barrett-sales-trend-12-the-decarbonised-salesperson

Sales trend 12 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2022 explores what ‘decarbonised’ salespeople look like and how employers can attract them.

Written in collaboration with ReillyScott.

Given my long-standing public commitment to climate action and a clean green sustainable world, it may come as no surprise to readers that I receive connections, feedback, questions and requests from seasoned salespeople professionals looking to transition into ‘decarbonised/ing’ sales roles and businesses.

Many do not want to work for or be associated with businesses that are not committed to a renewable, decarbonised world.

They understand selling is the vehicle that allows opportunity to flourish and people to prosper and they want to use their sales knowledge, skills, mindset, capabilities, and networks to do good and make a positive difference.

We asked our recruitment partners, ReillyScott to give us their perspective and insights on what they think decarbonised salespeople look like and how employers can attract them and combined that with our observations and research.

What will decarbonised salespeople look like? What skills, knowledge, mindset and capabilities will they need to have?

ReillyScott: Decarbonised salespeople will have technology know-how, be risk aware, naturally responsive and adaptive to change, with a willingness to be part of a remote and / or hybrid team. They’ll want to challenge the traditional and have a sense of ownership and be conscious of their footprint. They operate with a circular economy in mind – which extends beyond the workplace to the home environment.

Decarbonised salespeople can successfully hit targets and excel without physically being face to face with prospects and clients.

Client-facing and regional salespeople can achieve their targets without hours spent travelling in the car or flying. Large sales teams no longer need to work from centralised, energy-hungry hubs where the lights never go out and the air conditioning runs constantly.

Decarbonised salespeople prefer to live closer to their workplace; support and stay local.

These changes are small steps, but can have a positive, high impact if more businesses adopt these changes too – and a step in the right direction in working towards a decarbonised economy.

Barrett: Decarbonised salespeople will be much more ‘w’ worldly with a greater awareness about PESTEL – Political, Economic, Societal, Technological, Environmental & Legal variables. They will understand the real meaning of value and understand how to talk about and communicate genuine sustainable value, ROI, cost of ownership and the impact of their solutions on a clients supply chain, customers, and the environment.

They will know how to talk about circular economy strategies and decarbonising solutions, as they look to work in collaboration with their clients, suppliers, communities, other business partners and competitors. Plus, they will have developed the ability to quantify and analyse companies’ emissions data and targets, articulate abatement pathways, forecast costs and timing as well as liaise closely with stakeholders around targets, actions and progress as they develop business cases and look to partner with other decarbonised clients and partners.

They will be purposeful, and principles led, yet pragmatic and respectful knowing not everyone will think the same as they do. Instead of eulogising, they will use their best value-based solution selling skills and communication practices to help everyone feel psychologically safe while finding ways to help others see what is possible with all the abundant opportunities in a decarbonised economy.

Decarbonised B2B salespeople won’t be solo sales superstars, they will work in well-coordinated integrated teams that include people with tech, R&D, data, finance, marketing, and supply chain knowledge and skills, and use their human-centred communications, problem-solving crafting, and business skills to bring forward excellent business cases for positive change for a clean, green, and surety of sustainable supply.

Decarbonised B2C & B2B salespeople and all client facing roles will know how to talk about the reality of achieving net zero targets, decarbonising businesses, and consumption as well as ethical supply chains and sourcing in ways that are truthful and can be understood by regular people.

They will be numerate and well informed, knowing how to calmly explain the data, charts and numbers to their clients helping them make informed decisions.

Attracting and retaining the right salespeople for a decarbonised economy, recruitment strategies.

ReillyScott: Employers will need to be mindful that working remotely or in hybrid teams doesn’t and won’t suit everyone. We’ve found that employees with young families can struggle with working from home. Similarly, people living in shared houses may also find this challenging. Thus, employers need to understand people’s environments, what motivates them, and the tools needed to enable success.

Businesses recruiting need to be flexible in their ‘wish lists’ since there’s high demand for A-players who tend to have multiple job offers. Employers will have more success finding suitable talent if they are prepared to compromise on the need for direct industry experience. Instead, they can focus on looking for skills alignment in unrelated industries.

Examples of this may be sales talent with the same or a similar selling approach / sales model; or who sell a different product but to the same decision makers.

Barrett: When it comes to attracting and retaining decarbonised sales talent, I concur with making it a priority to look into different markets for sales talent. The risk of looking for industry experience as the determining factor means businesses and their sales teams are at risk recruiting out of a limited ‘pool’ where you’re picking up the same old ideas, habits, and behaviours which yield the same old results. When I was working in recruitment, my best placements were always those from outside the industry where we got sales professionals who had superior thinking skills and learning agility combined with modern up-to-date sales capabilities.

Something else to consider is the changing attitudes towards work.

On October 18th, 2021, the Washington Post published the article: “The ‘Great Resignation’ Goes Global” about people leaving their jobs in droves, partly as a result of COVID. Many are giving up on low paid, unpleasant, or difficult work in favour of a better lifestyle. Like any major change there will be winners and losers from this trend.

Retaining highly skilful decarbonised salespeople requires a complete shift in thinking and mindset when it comes to selling better in a decarbonised world. Companies that fail to adapt will start to lose their best people. They will find it harder to recruit good salespeople. They will lose business and join the ranks of casualties from The Great Resignation and their reluctance to decarbonise.

Remember, everybody lives by selling something.

Stories from the field

I FOUND THE FS!!!
I had a business case presentation this afternoon to take a pilot client to full roll out and I opened with WWW. The Director and Head of Retail paused, looked at each other and then spoke openly for the next 10 minutes while I took notes.
At the risk of turning it into TLDR, the result is a $84K deal being drawn up and a full roll out before Christmas.
Thanks for your session, wisdom and concepts – came at a perfect time for me and definitely is already being put to good use and helping me shut up and listen.

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