Is Your Sales Strategy Aligned with Your Business Objectives? Here’s How to Tell—and Fix It
In today’s fast-paced business landscape, sales teams are under immense pressure to deliver results. However, many organisations fall into the trap of pushing sales targets without ensuring that their sales strategy aligns with broader business objectives. The result? A disconnected, inefficient sales function that struggles to drive sustainable growth.
Sales Readiness for 2025 – Key Insights & Next Steps
As 2024 wrapped up, we conducted our annual Sales Future Readiness Assessment, drawing on key sales effectiveness insights for 2025 from leading research firms such as RAIN, Gartner, Bain, and others. Benchmarking teams against industry best practices and emerging trends, we evaluated over 10 key focus areas across strategy, customer engagement, talent development, and sales enablement—revealing clear patterns and opportunities for growth.
Modern Day Sales Leadership: A Guide to Success (Copy)
The world of sales is always changing. Traditional methods of selling are becoming outdated. Today’s sales leaders must be agile, adaptable, and forward-thinking.
This means understanding that the way buyers behave has changed. They now conduct thorough research online before contacting a sales representative. This blog post explores the essential skills and qualities needed for modern sales leadership. It emphasises coaching, continuous learning, and the importance of genuine connections.
The Hidden Key to Predictable Growth in 2025 - Empowering Sales Managers
In today’s fast-paced sales environment, success is often measured by the performance of individual sellers or the sophistication of sales technologies. But what if the real key to predictable, scalable growth lies elsewhere—specifically, in the hands of your sales managers?
Managing Longer Sales Cycles in Tougher Times
These days, sales are taking longer than usual. With inflation, higher interest rates, and shrinking budgets, buyers are more careful, focusing only on must-haves. Sales professionals are noticing the effects — more delays, more objections, and fewer big-ticket purchases. The challenge isn’t just the extra time it takes to close a deal but also the fact that deal sizes are shrinking as companies cut spending wherever they can.
How to Ask Better Questions in Sales
In the realm of sales, success hinges not merely on the products or services one offers but significantly on the strategy employed to engage and understand potential clients.
One pivotal aspect of this strategy is the Art of Questioning.
Strategic questioning can transform a mundane sales conversation into a powerful dialogue that uncovers needs, builds trust, and ultimately closes deals. This blog delves into the essence of effective questioning strategies, drawing insights from 30+ years of experience as a sales leader, and a plethora of real-world examples.
Building a World-Class Sales Culture: Strategies and Insights
How do you build a Sales Culture that rocks?!
We all know the business world is more unpredictable than ever. Companies that were once giants are disappearing, and it's not just a trend—it's the new normal. Since 2000, over half of the Fortune 500 companies have either gone bust, been bought out, or vanished. And by 2027, about half of the S&P 500 firms will have been replaced.
The Importance of Creating and Maintaining a Sales Playbook
Imagine setting off on a road trip without a map or GPS. You might reach your destination, but it would likely involve a lot of wrong turns and wasted time. A sales playbook is your map. It guides your team through the sales journey, providing clear directions and strategies to navigate obstacles and reach your goals efficiently.
Turn Rejection into Connection: Expert Tips for Handling Cold Call Objections
Cold calling can feel like navigating a maze in the dark. You dial a number, introduce yourself, and—bam!—you hit a wall. The person on the other end isn’t interested or says they’re busy. It’s easy to get disheartened, but with a structured approach, you can turn these cold calls into warm conversations.
Stay Ahead: Boost Customer Loyalty Through Change Adaptability
In today’s fast-paced marketplace, adaptability is not just an advantageous strategy—it is a necessity.
Businesses are required to navigate through rapidly changing technological landscapes, evolving customer expectations, and ever-intensifying competition. A seamless adaptability to change determines not only business survival but also the ability to thrive and innovate.
Remote Selling - The new normal
Face to face selling in a B2B world has been the cornerstone of opportunity development for revenue retention and growth. Sure, online and telesales have steadily increased as a sales channel but pandemic and recessionary influences have accelerated a paradigm shift to the point where the new normal is bringing the decline of face to face customer interactions and the rise of remote selling. According to recent research from McKinsey two-thirds of buyers prefer remote interactions with suppliers.
Almost two years on and counting.....
We are still living through extraordinarily challenging times and it does not look like changing anytime soon. Some would say, dare we say it, “this is the new normal”.
Everyone is affected, whether it be medically, emotionally, financially or all of these. For many, there are more questions than answers leaving most wondering what to do to keep their business healthy and customers loyal.
A Birds’ Eye View Makes Sense For Buyers
Photography has always been a hobby and when opportunity arises, I usually grab my trusty Nikon and head out looking for that elusive shot. However, my whole perspective and passion changed on my last birthday – enter drone photography!
All of a sudden, views that were previously hidden from me, become possible. Things that I could never have seen using my hand-held Nikon were revealed in the drone view screen.
5 Signs Your Business Needs a Sales Enablement Solution
In today’s competitive business environment and volatile market conditions, sales organisations are under mounting pressure to attain revenue goals and sustain growth. Yet their average quota attainment rate is only 54% (1), and I would surmise the percentage has slipped even further in the aftermath of COVID-19.
Sales is Not Working – Don’t Guess – Know Why!
It has almost become cliché, “The world has changed…” Yes, we all know that, but for the revenue generating part of your business this is even more acute.
If sales effectiveness measures the output per salesperson, ask 100 people why sales is ineffective and you get 100 different answers, even within one’s own organisation. If one was to search Google, the responses are as wide as they are varied:
Ineffective content marketing
Failure in incorporating sufficient social media marketing (or social media ads) into your sales strategy
Lack of sales activity
Not knowing target audience well enough
Wrong people
You didn’t catch their attention
Insufficient interest in your offer
Inadequate sales process
How To Drive Sales Engagement and Close More Business Quicker
Being an avid Amazon Kindle user, I love the fact that once I’ve finished yet another book, Amazon recommends books to me that are similar.
Consider using Netflix where it knows what TV shows and movies you like. Use Spotify and it understands what your musical tastes are. Use Amazon again, and if you have a young child at home, it tells you that you probably need diapers and formula!
And yet in our B2B world, we don't do that yet – despite buyers saying,
“Show Me That You Know Me!”
How Effective Are Your Sales Meetings?
Do your salespeople enjoy internal meetings such as the mandatory weekly Monday morning sales meetings, or do they resent attending? How much do your internal meetings actually contribute to increased sales?
90% of Sales Professionals Do Not Know How To Ask Good Questions…
Is your team part of the other ten percent – or do you need help with that?
Studies have shown that 90 percent of seasoned “sales professionals” do not know how to ask good questions or are afraid to ask them. That’s a staggering number: 9 out of 10….!
Professional Athletes rely on Coaches – do Salespeople?
How is your coaching game plan?
You could boost revenue by 25% and increase close rate by 70%.
In any sport, athletes and teams have access to multiple coaches with various areas of specialty to help them reach their full potential. Consider the Los Angeles Lakers, for example. Frank Vogel is the Head Coach, and there are six Assistant Coaches, all of these are additionally supported by specialists for health and nutrition.
The Story of the “Shiny Lights”
Having now helped numerous businesses get a much better return on their substantial investments in CRM systems, we thought it worthwhile to share a story with you.
This is a story about how certain people in organisations want to keep seeing shiny and flickering lights in their on-premise server rooms.