The Outcome-Centric Selling® Blog - from Inflexion-Point

Crafting Compelling, Customer-Specific, Value Propositions

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 08, 2025

I imagine most of us have probably heard the term “value proposition”. It’s widely used in B2C marketing. But how does the term relate to complex B2B buying environments? It might help if we start with a couple of definitions.

The Sales Manager’s Competitive Edge - Why Coaching Matters in Complex B2B Sales

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 06, 2025

In the high-pressure world of complex B2B sales, frontline sales managers often find themselves pulled in multiple ...

4 critical questions for B2B sales: Why Change > Why Now > Why You > Why Trust?

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 01, 2025

Your company is facing an increasingly strong competitor - yet you won’t find them listed in any Google search of the key ...

Making a Career of Sales

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 15, 2025

As many readers of this blog will surely agree, there is no doubt that sales can be an excellent and satisfying career, and ...

Sales Forecasting Essentials - get your definitions right

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 28, 2025

There’s nothing more frustrating for a sales leader, a CEO or a Board of Directors than a continued inability to come up ...

Yes, confidence matters when selling - but not where you might think

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 26, 2025

Confidence. It's a quality most of us associate with successful salespeople. A confident presence, a persuasive tone, a ...

Do your prospects need painkillers, vaccines, or vitamins?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 06, 2025

You might hope that your prospects need to buy your so-called “solutions”. But what they really want to do is to fix an ...

Understanding your customer's buying decision journey

Posted by Bob Apollo, Feb 26, 2025

It’s falsely comforting to think of selling as a process in which one step follows logically after another - but this ...

Why Facts Matter When Forecasting

Posted by Bob Apollo, Feb 05, 2025

This article was first published in the February 2025 edition of Top Sales Magazine (link below). It’s hard to avoid the ...

What’s more important: our Sales Process, or our Customer’s Buying Journey?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jan 08, 2025

This article was originally published in the January 2025 edition of Top Sales Magazine (link below). Traditional wisdom ...

The Future of Sales Playbooks

Posted by Bob Apollo, Dec 04, 2024

This article originally appeared in Top Sales Magazine (link below). Sales playbooks have come a long way since their early ...

Sales Managers and Leaders: are you 100% happy with the hires you have made in the past 12 months?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 18, 2024

Finding and recruiting good people into any position is hard. Hiring consistently great salespeople is particularly ...

Why sales-specific assessments are critical to recruitment and development

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 03, 2024

This article was first published in the October 2024 edition of Top Sales Magazine: Recruiting the right new salesperson - ...

Webinar: why salespeople cannot rely on generic value propositions

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 30, 2024

According to marketers, every company needs a clear and consistent “value proposition” for every significant offering – and ...

Walking the Talk with AI

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 23, 2024

The latest edition of the International Journal of Sales Transformation focuses on a topic that is already having a profound ...

If you’re not going to coach your salespeople, don’t bother training them

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 04, 2024

This article was first published in the September 2024 issue of Top Sales Magazine ... Numerous studies have shown that ...

B2B opportunity qualification: beyond BANT and MEDDIC to IMPACCT

Posted by Bob Apollo, Aug 05, 2024

This article was first published on LinkedIn, stimulated by an article by Mark Gibson. The qualification of complex B2B ...

Accelerating B2B Purchasing Decisions Through Outcome-Centric Selling

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 27, 2024

As everybody involved in them knows, complex B2B buying journeys are rarely straightforward or linear. Without strong ...

Is problem knowledge more important than product knowledge?

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 07, 2024

This article was first published in the May edition of Top Sales Magazine. You can subscribe by clicking the link at the ...

Revisiting the role of trust in sales

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 24, 2024

The latest edition of the International Journal of Sales Transformation focuses on the critical role that trust plays in ...

Our Customer’s Buying Journeys are driven by Key Trends and Trigger Events

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 22, 2024

In the previous article in this series on Outcome-Centric Selling® I addressed the importance of researching, targeting, and ...

Why did I become interested in selling? (aka The Joy of Sales)

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 14, 2024

I have known Dave Brock for ages, and have always enjoyed both his insights and his company. He’s one of the most thoughtful ...

Profiling the Key Roles in your Ideal Customers

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 11, 2024

In the previous article in this series on Outcome-Centric Selling® I addressed the importance of identifying and targeting ...

