Neil Rackham promotes sales education
Posted on 19. Jul, 2010 by admin in Sales Management
International sales expert Neil Rackham, visiting Professor at Portsmouth Business School, endorsed the value of sales management education at a seminar for over 60 sales managers.
He said academic prejudice about sales needed to be dispelled because the strategic frameworks in selling are very important.
“Sales is a sophisticated profession and sales leaders need better access to the best thinking on current issues. It’s all about selling smarter, rather than selling harder,” he said.
Neil Rackham is renowned internationally for his sales expertise and has worked closely with many leading sales forces such as IBM, Xerox and Citicorp. He also founded Huthwaite International, providers of sales training, negotiation skills training and consultancy worldwide.
Professor Rackham conducted the largest-ever study of professional selling – observing more than 35,000 sales calls in over 20 countries, at a cost of $40 million in today’s dollars. He is known throughout the world as a speaker, writer and authority on sales and marketing issues.
Portsmouth Business School has pioneered sales education in Europe with its part-time Masters in Sales Management programme.
Professor Rackham said the whole nature of selling has changed enormously in the last five to 10 years and the change is rapid, accelerating and tough to keep up with.
“The average company has twice as many competitors today as five years ago. There is increased competition, more demanding clients and new technologies. As customers demand ever-greater value from their suppliers, creating that value in products becomes increasingly important and challenging for salesforces,” he said.
“There are lots of excuses for not investing in the development of salespeople, from entrenched views that selling harder is all that matters to fears about poaching of high performers. If companies take the ‘no training’ approach to its logical conclusion, you end up with high staff turnover, high risks of misrepresentation and loss of business that could have been won.
“In the depths of economic gloom, it is easy to forget that the UK has had some fascinating periods of trade-led growth throughout history. The British salesforce can lead us out of recession – as the saying goes ‘nothing happens until someone sells something’”.
Dean of the Business School, Ann Ridley, said: “Neil is a dynamic speaker who has the capacity to take complex issues and make them accessible. His tactical approach to selling is very interesting and the overall feedback on the seminar was excellent. The Business School is very privileged to have him as visiting Professor.”
Neil Rackham is the author of the best sellers SPIN Selling and Rethinking the Sales force.
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