#220 – Join us at Global Sales Transformation XXI: The Inspiration Advantage!

Full episode transcript: 

​Please note that transcription is done by AI and may contain errors.

 

 

 

Will: Hey Phil.

Phil: Hi, will. Nice to see you again.

Will: Nice to see you as well. Yeah. So it's that, um, time of the year when we start talking about our global sales transformation event?

Phil: Yeah, it certainly is. I mean, we, we obviously postponed it from the regular slot that it had in the October November timeframe as the inconveniently, the stock exchange is decided, decided to have a, a major refurbishment.

And so, yeah, part of the reason for, um, shifting it into next year is, um, is that, yeah,

Will: so I think that's the first, first bit of news, which

is we, we are not having, we typically have the global stock, um, global sales transformation event around December.

Phil: Yeah.

Will: And it's usually a time where, I know for us at Consalia, it kind of, you know, once the event's done, we segue into Christmas and the New Year, and it's a time for reflection on all the things that we've doing and celebrate the achievements of some of our, of our students as well.

But, um, yeah, as you say, this is the first year since I've been at Consalia where we're actually planning it for, for the new year.

Phil: Yeah, exactly. So

Will: we can thank the London Stock Exchange, but I'm assuming one day we'll be back there, Phil, what do you think?

Phil: I think so. I mean, it's, it's really our, our sort of, in a way, it's a kind of a spiritual home for us, isn't it?

Because we've been going there for 20 years or so, if not more. Yeah. And, uh, we're now in on our 21st GST, which is incredible.

Will: It is incredible.

Phil: But in a way, you know, sort of having a new location, you know, it's a, it's a, it, it, it, you can have a sort of fresh look at what you've done before, you know, and, uh, uh, and so I think that where we're going to is also exciting.

You know, it's, uh, the venue is is the king's place, uh, near, near, um, King's Cross, uh, in North London. It's, uh, it's a fabulous venue. It's a larger venue than the stock exchange. So this time round we will have more people. Yeah. Space for more people, which is great. Um, so yeah, it's very, it's very sort of, you know, tech orientated and yeah.

Anyway, I'm sure it's gonna be a fabulous, uh, place for us to, to host. Uh, this coming, this coming GST and it's on the 4th of February. Uh, so a date's been set, uh, and yeah, we're now gearing up to making sure that it's going to be like the other events we host, you know, just, you know, fantastic networking opportunity and learning opportunity and so on.

Will: yeah, it's gonna be really exciting to be in a new venue and I'm, I'm sure it's gonna enable us to, to do more, not at least to have more people attend in February.

So, yeah.

Phil: Correct.

Will: Yeah. Good. Excellent. So big updates, GST is on the 4th of February, so put it in your diary. It's at a new venue, um, in King's Cross at a place called Kings Place. But more details, uh, around that. I'm sure if you look at the details of the bottom of the podcast, we, we can share it there, but yeah, put it in your diary.

Um, so Phil, I just wanted to, to take you back to, you know, this is the 21st event that we're doing under the, under the name of Global Sales Transformation. And I, I, I just want to ask you, when you first did the event, and you, you know, why did you call it Glo, GST, I mean we refer to it as GST, but Global Sales Transformation.

Why is that important?

Phil: It's quite interesting because I think in a way, GST, uh, global sales transformation has become more relevant as the years have gone on. Um, but when we started, um, GST, we were wanting to transform the perception of sales, you know, in industry, you know, when we, when we first started our very first GST, um, and, and there was a very strong link between sales, education and transformation, you know, the transformative power of our education programmes was something that we wanted to hone in on.

And so it was very much, uh, around personal transformation, uh, in, in, in those days. And it was global because we were, uh, we actually did a virtual GST with America, and we also did a GST in Singapore, uh, in the early days. And so, um, it, it sort of became, you know, just became a, a particular brand. I think sales, of course, has been transforming.

Um, even in, in those days, there are huge shifts from mainly the, the processes that can support sales, meaning, um, you know, when I first got involved in, in the sales sector, if we're looking at, you know, the systems and the way data was held, I mean, it was people's black books and, you know, sales teams kept their contact details, you know, very close to their, uh, to themselves.

Um, and there was very little structured approach to the way data was collected. And so we were seeing with the emergence of, uh, the internet and also with the emergence of organisations like Salesforce, um, this, this rapid change in the way technology was, uh, particularly around CRM was kind of emerging. So there was always this sort of tech orientation.

You could, you could say. Um, but of course, you know, the, the tools and the, uh, capabilities of technology to enable sales teams now are light years from where they were 20 years ago. And arguably, um, the pace of change and the productivity gains you can get from using some of these a AI enabled tools now is, is incredible.

