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.
A tale of greed – and reckless disregard for the customer experience
I hope you will forgive me this rant, but in addition to allowing me to vent my frustration, I believe the story contains some important messages…
Why you need a Vision Story and a Value Story
The best sales people and the best content marketers are often great storytellers. They have the ability to craft compelling narratives that persuade their potential…
The Persuasive Power of a Mutual Action Plan
As Gartner and others have frequently pointed out, B2B buying decisions are often complicated. If the problem to be solved is a new one, rather…
Is your differentiation based on features or outcomes?
It’s a fundamental principle of value-based selling that whenever a prospective customer is unable to establish any meaningful difference between the options open to them,…
Hope is not a strategy – and ignorance is no excuse
Why do apparently promising sales opportunities go wrong so often? Why do close dates speed past, get reset and then repeat the cycle? Why do…
Sales Opportunity Qualification or Qualifiction?
Accurate opportunity qualification is perhaps the single most important foundation for success in complex B2B sales environments. In the absence of an up-to-date and accurate…
Familiar vs. Unfamiliar Purchases
Sales consultants often make the distinction between transactional and complex sales. Transactional sales - whatever their value - tend to have a relatively simple buying…
Understanding Your Customer’s Decision Journey
It’s falsely comforting to think of selling as a process in which one step follows logically after another. But although rigidly defined processes might be…
A Progressive Approach to Sales Opportunity Qualification [that isn’t BANT]
Like a growing number of other commentators, I have come to believe that the traditional BANT (Budget, Authority, Need and Timeframe) approach to sales opportunity…
Over 40% of projects are ad-hoc: another nail in the coffin of BANT
It surprises and shocks me how many sales organisations still regard BANT as a practical way of qualifying sales opportunities. For those who are unfamiliar…
From Sales Process to Buying Journey
The idea of a “sales process” has been around since long before I was offered my first sales role. The concept has been heavily promoted…
If you really want to shorten your sales cycle, slow down!
If the conversations I’ve been having with sales leaders recently are anything to go by, our sales pipelines are full of opportunities that start off…
Successful Selling = Intelligent Choices, not Fixed Formulas
I’ve just spent a few minutes completing the annual survey from one of the world’s most widely respected sales training organisations. Of course, I haven’t…
No sales plan survives first contact with the customer
Military leaders have long recognised the importance of planning. But they have also recognised that it is the act of planning, rather than the plan…
The sales methodology that outperforms all others
Every established sales methodology attracts its own fan base. Some are fans of SPIN®, others Challenger®, Miller-Heiman, Sandler, Solution Selling® and so on – the list…
Is your sales pipeline full of fatbergs?
The sewer systems of of our towns and cities are struggling to cope with a phenomenon known as the “fatberg”. These fatbergs are formed by…
Selling incremental improvement isn’t enough!
If you’re involved in complex B2B sales, and if what you are selling is anything other than an absolute “must buy” necessity, then you all…
Account Based Everything: a foundation for partnership
Account-Based Marketing (and its all-embracing cousin “Account Based Everything”) has been touted by its promoters as a miracle cure capable of halting the precipitate decline…
The 3* sales pipeline coverage myth
I’m no great fan of averages, and I’m no great fan of unsupported rules of thumb, either. Perhaps the best (or worst, depending on your…
Why your pipeline doesn’t need any sales stages
This is a subject I’ve referred to before, but an excellent article by Don Mulhern has prompted me to promote a concept that deserves far…