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Bob Apollo

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CEO and Founder, Inflexion-Point

440 points

We work with the executive teams of high-potential B2B-focused organisations to help them systematically diagnose and deal with the issues that are constraining their sales and marketing performance.

May 16, 2012

Bob Apollo asked a question

What are the most important sales pipeline metrics?

Nov. 30, 2011

Bob Apollo is now following Kerri Groves and 9 other people

Nov. 25, 2011

Bob Apollo asked a question

Why do CRM vendors insist on associating unproven (and untested) probabilities with sales stages?

Nov. 20, 2011

Bob Apollo and 14 other people answered this question

What is the best way to shift a buyer from a price-based decision to a value-based decision?

It depends on the situation. It's the "do nothing" option that seems to be increasingly significant in today's climate. more

Value Based Pricing

Oct. 26, 2011

Dave Brock selected a best answer for

A key funnel/pipeline metric many speak of is velocity. How do you actually measure velocity?

How do we measure velocity in the funnel?

April 7, 2011

Bob Apollo and 4 other people answered this question

Has anyone attended past Sirius Decisions Summits? I'm planning to attend this year. Is it worth it?

It's on the 5th October - haven't booked yet but will probably attend.

Sales & Marketing 2.0

Sales & Marketing Alignment

March 17, 2011

Bob Apollo recommends this answer by S. Anthony Iannarino

What would you do if you had only five minutes to sell to someone?

If I only had five minutes, I would two do things.
First, I would ask the most penetrating and powerful question that I could imagine. Value creation isn't usually the result of having the best answer; it is usually the result of asking the best ... more

March 14, 2011

Bob Apollo and 23 other people answered this question

Do you look at who has viewed your profile on Linkedin?

I look at this on a daily basis. I've upgraded to a Premium Account, so even if the visitor doesn't want to be personally identified I can narrow it down to a dozen people. It's usually pretty easy to identify the most likely individual.
I usually ... more

Feb. 24, 2011

Bob Apollo and 8 other people answered this question

How do we innovate in the sales function? What is your top "innovative" idea in sales?

I like the idea (which I recently saw expressed by Scott Santucci of Forrester, although he's not the only one going down this track) of focusing on outcomes. John alludes to the importance of outcomes in his answer. Once you take this perspective on board, ... more

Customer Engagement

Feb. 15, 2011

Bob Apollo and 6 other people answered this question

Inside Sales Best Practices: What are your 3 tips for aligning inside sales with field sales?

Note: these recommendations apply to complex, high-value B2B sales environments where inside and field sales have a shared responsibility to find, develop/nurture and close sales opportunities.
1: Align inside and field sales around a common shared definition of your ideal customer profile. Go beyond demographics to ... more

Feb. 12, 2011

Don Perkins selected a best answer for

Sales: What's the best way of getting into good conversations with the right people?

Revenue Pipeline

Jan. 31, 2011

Bob Apollo and 36 other people answered this question

Do you add everyone that wants to connect on LinkedIn?

I never accept an invitation from someone I can never remember meeting and/or who is so lazy that they can't even bother to craft a personalised invitation. Just say no to the boiler plate "I add like to add you to my network..." requests.
And ... more

Social Netowrking

Jan. 31, 2011

Bob Apollo and 8 other people answered this question

Other than revenue, what metrics would you recommend to measure sales?

Great answers already. I'll do my best not to duplicate.
1: Flip your CRM stages to point not at sales activity, but at observable evidence of a buyer moving forwards, and measure progress based on this. But you can't cheat. No tangible evidence, no progress.
2: Number ... more

Sales Alignment

Jan. 25, 2011

Bob Apollo and 3 other people answered this question

Any suggestions on how to deal with client who has a loyalty to your competition?

They are probably loyal for a good reason. Can you give them an even better reason to break that loyalty, with all the inherent risks associated in changing suppliers?
A good place to start would be to understand the sources of that loyalty. How did the ... more

Client Acquisition

Customer Loyalty

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