Yeah. So it's an exciting time, I think, to be in the sales sector at the moment in terms of harnessing the power of technology to improve the way you do things.

Will: Okay, so thank you for that. And, and, um, we quite often touch upon different themes or, or topics that kind of the umbrella term in which we position, uh, the global sales transformation events.

And well, in, in February's event, we're, we're calling it the Inspiration Advantage. Um, so why did, why did you touch on the inspiration advantage?

Phil: Yes, it, it was, it was interesting how we got to that, um, that particular sort of theme for this year. And, you know, we'd been talking about words like innovation because we're seeing a huge amount of innovation come through from some of the projects that our students are doing.

And of course, we're incredibly well networked as an organisation in the sales space. So we can see innovation happening with our clients outside of the, uh, programmes we may run. Um, and, um, and in fact, one of our students had had done a paper on return on innovation. I, I think that's where the innovation word started.

But when we sat down and we started to look at, at, um, at what the theme could be, it's so much of whether it's innovation or other angles, um, that we could explore at the conference. There's so much more, uh, that, that we then thought that the word inspiration would be a better word to use, uh, because it can encapsulate so many, you know, different themes of which return on innovation could be one.

Um, you know, for example, we've seen some extraordinary research going into how different, you know, directors have started to, to manage diversity, um, within their sort of organisations. writing really interesting, writing up really interesting research projects that are having an impact on an entire sector.

Now, that story in its own is incredibly inspiring because you're beginning to get an insight into, you know, how people who may find learning tricky or difficult and how they're managing that, um, to, to great, great impact and, and affecting many hundreds of people. So that, that's a great story that needs to be shared, I think, to the broader community.

Um, so the inspiration advantage, we're going to take this theme and apply it across, you know, different areas, not, not just through research that's conducted by our students, but also through speakers that, that we shall be inviting to take part in the event as well.

Will: Great, thank you. And yeah, uh, I imagine you need inspiration.

It is the driver behind innovation and um, certainly we, I feel like we, we are seeing the rate of innovation, really kind of accelerating. Um, certainly, you know, you mentioned AI earlier, but we can certainly see it in this AI era era just the rate of innovation that is coming through that.

Phil: Yeah, I think what we're seeing in the sales world is a kind of a double curve in the, in the way the technology's there and is, I think we're finding that quite a number of our clients are sort of behind the curve in the sense of not quite realising, um, the power that these technologies can have in the way they do things.

And yeah, it's incredibly inspiring to see how, um, and, you know, number of the people, you know, people who come through our programmes are now getting inspired in ways that they did not imagine before, um, using, you know, AI to help them do better quality research or put proposals together and things like that.

But, uh, let alone the power of predictive analytics and, and things like that, which AI can do as well. So yeah, I'm, yeah, it's, it's really amazing to see how, how technology and inspiration can go hand in hand.

Will: Great. And, um, yes, you've, so you, you've mentioned, uh, drawing a connection between, I guess AI technology, how that can be a sourceful inspiration.

Um, also how, um, diversity and diverse ways of thinking, uh, can also foster, um, inspiration. And I think on, on that note, I was, I was having a conversation just earlier this week about the importance of neurodiversity, um, yeah. Uh, and I think of many of these founders or sales leaders quite often have, um, characteristics that could be, um, or they might have a DD or a DHD.

Uh, I was having a conversation with someone about that, so actually it's such a great, um, there's there some, can be some fantastic qualities. Um, yeah. With people not at least the rate of innovation and the way they think and the way that they can execute on, on strategy as well. Yeah. Can be, um, a hundred

Phil: percent

Will: inspiring.

Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. So, um, are there any other changes, changes to the formats that you are envisaging for, for this year's or next year's? GST?

Phil: Yes, there are. And I think that's, uh, that's another thing that, um, we're quite keen to do because typically we've run GST over a a half a day, people coming for lunch and then, uh, and then, uh, sort of taking, taking part in speaker led events or, uh, speaker led, uh, lectures or keynotes, um, with some q and a and some panel sessions.

But on this occasion, we were very much wanting to make use of the time in the morning, uh, to conduct, um, some live research with, uh, with, with, uh, the senior leaders who will be coming in the afternoon. And we're, we're aware that some of, some of the people coming in the morning may not be able to stay in the afternoon, but, uh, hopefully that, that, that that will happen.

And so we're going to, uh, structure the morning session, um, with, uh, an exploration of the mindsets and values that leaders, uh, need to have in the current age in which we're now having to lead and manage sales teams. Um, we did something similar about 15 years ago. Yeah. When the markets were very different.