A Question of Balance

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 07, 2024

This article was first published in the March 2024 edition of Top Sales World Magazine There’s a clear correlation: great ...

Profiling Your Ideal Customers

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 04, 2024

In the previous article in this series on Outcome-Centric Selling® we addressed the importance of identifying and targeting ...

What should a salesperson expect from their first few days in a new sales role?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Feb 19, 2024

This article was initially published in issue 10.1 of the International Journal of Sales Transformation. I suppose this ...

Outcome-Centric Selling: it starts with the issues

Posted by Bob Apollo, Feb 15, 2024

This is the first in a series of articles that explores each key building block of Outcome-Centric Selling® - and provides ...

Why should salespeople focus on their customer's business outcomes?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Feb 12, 2024

In my last article, I suggested that our prospects aren’t really interested in our so-called “solutions” - what they really ...

Your prospects really aren’t interested in your “solutions”

Posted by Bob Apollo, Feb 06, 2024

“Solution” is possibly both the most over-used and the most misused word in many salespeople’s vocabulary. Hundreds of books ...

There’s no point in teaching salespeople technique without also teaching them how to think

Posted by Bob Apollo, Dec 11, 2023

An earlier version of this article was initially published on LinkedIn. Most traditional sales training primarily involves ...

Is your sales training a "body without a soul"?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Dec 06, 2023

The Roman philosopher Cicero believed that “a room without books is like a body without a soul”, and I believe the same can ...

Which accounts have the greatest growth potential?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 07, 2023

This blog was originally published in the November edition of Top Sales Magazine. You can find a link to their website at ...

Systematically addressing sales underperformance

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 11, 2023

This article was first published (as "Addressing Underperformance" in the October 2023 edition of the always excellent ...

Finding new business in challenging B2B markets

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 03, 2023

This article was originally published in the October 23 edition of Top Sales Magazine ... Finding and winning new business ...

Asking the Right Questions (and more)

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 12, 2023

This article first appeared in the September edition of Top Sales Magazine ... The ability to ask the right questions, in ...

Navigating the transition from salesperson to sales manager

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 07, 2023

A version of article was first published in the September 2023 edition of the International Journal of Sales Transformation ...

Selling to today’s real decision-makers

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 11, 2023

This article was first published in the July 2023 edition of Top Sales Magazine (link below). Salespeople have traditionally ...

What are tomorrow’s most important sales competencies?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 07, 2023

This article was first published in the latest edition of the International Journal of Sales Transformation under the title ...

Exploring the Art and Science of Complex Sales

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 30, 2023

I was delighted to be asked to contribute to Membrain’s “The Art & Science of Complex Sales Podcast” with Paul Fuller, ...

B2B Sales Leadership and CRM

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 25, 2023

What role should sales leadership play in their organisation’s deployment of CRM? A CRM application lies at the centre of ...

Why it’s time to stop selling 'solutions' - and start delivering outcomes

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 19, 2023

The first wave of B2B selling was product orientated - salespeople were taught and encouraged to think in terms of their ...

The four pillars of a powerful customer value proposition

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 08, 2023

The following article was first published in the March 2023 edition of the always-excellent Top Sales Magazine - there's a ...

Why should salespeople bother preparing for their customer interactions?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Feb 10, 2023

There’s been a great deal of research into the dynamics of salesperson-customer interaction over the years, and the results ...

2 things we always need to know about every sales opportunity

Posted by Bob Apollo, Feb 01, 2023

Every competent salesperson recognizes the importance of accurately qualifying every sales opportunity. But I want to ...

Developing the potential of talented salespeople

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 29, 2022

In my previous article - “hiring salespeople with talent” - I explored the challenges involved in making good sales hires. ...

Hiring salespeople with talent

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 24, 2022

In my last article, I shared Gartner’s findings about the current war for talent. In this article - first published in the ...

Gartner: Building a high-performing sales team is now harder than ever!

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 22, 2022

Gartner’s latest guidance for Chief Sales Officers [Leadership Vision 2023: 3 strategic actions for success] contains a ...

B2B Buyers: from Fear of Missing Out to Fear of Messing Up

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 09, 2022

As Matt Dixon (of Challenger Sale and Challenger Customer fame) points out in his latest book “The Jolt Effect”, B2B ...

