It was the movie, Terminator, that brought the concept of artificial intelligence (ai) to people’s awareness, albeit in quite a scary way. The reality is that artificial intelligence in some form has been with us for over 30 years, and is only now starting to exponentially accelerate in relation to the value it can add to businesses and organisations. The organisations that are able to leverage it effectively are the ones which will enjoy incredible success over the next few years. Whilst there may be some roles replaced with ai, the vast majority of roles, especially in sales, can be compleme ..read more

In many business organisations, there is almost an unwritten ‘ground rule’ that sales & marketing are internal competitors of each other. When sales are not converting prospects into customers, it is often marketing’s fault, and when marketing provide what they consider to be great leads to sales that do not get converted, it is sales’ fault. To be sustainably successful, organisations need to take a more strategically aligned approach and that is where Sam Shaper comes in. Sam is a Fractional RevOps specialist, and helps support businesses through creating and implementing peak performanc ..read more

A key element of being in business is to grow, be profitable, and to add significant value to the marketplace. This is a key focus of almost every business on the planet. The fact that not every business achieves this is very often down to the leaders running the business as well as their ability to create and maintain a high performing environment. Too many CEO’s and leaders unfortunately are the reason why their business is not growing at the rate they expected and not achieving the outcomes they expected. This is where Mandi Ellefson comes in. Mandi is The Hands-Off CEO and specialises in h ..read more

Even though sales is one of, if not, the oldest professions on the planet, it continues to evolve. Customers today are more savvy and educated than ever before, which means organisations and sales people need to evolve and adapt as well. Research suggests that 53% of organisations have made a buying decision before they even decide to engage with a service provider. This means that as sales people we can no longer lead with our product or our service, as sales is being redefined. In today’s episode, I enjoyed a terrific conversation with Abbie White, Founder & CEO of Sales Redefined, and a ..read more

For many sales leaders, the path to the position of leadership often comes through being an exceptional sales individual contributor. This is almost the first pre-requisite. Some then consciously choose to take on a leadership role, yet for many, it is a responsibility that is bestowed upon them, or dare I say, forced upon them, based on their levels of performance. For many, it is an opportunity that is very difficult to say no to. Unfortunately not many people are then provided with the blueprint or playbook to make the transition to leadership a successful one, and often, leaders flounder ..read more

When working with sales leaders and their teams, I often share with them the important message around creating and maintaining a terrific reputation, both from a company perspective, and especially from a personal perspective. People want to do business with people who they know, they like and they trust, and as sales people, as business people, we cannot ever take that for granted. Reputation is everything. In this episode, I had a tremendous conversation with Luis Garotti, the Founder of 292 Creative, and a man who has built a solid and successful business on the back of a great reputation ..read more

In B2B sales, many sales people love to be part of the big complex deals, the ones that often have a great deal of prestige and status attached to them, because, more often than not, they include iconic brands or industry leaders. The challenge though is that many sales teams and organisations are not set up well enough in order to build a compelling proposition to attract the big sale. They lack planning, they lack strategy, and they lack effective execution. In today’s episode, I have the privilege of speaking with Barbara Weaver Smith, Founder and CEO of The Whale Hunters, an organisation t ..read more

I firmly believe that sales is one of the most fulfilling and satisfying careers available, and yet, when speaking with sales people, I often hear them describe their role as Customer Success Manager, Account Director, Customer Experience Manager, amongst other ‘titles’. Why don’t people simply say “I’m in Sales”? Whether we like it or not, sales is central to every business and every organisation, and whether you carry a sales target or not, everyone is in sales. In today’s episode, I enjoy a terrific conversation with Richard Harris, Founder of the Harris Consulting Group, and an exceptional ..read more

When it comes to marketing, many organisations adopt the ‘hope and pray’ strategy, where they throw a heap of information into the marketplace hoping some of it will stick. And when the sales team is unable to convert the leads that come from this strategy, often they blame marketing for providing poor leads, and marketing blame sales for their inability to convert. Organisations that are able to build a more tangible and intentional marketing strategy, and ensure that both sales and marketing are aligned in that strategy, achieve much better results. In today’s episode, I have the privilege o ..read more

Just about every sales person on the planet is looking for a way to differentiate themselves from their competition, and for the most part, they look for product or service differentiation. Not nearly enough salespeople look inwardly and consider what it is about themselves that can become the catalyst for differentiation and hence miss out on the opportunity to become exceptional. Gail Kasper is on a mission to change that and in today’s episode, Gail shares what it means to sell like a cockatoo, to be able to differentiate against the competition and to be able to amplify a sales process to ..read more