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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How to find more sales growth

By / / Sales Consulting, Sales Management, Sales Strategy, Sales Tips

Many companies in B2B sales are looking for more growth in their respective market segments; however, their sales and business leaders are still looking at their markets as whole segments rather than seeing and seizing the lucrative opportunities that micro segmentation can bring.

Without effective micro-segmentation, businesses risk missing niche or unique opportunities and/or needlessly increasing the cost of sales across the segment as a whole. To micro-segment a market effectively, you need to consider (at both the macro and micro levels) the size of each sales segment and the purchasing drivers of relevant customers. From …

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The Power of a Value Proposition

By / / Sales Strategy, Sales Tips, Value Proposition & Value Add

Many businesses and their sales teams are finding that they -or more importantly what they offer- are being lumped into the same basket as their competitors with customers perceiving little difference between each supplier in their respective categories. Often researching online, customers trawl through website after website comparing the latest offerings, making up their own minds about who and what they want with little or no help of the supplier companies. This perceived similarity leads to one variable becoming the main point of difference and negotiation: …

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Sales Trend #3 – Are you ready for the Share Economy?

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

Our Sales Trend #3 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends for 2015 report is about the Share Economy. Here’s a snapshot of this trend.

One of the worst consequences of over-consumerism has been the exponential growth in the amount of goods that end up in landfills. This is the result of a combination of many factors such as consumers buying things that they don’t need for long—or even at all—and the manufacturing of cheap goods that break easily and are un-repairable, amongst others. On the other hand, consumerism has also meant that the …

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Warren Buffett’s wisdom and effective sales team

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations

How can we build effective sales teams for the short and long term?

This is the perennial question that has been asked by sales managers and business leaders for years.

The simple answer is bit by bit, over time by investing wisely in the right things.

Warren Buffett knows a thing or two about investing and his insights and wise counsel hold very true for building highly effective sales teams. Here are some of his famous quotes and how we see them in relation to building sales teams:

  • There are no bonus points for complicated investments. The truly big investment idea can usually be …

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    Some Social Selling Myths & Challenges

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Prospecting, Social Media, Social Sales

    Since LinkedIn started its publishing arm there has been a growing tsunami of articles filling our news feeds and inboxes. Amongst this flood of information are some great articles and, of course, there are those articles that are a waste of time. That’s to be expected. Within this tsunami there has been a range of articles promoting the astounding benefits of Social Selling, especially around writing and sharing content with prospects and clients as a critical part of the sales process. Articles that are sure to get you noticed and have clients contacting you so that you can make more …

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    Trend 2 – Retail: From app to brick-and-mortar

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

    For a long time now we have been hearing how online retailers (or e-tailers) are killing the brick-and- mortar retail industry. Low performing retailers complain that the competition is unfair, since e-tailers have fewer expenses (they don’t need a central location for their store—if any at all, they need barely any staff, etc.). Another focus of the retailers’ complaints against online stores is that people use the brick-and-mortar shops to try-on, feel, and choose products and then buy online.

    So what happens when e-tailers decide to move into the brick-and-mortar space?

    This Trend 2 – Retail: From app to brick-and-mortar Read Post »

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