Institutions of higher education offer degrees in business and in disciplines like marketing, but you’ve probably never met anyone that majored in sales. And even if you did, it’s likely the skills they learned were outdated by the time they graduated.
In this episode of B2B Nation, our guest Paul Fifield estimates that half of the world’s companies are in the B2B space, and that the Go To Market teams in many of those organizations are essentially learning on the job. B2B sales and marketing, Paul explains, simply move too fast for traditional higher education to keep pace.
As co-founder and CEO of Sales Impact Academy, an online learning platform dedicated to training and developing Go To Market teams, Paul is on a mission to develop the skills necessary for Go To Market roles and rethink corporate training more broadly.
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Episode Guide
1:52: What are the essential skills formal education neglects, but Go To Market teams need?
4:40: “The greatest educational travesty of the last 50 years.”
5:17: Why has formal education failed to deliver sales skills?
8:36: Does B2B move too fast for formal education?
13:50: Why is it so hard for GTM teams to put themselves in the buyers’ shoes?
17:04: “Sales is about asking great questions.”
18:26: What is one thing you would change about B2B marketing and sales?
23:43: What’s next for the broader online learning and educational space?
28:39: What is Paul’s favorite tool?
