With shareholder value directly linked to growth the pressures on businesses to deliver sales growth is a constant. Enabling this growth is therefore one of the key priorities for all senior managers – or at least it should be. It’s not just the responsibility of the Sales Director or VP to deliver the numbers – every function has a part to play in this. Continue Reading

Working for a PLC during my early thirties I landed my first role in managing a sales team. I’d been with a company they acquired, had a good track record of hitting my numbers and delivering new name accounts. That seemed to qualify me as the logical candidate to take on the leadership role. Ah… that common fallacy that a good salesperson will make a good sales manager!

No interview, no assessment just a new title, a pay rise and a much, much bigger number to deliver…. oh and a team of around 20 sales people to lead. Bring it on I thought, I’m sure I’ll do a great job. Continue Reading

I hardly ever get any sales calls at work. It’s different at home – we get plenty of annoying, completely untargeted and totally unprofessional calls selling kitchens, double glazing, solar panels, etc. However for the purpose of this article I’m talking about B2B sales calls at work. Continue Reading

As a young salesman, a good contact of mine, used to send ice-cream vans round to customers and prospects on warm summer days – an extravagance that cost his company many thousands of pounds.

Not only was this done with full approval from senior management, his enterprising behaviour was encouraged.

How would a junior ranking sales person in your company be treated, when suggesting this kind of left-field tactic on a hot summers day? Continue Reading

With pressures from the current low oil price continuing to bite, costs can only be cut so much, but to move forward and emerge stronger Oil and Gas service companies need to improve their sales performance.

Many businesses across the oil & gas sector are struggling with order books that are worryingly sparse.  However, the current climate is also creating opportunities for smaller, more nimble organisations that can adapt and innovate more rapidly to changing market dynamics. Continue Reading

Prior to entering it myself I had a very poor view of the recruitment sector. This was based on my experiences as a hiring manger and also as a Consultant working with businesses to transform sales effectiveness. What I saw were agencies that had little to no idea about the role I was looking to fill, who didn’t take the time to really understand my needs and were focussed on getting me CV’s in the quickest possible time so that they could get their fee – quality didn’t really seem to be a consideration. Continue Reading

As an HR Director one of your responsibilities is in ensuring that your organisation hires the very best talent – and for the most part I’m sure that your team does this very well. However if there is one area where your recruitment strategy is perhaps not so effective, the chances are  it will be with Sales roles where you just don’t seem to be able to achieve the same results, despite the fact that you duplicate the process you use for filling other key positions.  The reason is, Sales is different – it requires a different process, different mindset and different tools. Continue Reading

Recruiting and retaining good sales people is part and parcel of driving revenue. Managing and motivating them takes experience, dedication and energy. Even when your sales team is happy it’s inevitable some of them will want to move on. More money, different products, a management position. Changes to the status quo can also makesales people review their positions. Either way, at some point, you’re going to need to replace them and recruitment mistakes can be very costly

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Never underestimate what you can learn from checking the references of someone you are thinking about hiring and never get so enamoured by a prospective hire that you don’t bother to make reference checks part of your hiring process.

Here are some of the most insightful things we have learned from checking sales candidate references. Continue Reading

Online recruitment is a  numbers driven fickle, fickle world. How many of you have seen a position you’re well qualified for, registered, uploaded, ignored the ‘due to high number of applications’ message and ten minutes later got a call from an enthusiastic sounding recruiter? If you’re lucky you will have got through to an interview before your recruiter went on radio silence. Often, the optimistic chat about how good a candidate you are is the first and the last interaction you’ll have.  The reason you’re not getting great job opportunities isn’t you, it’s your job seeking strategy. Continue Reading