Accelerate CASE STUDY
Transforming Transactional Sales into Trusted Partnerships for Sustainable Revenue across EMEA
How a vision-led approach to strategic account management helped shape, strengthen and scale Gale Accelerate, turning transactional archive sales into durable, multi-year partnerships.
Gale Accelerate gave academic libraries a critical mass of research material aligned with their institutional vision and goals, while giving the business more predictable multi-year revenue in place of transactional archive sales.
The commercial model mattered, but what made it durable was how it was implemented, aligning every conversation with what the institution was trying to become, tailoring the offer to that, and treating the signed agreement as the beginning of the work rather than the end.
The Challenge: Revenue Rebuilt from Zero Every Year
Archive sales typically followed a boom-and-bust pattern. Every financial year began at the bottom of the mountain, with sales teams rebuilding revenue from a standing start.
The underlying causes were consistent across markets:
Archives were perceived as discretionary – valuable, but “nice to have”
Purchasing was transactional, highly dependent on budget and price-led rather than based on strategic priorities
Prioritising discount over value in making larger sales
Individual effort a greater determinant of success than a repeatable system
Early Accelerate growth was not always matched by durability or consistent implementation
Accelerate had demonstrated real commercial potential. But its long-term value depended on moving beyond price-led purchasing towards a more strategic customer proposition, stronger implementation and disciplined stewardship across the whole account lifecycle.
The Mandate
Tom had been instrumental in creating Accelerate as a promising purchasing model in collaboration with customers and colleagues. The mandate was to turn that potential into a more durable and repeatable commercial approach across EMEA.
After demonstrating the impact of the model with early-adopter customers, Tom was appointed Strategic Initiatives Manager for EMEA, tasked with strengthening the Accelerate proposition, improving programme durability, and embedding a more consistent approach to strategic account management across markets that differed considerably in maturity, language and buying culture.
THE APPROACH
Aligning with the Customer’s Vision
The central shift was in the perception of the customer. Instead of asking, what can we sell this customer?, the question changed to, what is this customer trying to achieve? And how can we help them achieve it?
Three types of vision were identified, discussed and aligned in relation to every account:
Sales teams’ vision of their revenue results
Sales teams’ vision of the customer’s outcomes
The customer’s vision for themselves
The first reflects what the salesperson wants to achieve; the second, what the salesperson believes would benefit the customer; the third, what the customer is actually trying to become.
The magic of vision is realised when our vision for our customer is aligned with their vision for themselves.
This vision alignment gave sales teams orientation, trajectory and aspiration. It shifted the focus of customer proposals towards their desired outcomes instead of our products.
Moving to the Customer’s Side of the Table
This meant understanding institutional priorities, mapping stakeholder problems, pains and desired gains, and connecting with end-users rather than simply trying to sell to the person responsible for placing the order. It also meant helping librarians demonstrate value within their own institutions and to their own leadership.
Trusted partnership was operational rather than rhetorical: faculty engagement, front-of-class product training, dissertation clinics, roadshows and other supporting activities for effective product implementation.
Building a Repeatable Customer Journey
Accelerate became more than a deal structure. It became a defined annual rhythm:
Pre-sales vision verification – bird’s-eye view of the customer’s aspirations
Stakeholder and faculty support – grassroots view of the customer’s needs
A clear proposition for why Accelerate, specific to the institution
Welcome materials, implementation meetings and plans
Training and adoption activity for effective implementation
Mid-cycle usage and customer experience reviews
Renewal planning, replacement and expansion
Embedding Account Stewardship
Closing the sale didn’t end the sales process; it began the account management stewardship process.
Visioning - defining the desired outcomes
Planting - building internal and end-user support for new product
Nurturing - maintaining engagement with, and adoption of, new product
Weeding - anticipating and resolving problems promptly
Harvesting - realising value and earning renewal
When the Sale Closes, We Don’t Step Out; We Step In.
Raising Capability Across EMEA and Beyond
The programme produced the best results where teams could properly implement it. That meant coaching, mentoring and training sales leaders and sales reps, sharing best practice across teams, and setting standards to build both competence and confidence.
