Growing the national GDP implies increasing the quantity of final products and services that are produced, purchased and sold in the country. There is no point in innovating in sectors that increase wages, generate wealth and compete on the national and international stage if we do not effectively work and prioritize the skills of those responsible for selling the services that leverage and unlock this innovation.
It is important to value retail and B2C markets, but I do not believe that they should be the barometer of the economy's health. Unfortunately, there are limits to the amount of lemons, shoes and hotel rooms we can sell. We urgently need to accelerate the type of wealth and economic and social impact that B2B generates, through the expertise and vast number of jobs that sectors such as manufacturing, industry, IT, logistics and professional services support.
There is no doubt that we produce world-class quality, but the need to understand and monitor business-to-business markets remains critical. These transactions tend to involve large volumes, high-value deals and complex agreements, resulting in significant revenue. Through them, we achieve:
• Achieve large-scale production and distribution;
• Simplify supply chains, reduce costs and improve operational efficiency;
• Drive innovation through collaborations and investments in new technologies and processes.
Our economic growth begins by supporting and developing skills at the spearheads of companies that bring innovation and new efficiencies, but that continue to struggle to survive and compete effectively in their respective markets.
This is because they work to do the minimum and not to make a profit, they do not generate enough business opportunities, they have sales cycles that are too long, too many proposals that do not convert into customers and they have difficulty differentiating themselves among potential buyers, which risks future sustainability of your business and the jobs they generate.
To accentuate this problem, unlike other professions regulated by standards of excellence, certification and recognition of skills, sales lack barriers to entry into the profession, and it is essential to raise the profile, ethics and skills of different stakeholders, be they trainers, leaders or commercial professionals.
The UK, for example, where 44% of the economy is B2B, employs around 1 million professionals, with an average of 30,000 entering the profession each year. A growing number of companies are investing in certifying their commercial leaders and teams, not only to validate and accelerate their commercial skills and maturity, but also to demonstrate their commercial ethics. These companies (large, small and startups) are reporting profits and exponential growth, even through the volatility of these last few years.
Being effective in how you develop and retain B2B commercial talent is critical to increasing overall competitiveness, and it is rewarding companies, private and public, that do so successfully.
Unfortunately, traditional sales training doesn't work. We are not seeing effective tracking and adaptation by sales leaders and teams to modern buyer behavior and the rapidly evolving digital landscape. This is, for me, one of the biggest factors of concern that limits the acceleration of companies' results, regardless of how much they invest in their digital transformation.
After six years of impactful collaborations with leaders and executives of companies in Portugal, from large businesses to the most pioneering ones, we created the 'Líder Valuepreneur' program to be a reference in the way we integrate an excellent faculty, a Leadership Retreat with immersive experiences and transformative program content.
We embrace new technologies and modern learning journeys, with certification and international recognition by the Institute of Sales Professionals, becoming the first and only of its kind in Portugal.
We integrate hard skills, soft skills, social selling, thought leadership, storytelling, pitching and the application of AI in prospecting, to bring together the fundamental elements that need to be developed in the profile of the Leader and Commercial Manager of excellence, thus responding to the needs to achieve billing objectives in a scalable, consistent and structured way. Discover more about Lead-Results and the “The Valuepreneur Leader” Program at www.Lead-Results.com.
Opinion by Helga Saraiva-Setwart, founder and CEO of the consultancy Lead-Results, new member of AIP. Currently, Helga is a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Sales Professionals in the United Kingdom, an entity for which she is certified as a ‘Founding Fellow’ and an “Ethical Seller”. She is Academic Director at Nova SBE Executive Education, where she teaches in the areas of B2B Sales and Prospecting with Impact; She is also Executive Director at Capacitare, where she supports social impact projects, and is a Mentor at Casa do Impacto, Canopy Community and BlueBio Value Acceleration.
