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.
B2B Sales: Are You Playing Buzzword Bingo With Your Prospects?
If you're in any business involving technology, there can be a terrible temptation for your sales people to fall back on technical language, acronyms...
Forrester – Which CRM Metrics Really Matter?
Bill Band of Forrester Research has just published the results of his latest study into "The Right CRM Metrics for Your Organisation". It's an...
The Information Arms Race Between B2B Buyers and Sellers
The term "arms race" was initially used to describe the competition between two or more nations to establish the most powerful armed forces. Nowadays,...
McKinsey: We Are All Marketers Now
A recent McKinsey Quarterly article claims that "we're all marketers now" - and with good reason. Customer preferences are no longer shaped through traditional...
B2B Sales Pipelines: When Do You Want to be Told the Truth?
An old colleague of mine - a highly experienced sales leader with many years of sustained quota achievement to his credit - recently found...
Software CEOs Talk About Adopting SaaS
Earlier this week a group of UK-based software CEOs talked about their experiences of adopting a Software as a Service strategy. Some were in...
5 Questions You Ought to be Asking as the Half-Year Approaches
We're coming up to the end of June - the half-way point for many annual plans and company financial years. You undoubtedly started out...
Is Your Organisation Paying the Penalty for Poor Sales Qualification?
80% of lost sales opportunities are the result of either poor qualification or the lack of an effective sales process. But the answer isn't...
Why Less Than 1 in 5 CRM Systems Actually Increase Revenues
Why have so many companies invested in CRM systems? According to the latest data from CSO Insights, the overriding goal for most sales organisations...
7 Simple Prescriptions for Successful B2B Sales Pipeline Management
Rick Page - in his book of the same name - reminds us that when it comes to winning Complex Sales, "Hope is Not...
B2B Sales: Top Sellers are Storytellers
Is your sales process characterised by lengthy buying cycles with the involvement of multiple decision makers? Are buying decisions frequently delayed or postponed? Are...
B2B Marketing: Forrester on Becoming a Customer Obsessed Company
Leading research firm Forrester recently published a new report on "Competing in the Age of the Customer". Although the majority of the examples they...
Why Reducing the Value of Your Pipeline Will Enable You to Sell More
Most sales people, and most sales managers, have been conditioned to believe that bigger pipelines are better, but there are many reasons - and...
The 5 Top Reasons Why B2B Partnerships Fail
A recent study involving more than 200 organisations by Channel Dynamics has highlighted some of the key reasons why so many business partnerships fail....
Why CRM Data is So Important: The Elephant in Your Pipeline
How accurate is your sales forecast? According to the latest survey data from CSO Insights, less than 50% of pipeline opportunities close as forecasted....
12 Key Questions Your Go-to-Market Model Needs to Address
What does "go-to-market" mean to you? Many companies react to new challenges in their business environment by declaring that they need to change the...
Where is Your Sales Funnel Leaking?
Every sales funnel leaks, but some leak more than others - and unfortunately often in the most expensive places. Understanding where and how your...
10 Critical Factors That Could be Constraining Your Sales Growth
Building a scalable, repeatable and predictable business is hard work. Even if you have a competitive solution in an attractive market and have the...
The Significance of the LinkedIn IPO
LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) went public on Thursday, amidst echoes of dot.com booms and busts from years gone by. The stock was issued at $45,...
B2B Sales: Are Some of Your Prospects Frogs in Boiling Water?
You've probably heard the frog in boiling water anecdote. So the theory goes, a frog that is placed in cold water and gently heated...