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.
Identifying Your Ideal Customers
Market segmentation has traditionally been based on demographic factors such as company size, sector and location. But these simple characteristics are hopelessly inadequate predictors of...
The 5 characteristics of an effective sales process
There is abundant evidence to prove that companies with an effective sales process outperform their less disciplined competitors. The latest research from MHI shows...
Facilitating Decision Making in Complex Sales Environments: Where is the Mobiliser?
This is my fourth contribution to the series “what is B2B sales excellence in the customer...
The Challenge with Challenger Selling
“The Challenger Sale” by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson has been one of the most talked-about sales books of the past decade - and...
Is Your Messaging Truly Compelling?
We all know the problem, because we all suffer from it as consumers: today’s buyers are so bombarded by apparently similar messages that they...
Inaccurate forecasting = inconsistent qualification
Accurate sales forecasting is a particular challenge in high-value complex sales environments with lengthy sales cycles. Given that we are trying to anticipate the...
The C-Suite should be your most receptive audience
Most traditional sales methodologies have some element of “selling to power”, and that’s often associated with the C-Suite. But these C-Level executives, according to...
Interest vs. Intent: How to Identify and Engage Prospects Most Likely to Act
This is my third contribution to the series "what is B2B sales excellence in the customer age?" For this post...
Are you fooling yourself about your funnel?
CSO Insights’ annual reports have always been a source of much inspiration, and this year is no exception. Their 2016 Sales Behaviours Study - involving over...
Do you *really* understand your prospect’s pain?
For many of your potential prospects, most of the time, sticking with the status quo is usually the comfortable choice. It’s no wonder that...
Complex Selling Essentials: Focus, Systems and Talent
Complex B2B sales are usually characterised by lengthy, high-value buying decisions that involve multiple stakeholders and frequently end in a decision to do nothing...
Mastering the Close Date Conundrum
Predicting close dates is one of the most challenging aspects of accurate forecasting in complex sales environments. It’s particularly difficult in new business situations...
Driving Action With Prospects: Distinguishing Between Interesting, Important, and Critical Needs
This is the second contribution to the series about "B2B sales excellence in the customer age." I’m going to focus on distinguishing between your...
If you’re late to the B2B party, you need to disrupt it!
You’ve been invited to a friend’s long-anticipated party. But something delays you along the way, and you arrive late - long after the other...
Complex Sales: How Solution Category affects Organisational Structure
One of the critical questions that every expansion-phase B2B focused company needs to consider is “what’s the most appropriate Sales and Business Development organisation...
Complex sales challenges: balancing capability and reputation
What happens if you’re competing against a much less advanced solution from a company with a much better established reputation? It’s a situation that...
The 2 critical factors behind B2B sales forecast confidence
Regular readers will recall that I am no great fan of the default approach taken by so many CRM vendors, in which individual opportunity...
Why it’s best to say “no” before your prospect does
Many sales people seem to have an abiding fear of hearing the word “no”. As a result, they go to often-extraordinary lengths to avoid asking...
What is B2B Sales Excellence in the Customer Age? Hint: Not Just a Numbers Game
During the course of 2016, I’m intending to share a series of articles on “B2B Sales Excellence in the Customer...
The Buyer’s Journey: Why Change? > What To? > Why You?
It’s awfully hard for many sales people to resist the “itch to pitch” when they come across a prospect that seems a perfect fit...