Last week I argued the merits of good CV (current value) and PV (potential value) data collection for every customer.  Collecting and then grading customers for sales team targeting on CV alone is doing half of a whole job…….a job that is vital to sales team optimisation and RoI.  In the case study I outlined […]

Imagine you are a key Sales & Marketing stakeholder in a B2B organisation that manufactures and supplies your suite of products into your specifically targeted market sector.  You “go to market” largely directly, but still rely on distributors for a reasonable portion of volume outflow.  Your market dynamic is such that, by and large, when […]

Last week I argued for case that B2B sales teams should practice their sales training with well designed, regular, disciplined and facilitated role play.  But very few do.  For those “best of breed” that do, what metrics should be established to determine the level of training for sales force effectiveness?  Enter … Potent and effective […]

Last week I argued that the age old practice of role play was much maligned in B2B sales circles. I often cringe when I see sales leaders/manager/coaches try to execute whilst Sales Executives goof off and don’t execute professionally. Train and transfer knowledge first- be clear about the chosen sales methodologies to be focused on, […]

Dear Reader, How vehemently opinionated can I be in my answer to the contrary?  In a world where the role of the expensive mobile sales team in the B2B environment is coming under increasing pressure due to the questionable value added to the customer during sales visits………where the customers are becoming progressively more self educated and […]

Customer surveys, satisfaction scores, net promoter … are all these tools as useful as they were a decade ago before the exponential rise of the educated customer via the internet?  Well, I am going to argue that they are. But, my argument is contextual.  A good part of the research that needs to be undertaken […]

“Glenn, your championship of the sales optimisation cause is laudable.  And I hear you, in terms us being no different to any other B2B sales organisation.  We need it just like all the rest of them.  But it just seems like there is a missing piece, before we optimise the sales team.  There is an […]

“Yes, I get it Glenn. But there are just so many other things we could do and invest in to improve our sales force effectiveness, and I am just not sure if sales team optimisation is our best bet.”  “ I hear you, Jim.  I suggest we step this through logically, and see if we […]

I saw this question on LinkedIn recently, and it got me thinking.  Like most of these either/or questions there is no simple single answer.  Other than this – it depends!  I posit that if you and your sales team are characterised by the following fundamentals, then your answer becomes less conditional and more aligned with the “best practice” end of the […]

Reduce the bandwidth of their responsibility!  And then sharpen the accountability around the remaining scope of responsibility.  Ensure that this culture and system is spelled out right at the get go during recruitment interviews.  Easy for your dedicated scribe to write this.  The hero entwined in the solution is the sales system.  If my assertions […]