Driving Sales with Marketing Automation – Part I of III

By / / Collaboration, CRM, Marketing, Sales Driven Organisations, Social Media, Social Sales

The ‘Driving Sales with Marketing Automation’ series of 3 articles has been developed by Rishad Sukhia, Director of Brightlabs and Sue Barrett, Founder and CEO of Barrett. Rishad and Sue will present ideas, concepts, research and findings about how to make the most of marketing automation and sales activation.

Why?

Because marketing automation has become the new digital buzzword, with many adopting it under the impression that it is a quick fix for lead generation and repetitive tasks. While its popularity is evident you will find it is not the silver bullet to more sales in of itself. Like anything, we need …

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How Retail Discount Advertising negatively impacts B2B Sales – Part II

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Sales Results, Sales Strategy, Sales Tips, Solution Selling

How to shift the conversation from Price to Value

In last week’s post we talked about how –given that every business executive is a consumer, and the amount of discount sales in the retail sector- the expectation of ‘better price’ is impacting B2B sales.

We concluded that a more pragmatic approach is needed, based on value rather than absolute price.

This is the point we need to understand as sales people and business leaders: the client does not really see a price, they see and are looking for value.  So our real mission as sales people is to find out what …

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How Retail Discount Advertising negatively impacts B2B Sales – Part I of II

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Tips, Value Based Selling

Fact – every business executive is a consumer.

Fact – every consumer, certainly here in Australia, is exposed to a barrage of discounting and sales offers from the retail sector.

In fact, on any given day, whether on TV, radio, billboard or online, we are bound to be exposed –in our experience- to at least 5-10 “discounting sales” or “discounted special offers” that are being promoted by companies selling everything from food to solar power, new homes to motors cars, from beer and wine to computers.

You have to wonder whether these retailers (and their advertising agencies) realise the damage they are doing …

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2017 Sales Trend 5 – Salespeople at Risk of Becoming Obsolete

By / / Sales Trends, Solution Selling

This is our Sales Trend 5 from our 12 Sales Trends for 2017 report.

The proliferation of internet-based sales channels, that offer everything from simple items such as a toothbrush to some fairly complicated services including insurance, banking and even major items in the B2B sector means that the traditional role of product focused salespeople has changed. Sadly, some companies and quite a few salespeople continue to ignore the encroaching tsunami.

So just what has changed?

Probably the single most important change (or lack thereof) in sales, with the most dramatic impact, is the fact that those companies that continue to …

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The power of Sales Process Maps to deliver best sales practice

By / / Coaching, Education in Sales, Sales Benchmarking, Sales Coaching, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Process Maps, Sales Talent

Most new salespeople are thrown in the deep end when it comes to sales induction.

“Here go out with Josephine, our best sales person and be like her.”

Most salespeople, in general, are given no articulated sales process which means there’s nothing specific to be coached or trained to or to follow.

In sales teams we often have the blind leading the blind when it comes to achieving sales best practice.

Why? Because most businesses do not have an articulated sales process map(s) for their salespeople to follow. They treat selling as an action not as a profession with clearly defined …

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Women in Sales Leadership – Visions of Success

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Collaboration, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Self Promotion

On 19-20 April I had the privilege of chairing the 2-day conference: Women in Sales Leadership – Visions of Success in Sydney where we had over 100 women and 4 men attend.

The attendees were given the opportunity to hear from and interact with 16 of Australia’s leading female sales leaders and three male sales leaders and explore how they have created and charted their own visions of success.

Key topics discussed included:

  • Setting goals and planning for career growth
  • Defining your WHY?
  • Don’t let career breaks pause your progression
  • Finding the right Sponsors and Mentors and how to involve men on your career journey
  • Establishing your …

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2017 Sales Trend 4 – Learn to Embrace and Manage Complexity

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Strategy, Sales Trends

Sales Trend 4 from our 12 Sales Trends for 2017 report explains why to have extraordinary sales teams and operations, we have to embrace complexity.

As John Lord[1] said “Perhaps a greater understanding of what I am saying might be obtained by exercising a greater willingness to think more deeply”. 

Regrettably, most organisations ONLY view their sales operations as tactical linear functions of the value chain—and while sales teams need to get up close and personal on a tactical level with customers, if sales is only viewed through the overly simplistic lens of “foot soldiers selling products” then …

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The Science of Persuasion

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Sales Psychology

Forget dictatorships, command and control style approaches, persuasion has a lot more going for it when it comes to better sales, better relationships, better team work, better business outcomes and long term change in actions and behaviour.

The term persuasion is most commonly associated with sales people. And there’s a good reason for that. If we consider the Business Dictionary definition of persuasion, “process aimed at changing a person’s (or a group’s) attitude or behavior toward some event, idea, object, or other person(s), by using written or spoken words to convey information, feelings, or reasoning, or a combination of them”, it …

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Four tips to spot business opportunities.

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Customer Service, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations

How many people in your business are in contact with customers on a daily basis?

How many of them would be presented with new business opportunities but wouldn’t know what they look like or what to do with them?

Lately, we are hearing a common theme coming from CEOs, sales leaders, and partners at professional services firms: “My team cannot spot a business opportunity even when it’s right in front of them”

These leaders are not looking for everyone in their team to be able to sell or even pursue opportunities. All they want is for these people to be able to spot …

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Sales Trend 3 – Mapping the Buying–Selling-Delivery Process

By / / Sales Trends

Sales Trend 3 from our 12 Sales Trends for 2017 report is Mapping the Buying-Selling-Delivery Process.

If you want your sales team and your business to move from ordinary to extraordinary when it comes to client engagement and better sales results, it pays to do what the smart companies are doing and map your entire buying-selling-delivery process—the client value chain—and make sure everyone in your organisation understands what it is, where they fit in and how they all support the buying-selling-delivery client experience.

Sales Trend 3 points out that in the hyper-competitive and transparent business world of today we need everyone …

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