What do I need to do?
It has taken a large capital expenditure and a lot of time – ours and our advisors – to create this unique service for you.
When you pay for the service you will receive an access code. Up to five individuals can then complete the Questionnaire (taking around 20 minutes maximum each). You will be asked to give your job role and provide some company information. (We suggest a minimum of three to five individuals take the questionnaire. You can carry out the exercise with just one or two respondents – but the more who are involved, the higher the level of accuracy.)
See below…
Once you are in the Questionnaire itself, you will see that we have worked to overcome the biggest problem with most questionnaires – only a few choices! Often you say to yourself “Well, I am higher than a level 2, but I don’t think I have reached level 3 yet”. We have created a slider which generates an answer with one of 90 different values, to help you to give a much more accurate, nuanced response.
Who should fill in the questionnaire?
Your job title and working area give you a weighting.
The most accurate results for organisations have answers coming from –
- Sales and marketing professionals (one of each)
- Sales and marketing managers (one of each)
- Someone from the Board level – CFO, CRO CEO etc.
- Any combination of the above that works well for your organization
It’s best to have a broad mix of seniority, knowledge and perception around sales and marketing operations. You can have as few as one respondent, but the more the better for the accuracy of YOUR report.
What is the source(s) for the questions and report structure?
While it’s good to receive the report content, but it’s even better to know the sources for the questions, structure, and analysis.
In the interests of transparency here are just some of the sources –
- Jim Irving has 48 years’ experience in sales, sales leadership (Sales Manager, Sales Director, CRO, VP), marketing, marketing leadership (CMO, Marketing Director, Marketing Consultant), country and divisional leadership (MD, CEO, UK MD, corporate VP, international director).
- He has written three books on sales, sales leadership, and business leadership. They have won three world-wide awards. Look him up on Amazon or go to b2bsellingguidebook.com
- Jim is a long-standing Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM). I am a Founding Fellow of the Institute of Sales Professionals (FF.ISP). A past full member of the Institute of Directors (MIOD) and has an MBA from the Edinburgh Napier Postgraduate Business School.
- He has worked, watched, and learned in over 25 countries.
- His research (on top of the research for his books) for this project includes publicly available content from the CIM, the ISP, McKinsey and Company, other major consultancies. Including, dantyre.com, The Sales Experts, Thomson Data, Functionly, Hubspot, Brafton.com, Seismic, Entrepreneur Daily and many other commentators, consultants, and thought leaders. We absolutely acknowledge their contribution either in their own thoughts or in helping to confirm mine.
- Our wonderful advisors – all twenty of them. Each is a thought leader in their own right. Click here for summary details on every one of them. They are from eight countries, across three continents. They do, teach, lead, deliver, support and advise. BUT, most importantly, they are all ‘out there’ experiencing many organizations and their real-world challenges. I am so grateful to them all for their input, advice, corrections (!!) and support.
- Norman Manley. Norman is my partner in this venture. Originally from England, and a mathematician, he has lived in The Netherlands for over 48 years. He has led big business, helped many others, and taught in some of the best local universities. Having spent 20 years working at C level in sales and marketing he now works as an independent industry analyst in the IT industry, giving Keynote presentations, all over the world on improving business performance using data analytics software.He has created the maturity matrix, the back-end systems, the analytics, and contributed enormously to the look and feel of the whole endeavour.
So, we have a large body of experience on top of my own considerable experience and learning. We have academics, information from professional bodies, consultants and executives working inside organizations. Together we have crafted this process and created the content for the Questionnaire/report…