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.
Sales and Marketing alignment – necessary but not sufficient
>Most CEOs would like to see their sales and marketing teams working more effectively together. Many have “improving sales and marketing alignment” on their...
The 3 dimensions of sales coaching
Having observed a number of B2B sales organisations over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that sales training is over-rated, and sales coaching...
B2B sales: How to close 42% more business
According to the smart folks at Sales Benchmark Index (SBI), companies that have taken the time to adopt and implement a consistent and effective...
The 5 levels of lead qualification
Sirius Decisions recently published some very interesting research into the subject of when marketing-generated “leads” are regarded as being “sales ready”. The results surprised...
B2B marketing: claiming you’re better isn’t always the best strategy
Technology-based businesses, with a few notable exceptions, have an unfortunate and self-limiting habit of selling on specification - and of believing that positioning their...
B2B marketing: from one-way communications to two-way conversations
The trouble with far too many of today’s interactions between prospects and their potential suppliers is that they are conducted as asynchronous communications rather...
The B2B buying decision process: challenging the 57% myth
It’s a statistic that’s been widely quoted and even more widely misunderstood - the idea that the typical modern B2B buying decision process is...
B2B Sales: You need to focus on the workarounds that aren’t working
In most “solution selling” methodologies, B2B sales people are encouraged to uncover their prospect’s issues, rather than leading with their products. But there’s a potential...
The key to great B2B sales questions – get your prospects to choose
You’re probably very familiar with the difference between open and closed questions, and how and where they can be most effectively used in the...
Why you need to do more than name + define your sales pipeline stages
The state of the sales pipeline reflects the health of any sales process - and in anything other than the simplest of sales transactions,...
Why are so many B2B software demos so bad?
Why do so many B2B software demonstrations fail to move the customer to do anything beyond hoping that it might end soon? Why do...
What have you done to identify your ideal customers?
Why is it that so many B2B organisations are so unhappy with the returns on their marketing investments, with the accuracy of their sales...
Lessons from JFK’s inaugural about sales and marketing messaging
On a bitterly cold winter’s day 53 years ago in January 1961, the newly elected President John F Kennedy set out his agenda for...
How to avoid false signals from automated lead scoring
Two years ago, I chaired a discussion group at a digital marketing conference on the subject of lead scoring and nurturing - and emerged...
Are your sales people merely communicating value – or creating it?
One of the problems with creating generic “unique value propositions” is that they are just that - generic. They might be a useful basis...
How to make the second half of your sales year better than the first
We've reached the halfway point in the sales year, and this is a particularly good time to take stock. Early indications are that a...
The science of sales forecasting: combining fact and judgement
The failure to accurately forecast sales revenues has critically compromised the careers of many promising CEOs, Sales VPs and Sales Managers. Getting it wrong...
Today is D-Day: drawing parallels with Crossing the Chasm
70 years ago, on the 6th June 1944, the largest seaborne invasion in history assembled off the Normandy coast in the first critical step...
What’s YOUR Unique Value Position?
What sets your organisation apart from all the other companies that are competing for your prospect's attention and - ultimately - their budget? If...
Gartner: “Boost your sales win rates by 50% via win-loss analysis”
Most sales organisations claim to conduct some form of win-loss analysis. But according to a recent Gartner investigation, no more than a third conduct...