Noise Reduction part 1

By / / Communication, Sales Research, Social Media, Social Sales

Noise Reduction was voted by you as the number 5 Sales Trend for 2010. About 20 years ago I was told that information was doubling every 5 years; 5 years ago it was every 18 months; 1 year ago it was every 9 minutes, so who knows how fast information is doubling now?

Many business leaders, sales people and many more are reporting information overload. Selecting what to take on board and what to leave behind will be critical for sales and business success in 2010 and beyond. It will also be critical for our …

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Are you making the most of Psychometric Assessments?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Performance Management, Value Proposition & Value Add

Many of us actively recoil when we see the words ‘Psychometric Assessments’. This may be due to fear of the unknown, seeing them as ‘tests’ or just tedious questionnaires. While you would not be alone in this, we on the other hand are advocates (of the right Assessments). At Barrett, we spend much of our time demystifying what Assessments actually are and how businesses can benefit from using them. So even if you have been brave enough to use Assessments, most people do not know how to get the most out of them. Often the Assessment process is seen as …

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What’s channel stuffing and why is it problematic?

By / / Ethics & Values, Sales Forecasting, Sales Management, Sales Measures - Inputs & Outputs, Sales Pipeline, Sales Planning, Strategy

How much do you actually sell? How profitable are your sales? How accurately can you forecast your sales results? How many ‘returns’ do you receive? How often do you need to discount? How often are you left with old stock? What are your sales cycles? Are your sales people rewarded on volume only or on margin, account growth, account retention, and customer satisfaction?

The answers to these and other key questions will tell you just how effective a sales force is functioning, how they measure their effectiveness, how they think about their business, their customers, their careers, and how likely they …

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Are you ready for the phenomenon of Social Sales?

By / / Communication, CRM, Social Media, Social Sales, Strategy

Social Sales was voted by you as the number 4 Sales Trend for 2010. Arguably, social media is contributing to the democratisation of information and, armed with this information, customers will demand different things from sales people and companies. Customers are tuning into online communities, blogs, forums, and social networks to gather information and make buying decisions.

For instance, the retail car market is undergoing significant changes with customers firmly in the driver’s seat. With the emergence of the information age consumers have far more knowledge about what to buy and where to buy it. …

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How fit is your sales team?

By / / Sales Assessments, Sales Skills, Sales Talent, Sales Training

Earlier this year we had the opportunity to put a client’s field sales force through the Barrett Sales Fitness Circuit to test their sales fitness.

The Sales Fitness Circuit is designed to reinforce and continue the process of learning from the Barrett Sales Communication Training. The Sales Communication competencies (skills, knowledge and mindset) covered in the initial training is put to the test through a series of exercises. The aim is to embed the learning from the training as a way of life in the sales team’s actions and thinking.

Specific skills, competency enhancement, and behaviour …

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Buyer beware – scammers and fraudsters on the prowl

By / / Ethics & Values

‘Buyer Beware’ is a phrase that has been around for a long time and for good reason. There are enough stories in circulation to know that not all sales people or businesses behave honourably, and some are nothing more than fraudsters and scammers. With the market getting more crowded everyday, the need to attract buyer attention and grow revenue, and the rise of the online business model, buyers should beware.

While most businesses and their sales people want to attract and work with viable prospects and customers, there are those less than honourable sales and business people who are after victims, …

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Walk a mile in my shoes

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Emotional Intelligence, Sales Skills

‘Walk a mile in my shoes‘ is a song written by Joe South and made famous by Elvis Presley. The song is very much about challenging closed mindedness, respecting and honouring differences, and learning how to get along with each other. However, I propose that it also has a lot to say to sales and marketing people. For instance, the first verse sets it up well:

If I could be you and you could be me for just one hour
If we could find a way to get inside each other’s mind
If …

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2010 Sales Trend #3 – Getting back to basics

By / / Sales Leadership, Sales Skills, Strategy

‘Getting back to basics’ is our 2010 Sales Trend #3 as voted by you, our readers. Despite the positive start to 2010 in Australia, especially compared to other post GST economies, we cannot forget the fundamentals when it comes to creating a healthy, viable sales team, culture and business.

One of the real challenges of 2010 will be keeping sales momentum while understanding how changes in customers, competitors, markets, innovations, media, technology and all manner of things will impact on our businesses and our people. Getting our heads around all this to find the right ingredients …

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Is a climate of perpetual discounting limiting choice and eroding our quality of life?

By / / Negotiation, Strategy, Value Proposition & Value Add

Gerry Harvey, (Harvey Norman) was recently bemoaning the culture of discounting in our retail sector. He was saying that retailers had lost the plot and didn’t know how to sell real value anymore. He said they had fallen foul of a culture of constant discounting as the only way to attract customers, which was tantamount to business disaster and a degradation of the retail sector. I happen to agree with Gerry in this instance.

He went further by saying that retailers were failing to find out what customers really wanted and what they really valued. He said retailers weren’t offering choice …

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Why is ‘cheap’ a false economy?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Ethics & Values, Negotiation, Procurement, Sales Culture, Strategy

Understandably everyone wants to save money, especially in these times, however we need to be aware of falling victim to false economy. False Economy is an expression that refers to an action which saves money at the beginning but which, over a longer period of time, results in more money being wasted than being saved.

For instance, I have never understood why some people will drive half an hour across town to get their petrol two cents a litre cheaper, all the while using up what they may save by driving across town, notwithstanding the time it took to travel there …

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