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Less IS More when it comes to Sales Planning & Market Segmentation

By / / Blog, Sales Planning, Sales Strategy / 4 minutes of reading

Less Is More when it comes to doing good strategy, sales planning and market segmentation. As Michael Porter, Professor and ‘Father’ of Competitive Strategy (Harvard Business School), says: The essence of good strategy is choosing what not to do; The essence of strategy is that you must set limits on what you are trying to accomplish; and Strategy 101 is about choices. You cannot be all things to all people. […]

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4 Questions to Test if your Sales & Prospecting Tactics are Ethical

By / / Blog, Ethics and Values, Online Training, Sales leadership, Sales Strategy / 4 minutes of reading

Do other people stand to gain from your sales tactics and actions? Do your sales tactics and actions have a positive influence on your own and others’ well-being and self-esteem? Do your sales tactics and actions move you and your customer closer to your respective short- and long-term goals? Would most people approve of how you prospect for new business and sell? If each of us can honestly answer “yes”

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CX & HX – it’s all about people

By / / Blog, Sales Strategy / 5 minutes of reading

The terms Customer Experience and Customer Centric have been around for some time. These terms are now referred to in shorthand as CX. Now a new term is emerging – HX, the Human Experience. What does all this mean? Aren’t they the same thing? Let’s look at some definitions first: In commerce, customer experience (CX) is the product of an interaction between an organisation and a customer over the duration

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What’s in a strategy: business, sales and marketing strategies

By / / Blog, Sales Strategy / 3 minutes of reading

There’s usually confusion between sales and marketing strategies. So to avoid mix-ups, it’s always good to look at definitions. Michael Porter defines strategy as the set of choices that define a company’s distinctive approach to competing, and the competitive advantages on which it will be based. There are two different levels: corporate strategy, which is the strategy for the business overall (the portfolio of businesses); and business strategy, which determines

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What are the biggest sales issues & opportunities for CEOs & Sales Leaders?

By / / Blog, Sales leadership, Sales Strategy / 3 minutes of reading

Research done by our parent company, Barrett, on Sales Strategy and Operations shows several emerging trends across businesses in the public, private and Not for Profit sectors. Here are some of the findings: The biggest sales issues facing CEOs & Sales Leaders today: No clarity, communication or consistency: regardless of industry, every business lacked clarity of purpose, strategy and roles; had very inconsistent or poor communication practices; and no consistency

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Ditch short-termism for robust sales strategies

By / / Blog, Sales leadership, Sales Strategy / 3 minutes of reading

‘If you don’t know where you’re going, every road will lead you nowhere’. This famous quote is usually attributed to the master strategist and politician, Winston Churchill. Sadly, in today’s busy, noisy and complex world, this quote represents a common state of affairs for many organisations’ CEOs, Executive Leaderships Teams, Sales Leaders and their sales teams who are struggling to make sales, retain their relevance with clients, and generate profit.

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HOPE is not a Sales Strategy

By / / Blog, Sales leadership, Sales Strategy / 2 minutes of reading

Hope isn’t a sales strategy and without the right ingredients failure is certain The protocol for developing a sales strategy is fundamentally different to that used for other business strategies. Even the thinking that drives a sales strategy is somewhat different to that which drives marketing strategies. Here are a few guidelines: The golden rule that underpins any sales strategy is knowledge. By learning as much as one can about

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The difference between Sales and Marketing Segmentation

By / / Blog, Sales Strategy, Sales tips / 3 minutes of reading

To segment or not to segment that is the question. Traditionally, marketing has almost always dictated what a segment was. But sales segmentation and marketing segmentation are substantially different. In fact, it is these very differences that make sales strategy so different from marketing strategy. Marketing defines segments as “A group of people that share one or more demographic and / or psychographic characteristics”. However, salespeople deal with people, not

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Better sales outcomes through discernment

By / / Blog, Ethics and Values, Sales Strategy, Sales tips / 2 minutes of reading

What is discernment? Discernment is the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure[1]. It comes from from Old French discerner (13c.) “distinguish (between), separate” (by sifting), and directly from Latin discernere “to separate, set apart, divide, distribute; distinguish, perceive,” from dis- “off, away” (see dis-) + cernere “distinguish, separate, sift” (see crisis)[2]. According to the Cambridge dictionary, it is the ability to judge people and things

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Sell and Deliver Value or Commoditise

By / / Blog, Sales Strategy, Sales Trends / 4 minutes of reading

With business becoming much more complex and value harder to discern in product sales alone, business leaders have to make serious decisions about how to do business. In essence, they have two choices in terms of the way to run legitimate operations: Run a business that sells unique solutions or customised products/services and generates reasonable margins and delivers real value beyond product. This means stepping up their game, building out

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