The Time to Act is Now Despite progress, the path to gender parity in sales leadership remains slow. According to the World Economic Forum, at the current rate, full gender equality will take until 2158. That’s another five generations! The theme for International Women’s Day 2025, Accelerate Action, calls for urgent, strategic, and sustained efforts… Read more »
As the year draws to a close, organizations turn their focus towards planning of next year’s strategies, budgets and skills requirements. For sales-focused businesses, this often means reviewing sales approaches and training programs. Effective sales training is vital for hitting targets, driving revenue growth, and staying competitive in today’s dynamic market. Yet not all sales… Read more »
We are thrilled to introduce a special guest blog from one of our esteemed former clients, Jen Lloyd Jenkins, who has had first-hand experience of leveraging our expertise on several occasions to enhance sales team performance. In this insightful piece, Jen shares the transformative impact of incorporating sales coaching within a comprehensive sales development program…. Read more »
In today’s post-pandemic world, the sales landscape has evolved, blending the best of both in-person and virtual/remote interactions. While the rise of remote selling during the pandemic was necessary—90% of B2B salespeople interacted with their customers virtually (McKinsey, 2020)—we now see buyers and sellers increasingly opting for face-to-face meetings again. However, virtual selling isn’t going… Read more »
The In-Person versus Virtual Training Debate It’s fair to say that pre-COVID, the vast majority of Flame projects were delivered in-person. Throughout 2018 and 2019 around 90% of our client-facing activity comprised in-person sales training, coaching, and consultancy. Car mileage and airline exec. club points racked up as we travelled near and far to support… Read more »
In today’s dynamic and highly competitive marketplace, sales leaders don’t just face the challenge of ensuring targets are hit but also in driving innovation and inspiring their teams. As a sales leader, your success hinges on more than just numbers—it’s about influence, insight, and impact. This is where Thought Leadership can be a critical asset…. Read more »
It probably won’t surprise you to hear that sales training is far from a new phenomenon. In fact, formal sales development has been going on for well over 150 years. As far back as the 1870s, salesmen (sadly no saleswomen back then!) who sold subscription books door-to-door received a “Sales Talk” before embarking on their… Read more »
If you are too focused on following your own sales process, you could risk losing the sale… As a sales consultancy, we’re often asked to support our clients in overcoming the challenges they face when selling to their own customers. As part of our approach, we’ll ask our clients about their sales process – what… Read more »
Do you hate selling? Does the very idea of having to promote your goods or service make you turn cold? Whether you like it or not, selling is an essential part of any business, regardless of the product or service you offer. If you set up a business without banking on the need to sell,… Read more »
You’ve decided to invest in developing the skills of your sales people – but how do you find the right partner to deliver the right sales training program that works for your business, that achieves the right outcomes? Most Team Leaders are responsible for making dozens of decisions every single day. Research suggests that one… Read more »
We are delighted to announce that Flame Learning has received a Bronze award in the ‘Best Program for Sales Training & Performance’ category, at the recent HCM Excellence Awards. We are honored to receive this much coveted award from leading independent research and analyst firm Brandon Hall Group, and are thrilled to be recognized for this… Read more »
You’ve made the decision to invest in a new sales approach, secured the budget and selected your training provider. You’re all set! You can now sit back and watch the sales come in, right? Wrong! Without a robust engagement strategy, it could all be over before it’s even begun! The case for investing in the… Read more »
In our last blog we introduced you to the first three tools of influence. Based on over 35 years’ worth of evidence based research, and culminating in @Robert Cialdini’s work on the six universal principles of persuasion, our experience tells us that application of these principles is likely to elevate those working in business development… Read more »
In our previous blog we highlighted the differences between true salespeople and order takers, the latter being almost exclusively led by existing customer demand for their offerings, the former using their skills of influence to create or further build that demand. We proposed that it’s becoming increasingly tough to thrive in a pure order taking… Read more »
Over the years that we’ve had the privilege of working with sales teams across the world, it’s often struck me that many of the ‘salespeople’ we’ve worked with aren’t actually selling at all. Though their role titles may tell us differently, a significant chunk of this group could more accurately be described as ‘order takers’…. Read more »
Every so often when I’m facilitating sales training workshops, I’ll play a little game. I’ll ask myself the question:‘If I was a customer of this group of people, which of them would I most likely buy from?’ A couple of weeks ago, whilst delivering a two-day programme for a new client, I asked myself exactly… Read more »
Over the past fifty years, much thought and effort has gone into analysing and improving sales performance. Of the thousands of books, academic courses and training workshops translated into multiple languages, no page has gone unturned. Organisations across the world embrace each new sales methodology like the latest diet craze. We listen in earnest to… Read more »