Top sellers are storytellers

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 12, 2022

This article first appeared in the October 2022 edition of the International Journal of Sales Transformation, and is ...

Answering every new customer's 4 key questions

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 29, 2022

If your prospective customer is seriously evaluating a new project that involves both a significant investment and a change ...

How can anyone sell value without values?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 17, 2022

I recently participated in a webinar with LeveragePoint on the subject of “establishing a value-centric culture in your B2B ...

The changing face of value in B2B sales

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 24, 2022

It's been a while since my last blog, but I'm pleased to be returning to the action with an article that I wrote for the ...

Coaching - the critical sales management skill?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jan 11, 2022

This article was first published in the latest edition (issue 8.1 - January 2022) of the International Journal of Sales ...

The What, Why and How of Outcome-Centric Selling®

Posted by Bob Apollo, Dec 16, 2021

I believe that it would be hard to argue that B2B selling hasn't changed significantly in recent times - and equally hard to ...

What should B2B sales leaders be prioritising in 2022?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 29, 2021

I was delighted to be asked to contribute the following article to the International Journal of Sales Transformation's ...

Why a generic “unique selling proposition” isn’t enough...

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 23, 2021

Marketers are keen to create what they refer to as “unique selling propositions”. According to Wikipedia, a unique selling ...

What are Priority Issue Profiles - and why do you need them?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 15, 2021

This article was first published in the October Edition of Top Sales Magazine. Many of you will be familiar with the idea of ...

The critical role of trust in sales

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 30, 2021

At a time when the level of public trust in the UK's elected politicians has never been lower, it's an opportunity to ...

Identifying, engaging, and assessing our stakeholders

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 17, 2021

How many stakeholders are involved in the typical complex high-value B2B buying journey? It’s fair to say that the number is ...

Webinar: Three Gaps and a Bridge

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 01, 2021

I recently recorded a webinar with LeveragePoint (link below) about “making a compelling case for change”. Those of you who ...

Establishing the foundations of a coaching culture

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 26, 2021

This article was first published in issue 7.3 of the International Journal of Sales Transformation, and I'm very pleased to ...

Is it time to stop allowing the Covid excuse?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 20, 2021

One of the most illuminating elements of Objective Management Group’s sales evaluation methodology is the way in which it ...

Are your salespeople three whys men (and women)?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 06, 2021

For my latest article for Top Sales Magazine, I’ve decided to explore the power of three whys and a who... When it comes to ...

Latest webinar: the essentials of sales opportunity qualification

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 02, 2021

One of the key things that separates great salespeople from the rest is their commitment to rigorously qualifying every ...

Why your customers want to buy is as important as what they want to buy

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 10, 2021

You’d hope, wouldn’t you, that most salespeople understand what their prospective customers want to buy. You’d expect, ...

The future of B2B selling is collaborative

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 04, 2021

I recently participated in a fascinating panel discussion facilitated by Jonathan Farrington of Top Sales World on ...

The law of averages does not apply to complex B2B sales

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 01, 2021

Soon after “The Challenger Sale” was published, you could see a stream of lazy commentators homing in on one percentage ...

Supercharging our sales conversations

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 27, 2021

This article first appeared in the April 2021 "Supercharging Sales" issue of the International Journal of Sales ...

Exploding the 3* sales pipeline coverage myth

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 21, 2021

One of the most unhelpful “rules of thumb” in B2B selling is the long standing and widely quoted myth that the benchmark ...

Ditching the 'Itch to Pitch'

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 16, 2021

Whether proactively reaching out to potential future customers or responding to inbound enquiries, salespeople and business ...

Refining our customer’s value story

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 25, 2021

Regular readers will know that I have been evangelising the critical importance of customer-specific value stories for a ...

Profit derives from usage - not initial purchase

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 09, 2021

Business customers have become increasingly used to as-a-service models, rather than outright purchase - and many of them ...

The Secrets of Sales Innovators

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 04, 2021

I recently had the pleasure of speaking at length with Jan Ropponen, author of “Secrets of Sales Innovators - how ...

Contrast is critical to B2B sales success

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 02, 2021

I was pleased to be asked to contribute an article to the latest edition of Top Sales Magazine - a regular source of insight ...

