Sales Trend 6 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2020 explores the issues around consumerism, waste, and the role of sales in a post-consumerism world.
This is a condensed version of Sales Trend 6, to read the original version you can download the report for free.
What are we selling now?
Consumerism has been the main driver of economic growth and business performance, lifting people out of poverty since the late 1940s which saw many millions of people get access to amazing innovations in products and services that make their lives much more comfortable and enjoyable and gave people access to an abundance of jobs. We’ve seen this wave of consumerism move from the developed world in the mid to late 20th century to the developing world at the beginning of the 21st century. Just look at the spread of consumerism in China and how it has transformed that country over the last 20 years. There has been, and is, huge money to be made in a consumerist world.
But things are changing rapidly on many levels.
This sales trend covers a range of issues and opportunities as it relates to consumerism and what’s coming next, and calls on everyone to think about and act on what and how they sell and buy – now and into the future. It highlights what we can sell in a post consumerism world.
Have we reached peak consumerism?
Probably not yet as more developing nations move towards middle class aspirations.
How about in developed nations?
The Maintainers Co-Directors Andy Russell, Jessica Meyerson and Lee Vinsel point out that “We have built a culture where buying things is increasingly unrelated to using things. And we have built a culture where things are thrown away not because they are broken, but because they send the wrong signal about who we are. We use material things for primarily symbolic reasons, which means we throw them out not when they are broken, but when we need to send a new signal. In turn we have built the most materially wealthy communities the world has ever known, but despite this abundance of stuff, our culture makes people feel that they never have enough, or the right, stuff. Our culture is suffering from a bad case of affluenza.”
It seems in developed nations we’ve hit hyper-consumerism which refers to the consumption of goods for non-functional purposes and the associated significant pressure to consume those goods exerted by the modern, capitalist society, as those goods shape one’s identity. Simply put, it’s morphed into ‘Look at me’ Instagram selfies which comes at a huge cost – for both environment wellbeing and human wellbeing.
So, what are we selling now?
It really takes some thinking to even get our collective heads around the tsunami of changes coming our way. The positives and the negatives. It then takes courage and determination to enact those changes.
Besides dealing with the angst and potential guilt associated with what we are selling now, when all sorts of people in power say we must stop consuming so much, or we must cut back or go without and so on, doesn’t help anyone trying to make a positive change.
The challenge with this austerity approach is that those people who usually have to make the sacrifices are those who don’t have much to begin with – they are always being asked to take the hit while the wealthy can sail on by unscathed.
So we see the trend where many people don’t like to miss out or be disadvantaged so they put off to another day what they should do now, even if it will cost us all more in the long term, because they are sick of going without.
They don’t want to be the ones who are being disadvantaged all the time.
The time is NOW – we must act.
We need to look at these challenges and see opportunities. We have all the thinking, systems, resources and capabilities to solve these problems and put in place better ways of operating and living.
The real issue we are facing is WASTE.
Consumerism, especially hyper-consumerism is extremely wasteful.
Humans can be very wasteful until they are shown better ways to operate. Just think of the Ozone layer and EPA, or the Keep Australia Beautiful campaign as some of the many examples where we can make positive changes.
While we often get fixated on what’s happening in Silicon Valley and the next unicorn business, there are plenty of people who are creating business opportunities that will be part of the next way of industry.
When humans are shown how to do things better for themselves and their fellow citizens, and they can see how they can act locally and make a positive difference, they act accordingly.
This sales trend is highlighting People Action and the myriad of business opportunities emerging from human ingenuity and a desire to eliminate waste and do things better.
There’s a real push to show people how they can do little things every day to make positive changes and that they don’t have to do them perfectly. Millions of little actions everyday by millions of people do make a difference.
What if we could still have what we want but with no waste?
What are we selling now? We are selling NO WASTE
The Zero Carbon Emissions Economy
Let’s start here. The Drawdown Project, the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming, highlights 100 business models that can drawdown CO2 across energy, food, buildings and cities, land use, transport, materials, and women and girls.
Opportunities abound. The key business opportunities that account for a reduction of 50% of CO2 emissions are around several areas, including:
- Refrigeration – October 2016 Kigali Deal to manage refrigeration emissions[1]
- Onshore wind turbines
- Reduce food waste
- Eat a plant rich diet
- Preserve and restore Tropical Rainforests
- Educate girls
- Family Planning
- Solar farms
The Right to Repair, Maintainers and Aftermarket Economy
‘The Right to Repair’ is gaining momentum across industries and countries for a number of reasons with the obvious one being the possibility to continue using devices or machines you have purchased instead throwing them away.
You may be familiar with the growing trend of local repair cafes popping up in local communities where people can take their appliances, tools, machines, clothing, arts and crafts, etc. to these cafes and work with experienced technicians, tailors, artists, and so on who can help and teach people to repair their possessions. There are popular TV programs in this genre as well.
The second main reason this trend is important is that ‘repair’ is the lifeblood of local economies providing local jobs that help communities prosper. Repairers make products last longer, save owners money and create local jobs.
Repair.org, a repairers’ advocacy group, demonstrates that a competitive repair market is vital to the economy. When manufacturers own the only repair shop around, prices go up and quality goes down. Competition is better for customers, but mum and dad repair shops are struggling with unfair practices by multinational corporations.
The Circular Economy
Circular Economy is an economic system aimed at eliminating waste and the continual use of resources. Circular systems employ reuse, sharing, repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recycling to create a close-loop system, minimising the use of resource inputs and the creation of waste, pollution and carbon emissions. The circular economy aims to keep products, equipment and infrastructure in use for longer, thus improving the productivity of these resources. All ‘waste’ should become ‘food’ for another process: either a by-product or recovered resource for another industrial process, or as regenerative resources for nature, e.g. compost. This regenerative approach is in contrast to the traditional linear economy, which has a ‘take, make, dispose’ model of production.
The Experience Economy
This is a sector that has been growing over the last two decades, in-hand with ‘giving experiences not stuff’. This has now been taken to a whole new level with even making those experiences sustainable, carbon neutral, and/or zero waste.
The Services & Virtual Economy
Online education and the use of video conference platforms such as Zoom have provided a cost-efficient and environmentally sustainable way of delivering training.
For instance, a large client of Barrett in Western Australia has signed up over 100 B2B and B2C salespeople in different divisions to do our online sales training, Sales Essentials. We trained their sales leaders in how to coach their salespeople in the field/on the job – 1-on-1 and group – using the Sales Essentials Online Coaching Resources and they manage it all from their location.
There’s been a very quick uptake and application of the content with amazing results as well.
The client saved money by reducing the need for travel and accommodation to attend traditional training events, reducing the time off the road away from selling and also reducing our collective carbon footprint so our education approach can meet sustainability goals.
Smart organisations are getting ahead of the curve and really thinking about how and what we sell in a post consumerist world. Especially when faced with such monumental crises.
Conclusion
We all have choice. Discerning buyers are making decisions on why they are buying in the first place, then if they choose to buy it’s now important what they buy and from whom and all the implications that go with that.
Businesses and their sales and service teams need to be better equipped to help their buyers make better decisions about products and services that will maximise their return (on use), last longer and can get back into the manufacturing line with less impact on the environment.
Remember, everybody lives by selling something.
[1] https://www.environment.gov.au/protection/ozone/hfc-phase-down/international-hfc-phase-down
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