About Us
Our Story
INTO THE WIND is a sales and leadership consultancy born of frustration from a 25 year sales career.
One thing has been consistent throughout that journey, and that is the desire of organisations to roll out the latest and greatest sales methodology – such as Challenger, MEDDPICC and Agile – without really considering the potentially conflicting needs of the business, the differing needs within the business, and without giving both the sellers and leaders of those sellers a framework to use in order to simplify and standardize their approach, to enable an excellent customer experience and efficient operating model within the business
More fundamentally, it is always assumed that both the sellers and leaders have either been trained in or remember and use the basics of selling before asking them to use more advanced techniques, and oftentimes both sellers and their leaders are given very little mental preparation for the task they face.
Using the battle scars picked up throughout this journey, leveraging the coaching, techniques and adapted methodologies developed in conjunction with high performing teams, and providing unique thought leadership, INTO THE WIND was created to support sales organisations when they seek to “sharpen the axe”.
The Experience to Support You
I have been trained during the past 25 years in many of the most cutting edge sales techniques available, having started my selling career graduating from the highly sought after IBM Sales School, before moving through a number of global technology giants as well as smaller local value added resellers.
The only things that were consistent through that time were change, the flick flacking between sales methodologies depending on what was “fashionable” at the time, and the lack of operational efficiency in joining together the sales methodologies, such as consultative selling or more recently Challenger selling, to the tools used to codify the sales process, such as SPIN or MEDDIC/MEDDPICC and the like.
Failing to provide a structured framework led to confusion, misaligned sales processes, and competing priorities from leadership within the business. There was no closed loop, no alignment within tools, and therefore adoption was less than ideal.
Worse, the business took the methodologies and implemented then in a way that suited them, oftentimes losing the benefit of the methodology completely, and rather than differentiating themselves became a “me too”.
Why INTO THE WIND?
When asked to describe my leadership style I use the analogy of being the skipper of a sailing boat. I know the direction I want to go in, but usually it is not possible to go directly from the origin to the destination, and even if it is you can only go as fast as the wind that is behind you.
With a good skipper, a well planned route, a well trained crew, and a well designed and maintained yacht, by sailing into the wind you can travel quicker than the wind, and even though you have to change direction, or “tack”, frequently to get from the origin to the destination, you still arrive quicker than you would have done with the wind at your back.
Given in sales we very rarely have the wind at our back it makes sense to have a plan to sail INTO THE WIND and to follow that plan. With the right leadership in place, a well trained salesforce, and well designed methodologies and aligned process in place, irrespective of the need to change direction you can out perform your competition.
We have taken the “formula for guaranteed success” and overlaid the principles of INTO THE WIND to create a new modus operandi:
ORIGIN : DESTINATION : CHART : DEPART : OBSERVE : TACK : REPEAT : SUCCEED
Gary Adamson
Founder