Bob Apollo
Bob Apollo
Bob Apollo is the CEO of UK-based Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners, the B2B sales performance improvement specialists. Following a varied corporate career, Bob now works with a rapidly expanding client base of B2B-focused growth-phase technology companies, helping them to implement systematic sales processes that drive predictable revenue growth.
Why B2B Marketers Need to Stop Claiming That Their Solution is Better
"Our Solution is Better". It's a claim made by many B2B technology marketers, based on a perceived feature set advantage. Maybe their offering has...
Vo-duh!-fone: Why taking customers for granted is never a good idea
When you've been a customer for more than 20 years, you can sometimes get into the comfortable habit of assuming that the vendor always...
3 proven ways to shorten your average sales cycle
The length of the average sales cycle is a concern for many B2B sales leaders, and with good reason: successfully shortening average sales cycles...
7 Essential Building Blocks to More Effective B2B Marketing
According to a recent series of articles by Adam Needles, author of "Balancing the Demand Equation", the current state of B2B demand generation is...
Are we really looking at a 75% reduction in sales heads by 2020?
Gerhard Gschwandtner, publisher of Selling Power - in a characteristically provocative piece - recently predicted that the number of sales people in the United...
What is your marketing for?
John Wanamaker - described by Wikipedia as the father of modern advertising, and a pioneer in marketing - is famously and frequently quoted to...
Why you may need to redefine your competition
Who (or what) does your company really compete against? For the majority of B2B product or service offerings, the answer is unlikely to be...
Why stalking your website visitors isn’t a very good idea
I recently received a LinkedIn message from someone whose profile I had accidently visited, saying something along the lines of "I just noticed that...
Sales Leaders: Are you really training your sales people to succeed?
CSO Insights have just released their eagerly-awaited annual review of the state of sales performance - reflecting detailed inputs from over 1,500 sales organisations...
Why Sales doesn’t care about Aligning with Marketing – but ought to
I admit it. I've been guilty of promoting the benefits of sales and marketing alignment as if they were self-evident to everybody involved. I've...
Why Your Sales Process Doesn’t Matter
Coming from somebody who has consistently sought to promote the value of focus and process in all matters connected with B2B sales and marketing,...
What can we all learn from Apple’s stunning success?
Apple has just posted results that far outstrip analyst expectations - nearly doubling their revenue year-on-year and more than doubling their profit. What lessons...
B2B Marketing: Why Maximising Leads Won’t Maximise Revenues
I come across many marketing organisations that seem to believe that the more leads they generate, the better they are doing. They may even...
How to Make Your B2B Marketing Content Irresistibly Attractive
There has been no shortage of articles highlighting the growing importance of having great content to support your sales and marketing processes at every...
B2B Sales: Has SFA Really Reached a Tipping Point?
Malcolm Gladwell, in his book of the same name, pointed out the power of "The Tipping Point", and sought to demonstrate with a series...
B2B Sales: Why You Must Help Your Prospects Monetise Their Pain
At any time, every one of your sales prospects are likely to be able to identify - with or without your help - any...
Resolution #1 for 2012: Fight the Flab in Your Sales Pipeline
Happy New Year to you all. Let's be honest - for many of our customers and clients, 2012 is shaping up to be a...
The Problem with Marketing Automation
The marketing automation software market is expected to show continued dramatic growth in 2012, as companies frantically seek the "magic bullet" that will help...
9 Tips to Get Prospects to Call You Back
Is your sales team struggling to get through on the phone? Leaving voicemail messages that never get a response? It's a common problem, and...
The Application Development Landscape – 2012 and Beyond
Facing a rapidly evolving technology landscape, any organisation involved in commercial software development is being forced to cope with architectural decisions that have the...