How to create a new sales routine that delivers results

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Sales Results, Sales Strategy, Sales Training

We all know that creating a better sales team, better sales culture, better sales leadership and better sales strategy that delivers better sales results does not happen by attending the occasional sales training workshop. Though it doesn’t stop sales leaders from opting for the ‘quick fix’ annual sales workshop to show that they are ‘doing something’ to drive better sales results. In short, these leaders would be better off doing nothing and saving their money, time and effort.

Metaphorically speaking, the sales training workshop (or 1-5 days depending on how much money you have to spend) is the tail of the …

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12 Sales Trends for 2016: Sales Trend 1 – Beyond Profit Erosion

By / / Sales Research, Sales Strategy, Sales Trends

Sales Trend 1 of Barrett 12 Sales Trends for 2016 is “Beyond Profit Erosion”.

After decades of revenue and profit growth markets are no longer what they used to be. The current situation of profit erosion has been decades in the making with a combination of factors including:

  • Low interest rates and the abundance of cheap money creating the conditions for growth mainly through Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Cost cutting to reduce duplication and redundancies and grow profits
  • Technology and automation having taken over many labour intensive processes
  • Buyers’ stripping apart of complex offers into their individual parts thus diminishing or dismissing the …

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How to sell better in uncertain times

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Strategy, Sales Tips

You could be forgiven for starting off 2016 in a rather pessimistic manner given all the ‘doom and gloom’ being spread about economic growth issues, the decline of share markets across the globe and talk of another GFC. Don’t get me wrong, we need to be vigilant and able to adapt and, even if everything that is being predicted turns out to be true, we still need to keep moving forward and seek out the right opportunities to focus on.

In short, how do we keep our head when everyone else around us is losing theirs?

There are those of us who …

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David Bowie – a role model for all entrepreneurs

By / / Business Acumen, Collaboration, Entrepreneurship, Life Skills, Marketing, Sales Strategy, Self Promotion, Success

The sad passing of David Bowie this last week has brought a huge wave of emotional outpouring from many parts of the world including myself. I grew up with David Bowie. He has been in my life as long as I can remember. He was, I admit, my most favourite  music star of all. I loved everything about him and remember him with much love and affection. I have the books and albums, I have been to his concerts, and most recently attended that wonderful exhibition ‘David Bowie is’ which tracked his life and highlighted his contributions to music, art, …

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Clarity & Purpose – a recap of 2015

By / / Role Clarity, Sales Leadership

This is our last sales blog for 2015,  our first blog for 2016 will be out the week of January 11th.

For our clients and the team at Barrett, 2015 has been the year of clarity and purpose with many of our clients being able to put in place sound sales strategies, sales operations frameworks and development programs to set up their sales teams for success in 2016 and beyond.

Not happy dealing with the status quo, these smart business leaders have been looking at how they can transition their sales teams and businesses from being:

  • product driven to ideas and solutions driven
  • individualistic …

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12 Sales Trends for 2016 – Less is More

By / / Sales Trends

What happens when we have so much information that it is impossible to even decide what to read? When we have so many things to do that we are rarely at one place at one time for more than a few minutes? We constantly check our phones, computers or tablets. We are online and connected 24/7. We have an overload of information, stuff, processes, stress… There’s a reason why ‘de?cluttering’ businesses are growing in number around the world. People are seeking help to go back to basics, to a clearer and simpler life, with less stuff.

Organisations are run by people …

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2015 Sales Trend 11 – The rise of the freelancer

By / / Sales Trends

The Sales Trend 11 of our 12 Sales Trends for 2015 is The Rise of the Freelancer.

Over the past few years there has been a dissonance between two discourses happening at the same time. On the one hand we hear continuously from friends, family, acquaintances and colleagues that the job market is very difficult and more and more people are struggling to find fulfilling work or any kind of work at all. On the other hand, companies and organisations in general say that they can’t find the right talent that they need. How can these two happen …

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Does your sales force match what you are selling?

By / / Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Talent

One size does not fit all when it comes to building the right type of sales force for what you are selling; yet many professionals treat selling as a homogeneous skill set, expecting salespeople to be able to sell anything.

Or another fatal mistake is to assume that industry experience and knowledge alone is all that is required. For too many years sales managers have had industry experience as their number one selection criteria for salespeople. The problem with this is that they usually get the same old people with the same old ideas and the same old results.

The fact is …

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How to find your competitive edge and compete successfully

By / / Business Acumen, Competition, Education in Sales, Sales Tips

Product differentiation is getting harder, Me2 products are flooding the markets, quality is being commoditised, and as a result margins are being squeezed and value is at risk of being shed if we don’t know how to articulate the real value we deliver beyond product and price and demonstrate our competitive edge.

With so much choice and competitors fighting for our clients’ attention, it is critical that we find and define our competitive edge.

How do we define our competitive edge?

That depends on what we want to deliver to our customers and how we want to run our businesses.

Today, …

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‘How we sell around here’ equals sales success

By / / Education in Sales, Sales Coaching, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Management, Sales Research, Sales Results

Many years ago, and for many years, when salespeople were recruited into the sales team of a business they would be schooled in ‘how we sell around here’.

New salespeople regardless of their experience would be introduced to the business’ sales plan, target markets and customer segments, the product range, the current sales processes, tools and templates, and so on. Sales managers would put these new recruits through their paces making sure that they knew how to sell.

Now, I admit some of the sales processes these new sales recruits were schooled in where not always ideal or even ethical, but the …

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