Key takeaways from the AEO Forums sales stream: Resilience, AI amplification and the discipline behind modern selling
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By Alexi Khajavi from Questex.
This year’s theme for the AEO Forum was “Beyond the Algorithm,” a recognition that technology, and particularly AI is having an immense impact on our sector, both rewarding and challenging.
The Sales stream delivered a clear and compelling message: modern sales is a profession — and the best sales professionals train for it.
Across mindset, career development, AI enablement, live role-play and performance acceleration, the programme built deliberately from inner resilience to outer execution. By the end of the day, attendees weren’t just inspired — they were equipped.
Resilience: Mastering the internal game
The stream opened with Chris Hatfield of Sales Psyche by tackling one of the most misunderstood capabilities in sales: resilience.
Rather than presenting resilience as toughness or relentless positivity, the session reframed it as structured adaptability. Sales professionals operate with visible scoreboards — targets, pipelines and forecasts that create constant performance pressure. In that environment, resilience becomes the operating system behind consistent results.
Chris shared five characteristics define resilient sellers:
• Interpreting setbacks as data, not failure
• Anchoring to purpose-driven goals
• Focusing on controllables
• Recognising emotional states as temporary
• Preventing emotional contamination across deals
A standout theme was self-talk. Just as sellers carefully script client conversations, they must consciously script internal dialogue. Replacing reactive statements with solution-focused questions shifts performance from emotional to intentional.
Our next session was titled Career journeys: Intentional growth in an evolving industry
The Sales career journey panel brought authenticity, perspective and transparency from three industry leaders; Allison Willis, CEO UK & Global Easyfairs, Rapahel Sofoluke, Founder & CEO UK Black Business Show and Duncan Reid, CEO and Co-Founder of Reset Connect.
Every panelist admitted they had all “fallen into” sales or events. None followed a straight-line trajectory to senior leadership. What differentiated them was ownership — stepping beyond job descriptions, launching new initiatives, collaborating cross-functionally and proactively seeking development.
A recurring insight was the importance of understanding the full commercial ecosystem. In media and events, sales does not exist in isolation. Strong alignment with marketing — particularly around demand generation and funnel quality — directly impacts conversion rates and pipeline velocity.
Relationships emerged as the consistent differentiator. Long-term trust, credibility and genuine curiosity about client objectives build resilience during difficult market cycles.
Next up was AI in sales: Human + machine advantage
The AI session led by Lucy Pitt and Andrew Whyatt-Sames of uptakeAI shifted the lens toward innovation.
Rather than presenting AI as disruption, the message was pragmatic: AI is an amplifier.
Used well, it enhances pre-call research and strategic questioning, proposal drafting and follow-up efficiency, role-play simulations and coaching feedback, and pipeline pattern recognition and forecasting insight.
AI reduces friction. It sharpens preparation. It increases speed. But it does not replace empathy, negotiation or emotional intelligence. Technology strengthens process; humans strengthen relationships.
This session embodies the theme of “Beyond the Algorithm” perfectly and left the audience with a framework of how to integrate AI into their roles.
After lunch, we shook things up by launching into The sales role play: Confidence comes from repetition.
Every sales professional dreads the role play, but with the help of Andrew Walmsley, Sales Director at Questex and Raoul Monks, CEO of Flume who sponsored the sales stream we delivered an informative and inspirational foundation for the attendees to learn, engage and observe what great looks like.
The live role-play workshop translated theory into practice through realistic scenarios including procurement delays, budget pushback and unclear decision-making authority.
Effective sellers asked layered discovery questions, clarified urgency and authority early, protected value before discussing price, reframed objections as collaboration, and maintained composure under pressure.
The exercise reinforced that sales confidence is earned through deliberate practice. Sales is not a personality trait. It is a trained capability.
Finally, we ended the day with Sales velocity: Turning discipline into acceleration led by Raoul Monks, CEO of Flume.
The closing Sales Velocity session addressed higher targets, longer buying cycles, increased scrutiny and tighter budgets.
Deals stall due to weak qualification, unclear next steps, emotional reactions to objections and poor pipeline hygiene.
Velocity increases when sellers improve qualification discipline, set defined next actions on every call, anchor conversations in measurable ROI, protect value rather than defaulting to discount, and maintain rigorous CRM and forecast accuracy.
Sales velocity is not about moving faster blindly — it is about removing friction intentionally. Speed comes from clarity. Clarity comes from structure. Structure comes from professional discipline.
In closing, by the close of the sales stream, a clear archetype had formed. Today’s high-performing sales professional is psychologically resilient, intentional about career growth, cross-functionally collaborative, AI-enabled, structured in process, calm under pressure and relentlessly value-focused.
The Sales Track reframed sales as a craft worthy of pride — one that demands training, reflection and continuous improvement. Growth is not accidental. It is engineered.
