The media often talk about marketing, whether it is about branding or CRM, but very few pay too much attention outside the marketing arena to the hard work of salespeople and how the two functions should work more and more together. So with an eye on encouraging people to think outside the box, Andrew Dugdale, the managing director of Intellectual Capital Development Limited (ICDL) and a member of the Marketing and Sales' Standards Setting Body (MSSSB), recently developed a strategic partnership with the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management (ISMM) to Inform and Educate salespeople.

After reading the press release 3 times, I still don't really get what all of these organizations are doing, and moreover, why the hell don't we have something like this going on in the US? Seriously, it looks as though they are working on an unprecedented sales training tool called "The Sales Accelerator" which, allegedly, "is flexible enough to accommodate the idiosyncrasies that users might need, whilst being structured enough to provide an audit trail through a robust sales' process for corporate governance purposes. Its ability to integrate with marketing and service functions is also attractive."

The idea is that this tool will assist salesforces by enabling them to take more responsibility and ownership of their daily tasks, while providing them with motivational tools and a link to the marketing communications' message. The audit trails, which are a key part of the Sales' Accelerator's capabilities, allow each individual and team to see how they and their companies can benefit. The key to success, he believes, is always going to be down to understanding the customers' pains: how you can cure them, and thus encourage loyalty and advocacy.

Alas, any myriad of consortiums that are working on the goals that these organizations have bears mentioning.

For more info, you can check in with any of the following acronyms

ICDL - Intellectual Capital Development Limited
ISMM - Institute of Sales and Marketing Management
MSSSB - Marketing and Sales' Standards Setting Body