The challenges were very different. And on this occasion, we, we want to apply some of the action research living theories. So it'll be an academic approach to kind of the research, but working very collaborati collaboratively with, uh, with groups of people and, and using the process of coming together to start to shape maybe new ideas, new theories of management practice which perhaps have not been considered before.

And, uh, one of the, uh, one of the methodologies for this session will be leveraging one of the research techniques that, uh, I'm personally really, you know, I've, I've always loved it, which is appreciative inquiry, which in itself is a very energising and motivating way to start developing new ideas. And as the name implies, appreciative inquiry, it's taking the best of what we've got and how can we make it better?

And it's going through a process, you know, with the group, taking them through a structured approach to looking at some of these questions and out of which to design a modus operandi for the key leaders of the future. So it's going to be very interactive, very, very, um, yeah, uh, sort of debate orientated, working in small groups, coming together in larger groups to feedback, uh, to feedback.

The outputs from the, the different tables will be set up for this purpose. Um, so I, in the morning session, it would be very much a, it would be very much an immersive, everyone getting involved, everyone, everyone sort of taking part. And the benefit I think for leaders for coming through the morning session is a much deeper connection with some of the people that, you know, that will be coming to GST because of the way that they'll be working.

But actually to take part in hopefully some sort of bleeding edge action-based research, which of course will be recorded and tabulated and white papers written sort of following the event as well. So they could use it to maybe help shape their own approaches to sales leadership when they, when they return back to their, um, you know, to their teams.

And I, I think the timing of this event is also quite interesting because it's at the beginning of the financial year. Yep. So it's a chance to kind of set the tempo for how leaders might want to think about the way they, they, uh, sort of monitor, plan, and develop their sales teams to, to reach the performance levels of this year.

Um, so we're gonna be using technology to help us do this research as well is gonna be, um, it'd just be, be, be great. But I'm, I'm so looking forward to that morning session and giving everyone a chance to take part in, uh, in, in, in a significant piece of reflection about what's needed for the markets in which we operate today.

The afternoon would follow fairly similar, uh, process to what we've done before. We'll be having keynote speakers come in. Um, we'll be having a number of students reflecting on their research projects, which always people love hearing practitioners talking about what's worked or hasn't worked with them, very much research based.

And then we'll be having one or two surprise speakers that we haven't, uh, announced at this stage. But, um, yeah, it's gonna be a, a fun busy day and a great chance for people to, to maybe even bring some of their key managers along with them to the event as a, as a chance to, um, really get inspired about the year ahead and, and what could be achieved with the right mindset.

Will: And who, who's the event targeted at? Who's it for?

Phil: It's typically the similar audiences that we, you know, that we've had before, which would be senior sales leaders. Could be people in the whole rev ops space as well. Uh, it could be heads of sales enablement. Um, uh, it, it typically would appeal to those. It could, could be global account directors, you know, sort of managing, uh, big accounts.

It could be sales managers, managing, uh, teams of people. So it's very much geared towards the leadership kind of role. Uh, but of course in sales there are many, many different types of leader, you know, from key account directors through to, uh, sales directors and of course managing directors too. Anyone that's kind of involved in developing the strategy or looking for new insights in the way they, they want to lead their sales operation, it's, it's going to appeal to them.

Will: Great. And um, yeah, so how many, how many tickets are available?

Phil: Well, for the morning session, uh, we have a hundred, uh, tickets available because of the cabaret style of setting the room up and being able to accommodate people around the tables. Um, the afternoon session, uh, can, can accommodate, uh, 200.

Um, so that's significantly more than, than, than we've had on previous occasions. Um, but um, yeah, so that, those are the numbers.

Will: And, uh, when will tickets be available?

Phil: Well, the tickets are going to be available, um, at the time that this podcast is brought, broadcasted.

So they'll be available now, um, in the show notes to this. There'll be a link to where people can go to, um, you know, to register for tickets and so on.

Will: Super. So if you are a sales leader and you are available on the 4th of February and want to come and take part in a workshop in the morning, followed by some inspiring speakers in the afternoon, um, we would love to host you at King's Place.

Um, really looking forward to this, Phil. Yeah, I know. They're always amazing. Our events. Um, I know we have a, we now have quite a few people that return each year, so looking forward to seeing some friendly faces, um, and hopefully some new ones too.

Phil: Yeah, and you haven't mentioned the networking drinks afterwards, which is, uh, also a highlight for some.

Will: Absolutely, yes. Um, dunno which bar we'll be in, but

Phil: it's actually at the venue. They, they have a, they have a very cool area for us to go to. All, all con nicely contained within the same place.

Will: There we go. Great. Thank you Phil.

Phil: Thank you Will. Yep, that's been great. Yep.

Will: Bye

Phil: bye-Bye.

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