Marketing Nous

B2B Sales Training & Performance Improvement

Sales Training Brisbane Sydney Melbourne
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Sales Training & Professional Development

Marketing Nous was established in 2000 by Stuart Ayling, Director and Chief Sales Strategist. Stuart works  with expertise-based businesses to develop customised sales training and professional development programs for technical staff, professionals, business development teams and managers.

What is an ‘expertise-based’ business?

A company that sells a service or a technical/complex product where the client is relying on the knowledge, experience and insights from the seller, is an expertise-based business. That is, the expertise provided by the seller is an essential component of the clients buying experience.

Marketing Nous clients are expertise-based businesses that sell:

  • Business-to-business services – in a wide variety of fields including design, environmental consulting, education, maintenance, security, software and SaaS.
  • Technical, industrial or complex products – in the business-to-business sector including instrumentation, medical products, custom designed textiles, printing, construction products and process equipment.
  • Professional services – such as management consulting, accounting, law, engineering, insurance, finance and superannuation funds.

Stuart has helped thousands of people across Australia, South-East Asia and the Middle East to increase their sales, enhance client relationships, and improve their personal effectiveness using proprietary methodologies based on practical experience and current findings of the psychology of learning.

Understanding the key drivers of sales growth

After more than 15 years in business working with leading companies in their field, Stuart Ayling understands the key drivers of sales opportunities for expertise-based businesses. He understands the concerns and priorities of professionals and technical staff who find themselves in a business development role, but don’t want to be a sales person.

That’s why the training programs offered by Marketing Nous are based on scientific principles, current wisdom, and proven techniques to instil confidence and encourage your team to reach for more.

This focus on services and complex products enables unique insights into how to assist professional and technical staff to move beyond reactive ‘customer service’ to become proactive sales producers, without compromising their role as a trusted advisor or expert resource for clients.

Performance improvement for services and complex sales

Those who sell services or complex products face special challenges. Clients may require education to make an informed decision. Sales cycles may be lengthy. Quite often multiple decision-makers are involved. There is a true need for sellers to understand the client’s situation and requirements before offering a suitable solution. And presenting the recommended solution is an integral part of the overall process of influence, not simply a ‘show and tell’ exercise. The goal of all Marketing Nous training programs is to give you and your team the structure, skills and confidence to effectively manage the diversity of business development challenges.

A partnership for success

Unlike many off-the-shelf training providers you will find that working with Stuart Ayling is like a partnership; blending your company-specific knowledge and processes with his tools, techniques and insights to create a unique experience for your team. The starting point for every potential engagement is to discuss your priorities, desired outcomes, time frame, team members and overall expectations.

Once engaged, it is usual for the first step to involve your management team and selected participants in personal interviews, and for items arising from those interviews to be discussed in advance of the training. It’s never a good idea to have ‘elephants in the room’ (i.e. unspoken issues) that may impede the progress of your team.

Stuart Ayling, Chief Sales Strategist

Heading up Marketing Nous is Stuart Ayling (BBus Marketing, GCM Int. Business). Stuart is a respected business-to-business sales and marketing professional, trainer and consultant. During 20+ years of experience he has:

  • Held field sales roles winning sales in the millions of dollars.
  • Held multiple Marketing Manager positions leading teams of marketing specialists.
  • Been a Sales Manager within the industrial products sector.
  • Managed a distribution centre including staffing, financial reporting and revenue responsibilities.
  • Recruited and managed franchisees and conducted business performance reviews in a multinational franchise group.
  • Been invited to teach marketing and personal selling for a number of semesters at the prestigious University of Queensland Business School.
  • Run his own national training and consulting business including keynote presentations to leading industry groups across Australia, South East Asia and the Middle East.

B2B sales trainer speakerStuart Ayling holds a Bachelors degree in marketing and a post graduate qualification in International Business, has delivered keynote presentations at many peak industry events, and has authored over 100 articles and ebook’s on marketing and selling.

His ebook The Sales Training Illusion has been featured as the cover story in the prestigious Sales and Marketing Management magazine (USA) in 2014. Download the cover story here.

Serving nationally and beyond

Marketing Nous has worked with clients in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and further afield to the Middle East, including the Australian divisions of multi-national companies. A typical client will have a national team of business development staff, consultants, managers, advisors, technical specialists or service technicians that carry a dual role of doing (their area of expertise) as well as selling (generating new business). Training programs and delivery modes can also cater for smaller or state-based businesses. If you believe your team needs to enhance their skills it’s best to contact Stuart to discuss your situation.