It also meant aligning sales and marketing around common messaging, so that the materials customers received, such as webpages and other collateral, matched what the programme was designed to deliver.
Tom created a full suite of training materials, ran regular training sessions across EMEA and North America, and had regular coaching and mentoring calls with individual sales reps across EMEA.
“The essence of working with Tom is simple: he lifts people. He brings clarity, calm and a principle‑led approach that raises standards and strengthens collaboration. His influence helped teams grow in confidence and capability, improved how we engaged with customers, and shaped a more consistent, purposeful commercial approach.”
Mark Richardson
Sales Director, EMEAI, Gale, part of Cengage LearningBefore & After
BEFORE
Ad hoc archive purchases
“Nice-to-have” products
Revenue rebuilt from zero each year
Stepping out after signature
Conversations focused on product, price and budget
Variable regional practice
Sales reps perceived as salespeople
AFTER
Multi-year agreements
Critical research infrastructure
Significant repeatable multi-year revenue
Stepping in after signature with structured implementation and account stewardship
Conversations focused on institutional vision and end-user outcomes
A shared approach across EMEA
Sales reps perceived as trusted advisors
OUTCOMES
Sustainable Revenue
Accelerate shifted the regional model from transactional archive sales to a base of durable, multi-year partnerships, turning revenue that once had to be rebuilt every year into a significant foundation that carried forward and compounded.
It became the reference model that other markets drew on to make the same shift.
Trusted Customer Relationships
Early adopters helped shape the programme itself, with their feedback refining the proposition and operating model that would be used across EMEA.
Accelerate led to stronger customer accounts in terms of relationship, revenue and repeatability. One customer referred to products being regarded as “bread and butter instead of jam” as a result of the Accelerate programme, demonstrating a powerful shift in customer perceptions. Products were no longer “nice to have”, they were essential.
Healthier, Higher-Performing Sales Teams
The programme provided an optimal approach to strategic account management across EMEA, a clearer understanding of effective implementation, hand-in-glove collaboration between sales and marketing, and greater confidence in selling institutional value, which lifted performance across the region.
Tom also supported the rollout of the programme in North America, working across regions and functions so that go-to-market teams understood not only the mechanics but the strategic thinking behind them. The programme was subsequently rolled out in Asia.
Tom played a pivotal role in supporting my UKI team, helping to build a strong Accelerate pipeline, maximise opportunity value, and develop compelling customer narratives that drove adoption and success. His ability to create win-win outcomes and champion customer-centric initiatives consistently delivered sustainable results for both customers and the business.
It was a pleasure to work with Tom and learn from his strategic thinking, commercial acumen, and unwavering focus on customer success.
Oliver Howe
UK & Ireland Sales Manager at Gale, part of Cengage LearningWhat truly sets [Tom] apart is his ability to align our products and services with the customer’s vision and strategy, ensuring our solutions make a meaningful impact. In addition to his customer focus, he has played a critical role in supporting the sales team by developing and continuously enhancing tools that help them stay on track and concentrate on driving results strategically.
Edward Hung
Field Sales Executive at Gale, part of Cengage LearningTom English is a phenomenal colleague. I was one of the lucky people to be mentored by him during our business trips across South Africa, as well as while working with him across the Middle East territories. We worked closely on several projects… He supported us greatly in building partnerships, stewardship and strong rapport with our clients, as well as helping to expand Gale Accelerate across EMEA and supporting its wider development.
Marieta Autor
Field Sales Executive for Middle-East & Africa at Gale, part of Cengage LearningWHAT ACCELERATE DEMONSTRATES
Sustainable revenue did not come from chasing deals harder. It came from making agreements worth renewing.
It was supported by better account strategy, stronger implementation, closer internal collaboration and better sales practices.
Programme design alone was not enough. What determined its success was whether its stated intentions were matched by practices in the field.
This is why Stewardship Transformations exists: to help B2B sales leaders align their organisations around a clear vision to build sustainable revenue, trusted customer relationships and healthier, higher-performing sales teams.