The key issues for B2B sales leaders in 2021

Posted by Bob Apollo, Feb 26, 2021

I was very pleased to be invited by the International Journal of Sales Transformation to contribute an article to their ...

“Why are you still working that deal?”

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jan 27, 2021

In a recent article (Advance or disqualify!), I proposed that salespeople - rather than clinging on to lifeless sales ...

Advance or disqualify!

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jan 12, 2021

In his best-selling sales guidebook “SPIN® Selling”, Neil Rackham identified four potential outcomes from every significant ...

Why being liked should never be your primary motivation

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jan 06, 2021

It might seem strange - in a season when we traditionally wish goodwill to all men and women - to take the position that ...

Has role specialisation in B2B selling gone too far?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Dec 21, 2020

Largely inspired by the work of Frederick Winslow Taylor, and made real by Henry Ford and others, the age of mass production ...

A New Year Resolution: eliminating wasteful sales behaviours

Posted by Bob Apollo, Dec 18, 2020

This is the time of year when most of us would benefit from some quiet reflection on what we’ve learned during 2020, and how ...

Creating collective value through customised value

Posted by Bob Apollo, Dec 11, 2020

I recently made what I hope was a compelling case for creating a customer-specific unique value story for every significant ...

Why do so many trials end up as tribulations?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Dec 07, 2020

I want to give Dave Kurlan of Objective Management Group the credit for stimulating this article. I’ve added a link to his ...

What’s your customer’s unique value story?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 10, 2020

Generic value propositions, although they might be of some use in persuading potential prospects to make initial contact ...

Your customers don’t care about your so-called “solutions”

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 03, 2020

Everywhere you look, sales organisations of all descriptions are promoting their so-called “solutions”. It’s become such an ...

A brief history of sales opportunity qualification

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 27, 2020

The quality and accuracy of opportunity qualification is widely acknowledged to be a key predictor of future sales success - ...

Why it’s time to focus on outcomes

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 21, 2020

Note: This article has been adapted from the latest fully revised and updated version of my “Introduction to Outcome Centric ...

Today’s 3 Frontline Sales Management Priorities

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 24, 2020

Frontline sales managers - the people from whom individual members of the sales organisation take their day-to-day direction ...

Mutual Success Plans: A Collaborative Approach

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 16, 2020

I’ve written before about the persuasive power of a Mutual Success Plan in technology-based B2B sales, and I believe the ...

The status quo isn’t what it used to be…

Posted by Bob Apollo, Aug 06, 2020

Whenever a purchase is inevitable (the customer must act) your competition tends to be predictable - and it will often be ...

Never let a good crisis go to waste

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 24, 2020

As Winston Churchill was working to establish the United Nations after World War Two, he observed that leaders should “never ...

The importance of speed-to-outcome

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 23, 2020

I recently recorded another conversation with Andy Paul, award winning author, speaker and the host of the Sales Enablement ...

Answering your customer’s three critical questions

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 01, 2020

In today's challenging and uncertain business climate, your customers have good reason to be cautious. They are unlikely to ...

A New Normal - or a Better Normal?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 09, 2020

It’s become common for commentators to refer to the fast-evolving reality of B2B selling as the “new normal”, and I’ve often ...

What's Your Customer-Specific Differentiating Value?

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 27, 2020

I thoroughly enjoyed talking with Tom Pisello of the Evolved Selling Institute as his guest on the EVOLVERS Podcast on the ...

Is your 'coach' a mobiliser or an immobiliser?

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 26, 2020

Most conventional sales methodologies encourage salespeople to find at least one coach inside the potential customer’s ...

Should we be selling 'solutions' or outcomes?

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 19, 2020

Many sales methodologies - in the interest, no doubt, of selling more books and training courses - claim to have a uniquely ...

This is why (some) B2B customers are still buying in the current climate...

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 13, 2020

There’s no doubt that the vast majority - if not all - of discretionary, could-put-it-off until later B2B purchases are ...

Sales Enablement - a case of promise unfulfilled?

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 01, 2020

As far as the state of sales enablement is concerned, I think it's fair to say (and I hope that sales enablement ...

