In the latest Winning Edge (the ISMM’s magazine for members), Sean McPheat sets out what’s hot for this year in selling:

Sales professionals will finally get around to using social media
Sales 2.0, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube – these are all sites, terms and services that sales pros have had on their ‘to do’ list for some time. So you’ve got your LinkedIn profile…well, now’s the time to start using it: 2012 will the be the year where the adoption of these sites gathers momentum and this will snowball as more and more success stories are made public and the return on investment finally filters through.
Entrepreneurial salesmanship
You will need to think like an entrepreneur and opportunity seeker more than ever now. You will need to look at new avenues for generating business and fresh methods for keeping existing ones. Sales recruitment will look at potential candidates who also possess innovative, entrepreneurial and creative traits in addition to the tried and tested assessment criteria.
A shift towards unbiased benefit selling
The term what’s in it for me (WIIFM) has been around since the beginning of time. The problem is that today’s buyers know that this is a biased point of view. WIIFM will be superseded in 2012 with PISB (prove I should buy). Demonstrating and explaining ‘the what’ is not enough. Instead there will be a shift away from you telling the whole story, features, benefits etc and instead a move towards a joint effort that will include input from your customers via video, audio and written testimonials, interviews, unbiased social media feedback and showcasing your products in action via live customers.
Negotiation skills become vital
You will need to add negotiation skills to your armoury if margins are going to be protected in 2012. Negotiation skills are normally a section tagged on to the last part of a sales training course or as part of the closing/objection handling section but it’s a vital skill that is often overlooked. Your buyers are going to demand more and more and will want to pay less and less so those that are best equipped to deal with the price bashing barrage that is to come will win the day.
Marketing and sales alignment for 
early engagement
More so than ever, sales and marketing are going to have work very closely together to engage with your buyers much earlier in the sales process. Research illustrates that 25-40% of the buying process is completed online before customers engage with your sales team. Those companies that can catch their prospects while they are conducting their research online, 
on blogs, forums, groups and the like with have a distinct advantage over the competition. This will need an aggregated approach via both marketing and sales to create the ‘bait’ and thought leadership content all over the Internet to attract interest and then to create effective lead capture, follow-up and engagement systems.
Sean McPheat is author of eselling and MD of MTD Sales Training. Visit www.mtdsalestraining.com

This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2012 at 10:40 am and is filed under ISMM News.

You can now register learners for the QCF level 2 Knowledge Based Qualification in the Sales and Telesales Apprenticeship framework, through the ISMM. Our qualification is called the Level 2 Certificate in Principles of Selling and attracts public funding. It’s recognised by Ofqual and provides an introduction to the core knowledge to start a first job in sales. You can see the specification at http://www.ismm.co.uk/ed_qcfspecs.php

Eureka Students overjoyed after completing ISMM QCF level 1 qualifications

This entry was posted on Monday, July 18th, 2011 at 11:11 am and is filed under ISMM News.

We’ve written handy guides on popular sales topics such as Understanding buyer behaviour, Preparing and delivering a sales presentation and Time and territory management for sales people. The colour guides contain explanations and activities which give you the knowledge and understanding you need for your sales role. You can see a sample Study Guide on our website at http://www.ismm.co.uk/ed_qcfstudyguides.php

This entry was posted on Friday, July 8th, 2011 at 8:53 am and is filed under ISMM News.

This year’s British Excellence in Sales and Marketing Awards (BESMA), which took place at the Lancaster Hotel, in London, on 26th May, celebrated Britain’s top sales talent and skills.

While the winners were from a variety of industries, Virgin Media Business employees came out on top in three of the 13 award categories – making it a night to remember for Virgin Media Business.

