Blog
Weekly thinking on consultative selling, sales leadership and building a team that sells on value.
26 August 2026
Q4 won’t tell you what your team can do. It’ll show you what they fall back on.
In 25 years of running and advising sales teams, I’ve spent a lot of time in the final quarter watching people I thought I knew well do things I didn’t expect. There were the steady ones who went quiet, and the confident ones who started discounting deals that didn’t need discounting. And then there were […]
19 August 2026
Before you decide someone is under performing, check they’re not just doing it differently to you.
For most of my early years running sales teams, I managed people the way I’d have wanted to be managed myself. Tell me the problem, tell me what you’re doing about it, then let me get on with it. No long preamble, no hand holding, and a fair amount of pressure when things slipped. It […]
12 August 2026
Sales careers are built on ordinary Tuesdays.
A sales year is mostly a run of events. The big deal, the competitive bid, the quarterly review, the two day course, the kick off, the appraisal. They’re the moments everyone remembers, and they’re where people get judged. They’re also where nobody improves. An event puts you under a light and shows what you can […]
2 August 2026
If your new sales methodology didn’t stick, the problem started before the training.
Most sales methodology rollouts are not botched. They’re planned properly, by people who know what they’re doing, and they still change very little. That’s the part that stings. You’ll recognise the plan, because it’s a sensible one. Pick the methodology, whether that’s MEDDICC, Challenger, SPIN or something built in house from the best of what […]
27 July 2026
If you’ve just inherited a sales team, the clock has already started ticking.
Inherit a sales team and the pressure hits from three sides, with less time than ever to prove yourself. Here is the one move to make before you change a thing.
13 July 2026
If you’ve just taken on a sales team, you may already be judging it on the wrong evidence.
Take on a new sales team and three jobs tend to land on you at once. Build trust with people who did not choose you. Set the tone forTake on a new sales team and three jobs tend to land on you at once. Build trust with people who did not choose you. Set the […]
29 June 2026
If your sales team is underperforming, one of these five things could be behind it.
Some of your reps are behind your numbers. You can see it on the dashboard every morning. So you do what most sales leaders do. You turn up the levels of activity, with more calls, a demand for more pipeline, maybe a team training session or two. But, reaching for the same fix you always […]
15 June 2026
Your best reps leave first. And, you never worked out what makes them great!
The email arrives on a Tuesday. Your best rep is leaving. Eight weeks’ notice, a competitor, nothing you can match without blowing up the whole pay structure. You read it twice. Then you do the sum every sales leader does in that moment, the one about how much of next year’s number just walked out […]
8 June 2026
What the World Cup Teaches Us About Leading a Sales Team
The 2026 World Cup kicks off on 11 June. Forty-eight nations. Sixty-four days. One winner. Every team that walks out has roughly the same raw material: talented players, qualified coaches, and months of preparation. What separates the teams that go deep from the ones that go home early is almost never talent alone. It is […]
31 May 2026
Your Sales Managers Aren’t Leading. They’re Filing.
I was working with a technology services company a few years ago. They invested in a boot camp for the sales team to help their team step out of discounts and transactions. The training sessions spread over five days with work in between and they focused on learning and practising value selling capabilities. The team […]
26 May 2026
The untapped revenue opportunity sitting in the middle of your sales team
Most sales leaders know their top performers inside out. Four reps on a team of twenty who close consistently, rarely discount, and carry the number when things get tight. The question that gets asked far less often is this: what is the middle 60% actually costing you? Not in salary. In revenue left on the […]
17 May 2026
If You Can’t Name the Gap, You’re Buying the Wrong Sales Training
The training plan for the year has just been signed off. Two days off-site. The methodology refresh the team did three years ago, updated for the new selling environment. Fifty thousand pounds, all in. Calendars blocked, hotel rooms booked, the agenda circulated. Three months later, the pipeline review looks identical to the one before training. […]