10 Reasons Why Coaching Remote Sales Teams Today is Non-Negotiable

Posted by Kevin Beales - Guest Contributor, Apr 29, 2020

This article is republished with permission from an article that first appeared on the Refract website. With the world ...

Reprioritising your target accounts

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 27, 2020

Having a clearly defined and actively worked new business target account list is a key strategy for anyone who is ...

Keeping your sales pipeline flowing

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 22, 2020

I recently took part in a webinar with Paul Everett of The Marketing Practice - one of the UK’s most respected B2B marketing ...

Establishing Value in Challenging Times

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 02, 2020

There’s no doubt that our customers and our own sales organisations are facing challenging - many would suggest ...

STOP Killing Deals! (book review)

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 31, 2020

Companies around the world are collectively spending billions of dollars/pounds/euros each year on sales training and ...

Do your customers have a ‘survive’ or a ‘come back stronger’ mindset?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 30, 2020

There probably isn’t a single industry or organisation that isn’t being affected in some way by covid-19. A few sectors - ...

Why Closing Gambits Don’t Work on Large Sales

Posted by James Muir, Mar 25, 2020

James Muir is the best-selling author of "The Perfect Close" - a book that leverages the latest science to show why applying ...

'Why do we have to spend this money now?'

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 23, 2020

Even before the current crisis, many opportunities that had been confidently forecast by salespeople were failing to close. ...

When the Status Quo isn’t the Status Quo Anymore

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 20, 2020

In most complex B2B sales environments, our most significant and consistent competition typically hasn’t come from another ...

Getting the right people on your sales bus

Posted by Bob Apollo, Feb 13, 2020

In his widely acclaimed Good to Great, Jim Collins shows that lastingly great organisations pay particular attention to not ...

Discounting is a sure sign of sales failure

Posted by Bob Apollo, Dec 18, 2019

For many sales organisations, December is both the end of the sales quarter and the end of the sales year. Individual ...

Stretching your customer's value gap

Posted by Bob Apollo, Dec 05, 2019

Whenever your customer sees little meaningful difference between their current situation and their future potential, they ...

Understanding your customer's decision journey

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 28, 2019

It’s falsely comforting to think of selling as a process in which one step follows logically after another. But although ...

Understanding B2B Buying Behaviour

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 26, 2019

In any high-value complex B2B sales environments involving new projects with multiple stakeholders, the buying behaviours ...

Avoiding the Value-Added Trap

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 05, 2019

An earlier version of this article was first published in the November 2019 edition of Top Sales Magazine. Every sales ...

Sales people need to act like personal trainers, not bartenders

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 04, 2019

In a recent article for the CEB, Andrew Kent posed the question “Are your reps bartenders or personal trainers?” It’s a ...

Assumptions kill opportunities

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 01, 2019

I’ve had the opportunity to sit in on a number of QBRs with my clients, and as an outside observer I’m struck by how common ...

The why, how, what and who of sales checklists

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 30, 2019

When Harvard Medical School Professor (and BBC Reith Lecturer) Atul Gawande published his “Checklist Manifesto” nearly 10 ...

Sales perfection is impossible!

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 24, 2019

There are so many potential variables and unknowns in any complex B2B sales environment that the idea of running a ...

Please tell me something I don’t already know

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 21, 2019

Corporate Visions recently hosted a webinar on how to gain access to business executives. Their findings were based on a ...

The most important thing a proposal needs to sell

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 10, 2019

When your salespeople submit a proposal, it should always represent the natural culmination of a series of value creating ...

Selling against the status quo

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 08, 2019

You’re probably all too well aware of the statistic that the majority of apparently well-qualified complex B2B buying ...

RFPs: how to avoid being column fodder

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 24, 2019

The term “cannon fodder” is used as a somewhat dismissive description for soldiers who were regarded by their generals as ...

Spotlight on Strategic Selling

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 12, 2019

In this, the second of my series of articles for the International Journal of Sales Transformation on today’s leading sales ...

Helping your customer make sense of complexity

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 03, 2019

Making a buying decision has never been more complicated. Your customers have access to an overwhelming amount of ...

A fresh perspective on the Challenger Sale research

Posted by Bob Apollo, Aug 21, 2019

First published in 2011, “The Challenger Sale” must be one of the most widely-read sales books of the past decade, and with ...

