Encouraging your sales team to think big – Part Two
In my last piece I explained why sales leaders need to clearly define what makes a customer ‘high value’ in order to begin encouraging the sales team to ‘think big’. …
Winning the high value customer: Encouraging your sales team to think big – Part One
As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, it can be all too easy for sales teams to spend all their time on smaller – and arguably, easier – customers. After all …
Our Insights are sought after: UK Tech News
As regular readers of our Insight blog will know, our Managing Director, Richard Lowe, has committed to sharing his experience, skills and knowledge with those across the sales arena in …
Leadership5: The Modern Manager Matrix
There’s no doubt that the pace of change in technology sales is increasing year on year. With the advancement of technology and a shift to the Cloud and SaaS, the …
Winning the Large Value Customer-CLTV: Overcoming the Common Business Case Challenges
In the final part of my series focusing on the development of using the business case as the foundation of high value technology sales transactions, it’s worth reminding ourselves of …
Winning the Large Value Customer: How to Run a Business Case
In the second part of my series on the role of a business case in driving a high value customer transaction, I’ve turned my attention to the process of how …
Winning the Large Value Customer: The Value of a Business Case
It’s perhaps safe to say that in over 30 years in sales one of the most crucial insights I’ve developed is just how valuable developing a quantifiable business case is, …
The power of research and why we’re investing in it
It’s certainly been a busy time at the RBL Associates offices. As the rest of the team will certainly agree, our workload has increased as more firms turn to us …
Winning the Large Value Customer: helping your teams overcome their inhibitors
In my last post I focused on the crucial skills sales leaders need in their teams in order to secure and grow those large value customers as outlined in our …
The skills sales leaders need in their teams
I’ve focused a lot on identifying, securing and managing large value deals in my recent Insight blogs in order to help sales leaders set themselves and their staff up for …
Account reviews – essential sales processes or time-wasting conflicts?
As most sales professionals will attest to, account reviews to discuss and decide next steps in a major deal can take up a huge amount of very valuable time. While …
Harnessing research for sales success
We’re operating in a world where technology means we have a wealth of information to hand, but sometimes more isn’t always better. The power of online data sources gives sales …
Latest Miller Heiman guest post: A guide to large value customers
I’m pleased to say that my insight sharing across multiple platforms has continued on the Miller Heiman website. The highly respected technology sales training firm has once again published a …
Accelerating team success for sales leaders
For any sales leader, making sure the right person is hired is the number one priority. Time, money and effort is put into making the decision – after all, the …
Business Accelerator Model – Sales Diagnostic Tool
Being able to see the big picture of your sales process is vital if you are to successfully prioritise where to invest effort, anticipate issues and apply repeatable tools and …
Account & Territory Plans: avoiding the “toasted sandwich maker” syndrome
Getting your team to create their own personal business, account or territory plan with time-bound actions is the objective of every sales leader. It is the annual ritual of late …
How to identify the ideal prospect for a large value sale – and why disruption is the key
Identifying “ideal” prospective customers is the vital first step to ensure that sales effort and resource is targeted correctly, but what are the signs and indicators to look for? One …
Our insights are sought after – now guest blogger to Miller Heiman Group
I am delighted that Miller Heiman, one of the most highly respected technology sales training companies has expressed interest in our insights on software sales leadership. Our first guest blog …
Winning the Large Value Customer in 2018 – A Sales Leader’s Guide
Large value customers are seen as the holy grail for many sales teams; recent research from McKinsey has found that many organisations aim for 40% of projected revenue to come …
How to close your December slipped deals in January
Why have your December unclosed deals vanished out of the January 2018 forecast? Did the customers get kidnapped by aliens? Did the Grinch who tried to steal Christmas steal your deals …
5 new year’s resolutions every software sales leader should make
So here we are in 2018 – you’re back, refreshed and ready to smash that sales target with your team. The new year is also a time for making resolutions …
12 Christmas gifts for software sales leaders
The holiday season is almost upon us so as a seasonal treat, I’m going to unwrap my 12 days of Christmas gifts guaranteed to help you accelerate your software sales …
Land and Expand – Three key strategies for successful expand campaigns
(& Why Customer Acquisition Cost & Customer Lifetime Value Metrics change everything) In my last blog, we looked at the seven reasons why expand sales strategies fail. In this blog …
Land and Expand sales strategies – the 7 deadly sins
(& why Customer Acquisition Cost & Customer Lifetime Value Metrics change everything) As sales professionals, you’ll all be aware of the Land and Expand model – winning the first order …
Five essential skills for pre-sales
Pre-sales engineers/consultants are an integral part of the technology sales team and their role is constantly evolving. They act as subject matter experts in their field and add value to …
The problem with resellers – Part 2
In part 1, we looked at the difficulties for vendors in building a successful reseller channel. Now let’s have a look at how vendors can work together with resellers to make …
The problem with resellers – Part 1
Building a reseller channel sounds like a complete no-brainer, so why does it seem to be so difficult for vendors to achieve. For a long time, I’ve been fascinated by …
Why sales deals get stuck, and how to unstick them – Part 2
In my last blog, I outlined the warning signs that a deal may be stuck – and seven reasons why deals get stuck in the first place. Following on from …
Why sales deals get stuck, and how to unstick them – Part 1
You’ve been working on a deal for ages and the client has been sending all the right signals, but suddenly things stop progressing and you can’t reach anyone on the …
The signs that a sales rep is about to quit: The dirty dozen and three lost quarters
The impact of having a rep on your team who has decided to quit but has not yet resigned can affect a leader’s results for three full quarters of a year. …
Remote management across borders – Part 2
Regular readers of our blog will have seen my first piece on the top tips for effective remote management across borders which offered advice to leaders managing sales professionals around …
The challenges of matrix management and why we should scrap it
Imagine a world where sales teams only have one leader who engages the team as a single, unified group. Objectives are reviewed, direction is clear, issues are discussed and solutions …
Deal coaching: What sales leaders need to know
The majority of software sales leaders would surely agree that the most powerful and effective way they can make their quarterly targets is by coaching their team on specific deals. …
How sales leaders can deal with change programmes
As a former global VP of software sales with over 30 years’ experience in the market, I’m only too aware that sales leaders are very rarely, if ever, hired to …