Sustainability in sales does not start with the e-car. It starts in the mind.
Sustainability in sales is more than just driving an electric car and saving paper. That's just the surface. True sustainability in sales is a complete revolution in thinking. A farewell to the short-term deal at any price. For almost 30 years, we have observed how salespeople burn contacts and resources just to achieve quarterly targets. They chase [...]
How successful entrepreneurs get their sales force hungry and fit. And keep them hungry and fit. 👇
It's a truism, but it's more real than ever before: a lush salesperson is a bad salesperson. Period. We have seen teams that have fallen asleep after their first big success. Who rested on their laurels. They thought they had made it. The awakening then came all the more violently. Within 6 months, they were back [...]
APEX4ward is officially scheduled for the Microsoft AppSource.
This will be more than just a technical approval. It's a seal of quality. Microsoft checks every partner according to strict criteria: ✅ Security standards according to ISO 27001 ✅ Technical compatibility with Microsoft infrastructure ✅ Proven customer benefit through beta testing ✅ Long-term support capability of the provider Only 23% of all submitted solutions pass this check on the first attempt. APEX4ward has so far [...]
„More leads!“ - The battle cry of those who don't understand their real problem.
Every week I hear the same phrase somewhere: „If marketing delivered more leads, we'd sell more!“ Wait a minute. According to a study by MarketingSherpa, only 27% of all marketing leads are contacted by sales.* Of those 27%, only 19% are systematically followed up. Let's do the math: ➡️ 1,000 leads from marketing ➡️ 270 are contacted ➡️ 51 [...]
Your sales team "appreciates" you. Every damn day!
"The pipeline looks good, boss!" "Next month will be strong!" "Everything under control!" And then what? Targets missed again. According to CSO Insights, only 58% of sales teams achieve their quarterly targets.* The problem: without clean data, any forecast is just guesswork. A study by Salesforce shows the brutal reality:* ➡️ 70% of CRM data is incomplete or outdated [...]
"A CRM project takes at least 6 months." - A myth that paralyzes companies.
According to a study by Capterra, CRM implementations take an average of 4-8 months*, but why? 80% of the time is spent on features that will never be used. Last month, I spoke to a CEO (32 employees, €5.1m turnover) who had been proposed a 7-month project for €85,000 by an IT service provider. My question: "What 5 things must [...]?
Micromanagement via activity tracking in sales? You're driving your company into the wall.
"How many calls did you make today?" "Why were you only active in CRM for 6 hours?" "Show me your visit reports from last week!" STOP. Now. A study by Gartner shows: Excessive micromanagement reduces sales performance by an average of 23%.* Why? Because you're measuring the wrong thing. Activity ≠ Result. A salesperson with 50 calls and zero closes [...]
AI will destroy a total of 50% of all sales jobs by 2030. And that's a good thing.
Before you jump angrily into the comments, read on. 👇 According to McKinsey, 40-50% of current sales activities can be automated* The jobs that will disappear are the ones that nobody likes to do: ❌ Endless data maintenance in CRM ❌ Manual lead research in outdated databases ❌ Repetitive, boilerplate follow-up emails ❌ Hours of Excel updates That's not sales. [...]
The most expensive sentence in SMEs: "We can also do that with Excel"
This week we had a conversation with a managing director. 18 employees, € 2.8 million turnover. His "CRM": an Excel spreadsheet. With 12 different versions. On 8 different computers. The consequences according to his own analysis: 💸 14% time lost due to leads being processed twice 💸 An average of 45 minutes per day for manual data maintenance per employee 💸 3 out of 10 follow-ups [...]
The fact is that most sales training is a waste of money.
Yes, you read that right. 🔥 A study by the Sales Management Association shows: 87% of newly learned sales techniques are forgotten after 30 days.* Why is that? Well, because the basics are missing. While companies spend thousands on "sales techniques" and "objection handling", they ignore the real problem: their sales processes are not systematized. It's like formula [...]
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