Part 1: Weak Ties, Strong Business: The Brain Connection Already Wired Into Your Bottom Line

Sue Barrett is a systems thinker and behavioural strategist who has spent more than three decades studying why sales and commercial performance succeeds or stalls, not only at the level of technique, but at the level of structure and human behaviour underneath it. Founder and CEO of Barrett Consulting Group since 1995, she holds a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacology and Immunology from Monash University, alongside qualifications in strategic management, executive coaching and Blue Ocean Strategy, and is a certified practitioner in Hogan, TMS and SPQ*Gold psychometric assessments. Sue’s methodology treats commercial performance as a dynamic system that fails at predictable points, closing three gaps in order: Relevance, does the market see and recognise your value; Structural, does the commercial engine actually work; and Commercial and Sales Capability, can your people execute it in front of a real buyer. This diagnostic approach is grounded in original research, including Barrett’s 2026 Get Your Seat at the Table study across 229 ANZ B2B organisations, and more than three decades of hands-on work across virtually every sector, from ASX-listed businesses to industrial B2B, professional services and not-for-profits. Creator of the Selling Better Operating System™, author of the weekly Barrett Sales Blog since 2007, and a recognised leader in sales systems thinking, strategy and sales capability development internationally, Sue has trained over 50,000 professionals across five continents.