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 …

Sales Cheerleader or Genuine Sales Coach? Read Post »

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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Courageous Sales Leadership and a compelling Sales Mission

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership

Are you the type of person who looks back and dreams of the ‘good ‘ol days’ or the sort of person who looks forward to the future searching for what can be?

It may or may not surprise you that many more people look back rather than forward to what is possible. Wanting things to remain the same, for whatever reason, be it for power, fear of change, loss of face, etc. many people can find themselves with their heads in the proverbial sand as the world passes them by.

Off the back of the article from last week …

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It’s time for Hybrid Sales Teams & Hybrid Businesses

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Solution Selling

There comes a time when we realise that amidst change we cannot keep living the old way, doing the same old things expecting different outcomes.

This time has come for Product Selling. Product or Transactional Selling, especially in B2B and complex B2C, is now obsolete.

However, the amount of product companies that are now finding they are rapidly losing margins and being reduced to commodity traders is staggering. We have the makings of a perfect storm where customers are taking full advantage of these conditions at the expense of the product companies.

Many product companies have fallen prey to the ‘ It’s time for Hybrid Sales Teams & Hybrid Businesses Read Post »

Sales Trend 4 – Doing Meaningful Business

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Environment & Sustainability, Sales Trends, Strategy, Sustainability & Environment

The Sales Trend # 4 of the 12 Sales Trends for 2015 is ‘Doing Meaningful Business’. Here’s a summary of the trend.

Over the years companies have become very focused on only creating value for their shareholders (and by value we mean dividends). This extreme focus has meant that making a profit, too often took priority over the well-being of employees, communities, and the environment; however, this model has proven to be unsustainable and in some cases brought about a backlash of undesired …

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How buying patterns have changed

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Procurement, Sales Results, Social Sales, Value Based Selling

Salespeople everywhere are faced with demands to meet increasingly high quotas in the face of growing market complexity and relentless financial pressure. There is also more competitors with Me2 products –just as good as brand names–, and an increased pressure on margins with buyers reluctant to make early commitments. Salespeople are facing demands like they never had before.

Current research from the Behaviour & Economic Research team at NAB¹  states that forward orders (in 2014) were very patchy for both big businesses and SMEs, making it very hard to forecast sales and manage pipelines. This only confirms the reticence of buyers …

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