based KAM business model. We all know that we are operating in an increasingly complex and competitive marketplace. As such, it is imperative for suppliers to adapt their sales strategies to maintain relevance in order to drive growth. The traditional sales models that once fuelled success are rapidly becoming obsolete. Today,…
Wednesday, April 24th, 2024
5 essential steps for targeting customers
Researching prospects can be a time-consuming activity but is essential to success. Used judiciously, AI can help streamline the process. Then it’s time to make contact… See Sales Tips 101 “Opening a conversation” +
Friday, October 13th, 2023
Build a go-to-market coalition
By 2026, B2B organizations that unify their…
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…
Wednesday, September 6th, 2023
The AI balance sheet
What will be the impact of artificial intelligence on business? There is a fierce debate (not to mention a lot of hype) surrounding the future impact of artificial intelligence, related both to its potential benefits and also to the not inconsiderable dangers of introducing AI into business and society. On the one hand, AI investment has been growing rapidly over…
Monday, September 4th, 2023
Hybrid sales model can boost SaaS companies
Product-led growth seeks to place the product at the epicentre of customer acquisition, retention, and expansion to achieve “lower sales costs, greater product virality, and higher net retention”. As such, the product itself plays a critical role in acquiring, growing, and retaining customers. This approach has traditionally been seen as a more effective way to engage SME businesses, while a…
Monday, July 10th, 2023
Targeting
In the first of a new series, Bob Apollo outlines some five things to bear in mind when researching, targeting and prioritising your most valuable prospects: If we do the research and use it to inform our prospecting priorities and programmes, we will inevitably generate much better qualified opportunities and convert them more effectively into satisfied customers. +
Monday, July 10th, 2023
How AI is disrupting sales and marketing
McKinsey research (published 11 May 2023) suggests…
Thursday, April 20th, 2023
Research Review – edited by Jeremy Noad 9.2 2023
The research review aims to help readers keep up to date with recently published research on sales-related topics. The review highlights short abstracts of academically peer-reviewed research. This selection of published research is from a range of academic journals. In this edition, the abstracts include four themes that focus on sales performance, customer management, and behavioural studies. Sales performance Salesperson…
Thursday, April 20th, 2023
Are you delusional?
Don’t rely on “hopium” – the mindset that blocks agency growth and loses deals. I once had a boss who said, “I think we got away with that one” after just being told by the chairman of a global cereal brand our creative proposals were “the biggest load of crap ever seen”. We were fired the next day. The agency…
Tuesday, February 14th, 2023
Sustainable sales
What does it mean, and does it add value to businesses? In a world where sustainability is the new buzzword, is “sustainable sales” just greenwashing or can it genuinely support the creation of a company’s unique selling proposition? Academic concepts sometimes languish through lack of action as they cannot be translated into professional practice; however, this article defines sustainable sales…
Tuesday, February 14th, 2023
Research Review – edited by Jeremy Noad 9.1 2023
The research review aims to help readers keep up to date with recently published research on sales-related topics. The review highlights short abstracts of academically peer-reviewed research. This selection of published research is from a range of academic journals. In this edition, the abstracts include four themes that focus on sales performance, customer management, behavioural studies, and systems and tools….
Friday, September 30th, 2022
Cranfield KAM Forum (Reports from Q2 2022)
Cranfield KAM Forum has now restarted face-to-face sessions in parallel with its online seminars. The success and popularity of the online seminars has demonstrated that there is benefit from them continuing in parallel with the face-to-face sessions. As always, the speakers and subject were chosen to be particularly relevant to key account managers building and maintaining business in the current…
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022
Cranfield KAM Forum online
Reports from Q1 2022 While the Cranfield KAM Forum is planning to restart face-face meetings in late 2022, the success and popularity of the online seminars has demonstrated that there is a benefit from them continuing in parallel with face-to-face sessions. The speakers and subject were chosen to be particularly relevant to key account managers building and maintaining business in…
Tuesday, January 11th, 2022
Cranfield KAM Forum online
Reports from the Q2 and Q3 sessions While things are slowly returning to normal, the Cranfield KAM Forum seminars are continuing to complement the regular face-to face meetings that will resume when it is safe to do so. The webinars continue to address both strategic and operational themes and personal development topics of interest for key account managers. In this…
Monday, January 10th, 2022
Brand Ethics
ETHICS IS AT THE TOP OF THE…
Tuesday, September 28th, 2021
2021 7.4 Research Review – edited by Jeremy Noad
The research review aims to help readers keep up to date with recently published research on sales-related topics. The review highlights short abstracts of academically peer-reviewed research. This selection of published research is from a range of academic journals. In this edition, the abstracts include four themes that focus on sales performance, customer management and sales automation. Sales Performance Being…