Who are your ideal customers?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Aug 09, 2019

Most sales organisations - and most of the sales people who work for them - are capable of describing their target market in ...

Why are so many CRM implementations still failing?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 24, 2019

According to many market analysts, the market for CRM solutions shows no signs of slowing down. It’s increasingly rare to ...

How likely is your customer to take action?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 08, 2019

One of the most significant mistakes any sales person can make is to assume that their prospective customer is inevitably ...

Spotlight on Sandler

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 05, 2019

I’ve been commissioned by the International Journal of Sales Transformation to write a series of articles comparing and ...

How does your CRM manage different opportunity types?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 02, 2019

[This article was updated on 9-Jul-2019 to include the renewal opportunity type] Why do so many CRM implementations behave ...

Video: 3 Key Sales Questions Every CEO Should be Able to Answer

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 27, 2019

George Brontén of Membrain is one of the smartest people I know when it comes to the latest trends affecting complex B2B ...

Video: Key Challenges Facing B2B Sales People

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 25, 2019

I had the chance to work with The Marketing Practice at a recent event at Worcester College Oxford and one of the ...

Podcast: The Foundations of Sales Effectiveness

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 20, 2019

I recently recorded a second wide-ranging podcast on the foundations of sales effectiveness with Michael Webb of Sales ...

Up-front agreements: the key to having productive customer conversations

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 18, 2019

Business executives often report that they look back on the initial conversations they have with sales people and regard ...

Stop striving for sales perfection!

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 10, 2019

Given the inevitable complications and unique considerations involved in any complex sales environment, it’s hard to imagine ...

What is your Customer’s Minimum Viable Problem?

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 29, 2019

The concept of a Minimum Viable Product is common in the start-up community. It is normally regarded as an initial release ...

Podcast: The Art, Science + Engineering of Sales Management

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 23, 2019

I recently recorded a wide-ranging conversation about the art, science and engineering of sales management with Michael Webb ...

A tale of greed - and reckless disregard for the customer experience [updated]

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 15, 2019

I hope you will forgive me this rant, but in addition to allowing me to vent my frustration, I believe the story contains ...

Why you need a Vision Story and a Value Story

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 08, 2019

The best sales people and the best content marketers are often great storytellers. They have the ability to craft compelling ...

The Persuasive Power of a Mutual Success Plan

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 06, 2019

As Gartner and others have frequently pointed out, B2B buying decisions are often complicated. If the problem to be solved ...

Is your differentiation based on features or outcomes?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 17, 2019

It’s a fundamental principle of value-based selling that whenever a prospective customer is unable to establish any ...

Hope is not a strategy - and ignorance is no excuse

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 15, 2019

Why do apparently promising sales opportunities go wrong so often? Why do close dates speed past, get reset and then repeat ...

Sales Opportunity Qualification or Qualifiction?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 04, 2019

Accurate opportunity qualification is perhaps the single most important foundation for success in complex B2B sales ...

Familiar vs. Unfamiliar Purchases

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 27, 2019

Sales consultants often make the distinction between transactional and complex sales. Transactional sales - whatever their ...

Understanding Your Customer's Decision Journey

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 26, 2019

It’s falsely comforting to think of selling as a process in which one step follows logically after another. But although ...

A Progressive Approach to Sales Opportunity Qualification [that isn't BANT]

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 21, 2019

Like a growing number of other commentators, I have come to believe that the traditional BANT (Budget, Authority, Need and ...

Over 40% of projects are ad-hoc: another nail in the coffin of BANT

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 11, 2019

It surprises and shocks me how many sales organisations still regard BANT as a practical way of qualifying sales ...

From Sales Process to Buying Journey

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 05, 2019

The idea of a “sales process” has been around since long before I was offered my first sales role. The concept has been ...

If you really want to shorten your sales cycle, slow down!

Posted by Bob Apollo, Feb 20, 2019

If the conversations I’ve been having with sales leaders recently are anything to go by, our sales pipelines are full of ...

Successful Selling = Intelligent Choices, not Fixed Formulas

Posted by Bob Apollo, Feb 12, 2019

I’ve just spent a few minutes completing the annual survey from one of the world’s most widely respected sales training ...

No sales plan survives first contact with the customer

Posted by Bob Apollo, Feb 06, 2019

Military leaders have long recognised the importance of planning. But they have also recognised that it is the act of ...

