Monday, April 22nd, 2024

Leap of faith

B2B trust research: what’s next? Abstract New academic research on trust will build on insights generated through Mark Hollyoake’s 2020 doctoral thesis (see previous article). They aim to dig deeper into the role of the “Boundary Spanner in relational trust development”, based on eight years of academic research through the University of Southampton. The original research Boundary spanners: What are… 


Monday, February 19th, 2024

KAM in 2024

2024 is going to be challenging, so what are the significant issues for KAMs this year? We asked some respected commentators. What a decade it has been so far: a global pandemic, war in Europe and the Mediterranean, increasing geopolitical uncertainty and uncoupling of global supply chains, the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (for good and ill), recession in major… 


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

Transform for the future

Anticipating the future puts you ahead of the game. Here is an innovative guide to driving change. Part I: We couldn’t possibly do that! How the “future readiness movement” began. It was the midst of the pandemic, and it was my first team meeting as I embarked in my new role as the Chief Operating Officer for SAP Asia Pacific… 


Tuesday, September 5th, 2023

Sales leaders celebrate forthcoming book launch

Senior sales leaders from around the globe gathered in London on 7 July to celebrate the forthcoming launch of a unique new book they have created. Leadership Narratives: Reflective Journeys of Sales Professionals is due to be published by leading academic publisher Routledge in December 2023. The sales leaders flew in from as far afield as Nevada and Dubai and… 


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… 


Wednesday, July 5th, 2023

A third of CROs to establish GenAI ops team within two years

Some 35% of chief revenue officers (CROs) will establish a generative AI operations team within their go-to market (GTM) organization by 2025, according to a June statement from Gartner. The focus on generative AI will democratize, accelerate and enable the production of buyer-centric messaging and content, the technology research and consulting firm claims. “There is a great burden on sellers… 


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… 


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

Quarterly forecasting or healthy pipeline?

Sales operations are having a golden era. Organizations that understand this will come out winners in the years to come. Tomorrow is happening now – like, now now! From forecasting to demand management, sales operations is moving from an enabler to a player, but the move must be intentional; it will not happen by coincidence. Here’s why. The business of… 


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…. 


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… 


Monday, February 13th, 2023

20% cuts in pharma commercial roles?

The way that pharmaceutical and medical device companies market and sell their products is on the cusp of major change, according to a paper from industry consultancy Impatient Health. Significant cuts are expected across commercial departments in 2023. “By the end of the year we will see 20% trimmed in commercial roles, at both HQ and country level,” the authors… 


Monday, February 13th, 2023

Customers are demanding much more

As buyers become ever more demanding, companies… 


Friday, September 30th, 2022

Cranfield KAM Forum (Reports from Q2 2022)

“Putting the customer at the heart” by Mark Bailey Rolls-Royce plc is a company that deals with power and propulsion and should not be confused with the motor-car company, which is entirely separate. Rolls-Royce plc provides power and propulsion systems for land, sea, and air, including nuclear submarines, military and civil aircraft, and major data centres. All of its systems… 


Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022

Value-pricing: 12 key points for implementing strategy

Value First, Then Price: Building Value-Based Pricing Strategies, edited by Andreas Hinterhuber and Todd C Snelgrove, is the definitive book on value selling. To celebrate the publication of the second edition we have interpreted some of the main points in one of the key chapters of the book: “Quantifying your value so customers are willing and able to pay for… 


Friday, April 29th, 2022

The rise of e-commerce

IN THE US, B2B SELLERS ARE NOW… 


Tuesday, January 11th, 2022

Cranfield KAM Forum online

Reports from the Q2 and Q3 sessions Getting inside the head of a buyer (or what techniques and tips can you adopt to improve your commercial strategic negotiations?) John Viner-Smith has a Master’s in International Purchasing, and has been a senior category manager at JP Morgan, Dixons Stores Group and BP. He is a Founding Partner at Amplius Partners and… 


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

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…