Don’t be fooled! Why telephone prospecting is still critical to sales success

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Prospecting, Sales Skills, Sales Training, Solution Selling

In tough markets when sales are harder to come by whether it be from increased competition or clients being more hesitant to commit and buy, don’t become your own worst enemy and rely on the marketing efforts of your company or emails or falling into the trap of believing the hype about Social Selling saving your sales day. You still need to get on the phone and engage the people in your market places whom you want and need to get in front of and sell to.

After more than 30 years in selling with at least 10-15 years of those …

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Sales Trend 11 – Learning to sell in the Asian Century

By / / Sales Trends, Success

In Australia, we are more reliant upon China for our prosperity than any comparable economy, at more than one quarter of our exports. We are China’s number one destination for foreign investment and a leading beneficiary of the education aspirations of its growing middle class. Yet many of us remain deeply ambivalent about the world-changing economic transformation of China and underestimate our need to be prepared. That is why the 11th Sales Trend for 2014 is Learning to Sell in the Asian Century.

After an economic growth (over the last thirty years) of …

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The Power of Powerless Communication in Selling

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours

In his bestselling book, ‘Give and Take, a revolutionary approach to success’ organisational psychologist, Professor Adam Grant highlights the differences between Givers, Takers and Matchers and shatters our assumptions about what it takes to be successful in business and in life.

As someone who has been studying and researching salespeople and sales leaders for more than 25 years I am fascinated by the contents of Grant’s book. I have found it both illuminating and validating.

As many of you who read my posts regularly will know, I stand by the edict that effective selling is about the …

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My one wish for all sales teams is …

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Education in Sales, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Training, Self Development, Solution Selling

My one wish for sales teams is that they are given the opportunity to continue to learn and develop in a dynamic learning environment where learning, reflection and constant iterations in their behaviour and skills are a regular, daily way of life. Those businesses create, what we call at Barrett, a Perpetual Learning Environment (PLE) where learning is integrated into everything we do and is a daily way of life not just a training event held once a year.

Sounds idyllic, fanciful even, well there is a body of work emerging that shows there are significant …

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The legitimisation of Sales Strategy

By / / Marketing, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Strategy, Sales Trends

The 10th Sales Trend for 2014 is ‘The Legitimisation of Sales Strategy’

Having a sales strategy is now of vital importance to the survival, growth and profitability of any organisation. Yet Sales Strategy, as a business discipline, has been poorly understood by sales managers and executive leadership teams alike, and rarely, if ever, executed well by many businesses… however, times are indeed changing.

Sales Strategy is how the business organises its sales efforts across the value chain to go to market, who it is going to sell to and how it …

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What are you really paying for? Hours or Experience

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation

Here is a statement a friend of mine posted in LinkedIn recently, “You’re not necessarily paying for my hours. You’re paying for my years of experience. Invest in quality because quick and cheap can be costly in the long run”.

It reminds me of the story of a businessman, his prestige car which, as a result of his clumsiness, had a dint in the side door, and a panel beater. The business man rushed into the panel beater’s early one morning saying he desperately needed his car fixed as he had an important appointment to attend and did not want to …

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Australia – It’s time to snap out of this sales mindset ‘slump’

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

If you were an alien that landed in Australia you could be forgiven for thinking that we were in the midst of a terrible recession or major disaster by the ‘doom and gloom’ sentiment that seems to be hanging over our economy like a wet blanket.

Of course, it is natural for all economies to go through ups and downs, but after 22 years of continuous economic growth we seem to have forgotten how to deal with the down swing. But how much of a down swing are we actually experiencing right now? Our current economic growth rate is still 3.5%. …

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Sales Trend 8 – A Radical Shift in the Sales Mindset

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

This sales trend is all about the radical shift in the sales mindset that currently is underway in organisations as prophesised by The Cluetrain Manifesto 15 years ago. A slow burn, we acknowledge, but with consumers in such a powerful position, product no longer the centre piece of the sale, and value being more important than price, the time has come for sales teams and everyone in their businesses to work with customers, helping them achieve their goals and, in doing so, sales teams will achieve theirs.

Smart companies are moving from …

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Are you serious?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Skills, Sales Training, Success

Today’s article is a bit of a rant I have to admit. I wrote the text below after one of those phone calls I receive, and as you may tell, I was a bit upset afterwards. Bear with me though, I’m sure you’ll see the point I’m trying to make.

Have you ever considered how much it costs and how much effort it takes to become and remain a highly skilled professional these days? Think about a competent marketing manager, a skilled engineer or IT specialist, a capable accountant, bookkeeper, publicist or journalist, a reliable chef, event manager or hairdresser? We’re …

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What does a successful sales team & culture look like?

By / / Sales Culture, Sales Results, Sales Strategy

Creating a viable, healthy, fit, and robust sales team and supporting culture takes effort, consistent effort. It doesn’t happen by chance. We have to be able to hold in our grasp –our thinking, our frame of reference– several aspects including purpose, strategy, performance standards, people, competition, change, technology, and of course, all of the variables outside of our direct control such as PEST (politics, economic, society, technology) or STEER.

The biggest issues that keep most sales teams from being and consistently performing at their best are:

  • No sales strategy to direct and guide the sales team and business
  • The …

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