Willem J.​M.​I. Verbeke, Ph.D.

Verbeke studied philosophy at Ghent University in Belgium and earned his doctorate in Educational Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, where he also took courses in marketing and communication science. That broad education laid the foundation for his way of thinking: understanding human behaviour and commercial performance by crossing the boundaries between disciplines.

He spent thirty-four years at Erasmus University Rotterdam and from 1999 to 2020 held the first chair of Sales and Account Management in the Netherlands. He then remained associated with the university as professor emeritus for a further five years.

Within Erasmus University, Verbeke led the way as the first of its researchers to publish in the leading Journal of Marketing. He has given guest lectures at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley, among others.

His more than one hundred international publications have been cited over 14,700 times according to Google Scholar, with an h-index of 44. They include 15 articles in seven different Financial Times Top 50 journals.

His research has been honoured internationally several times. He received the Sheth Foundation Best Paper Award from the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science twice, the AMA Sales SIG Award for Excellence in Research, the Sales SIG Best Article Award and the ESE Visibility Award 2012.

He shared the AMA award with his co-authors, for the meta-analysis Drivers of Sales Performance: Have Salespeople Become Knowledge Brokers?

Verbeke is one of the pioneers in Europe who connected sales research with neuroscience, genetics and endocrinology. His current research covers adaptive selling, hormonal flexibility, attachment styles, epigenetics and the role of artificial intelligence, among other topics.

For him, research only becomes meaningful when professionals can do something with it. Behind his work, therefore, lies the same question every time:

Why do some professionals and organisations manage to adapt, perform, win and stay ahead time and again, while others lose their lead?

At the centre of Verbeke’s work is the sales professional as knowledge broker. A strong sales professional does not simply sell what they know. They hold searching conversations with customers, learn from every conversation and recognise patterns across customers and markets. In that way they build expertise that reaches beyond the knowledge of any single customer or specialist.

They connect that expertise with the knowledge and resources inside their own company and with external networks. That lets the company make the most of its knowledge, help customers see their challenges differently and develop innovative solutions together with them. Passion for the craft and a strong reputation in the market reinforce that process: they open doors to people, knowledge and new opportunities.

Not passing knowledge on, but gathering it, connecting it and turning it into new value.

Verbeke did not only study entrepreneurship and commercial success: he put his ideas into practice himself.

He founded the Institute for Sales and Account Management and helped sales grow into a fully fledged academic discipline. At Erasmus he was recognised as manager of the most profitable business unit of Erasmus Entrepreneurial.

Together with Maarten Colijn he founded Professional Capital. Under their leadership the company won a Gazelle Award five times. Verbeke is still associated with it as a senior consultant.

He has also coached thousands of commercial professionals and has run the SalesMBA in the Netherlands more than twenty-five times. For him, science and commercial practice are not separate worlds:

An idea only gains value when it leads to thinking differently, acting differently and performing better.

Verbeke has written several books on sales, influence, leadership and resilience, including Verkopen van kennis, De veerkrachtige professional, Doeltreffend beïnvloeden, Het veerkrachtige brein and Waarom robots geen plezier hebben in hun werk. They are published in Dutch.

All books

The same mentality runs through his life outside science and business. Verbeke has run nine marathons, and at the age of 58 he still finished one in under four hours. At Erasmus University he captained his sports team to victory in the Erasmus Vitaal competition.

In the end, science, entrepreneurship and sport all come down to the same principle for him. Winning takes ambition, discipline and performance. Continuing to win takes more: continuing to learn, reinventing yourself, recovering after setbacks and raising the bar again.

Winning is a result. Continuing to win is a way of thinking and acting.