Timothy (Tim) Hughes

Timothy Hughes is the co-founder and CEO of DLA Ignite, a business transformation consultancy. With over 25 years of experience in sales, marketing, leadership, and management, he has held executive positions at several major companies, including Oracle, Fujitsu, Sysao, and e-Vector. 
 

Timothy is widely regarded as a bestselling author, having co-authored “Social Selling - Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers” and “Smarketing - How To Achieve Competitive Advantage through Blended Sales and Marketing”. These books, both published by Kogan Page, focus on the principles of social selling and blended sales strategies.

Timothy Hughes is a leading authority on social selling and digital selling. He was ranked Number 1 by Onalytica as the most influential social selling expert globally and was also listed as one of the top 8 LinkedIn sales experts to follow in 2021. Throughout his career, Hughes has been instrumental in transforming businesses and sales teams using digital tools and social media strategies.
 

At DLA Ignite, Timothy leads a team that helps companies leverage digital platforms across sales, marketing, human resources, and customer service to drive transformation and improve efficiency. He has helped several companies, particularly in the sales sector, adapt to the changing landscape of digital selling, where traditional methods like cold calling and email marketing are becoming less effective.
 

Timothy has taught social selling and digital media in the Executive Education program at Rutgers Business School and has created a new sales module for ThePowerMBA, an online business school. He has also contributed to global thought leadership on sales transformation and digital marketing and is frequently cited by platforms like Thinkers360 and Onalytica as a top sales influencer.

Timothy’ career in sales began in the early 1990s at McKeown Software where he was tasked with selling payroll and personal software. This early experience in the tech sales world laid the foundation for his career in Oracle Applications Sales and his future roles at companies like Fujitsu, Capgemini, and Patech Solutions. Hughes went on to build a highly successful sales career at Oracle, where he led large-scale sales transformations, including a $100 million uplift in sales."
 

Timothy co-founded DLA Ignite, where he began focusing on business transformation using social selling. He believes that traditional sales methods are outdated and that digital and social selling strategies can help businesses achieve higher levels of success with fewer resources. Under his leadership, DLA Ignite has become a trusted partner for businesses looking to navigate the evolving sales and marketing landscape.
 

Timothy is also involved with HighChloeCloud, a non-profit organisation that works to empower disadvantaged communities through the benefits of social media. He is an active member of the RevOps Co-op, a network of professionals working in Revenue Operations.
 

Timothy’s awards and recognitions include being listed on Onalytica’s Top 100 Social Selling Influencers and recognised as one of the top thought leaders by Thinkers360 in 2022. He has been consistently ranked as one of the top influencers in sales, digital marketing, and social selling. His commitment to digital transformation has made him a key figure in the industry, contributing to content creation, sales training, and business development initiatives globally.


Timothy is also a podcast producer for The Digital Download, the longest-running weekly business talk show on LinkedIn Live, where he discusses the future of business, sales, and digital transformation. He is deeply involved in training and mentoring the next generation of sales professionals and leaders in the digital age.

Timothy worked at STC (Standard Telephone Cables), which was part of ITT. He later moved to ICL (International Computers Ltd.), which became Fujitsu. Hughes also worked at Oracle, where he helped launch Oracle ERP Cloud, and served in various sales and marketing leadership roles.

He is a graduate of Coventry University, where he studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering and later went on to complete additional training and certifications in sales, marketing, and leadership. Hughes is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors (IoD) and holds a Level 4 Introductory Diploma in Management from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

Tim Hughes started working at the very early age of 14, but those years at Royal Oak Public House as a kitchen staff taught him some of the greatest lessons in life. Thereafter, he went to Fujitsu in Birmingham, UK, for his graduation.

On leaving the university, he joined STC (Standard Telephone Cables), which was a part of the US Tech conglomerate, ITT, as a commissioning Engineer. He later joined ICL (International Computers Ltd.) which was the only British Computer Company at that time, and now a part of Fujitsu. This gave Timothy a grounding for his career.

His first role in sales was at Arcast (now Midland Software), where he sold software. He was then associated with McKeown Software in Stevenage, UK to sell their new Payroll and Personal Software.

Thereafter, Timothy went on to work at large corporations like Oracle, Fujitsu, Sysao, e-Vector, DSP Global, Patech Solutions, and Capgemini from 1994 - 2006. Timothy then progressed to supply chain roles in almost every sector, including Life Sciences, while being at Oracle Corporation. 

He was responsible for a large-scale sales transformation within Oracle, the result of which delivered in excess of $100m in sales uplift.

He shares his wealth of knowledge in social selling and digital media with the students in the Executive education program at Rutgers Business School in the Greater New York City Area. The program is for salespeople and business leaders to understand social issues in today's digital world. He is also a global instructor and business case contributor at ThePowerMBA, creating a new module for the sales program. 

Tim Hughes is universally recognised as one of the world’s leading pioneers and exponents of Social Selling and he is currently ranked Number 1 as the most influential social selling person in the world. 
 

Timothy is a believer of merging the benefits of the social media changes, and the consequent changes in business it brings, to create social mobility for all. With this vision in mind, he is an active part of HighChloeCloud, a brainchild of Chloe Hacquard while studying her Masters at INSEEC Business School in Paris. 

It is with a similar vision that he co-founded DLA Ignite (Digital Leadership Associates) in 2016 to empower and transform the businesses leveraging the social and digital channels. 

Timothy has co-authored a few bestselling books “Social Selling - Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers” and “Smarketing - How To Achieve Competitive Advantage through Blended Sales and Marketing”, both published by Kogan Page.

Smarketing is the first book that explores the shift that will become the future state operating model for companies seeking to remain competitive and relevant in this fast-changing digital world. It explains how and why companies should blend sales and marketing into one single, streamlined smarketing department. Sales people will become better marketers, and marketers better sales people, leading to bigger, better business growth all round.

On Social Selling, authors Tim Hughes and Matt Reynolds provide a practical, step-by-step blueprint for harnessing these specific and proven techniques including how to use networks purposefully to build social trust and create a high-quality community; how to develop real influence and authority in your subject area and connect with change-makers and how to scale the social selling strategy across an organisation including maturity and investment models, risk and governance, and technology platforms.

Concepts that are increasingly important as the digital landscape continues to change buying habits at both B2B and B2C level. This has made it increasingly difficult to reach customers early enough in their decision-making process through traditional sales methods. Developing relationships with decision-makers through social networks has become an increasingly critical skill - enabling sales professionals to engage early on and 'hack' the buying process.

 

Timothy Hughes has received several notable recognitions throughout his career. He was ranked as the most influential social selling person in the world by Onalytica. In 2021, he was named one of LinkedIn’s top eight sales experts globally. Additionally, he was listed in the Top 50 Thought Leaders in Sales by Thinkers360 in 2022. Hughes was included in the Power List of the Top 200 Biggest Voices in Leadership in 2022 by leadersHum. He was also featured in the Global Digital Futurists to Watch in 2022 by Engatica. Furthermore, Onalytica recognised him in the “Who’s Who in Future of Work?” list. He was named one of the most influential marketers in the world in 2022 by Brand24.