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.
5 Proven Strategies to Accelerate B2B Revenue Growth in 2012
If you're like most of the companies I work with, you've got two key focuses at the moment: finishing the current year in the...
5 Surefire Ways to Increase the Impact of Sales Conversations
I've referred previously to Forrester's findings that only 7% of all sales calls are regarded by senior prospect executives as being valuable, and worthy...
Why It’s Time to Stop Celebrating Sales Heroics
There's an end-of-quarter scene that's about to be played out in companies across the world. The sales forecast so confidently predicted at the beginning...
Are Your Salespeople Challenging Their Prospects to Do Better?
There's been a great deal of well-justified praise for the recently published "The Challenger Sale". It's been described by no less an authority than...
10 Must-Read Books for every B2B Sales and Marketing Bookshelf
We can all benefit from reading inspiring books that help us to challenge our assumptions and to take on a fresh perspective. The most...
Forrester: Your Brand is too important to be left to Marketing
The late Dave Packard, co-founder of HP, once made the observation that "marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department". Having...
Latest B2B Guide: Understanding your “Ideal Customers”
In today's business climate, you would think that few organisations could afford to invest large amounts of sales and marketing effort in pursuing opportunities...
Forrester: Prospects only rate 7% of sales calls as worthy of follow-up
According to recent Forrester research quoted by Tim Riesterer in his excellent "Conversations that Win the Complex Sale", prospect senior executives rate only 7%...
How Impact-Based Selling Increases Sales Win Rates in Troubled Times
In a recent article, I explained why BANT-based sales qualification is being overtaken by FAINT (Finance-Authority-Impact-Need-Timescale). Now it's time to expand on the point...
How much Sales and Marketing effort will you waste in 2012?
Everything suggests that 2012 is going to be a very difficult year. Economies around the world are slashing growth projections, unemployment is rising and...
Why the case for BANT qualification is getting FAINTer
When I first learned my trade - in the Golden Age of B2B Selling - BANT was all the rage as the sine qua...
3 Questions B2B Sales Leaders must ask about every Q4 Opportunity
I'm sure that your sales organisation is straining every sinew to ensure that they close the quarter and the year with the best possible...
Are you prepared for an Olympic sales performance in 2012?
It's November already - less than two months to go before the end of the year. I'm sure that your sales team is very...
12 Key Initiatives that Could Accelerate Your Revenue Growth
What are the factors that separate many of today's top-performing B2B sales and marketing organisations from the rest? Having outstanding products and services that...
6 Critical Milestones in the B2B Buying Decision Process
Most of us are used to thinking of managing our sales pipeline through a series of sales stages. But this approach presents a real...
The 3 Critical B2B Sales Pipeline Metrics
How healthy is your sales pipeline right now? And what steps are you taking to progressively improve its fitness? Just as your own doctor...
B2B Sales: The Problem with Solution Selling
I've lost count of the number of organisations who, facing increased competition in their core markets, have ambitions to transform themselves from a product-driven...
B2B Marketing: Why the Number of Leads You Generate is Irrelevant
When I ask many B2B marketing departments how their success is measured, the most common answer is "the number of leads generated". But if...
Why Your Sales+Marketing Teams Must Agree on Ideal Prospect Profiles
Regrettably, the situation I'm about to describe is still far too common in many B2B sales and marketing organisations. Marketing is busy generating leads...
What Would Steve Expect? (Si Monumentum Requiris Circumspice)
Sir Christopher Wren, architect of London's St Paul's Cathedral, is celebrated in a simple black marble inscription under the magnificent dome of his masterpiece...