Productivity Centre

I was speaking at a conference in Florida last month, and a business owner asked: "Frank, video seems like such a big investment. We're doing fine with just written content. Why should we bother?"

I asked him: "How many of your competitors are using video?" He paused. "Most of them, actually." Exactly.

Here's what I've learned training businesses across 70+ countries:

Video isn't the future anymore. It's the present. And if you're still treating it like an optional extra, you're handing your competitors a megaphone while you're whispering into a tin can.

The numbers tell the story: 91% of businesses now use video as a marketing tool, and 85% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video.

That's not theory. That's your revenue walking out the door if you're not in the game.

The £10,000 Mistake Nobody Talks About

Here's where I need to save you from an expensive blunder I see constantly.

You spend money creating a brilliant video. You upload it ...

I had a conversation last month in Amsterdam with a sales director who'd been in the industry for 20 years.

"Frank," he said, looking genuinely bewildered, "I used to know exactly how to close a deal. Now I don't even know when the bloody deal starts."

I laughed. Then I realised he wasn't joking.

Welcome to the new world of sales, where everything you learned in 2015 is about as useful as a Rolodex. (Yes, I'm old enough to remember those.)

Look, the fundamentals haven't changed—people still buy from people they trust, relationships still matter, value still wins. I've been training sales teams across 70+ countries for a quarter-century, and those truths are eternal.

But how those fundamentals play out? That's shifting faster than a politician's promises.

The sales professionals absolutely crushing it right now aren't the ones with the slickest pitch decks or the biggest LinkedIn networks. They're the ones who've adapted to how buyers actually behave in 2026—not how sellers wish t...

Here's something that might surprise you: The financial advisors thriving in 2035 won't be the ones with the fanciest degrees or the biggest client lists today. They'll be the ones who figured out how to dance with AI rather than run from it.

I've been watching this transformation unfold from conference stages in Florida to training rooms in Manchester, and the writing's on the wall.

Financial advisors who embrace AI aren't just getting a competitive edge—they're redefining what "advisory" actually means.

Let me explain why the smart money (literally) is on AI-enabled advisors.

1) The Time Liberation Revolution

Traditional financial advisors spend roughly 70% of their time on administrative tasks. Portfolio rebalancing, compliance documentation, client onboarding, market research—all the stuff that keeps you busy but doesn't make clients' lives better.

AI flips this equation.

I met a financial advisor in Dubai last year who told me his AI tools saved him 15 hours a week. That'...

(And Why Most of You Are Doing It Spectacularly Wrong)

I was in Singapore last month when a sales manager named David said something brutally honest: "Frank, I spend my entire day firefighting, attending pipeline reviews, and updating forecasts for my boss. When exactly am I supposed to manage my team?"

The room went silent. Then everyone started nodding.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: Most sales managers aren't managing.

They're glorified administrators with fancier titles and higher blood pressure.

The numbers prove it.

Only 28% of sales reps hit their annual quota — the lowest in six years.

Meanwhile, 70% of B2B reps missed quota in 2024. That's not a rep problem. That's a management problem.

The £100,000 Mistake: Managing Activities Instead of Coaching Outcomes

Here's the biggest mistake: Managers track calls made, meetings booked, emails sent.

All measurable.

All documented.

All utterly meaningless if your reps don't know how to actually sell.

Two-thirds of salespe...

(And How to Fix It Before Your Best People Leave)

I was sitting in a hotel conference room in Brussels watching a sales trainer deliver what he clearly thought was brilliant content.

PowerPoint slides from what looked like 2012.

Generic techniques that could apply to selling anything from software to sandwiches.

Role-plays that made everyone squirm.

The sales team sat there politely, checking their phones under the table, probably wondering if the coffee break would ever arrive.

At the break, one of the sales managers pulled me aside. "We paid £10,000 for this," he said quietly. "Three months from now, nobody will remember a single thing."

He was absolutely right. And he's not remotely alone.

Here's a statistic that should terrify every business owner: 84% of sales training content is forgotten within three months.

Even worse, approximately 70% of salespeople lack formal training entirely.

So businesses either don't train their people at all, or they waste money on training...