The sales methodology that outperforms all others

Posted by Bob Apollo, Feb 04, 2019

Every established sales methodology attracts its own fan base. Some are fans of SPIN®, others Challenger®, Miller-Heiman, ...

Is your sales pipeline full of fatbergs?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jan 11, 2019

The sewer systems of of our towns and cities are struggling to cope with a phenomenon known as the “fatberg”. These fatbergs ...

Selling incremental improvement isn’t enough!

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jan 04, 2019

If you’re involved in complex B2B sales, and if what you are selling is anything other than an absolute “must buy” ...

Account Based Everything: a foundation for partnership

Posted by Bob Apollo, Dec 20, 2018

Account-Based Marketing (and its all-embracing cousin “Account Based Everything”) has been touted by its promoters as a ...

The 3* sales pipeline coverage myth

Posted by Bob Apollo, Dec 18, 2018

I’m no great fan of averages, and I’m no great fan of unsupported rules of thumb, either. Perhaps the best (or worst, ...

Why your pipeline doesn’t need any sales stages

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 27, 2018

This is a subject I’ve referred to before, but an excellent article by Don Mulhern has prompted me to promote a concept that ...

The illusion of the expert buyer

Posted by Bob Apollo, Nov 12, 2018

One of the most dangerous mistakes we can make as sales people is believing that our customer – and particularly the sponsor ...

When your customers DO want to speak to a sales person

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 31, 2018

There’s been a great deal of comment – often from people and organisations who frankly should know better – about how ...

The keys to engaging our stakeholders

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 18, 2018

Our prospective customers are far more likely to want to engage with us if they believe that they are likely to learn ...

Why early engagement is critical to sales success

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 16, 2018

The now increasingly discredited BANT (Budget, Authority, Need and Timeframe) approach to opportunity qualification ...

Sales pipeline management: let’s stop confusing progress with probability

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 10, 2018

Sales forecasting is hard. For proof, you need look no further than the 2018 CSO Insights Sales Performance study, which ...

8 steps to positioning your strategic business value

Posted by Bob Apollo, Oct 02, 2018

In complex B2B sales environments - particularly ones that involve multiple stakeholders and lengthy and often complicated ...

Targeting your most valuable sales opportunities

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 27, 2018

Many B2B sales and marketing organisations have an unfortunate habit of wasting huge amounts of time and energy pursuing ...

Avoiding death by stovepipes [guest post]

Posted by David Jackson - Guest, Sep 25, 2018

As anyone who has worked with me or read my articles, I am passionate about ensuring that sales and marketing are aligned in ...

4 key factors influencing B2B buying behaviour

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 20, 2018

In any high-value complex B2B sales environment involving new projects with multiple stakeholders, the buying behaviours and ...

Sales enablement and the performance gap

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 17, 2018

The primary goal of sales enablement must surely be to increase sales effectiveness by progressively reducing the ...

Is your BDRs' outreach pertinent or impertinent?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Sep 13, 2018

If you are in a role that tends to attract the attention of other vendors’ business development people, you’ve probably had ...

The non-linear world of B2B buying

Posted by Bob Apollo, Aug 28, 2018

It’s falsely comforting to think of selling as a process in which one step follows logically after another. But although ...

In complex B2B sales, stakeholders have more than one dimension

Posted by Bob Apollo, Aug 22, 2018

In complex B2B sales, there’s a common recognition that multiple stakeholders are almost always involved in the ...

Responding to, Reframing or Creating Sales Opportunities?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Aug 16, 2018

Jim Burns of Avitage drew the distinction between finding versus creating sales opportunities in an article on LinkedIn a ...

Avoiding the curse of premature elaboration

Posted by Bob Apollo, Aug 14, 2018

Apparently, someone once offered a definition for the split second as “the time between a customer giving the merest hint ...

The 7 storytelling secrets of successful salespeople

Posted by Bob Apollo, Aug 10, 2018

I’ve long believed that top sellers are storytellers. They are able to call upon a rich fund of relevant anecdotes that they ...

The Problem with Account Plans...

Posted by Bob Apollo, Aug 07, 2018

Many of the clients I’ve been working with over the past few months have been attempting to implement some form of account ...

Asking good questions isn’t enough...