Hosted by the award winning TV and radio presenter, Jeremy Nicholas – who is also the stadium announcer at West Ham United football club – the awards covered a wide range of sales roles and activities. The award categories and their winners are:

• Sales Director of the Year (award sponsored by OneSource):  Tony McHardy, of Business Stream
• Sales Team of Year – for organisations or divisions of under 50 employees (sponsor: Virgin Media Business): David Lloyd Leisure, Swindon
• Sales Team of Year – for organisations or divisions of over 50 employees (sponsor: Paradise Wildlife Park):  Vodafone, Enterprise Small Sales Team
• Account Manager of the Year (sponsors: De Vere and Ellis Salsby):  Catriona Shearer, of Lyreco
• Sales Trainer of the Year (sponsor: Sterling Chase):  James Osborne, of Innergy Ltd
• Student of the Year (sponsor: Maddison Media):  Ayyaz Iftikhar, of Handepay Merchant Services
• New Sales Professional of the Year (sponsor: Principal Hayley):  Jonathan Beagles, of Virgin Media Business
• Sales Support Team of the Year (sponsor: Sales Expo):  DHL International (UK) Ltd
• Telesales Professional of the Year (sponsor: Campaignmaster):  Scott Golland, of Virgin Media Business
• Sales Manager of the Year (sponsor: MetaLucid):  John Maund, of Virgin Media Business
• Customer Service Team of the Year (sponsor: Sage CRM Solutions):  Wesleyan Assurance Society
• Sales Professional of the Year – for organisations or divisions with under 50 employees (sponsor: Royal Mail):  Steve Rasmussen, of siptel
• Sales Professional of the Year – for organisations or divisions with over 50 employees (sponsor: Huthwaite International):  John Schofield – Merial Animal Health Ltd

In crowning Business Stream’s Tony McHardy  as Sales Director of the Year, the BESMA judges said: ‘When Business Stream was born three years ago, out of the de-regulated Scottish water industry to service Scottish businesses, Tony McHardy had a 100% market share but he also had four new competitors vying for his customers.  Some three years later, Tony and his team still command a 99% share of the commercial water market in Scotland.’

At the other end of the sales spectrum, Ayyaz Iftikhar, of Handepay Merchant Services, was named as Student of the Year. A statement from the BESMA judges said: ‘Ayyaz shows a real passion for sales and we were impressed by his commitment to succeed – especially as he applied his sales diploma to use his outstanding knowledge of business to consumer selling to move to the business to business sales arena.’

“Britain needs its salespeople in order to prosper in today’s challenging economic conditions,” commented Stephen Wright, Commercial Director of the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management (ISMM), the UK’s largest association for sales professionals, which organises the awards.

“Without sales operations, even the best crafted products and services would not achieve their commercial potential,” he continued. “So it’s only right that we identify those in this country who demonstrate the very best in terms of sales skills – and celebrate their talent, skills and abilities via BESMA – the ‘Oscars’ of the sales world.”

Other sponsors of BESMA were The Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph (event sponsors); the Lancaster (which sponsored a champagne reception for the winners); Silent Edge (which supported the judging) and The Sales Pro (the event’s programme sponsors).

This entry was posted on Friday, May 27th, 2011 at 2:08 pm and is filed under ISMM News.

The Institute of Sales & Marketing Management (ISMM) is compiling a report on the effectiveness, pitfalls and opportunities of CRM and would very much appreciate your views, whether you are an enthusiast or have never used a CRM system.

It’s important to get a broad spectrum of views so as an encouragement/thank you we are offering the opportunity to win a pair of tickets for Successful Selling 2011! You will also have access to the results of the survey to help and inform your CRM plans.

I hope you can spare a minute or two to complete the online survey by clicking the link below.

ISMM CRM Survey

This entry was posted on Friday, April 8th, 2011 at 1:39 pm and is filed under ISMM News.

Approximately 50 judges and over 150 finalists of the UK’s brightest sales talent met at the Beaumont House Hotel Windsor on Friday 18th March for the judging of the British Excellence in Sales and Marketing Awards (BESMA).

The judges were again impressed and inspired by the extraordinarily high quality of the nominees. The ISMM, who organise the awards, were also delighted with the number of nominations, up on 2010, and a 30% increase in the range of organisations putting forward nominees this year.

Speaking of the awards Stephen Wright, ISMM Commercial Director said “The BESMA awards are a celebration of the sales profession, the nominees were knowledgeable, ethical and professional in their approach. As well as recognising individual and team achievements, the BESMA awards help to raise the profile and reputation of the whole profession.”

The winners will be announced at the BESMA gala dinner held at the Lancaster Hotel London on 26th May. To find out more about tickets call June on 01582 840001.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011 at 11:50 am and is filed under ISMM News, Other Sales & Marketing News.