About the ‘Nous’ in Marketing Nous

Unlike the French pronoun ‘nous’ (meaning ‘we’ or ‘us’), in colloquial English the word nous (pronounced like ‘house’) means practical intelligence, street savvy, or common sense. In fact the word nous has its origins in ancient Greek, then meaning ‘of the mind’.

During the 18th Century in England ‘nous’ was adapted into its current use and made its way into the Australian vernacular.

Expanded services available through Vectis Advisors

In 2019, as a result of working with many management teams and seeing the challenges faced by growth-focused companies when it comes to implementing business improvement activities Stuart founded Vectis Advisors.

Using a unique approach based on real-world experience Stuart provides a comprehensive model to not only help businesses plan for effective growth, but also works closely with business leaders and teams to help them understand and implement critical improvement initiatives.

Services available through Vectis includes all the training programs offered on this website as well as business analysis, planning and implementation. Find out more at the Vectis Advisors website.

Subscribe to the blog for the latest resources, and get a copy of ‘7 Steps to Create a High Performance Sales Team’

Recommended for Sales Leaders

Watch the presentation full size and download the key point worksheet

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As featured in Sales & Marketing Management magazine cover story

download sales training guide

Overview of client feedback

Sales figures have increased by 20% on last year to date!! The team also continue to pick up new customers.
Sharyn Moran, General Manager

Our sales results have increased since incorporating Stuart’s sessions into our sales conference and this has been during a downturn in the market.
Justin Zakaras, National Sales and Marketing Manager

The content of the sessions was customised to suit our customer interactions, with a lot of preparation on the part of Stuart.
Dr. Sunil Kadri, Head of Sales and Business Development


Read complete testimonials ...

Thank you so much for a brilliant session on Thursday. I think the format and content was ideal.
Rennie Colston, Sales Director

We had a very positive result from involving Stuart in our Managers Conference last year.
Russell Varley, Human Resources

The training got us thinking more strategically about how the business is structured. It has really built our capabilities as a management team.
Mia Graham, General Manager


Read complete testimonials ...

Stuart was patient, flexible and knowledgeable. He took the time to truly understand our business.
Helen Zwicker, Executive Officer

The best thing is that I now have a road map of specific marketing activities that can be implemented with confidence.
Donna Cazzolato, General Manager Sales and Marketing

The participants immediately felt engaged as Stuart demonstrated his understanding of our needs and challenges.
Frederic Vanhove, Principal Engineer, Pacific Delivery


Read complete testimonials ...

With only one day we had a lot of material to cover and Stuart created a positive learning environment for all involved.
Kylie Kinsella, Sales Manager Australia & NZ

Bad ideas are expensive in business however with Stuart Ayling, it was money very well spent.
John B. Lonergan, Sales Manager


Read complete testimonials ...

By the next week, sales of this product had doubled from 10% of all new sales to 20%. The extremely cost effective session with Stuart paid for itself within the first week.
Maria Triggs, General Manager

We have already seen a new client on board as a result of the two-day workshop.
Mark Mahoney, Managing Director


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Stuart put the sales training across in a way they could accept as a part of our service offering with out them feeling like “salesmen”.
Gary McDonald, Managing Director

We were impressed by the approach of Stuart and the simplicity of the program without the hype generally associated with these courses.
Dirk Kuiper, General Manager


Read complete testimonials ...

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Read the latest on the blog

  • How to say ‘No’ to clients and still have them buy May 18, 2020
  • Recruiting a sales person? Stop, until you have done these three things Nov 28, 2019
  • Understanding the emotional experience of clients Aug 1, 2019
  • What does your sales team really need to learn? Apr 29, 2019
  • Resilience for sales people: How to help your sales team be more resilient Nov 21, 2018

About Marketing Nous

Marketing Nous was established in 2000 by Stuart Ayling, Director and Chief Sales Strategist. Stuart works  with expertise-based businesses to develop customised sales training and … Read More >>

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Marketing Nous Pty Ltd
PO Box 5320
Daisy Hill QLD 4127 Australia

Tel: 0407 588 468

Email: info [at] marketingnous.com.au
or request further information

Connect with Stuart Ayling on these social media channels …

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