There any many moving parts in any organisation, but when two or more form an alliance, these moving parts must align if the venture is to be successful. This short article examines ten essential macro-level elements that must align to ensure a successful alliance. What is an alliance? Having Googled this question, I have adapted…
To improve, something must change, but not everyone wants to change. This article looks at ways to overcome this, drawn from my personal experiences. Change drivers The need, desire or pressure to improve is a constant factor in many people’s lives. The need is usually driven by necessity, the desire is usually driven by personal…
Change is an ever-present business theme. But, if you Google ‘what percentage of change initiatives fail?’, the answer is 70%, with little sign of improvement. I’ve worked on change programmes for many years; some triumphs, and some disasters. I’ve learned that successful change is only achieved when the people it affects buy-in to the programme…
In the first blog in this series, I stated that in my opinion, there are only two headline activities required to increase your win ratio, namely: Continuous, ruthless ongoing deal qualification. Developing a customer-aligned win strategy for the surviving deals In this post, I’m going to focus on the former; continuous, ruthless deal qualification. The brutal truth…
In the first blog in this series, I stated that in my opinion, there are only two headline activities required to increase your win ratio, namely: Continuous, ruthless ongoing deal qualification Developing a customer-aligned win strategy for the surviving deals In this post, I’m going to focus on the latter; developing a customer-aligned win strategy for the…
How to increase win ratios has always been a hot topic in the world of B2B sales, with millions of blog posts about how to achieve this. I’ve often joked that the answer is simple; just don’t pursue the deals you’re not going to win. Logical. So why don’t people simply focus on the winnable…
During my long career, it’s been my privilege and pleasure to work for, and with, many great and very successful leaders (and a few not-so-great or successful ones as well). Now, anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m very analytical; I need to answer the ‘why’ question, and if I can’t, it drives…
I recently attended an APS Fellows event led by Robert Racine of Wipro entitled The Impact of Digital Technologies on future B2B, which I found incredibly well researched and very informative. Robert said many things that resonated with me, but the most profound was that ‘the only competitive advantage (left) is to learn faster than the…
I was watching MOTD this morning, and marveled at Burnley beating Liverpool 2 nil. At face value, Liverpool lost because Burnley scored more goals. But looking at the stats, Burnley had only 19% of the possession, the lowest ever percentage for a winning team in the Premier League. Burnley won because they had a plan…
In sales, we call this the bid process. It should be straightforward, but many in the profession recognise this is often the weakest link in the selling chain. Why? This is your opportunity to tell us… The Association of Professional Sales is launching a very short, anonymous survey and we would like your input. Click…