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Beware of networking euphoria! It can be dangerous for your sales pipeline and your credibility as a salesperson. You’ve at a networking event or trade show. The atmosphere is fantastic. The conversations are flowing and everyone is full of energy and optimism. Then you meet someone who says, That’s exactly what we need and we should definitely have a proper conversation. Let’s catch up in the next few weeks. You leave feeling brilliant. You’ve made some fantastic connections

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” - a popular attitude that’s often valid. Often, but not always because the approach says “wait until there’s a problem”, rather than “be prepared for when, or in case, in case a problem arises”. In the context of your career, and your next step, the “it ain’t broke” mindset can become “I’ll wait until I’m unhappy”. But who wants to recruit an unhappy candidate? And who makes the right career decision when they’re not only unhappy, but facing

Red flags when looking for a sales trainer. We could write War and Peace on this, but here are a few that immediately spring to mind: They've hidden behind a keyboard. Rather than picking up the phone and doing what they expect your sales team to do, they've commented “I can help” on your LinkedIn post. Worse still, they've hunted down your email address and sent you seventeen paragraphs explaining why you need their services. They've quoted before they've qualified. They've

We’ve all heard the old saying "People leave managers not companies." Almost every month we meet really unhappy candidates who hate their jobs having been blinded by a big brand name, cushy benefits, and massive OTEs. In sales, picking your Sales Leader, or boss, is the most critical career decision you will ever make. A toxic or micromanaging Head of Sales will drain your motivation, no matter how good the product is. Whether the company is large or small, you will progres

We are really proud that we are helping growing SME businesses to ensure that they get the single most important hire they will ever make, the right one. Growing from £1m to £5m turnover and more isn’t just about sales. It’s about cash control, insightful reporting, intelligent planning, and robust financial decisions Our colleague Sean Kelly, has worked as a Finance Director, businesses owner, and Venture Capital Investment Manager and has vast experience setting up and sup

Fuel costs in the UK are rising fast, and for Sales Directors and Managing Directors it should be a wake up call and not just a frustration. In the past twelve years we have interviewed hundreds of account managers whose territory management has been driven by geography and mileage rather than by strategy. Account managers who visit customers that fit neatly into today’s route and get me home on time, or who are proud to boast about driving 40,000 miles a year. Account Manage

Hiring a sales leader is a bigger challenge than you might think. You need someone who can create, deliver and execute a robust plan for customer retention and incremental revenue growth. You need a person who doesn't hide behind the reports and the numbers and who can inspire, support, motivate and most importantly coach and train sales colleagues. You need a person with high emotional intelligence and who demonstrates outstanding sales disciplines (you can't teach what you

Effective sales planning is often the difference between teams that consistently deliver and those that struggle. Great sales performance is not about doing more, it's about doing what matters with clarity and discipline. A strong plan starts with a laser focused objective. When everyone understands the mission and the destination destination, decisions become sharper and activity becomes purposeful. But ambition alone is not enough. Objectives must be rooted in reality, supp

We love helping our clients and we were delighted to support Schott Packaging Ltd with the hire of their amazing new BDM, Sophie Evans. Schott Packaging had grown impressively through inbound business and through great marketing and brilliant service delivery. With a proven model and hundreds of happy clients they wanted to appoint a field based new business hunter, the company's first ever hire in sales and one that's very easy for organisations to get wrong. We helped to sh

Our business could be hundreds of thousands of pounds up on revenue each year if we did what many other recruitment agencies do, which is hire for anyone and everyone. And that's fine by us, because our focus is on quality and on taking the responsibility of the lives of our candidates seriously. If there is poor culture, no values, high staff churn, bonkers targets and KPIs, no defined measurements of success, a hiring manager that's horrible, a recruitment process with mo

Our colleague Sean Kelly, has years of experience working in finance and as a talented Finance Director has encountered many occasions where a business has faced cash flow challenges. The knee jerk reaction is often to race to cut costs, but there are issues here. Unless your business is unduly profligate, there's a definite limit to the amount you can save by cutting costs without impacting business performance and customer experience. In the area of cutting headcount, you m

Who’s doing what in your sales team to ensure you achieve the budget before the end of December? You’ve set ambitious targets this year,...

Companies ultimately hire to solve a problem in their business, whether that's too much admin, a team needing managing or a hole in your...

The obsession with so many businesses to find the right person in the same industry often creates failure and underperformance. The right...

𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝘂𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽...

If you focus on growth before focusing on improvement, that growth will be painful because it 's ten times harder to manage a business in...

They don't give us any data. We hear this an awful lot when we are out delivering sales training to field based BDMs. It's denial,...

The default position that untrained sales managers go to in a 1-2-1 when a colleague is behind target is - You need to make more sales...

"I've never had a recruiter challenge me like that before, I like it!" Music to our ears........ It is our responsibility that our...

The role of a Finance Director (FD) is evolving rapidly, and the UK job market reflects this shift. With organisations facing economic...