Posted by Bob Apollo, Aug 02, 2018

Most traditional sales methodologies stress the importance of asking good questions, and there’s no doubt that the ability ...

Of course it matters whether you won or lost...

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 31, 2018

You’ve probably heard some variation of the saying “it matters not whether you won or lost, but how you played the game”. ...

B2B Sales: Contrast Drives Change

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 25, 2018

Many analysts claim - and many sales people would agree - that today’s most powerful competitor is not another similar ...

B2B sales: six steps to value

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 19, 2018

One of the biggest frustrations for today’s sales leaders is their sales peoples’ apparent inability to connect the business ...

B2B sales: what should we be measuring?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 17, 2018

If we’re in sales, there are two obvious monetary measures of our success: revenue and margin. Revenue is particularly ...

3 fundamental goals of sales leadership

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jul 05, 2018

The art and science of sales leadership is clearly complicated, but the fundamental goals of sales leadership - at least ...

14 critical activities every sales person needs to master

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 27, 2018

Whenever we attempt break down the key success factors in managing complex B2B sales opportunities, it soon becomes apparent ...

Our prospects are qualifying us, too...

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 21, 2018

Just as the discovery process is best thought of (and most effective) as a two-way exercise, so is the closely-related ...

Opportunity Coaching for Fun and Profit

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 19, 2018

My latest contribution has just been published in the June 2018 edition of the always-excellent International Journal of ...

Why our sales discovery process must always be two-way

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 13, 2018

I’ve written before about the critical importance of the discovery process in complex B2B sales. It’s a favourite subject, ...

Why your salespeople should never do product demonstrations

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 07, 2018

I imagine we’ve all sat through at least one of these at some stage of our careers: a software demonstration that is nothing ...

Is this the most counterproductive sales metric?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Jun 05, 2018

If we’re driven by data and interested in statistics, there are a wide range of sales metrics we can choose to monitor. ...

Is sales “process” really the right metaphor?

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 31, 2018

The term “sales process” has become an almost universal cliché (and yes, I have been as guilty as the rest). Research is ...

How do you create value for your customers?

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 29, 2018

With relatively few exceptions, most companies want to be seen to be focused on value, rather than price. You can understand ...

Is scope creep suffocating your opportunities?

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 22, 2018

Most sales organisations would agree that increasing average deal values is a positive objective, along with shortening ...

12 key sales qualifiers

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 10, 2018

Early, accurate qualification is critical to success in complex B2B sales. It allows us to identify the opportunities that ...

We’re NOT Average

Posted by Bob Apollo, May 08, 2018

Mark Twain is said to have popularised the phrase “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics". In an ...

Shaping our customer's "why"...

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 30, 2018

I recently shared my thoughts about applying Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why” concept (also known as The Golden Circle) to the ...

Starting with “Why”

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 26, 2018

In September 2009, Simon Sinek took the stage at a TEDx event and delivered an 18-minute presentation that has now been ...

Is your thought leadership really “thought followership”?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 19, 2018

It seems as if everybody wants to be a thought leader nowadays, and to publish insights that are going to somehow ...

Why should your customers migrate to your new solution?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 16, 2018

If - like many of the clients I work with - you are an established enterprise software company, it’s likely that your ...

In search of the perfect sale...

Posted by Bob Apollo, Apr 04, 2018

Is there such a thing as a “perfect sale”? A sale in which we got the highest possible price in the shortest possible sales ...

The compelling case for hastening slowly

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 28, 2018

In “The Tortoise and the Hare” Aesop describes a race between a slow-moving tortoise and a fast-moving over-confident hare. ...

Establishing (& amplifying) our customer’s value gap

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 22, 2018

If we boil it down to the basics, there is one over-riding reason why our customers accept the need for change rather than ...

Are your sales people suffering from value vagueness?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 20, 2018

Whether they are involved in winning new business or seeking to retain or expand existing business relationships, one of the ...

The many dimensions of diversity in B2B sales

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 15, 2018

If - as many scale-ups are - you are on a mission to challenge the status quo and get your prospective customers to think ...

Sales training: should we emphasise technique or thinking?

Posted by Bob Apollo, Mar 13, 2018

I’ve been talking about the long-term impact of conventional sales training programmes with clients, and their experience ...