If each of us can honestly answer “yes” to these questions, then it would appear that our sales and prospecting efforts are underpinned by sound ethics and behaviours and set up to deliver a fair exchange of value for both buyer and …
4 Questions to Test if your Sales & Prospecting Tactics are Ethical Read Post »
Today it happens it is the same
to be decent or a traitor
To be an ignorant, wise, a pickpocket,
a generous person or a swindler
All is the same, nothing is better
They are the same, a fool
and a professor
There are no failing grades or hierarchy,
the immoral people have caught up with us.
If one lives in deceit
and another, in their ambition, steals.
It’s the same if it’s a priest,
a mattress maker, a king of clubs,
a rascal or a stowaway.
Currently this seems to be the world we live in, and everywhere we turn, …
This didn’t happen in my time … Read Post »
At its simplest, selling and buying is about a transactional exchange of a service or product for money.
For simple, low cost, transactional sales, where we may have little vested interest in the other person or company providing that product, we may not reflect as deeply on our buying interactions with them. However, if we discover that we have been ‘ripped off’ by paying too much for something, or unfairly treated, or discriminated against, and so on, we are more likely to become highly invested in the concept of fair exchange of value.
Why? Because as human beings, we do not like …
Why a Fair Exchange of Value goes beyond exchanging money for goods Read Post »
Sales Trend 6 of Barrett’s 12 Sales Trends for 2018 is about the ‘human experience’ in businesses and sales.
The terms Customer Experience and Customer Centric have been around for some time. These terms are now referred to in shorthand as CX. Now a new term is emerging – HX, the Human Experience.
What does all this mean? Aren’t they the same thing?
This sales trend explores the terms CX and HX and helps put into perspective the old and the new when it comes to creating a competitive winning edge in sales and business.
Let’s look at some definitions first:
In commerce, customer …
Sales Trend 6: Moving CX & HX – really it’s all about people now Read Post »
One of the most widely reported reasons for a sale to stall is price. Salespeople often get stuck in the price conversation that only leads to the selling organisation discounting their offer, or the prospect going with another provider. But it needn’t be this way.
Clients and prospects get into these conversations because there’s nothing else for them to perceive as value besides the number next to the dollar sign.
The price is an arbitrary figure with no inherent value in itself; it’s just a number and means absolutely nothing until it is made relative to something of value. Clients don’t see …
6 Tips on How to Sell Value and Reposition Price Read Post »
Many articles have been written about the many, many excuses salespeople come up with as to why they haven’t hit their sales targets, why they find it hard to sell, and so on.
The accusatory finger always seems to be pointing at the salespeople. And sometimes this is fair, however, there are many reasons why it’s not always the salesperson’s fault.
There are many reasons why salespeople are prevented from carrying out their sales duties effectively. This article is about highlighting the blockers or blockages in their way – intended or unintended.
Let’s explore these blockers and see how we can remove them …
Is your organisation your worst ‘Sales Blocker’? Read Post »
Even with the wide availability of information, sales training resources and systems to get salespeople up to speed and selling, too many salespeople are still being thrown in the deep end without any support or induction, and are expected to sell.
Now, if you are an experienced salesperson you would probably navigate your way fairly quickly – that is if you actually know what you need to know, do and say.
If your organisation is like most companies, some effort is usually invested in product training but not usually in ‘how we sell around here’.
Selling is an unusual profession in …
Is your sales team Sinking or Swimming? Read Post »
Sales Trend 7 from the Barrett’s 12 Sales Trends Report for 2018 is about leadership, in particular, which characteristics are key for leaders in times of flux.
The state of flux we are experiencing, is bringing about a shift in the top key qualities required to be an effective business executive and leader.
It’s not necessarily a completely different set of qualities, but a change in their order of relevance for navigating a changing, ‘fluxy’ kind of world.
Douglas A. Ready, a senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and the founder and president of ICEDR, says “We need to …
Sales Leadership – the power of preparedness, curiosity and courage in times of flux Read Post »
I want you to imagine that you are a 24 year old graduate going for job interviews. In this instance, you are being interviewed by a multinational who takes you to the next stage- completing a range of psychometric assessments followed by an interview with a psychologist. Imagine if you will, that this psychologist starts his interview with you by saying you are ‘too optimistic’, that you are a ‘Pollyanna’, that ‘you are unrealistic in seeing the world in such as positive light’, claiming there is something really wrong with you.
How would you feel? Well, this scenario happened to me …
Why Purposeful Optimism is great for business Read Post »
In your business travels you may have heard of the acronym NPS. It stands for Net Promoter Score.
Developed by Fred Reichheld of Bain & Company and Satmetrix in 2003, NPS is a management tool designed to gauge the loyalty of a firm’s customer relationships. It serves as an alternative to traditional customer satisfaction research and claims to be correlated with revenue growth. In short, it is a single question measure that asks customers to rate their intention of referring a business on to others. The rating scale is 0-10.
Clients who give scores of 9/10 or 10/10 are regarded …
Is a Net Promoter Score a valid predictor of customer loyalty? Read Post »