Insights into why I started my own business – Part 2

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Life Skills, Success, Sustainability & Environment

As mentioned in the article from last week I was invited to be part of the judging panel of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award – Victoria Young Business Hustler competition 2015. The programme is designed to give young business entrepreneurs the chance to further develop their capabilities and their businesses.

Here is Part 2 of my interview about how I started my own business and what continues to drive and inspire me today.

Interviewer: What do you believe is your greatest achievement in life so far?

Sue: I cannot point to any one achievement as being the greatest because …

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Insights into why I started my own business – Part 1

By / / Ethics & Values, Life Skills, Success, Vision, Mission & Purpose

Recently, I was invited to be a part of the judging panel of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award – Victoria Young Business Hustler competition 2015. The programme is designed to give young business entrepreneurs the chance to further develop their capabilities and their businesses.

As part of this initiative and as an entrepreneur myself, the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award chapter interviewed me about how I started my own business and what continues to drive and inspire me today.

Interviewer: You completed a Bachelor of Science degree at Monash University, but have now ended up founding one of …

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Making Persuasive Sales Presentations

By / / Communication, Sales Presentation & Grooming, Sales Skills

How persuasive are you?

Persuasiveness is the power to induce the taking of a course of action or the embracing of a point of view by means of argument or entreaty.

One of the mistakes salespeople make when doing sales presentations is their tendency to be more informative than persuasive. That difference is costing companies millions of dollars a year in lost sales opportunities. The reason for this is simple. It’s far easier to dispense information than it is to interact with an audience (buyers, stakeholders, etc.) and try and persuade someone to make a commitment to our offer. As a result many sales professionals linger …

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Sales Reporting – Why Bother?

By / / Sales Forecasting, Sales Measures - Inputs & Outputs, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Tips

Recently, I met a very impressive young Sales Manager. Let’s call him Sam. Sam knew his sales stuff. He knew what to look for when it came to accurate reporting of sales data. Nothing too complicated. He was conscious of focussing on the key measures and not overloading his sales team with too much reporting because he wanted his sales team out there selling instead of being glorified administrators.

Sam is my kind of sales manager. There for his people and his company making sure that his sales team knew exactly what was expected of them in terms …

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Buyer-Supplier Relationships: Finding Value beyond Price

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Procurement, Sales Research

A call to action – be a part of a ground breaking research project and tell us what you think about the current state of Buyer / Seller Relationships. (See our survey link below)

We have previously written about the importance of healthy buyer-supplier relationships and how we are approaching a rather worrying state where buyers are chasing suppliers in a race to the bottom.

But, what can be done to improve the buyer-supplier relationship and avoid this outcome? What can suppliers do?

As a supplier, do you feel valued by your buyer organisations? That your insights are sought, that …

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Sales Trend 6 – Recruiting for Change and Evolution

By / / Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Trends

The 2015 Sales Trend 6 – Recruiting for Change and Evolution is focused well and truly on adapting how we recruit. In short, we need to look for people who want to make a difference and can improve business.

People have been trying to identify how to hire the ‘right’ people, especially the right salespeople, for as long as jobs have existed. There are constant fluctuations and changes in recruitment processes, with people always striving to find the most accurate way of predicting on-the-job performance. Over the last decade think psychometric testing, social media background …

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First Aid Kit for a Sales Recovery

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Call Reluctance, Education in Sales, Prospecting, Sales Strategy, Sales Tips

Many of us have been there and some of us are yet to experience the gut wrenching experience when we finally, consciously realise that our sales pipeline and revenue numbers are in drastic decline and we are in deep, deep trouble. We realise all too dramatically that we are having the business and sales equivalent of a heart attack.

The brutal facts finally hit us hard in our face, our chest, our guts and we realise we may not survive.

Yet, the causes and signs were there for us all to see. Like a heart attack, a combination of activities caused this …

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Sales Cheerleader or Genuine Sales Coach?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Sales Coaching, Sales Leadership

Admit it, we all like a bit of encouragement every now and then. Yes, there are those who want it on a more frequent basis than others but whatever our frequency it’s nice when we have someone cheering us on, someone in our camp who wants to see us succeed.

I remember many years ago, in 1993, running my first ever half marathon at the Melbourne Marathon and how important encouragement became as I neared the end of the run. For me to run a half marathon was a new and daunting task as my main sport is swimming. I had …

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Sales Trend 5 – The New Accountability in Holistic (sales) Learning

By / / Coaching, Education in Sales, Sales Coaching, Sales Skills, Sales Training, Sales Trends, Self Development

Sales Trend 5 of our Sales Trends Report for 2015 is about the new accountability is holistic learning. Learning and Development (L&D) across the board, and especially in sales, has slowly but continuously been changing over the past few years. There are a variety of factors influencing this recent development. The ongoing challenge through these changes has been that it is not a single “trend” that has determined the necessary adjustments to be made to keep up with developments in the area, but a number of aggregated trends and factors that have simultaneously been responsible for supplying …

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2015 Sales Trends Event – How to sell better in a complex world

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Ethics & Values, Sales Leadership, Sales Trends, Strategy, Success

On Wednesday 6 May we hosted our 2015 Barrett 12 Sales Trends Annual Business Breakfast where many senior business and sales leaders came to hear about and discuss the theme for the event this year, ‘Transparency and the Middle Path’ – How to sell better in a complex world. It was great to see the room filled to capacity again as it was for the inaugural event last year.

It also gave us the opportunity to formally celebrate our 20th year in business and thank the Barrett team and our clients and supporters, many of whom were there …

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