As B2B buying behaviour evolves, how can sales organisations adapt?

This is the third of a series of articles in which Dr Simon Kelly, Dr Paul Johnston and Stacey Danheiser explore customer value and differentiation.

In this article, they offer an early view into their latest research around the roles and competencies required by salespeople to help their organisations differentiate from their competitors and stand-out in a “sea of sameness”. The research programme has centred around in-depth qualitative interviews with C-Level executives and sales and marketing leaders, asking them to consider competitive advantage, the roles of sales and marketing in creating differentiation, and the personal competencies required to help an organisation stand out.

Here they take a look at three competencies that came out of the first-cut analysis from the interviews as a preview to their upcoming book.