The results of research on the changing sales landscape – and what customers really want from salespeople – are now available in a white paper from Blue Sky Performance Improvement. Marc Jantzen, chief executive at Blue Sky, first presented the initial findings at the ISMM’s Successful Selling conference, and this is part of ongoing research into driving sales improvement by Blue Sky and the ISMM.

A survey was sent to ISMM members and customers and its goal was straightforward: to establish exactly what qualities customers are looking for in today’s sales professionals as well as asking fundamental questions such as ‘What do people want today in a salesperson?’ and ‘What would put you off buying from someone?’

There was an excellent response that offers insight into what really matters to customers and what they expect from today’s salespeople. For example, 77% of customer respondents stated that honesty, integrity and authenticity were more important than ever, while many buyers also suggested that ‘pushy’ sales staff were their single biggest turn-off.

But sales staff themselves said the main reasons for losing sales were pricing being too high and propositions being undifferentiated. And sales leaders said the reasons for not closing deals related more to an inability to create value, and still selling solutions.

Get the white paper here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 at 7:15 pm and is filed under ISMM News.

Business software supplier Sage is partnering with the ISMM as a corporate member to promote sales excellence to UK businesses. The company is known for its expertise in selling business software to businesses of all sizes, but helping small firms to grow, in particular, has always been a major goal. Working with the ISMM will help Sage’s commitment to excellent selling as well as giving it the opportunity to help UK SMEs generate sales for their businesses.

Andy Palmer, Sage’s commercial development manager, comments: “Our partnership with the ISMM – working with the sales profession’s largest institute – cements and reinforces our commitment to UK businesses.

“Whenever we speak to our customers about their businesses, they always believe that generating sales is a major challenge. This partnership will help us promote ways of helping these businesses grow and improve their sales.”

The ISMM and Sage will be offering thought leadership and support through detailed research on sales. In addition, joint seminars across the UK will be held that will help those working in SME sales to become more effective and efficient in their sales techniques and processes.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 14th, 2011 at 4:07 pm and is filed under ISMM News.

As part of his masters’ degree at Portsmouth University, he’s doing some research into the issue of whether sales qualifications have an impact on a salesperson’s career.

Andy is carrying out the research to help to improve how these qualifications are structured and delivered in the future.

He needs to know your thoughts about, and experiences of taking your sales qualification and how it has affected your subsequent career.

This research consists of a survey that should take you less than seven minutes to complete. This is your chance to affect the future of sales qualifications.

The survey is open until the 4th February.

The survey is anonymous and no personal data is collected. Please click here  to provide us with your opinions.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 24th, 2011 at 4:33 pm and is filed under ISMM News.

The prestigious Harvard Business Review (HBR) has published an article by Professor Lynette Ryals of Cranfield School of Management, entitled ‘Do you really know who your best salespeople are?’, in its December 2010 issue.

It is based on research carried out with sales consultancy Silent Edge that analysed the performance of 800 sales professionals observed in live sales interactions, and was covered first in the ISMM’s magazine, Winning Edge. The coverage in the HBR lends more weight to the findings.

The complete research report identifies eight sets of behaviour types that operate in sales meetings – by understanding these behaviours, managers could effect changes in their current salesforce and recruit better team members in the future, say the researchers.

The bad news, they report, is that only three of the eight behavioural types, a mere 37% of the salesforce, were effective. But the good news is that behavioural tendencies can be managed over time, by encouraging salespeople to adopt behaviours of the most effective types.

The Winning Edge article shows that sales behaviours during selling meetings fall into six broad categories:

• Pre-meeting preparation
• Company presentation
• Sales pitch
• Customer interaction
• Rising to the challenge
• Storytelling.

But ’startlingly’, only two types of behaviours were strongly linked to success: pre-meeting preparation and rising to the challenge. Salespeople who prepared for a meeting and who set an agenda were far more likely to succeed than those who did not. ‘Rising to the challenge’ during the meeting was more strongly associated with success. This included adaptive selling techniques such as discussing value, negotiating throughout the meeting, good objection handling and overall conduct.

The HBR article relates the behaviours to eight types of personalities, such as experts, closers, storytellers and aggressors – and the research report is here.

And click here for the Winning Edge article.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 at 3:50 pm and is filed under ISMM News.