ARTICLES
Observations from inside
B2B sales environments.
Not tips. Not hacks. Not motivational content. These are observations from real selling environments: what breaks Selling Systems, what leaders misunderstand about performance, and what the diagnostic lens reveals about why results stay inconsistent.
Latest Articles
System-level thinking for commercial leaders.
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Design Starts with a Decision
Read Article: Design Starts with a DecisionThe leadership team is discussing a particular sales opportunity, and it should be straightforward. An existing customer is asking for a significant order of a non-core product, at a price well below normal margin thresholds and on a delivery timeline…
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Sales Process Is Not a Selling System
Read Article: Sales Process Is Not a Selling SystemI meet with a sales leader and ask about his sales process. He opens his CRM and talks through the clearly defined stages running from lead generation through qualification, discovery, proposal, negotiation and close. Each opportunity has an owner, a…
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Sales Is an Environment, Not an Event
Read Article: Sales Is an Environment, Not an EventWe’ve seen in the previous articles that this is a familiar sales situation. When sales results come under pressure, leadership tends to respond by increasing effort across the team, usually through sales activity. More meetings are scheduled, more time is…
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Accidental Sales Systems vs Designed Sales Systems
Read Article: Accidental Sales Systems vs Designed Sales SystemsThe patterns described in the previous three newsletter, activity that doesn’t produce proportional results, training that fails to embed, inconsistency that persists despite repeated intervention, have something in common. They are not random. They are not the result of an…
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The Hidden Cost of Inconsistency
Read Article: The Hidden Cost of InconsistencyInconsistent sales performance rarely presents itself as a single problem. It shows up in small, recurring ways. Deals that feel strong but fail to progress. Opportunities that appear similar but behave differently. Forecasts that shift more than expected. Conversations that…
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When Training Becomes a Substitute For Design
Read Article: When Training Becomes a Substitute For DesignEffort does not always equate to results, and activity on its own does not reliably create progress. When increasing activity fails to improve sales outcomes, attention naturally shifts elsewhere. It shifts to the sales team, and conversations move from pipeline…
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Managing a Healthy Sales Pipeline
Read Article: Managing a Healthy Sales PipelineIs your sales pipeline used as a valuable business management tool including providing accurate forecasting in your business? What are the attributes of a healthy pipeline? Sales pipeline management refers to the process of overseeing and optimising the progression of…
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Leveraging Scientific Principles to Architect and Cultivate a Winning Sales Team
Read Article: Leveraging Scientific Principles to Architect and Cultivate a Winning Sales TeamJohn led a team of six salespeople. Over the past year half his team had left the company and been replaced. Sales performance had declined and was at an all-time low. John couldn’t seem to get the team humming. He…
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Conquering Change Resistance
Read Article: Conquering Change ResistanceHow to Ensure a Seamless Sales Transformation A common challenge I experience when helping companies through sales improvement initiatives is change resistance. Organisations recognise the need to develop the best sales culture, provide effective training, optimise sales processes, and create other…
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Why Sales Training Often Fails to Improve Performance (and what you can do about it)
Read Article: Why Sales Training Often Fails to Improve Performance (and what you can do about it)How often do managers put individuals or teams through sales training as a one-off exercise with little or nothing in the way of ongoing coaching and integration? Tick – done. Some do it well, most don’t. And how much of…
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