Some key guidelines for Negotiations in Sales

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Negotiation, Sales Skills, Sales Training, Solution Selling

We are regularly asked by sales managers to provide negotiation skills training for their salespeople. However, after talking with them about their team’s situation and development priorities, it is quite clear, 90% of the time, that their people do not need negotiation skills training, what they really need is consultative solution selling skills training instead.

The reason many sales managers and sales teams find themselves in this situation is they think every time their salespeople hit an objection they must negotiate. Far from it. The easiest way to eliminate objections is by taking the time to understand your …

Some key guidelines for Negotiations in Sales Read Post »

The road less travelled – Selling Better

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Entrepreneurship, Ethics & Values, Opportunity, Selling Better

On 9 January, 1995 I took the road less travelled when I chose to start my business dedicated to Selling Better rather than follow the traditional path of Selling More, and that has made all the difference.

As a business owner, entrepreneur, and pattern systems thinker amongst other things, it has been a fascinating and interesting journey of discovery on many levels: personally, professionally, intellectually, culturally, ethically, philosophically, and systems-wise.

While I am originally a science graduate who specialised in medical and biological subjects, I have adapted and evolved into an architect, engineer, behavioural scientist and philosopher who focuses …

The road less travelled – Selling Better Read Post »

Sales Trend 11 – Sales cycle taking longer (much longer)

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Attitudes & Behaviours, Procurement, Sales Trends

Sales Trend 11 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2018 explores the sales cycle and looks at the factors that are making it longer.

In a B2B environment, the sales cycle is usually defined as the days/ weeks/ months that pass from the first time a salesperson makes contact with a lead to the moment the client signs the contract. However, most definitions of ‘sales cycle’ have flaws because it’s nearly impossible to have one definition applicable to every business. Sales cycles vary enormously from industry to industry and organisation to organisation.

Regardless of what your definition of a …

Sales Trend 11 – Sales cycle taking longer (much longer) Read Post »

12 things we’ve learned so far about Selling Better in a 21st Century world

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Ethics & Values, Life Skills, Opportunity, Optimism, Sales Culture, Sales Results, Selling Better, Success

My team and I have been studying sales teams, salespeople, sales operating systems, sales strategies, sales processes, and sales cultures across a wide variety of industries in the public and private sectors, N4P and government since 1995 and we have seen and learned a lot of things.

Here is some of what we have learned:

  • Selling is everybody’s business and everybody lives by selling something
  • Selling starts with opportunity and purposeful optimism
  • Selling is the vehicle that allows opportunity to flourish and people to prosper; nothing happens until something gets sold
  • Selling at its best is when humans solve …

    • 12 things we’ve learned so far about Selling Better in a 21st Century world Read Post »

    Less IS More when it comes to Sales Planning & Market Segmentation

    By / / Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Market Segmentation, Sales Planning, Sales Results, Sales Strategy, Selling Better, Strategy, Success

    Less Is More when it comes to doing good strategy, sales planning and market segmentation.

    As Michael Porter, Professor and ‘Father’ of Competitive Strategy (Harvard Business School), says:

    • The essence of good strategy is choosing what not to do;
    • The essence of strategy is that you must set limits on what you are trying to accomplish; and
    • Strategy 101 is about choices. You cannot be all things to all people. It’s about making choices, trade-offs. It’s about being deliberately different

    This is the essence of good strategy, yet time and time again we see many sales teams experiencing …

    Less IS More when it comes to Sales Planning & Market Segmentation Read Post »

    Sales Trend 10 – Storytelling, taking sales teams beyond features and benefits

    By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Brand & Reputation, Communication, Marketing

    Guest Author: Rishad Sukhia, CEO, Creative Agency Brightlabs, Melbourne, Australia

    Sales trend 10 from our 12 Sales Trends Report for 2018 is about storytelling.

    We all grew up hearing and sharing stories through childhood and adulthood – they help us learn, develop and, above all, they entertain and inspire us. Brands today are increasingly incorporating storytelling into their sales and marketing strategies in order to resonate with their customers.

    This sales trend is focused on the increasing importance of the art and science of storytelling in sales and marketing, taking our sales teams beyond presenting features and benefits.

    What is brand storytelling?

    Whilst the terms …

    Sales Trend 10 – Storytelling, taking sales teams beyond features and benefits Read Post »

    7 things you need to know about the Craft of Selling

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Resilience, Sales Essentials, Sales Skills, Sales Tips, Sales Training, Solution Selling
    We can agree:

    Everybody lives by selling something – whether it be ideas, initiatives, visions, products, services or solutions.

    Selling is ubiquitous – ever present in our daily lives, internally and externally. 

    Selling is the vehicle that allows opportunity to flourish and people to prosper.

    Nothing happens until something gets sold.

    However:

    As ever present as selling is in our daily lives, most people learn how to sell by default, not design.

    Often thrown in the deep end, they work it out as they go, feeling their way by trial and error, hoping to be on the right track.

    This means that more people fail …

    7 things you need to know about the Craft of Selling Read Post »

    Unethical Selling, not Selling, should be on trial at the Banking Royal Commission

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Competition, Education in Sales, Ethics & Values, Selling Better

    With the handing down of the Interim Report from the Banking Royal Commission, Commissioner Hayne was scathing in his assessment of the banking finance sector, especially the big 4 banks and large insurance and investment firms, such as AMP, for enabling their cultures of greed to flourish at the expense of customers’ wellbeing, principled and ethical business practice.

    Commissioner Hayne said the key questions the commission had to answer were why such poor conduct had occurred and how to stop it happening again.

    He added that, in many cases, the answer to the first question was obvious.

    “Too often, the answer seems to …

    Unethical Selling, not Selling, should be on trial at the Banking Royal Commission Read Post »

    Sales Trend 9 – Personal Branding is a must have asset

    By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Social Media, Social Sales

    Key terms: social media, consistency, engagement, results

    Guest author: Josh Schmalenbach

    Sales Trend 9 from our 12 Sales Trends Report for 2018 is about social selling.

    As technology and the internet have evolved, our access to information has also vastly grown. Never before has it been so easy to find out so much about a product or a person.

    With a simple Google search, one can find pages of information regarding someone’s career, achievements, education, and even what they have shared online.

    This ease of access to data has made the buying process significantly easier and less risky for everyone involved. The …

    Sales Trend 9 – Personal Branding is a must have asset Read Post »

    The 5 Dimensions for Sales Alignment, Harmony & Success

    By / / Assessments, Education in Sales, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership, Success

    As CEOs and sales leaders, we understand that there are many factors that make for a successful sales strategy, operating system and sales team in the competitive, complex, variable world of selling. Leading a sales team and operation is like bringing together an orchestra where there is a fine line between success and failure, being harmonious or out of tune.

    As sales professionals, we can often find ourselves either ‘firing on all cylinders’, ‘kicking goals’ and ‘getting the job done’ or feeling ‘not quite right’, ‘out of sorts’, or ‘off our game’ and often not really sure as …

    The 5 Dimensions for Sales Alignment, Harmony & Success Read Post »

    Scroll to Top