Recently Vodafone’s DARRYN WELSH scored an unprecedented double by winning two major sales awards in a week: he was voted Sales Professional of the Year at the BESMAs and then Account Manager of the Year at the National Sales Awards. He talks to editor Nick de Cent about how he got there and his underlying approach to sales.

It was a good night for Vodafone at the British Excellence in Sales and Marketing Awards (BESMA) on 21 February. As the evening drew to a close, the Vodafone contingent must have been feeling well satisfied, with the company’s Small Business Channel entry triumphing in the Sales & Marketing Team of the Year (larger organisations) section, and beating their colleagues in the Enterprise Business Unit sales team to the prize. A little later, Stephen Booth picked up the mobile telecoms giant’s second award of the night when he won the Telesales Professional of the Year category.

Yet for Darryn Welsh, that evening must have seemed interminable as it led up to the 12th and final award – the big one – Sales Professional of the Year (for companies of over 50 employees). With 12 contenders short-listed, the category was described by host Gyles Brandreth as a ‘real test of skill, talent, professionalism and commitment’... and then Welsh won.

DAVID VALENTINE recently joined SHL, with a remit to double the company’s global sales capability as it expands into Europe and developing markets. He talks to Nick de Cent about building a company sales culture.

There are times during any career – particularly in sales – when work and other pressures can bring us down; and, in response, we all have our own way of bolstering our spirits. For SHL’s global sales director David Valentine, what works best is picturing the scene from 1992 cult comedy classic Wayne’s World in which Mike Myers and acolytes wig out in their ‘mirth mobile’ to the sound of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

What this reveals about Valentine’s character, I’m not sure; but the one-time executive assistant to IBM’s UK chief executive has definitely joined the company with the capability to tell us: Surrey-based SHL specialises in psychometric testing and personality profiling and has ambitious plans to expand into Europe, the United States and the exploding markets of India and China.

Author, salesperson and chief executive, PAUL SLOANE of Destination Innovation chats to Nick de Cent about creativity, leadership and being over quota.

Paul Sloane is passionate about introducing creativity into the business process and finding new ways for organisations to operate and approach markets, so much so that he styles himself as an ‘innovation evangelist’.

His latest book – The Innovative Leader – is full of intriguing sections like ‘Be an arsonist and a fire-fighter’, ‘Kill the losers’ and ‘Be disconnected’. Its stated aim is to help business leaders transform their teams into ‘innovation warriors’ and their organisation into a ‘powerhouse of invention and entrepreneurial achievement’.

Recently appointed managing director of John Mills Limited (JML), Ken Daly, 36, has important shoes to fill – those of company founder John Mills himself. He discusses motivation, mops and merchandising with editor Nick de Cent.

Daly, a first dan judo blackbelt, stepped up to the top job in May after following an increasingly popular route with those seeking to get on in business – consistent achievement in a sales management role. In 2000, he became sales director, four years later sales and marketing director and then, last year, deputy MD.

Market stall

JML is the company that sells all those useful items you never quite realised you needed until you saw them advertised – slimming body suits, ironing board covers, storage bags, snore relief spray, titanium hair straighteners – you know the kind of thing. It’s an electronic age equivalent of a novelty market stall and, this year, the business will comfortably exceed £50m in revenue.

One-time Apprentice, RUTH BADGER is currently strutting her stuff on Tuesday-night television. Here she talks to editor Nick de Cent about her passion for all things business.

Ruth Badger is pretty chuffed to be on the receiving end of a virtual sack of fan mail following the first airing of her new Tuesday-night series on Sky One. What’s more, the initial reviews of Badger or Bust have been good.

Fan mail

‘We’ve had 36 “pick of the days” for the first show and a hell of a lot of email traffic for what must be classed as fan mail I suppose,’ she enthuses. ‘It’s going very well and, to be fair, I haven’t read one bad review.’

Like many moving into sales, OLIVER WATSON – or Olly as he prefers to be called – joined the profession almost by chance. From his early days as an advertising salesperson he has moved up to become a regional managing director at top recruiters Michael Page International, with responsibility for the sales, marketing and retail divisions, as well as the Middle-East. Here he talks to editor Nick de Cent.

Today, Olly Watson is regional managing director of recruitment specialists Michael Page International, a consultancy which recruits across the management spectrum; its sales division tends to operate in the mid-to-upper echelons of the career path, at the £30-90k, account-manager-to-sales-director level.

His responsibilities stretch across the sales, marketing and retail divisions as well as the Middle-East region. With 280 people reporting to him, Watson’s current role is largely people management with a broad business-development brief.

However, back in 1991 with the UK facing the worst recession since the war, things were very different: it wasn’t an auspicious time for a young graduate from Bristol and Toulouse Universities to emerge, fresh back from France – broke, onto the jobs market looking to make his mark in the UK. Such was the prospect facing a 21-year-old Watson.

Some say salespeople are born to the job; others that you can learn to sell effectively. Whichever is true, three generations of Warrens have chosen selling as their profession. Editor Nick de Cent talks to Tony, Neil and Adam.

Tony Warren first started selling back in the 1940s, his son Neil in the 1970s and his grandson Adam this century. Between them they have almost 85 years of sales experience. (Tony also has three other sons who have all, from one time or another, been involved in selling at various levels.)

Tony is now semi-retired but remains the proprietor of his own business, after a lifetime selling for blue-chip industrial companies. Neil, who has focused on publishing and media sales throughout his career, is publisher of ModernSelling.com and owner of a database company. Son Adam has recently joined NTL Telewest as a business account manager – handling some 250 accounts – from Zen Internet, where he was a business sales executive.

The quality of Britain's sales management is absolutely vital to the country’s future says PROFESSOR NEIL RACKHAM. Nick de Cent talks to the original SPINmeister about the way forward for the sales profession.

Around 40% of salespeople in the United States are failing in their roles. Figures for the UK are probably comparable or worse.

That’s the considered opinion of Professor Neil Rackham, the international sales management consultant and now visiting professor at the business school which has set up Europe’s first masters degree in sales management.

A role as vice-president of sales for a major IT brand across the whole of Europe, Middle-East and Africa is challenging enough. But what if your corporation is only just emerging from Chapter 11 protection?

TIM BUTCHART of SGI talks to Nick de Cent about the challenges of a rapidly changing IT sector.

In an IT world in a state of flux – incessant change, increasing consolidation, rapid technological advances and fierce global competition – survival depends on matching the appropriate business model to innovative product and services, along with effective routes to market.

In business we're used to negotiating over price, specification or delivery times. But how does it compare with the heady world of international relations, where the currency is not mere money but lives? Here, in the first of a two-part interview discussing politics and business, LORD OWEN talks to Nick de Cent about the art of negotiation.

David Owen, one-time leader of the SDP, remembers negotiating in the late 1970s as a youthful Labour foreign secretary with the South African apartheid regime over Namibia. The negotiations were tough, not least because of the cast of characters present.