The new versatility in learning

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Blog, covid-19, Education in Sales, Learning and Development, Sales Skills, Sales Training, Uncategorized

Sales Trend 7 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2021 explores the changes in Learning and Development that precipitated as a consequence of lockdowns and other restrictions.

By Jens Hartmann, Head of Learning & Development – Barrett

2020 has been a devastating year, there is no amount of glossing over that can change that. But, interestingly, it has brought positive consequences for some important aspects of Learning & Development. It fast-tracked and enforced changes that many people were reluctant to apply or didn’t know about. Within 6 months it had pushed people’s approach to learning further …

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Human-Centred sales teams
A game-changing strategy

By / / Blog, Collaboration, Human-centred, Sales Culture, Sales Relationships, Sales Results, Sales System, Strategy, Success

For too long sales has been seen (and promoted) as combative – us versus them – an arm wrestle on price and terms, a face-off as we sit opposite each other.

What if I told you that doing the exact opposite would actually make selling and buying easier, quicker and more enjoyable for all concerned?

Most people want relationships of all kinds, to be open, honourable, honest, productive, positive, and above all safe because this means we can concentrate on what’s important and get things done together.

However, the more companies operate in the technical space, looking for technical solutions to sales challenges, …

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A game-changing strategy Read Post »

Why Customer Service Teams are your new salespeople & profit centre

By / / Blog, CRM, Customer experience, Customer Service, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Results

Did you know that most businesses are unaware of the repeat business and new sales opportunity potential that lies within their customer service teams?

There’s a stat going around that says around 65% of business sales come from repeat customers. There are various sources given for this information, mostly based in the US. This percentage would vary between industries, business size, etc.; however, no matter how big or small that percentage is, the fact is that most of those sales are realised by customer service teams, not sales teams.

Did you also know that customer service management is much more critical than …

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The Difference between Generosity & Reciprocity & why this really matters

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Communication, Sales Relationships

What is the difference between Generosity and Reciprocity and why does this matter?

In simple terms and for the purposes of our work in sales and business, and maybe life in general:

Reciprocity

Is the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit. Think buying and selling and creating a fair exchange of value.

Generosity

Is the practice of giving something -time, money, food, kindness, advice, etc.- to people, usually, but not always, in need, without expecting something in return from the recipient of our generosity.

Seems pretty straightforward, doesn’t it? But we can get ourselves into all sorts of relationship …

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Hybrid Selling – rebuilding how we sell and buy

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, covid-19, Remote selling

Sales Trend 6 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2021 explains how and why remote selling is here to stay.

COVID has completely reshaped how we do B2B sales with an almost exponential rise in the number of digital / remote client meetings being undertaken on video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Teams, Skype, or Google. Video conferencing and chat has replaced face-to-face encounters overnight. By now, most of us would have experienced video conferences through a number of those platforms, helping us stay in contact to buyers and sellers. What started out as a crisis …

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Unethical Self-Promoters – how a few bad apples spoil it for everyone

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Ethics & Values, Leadership, Self Promotion, Uncategorized

Welcome to part 2 on Unethical Self-Promoters which is inspired by a recent tweet by Pepper Bismol (@Gurl_getreal) who accurately described the real and dire consequences of a ‘few bad apples’:

‘The current usage of a ‘few bad apples’ bothers me. A few bad apples spoil the barrel. If you put a rotting apple in with three dozen good one, every adjacent apple will be rotting withing days.

‘A few bad apples’ does NOT mean ‘we have a good barrel but, oh well, sometime bad things happen’. ‘A few bad apples’ …

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unethical-promoters-checklist

Unethical self-promoters walk amongst us – be very aware

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Call Reluctance, Ethics & Values, Prospecting, Self Promotion

This is Part 1 of a 2-part series on Unethical Self-Promoters.

Back in 1988, I was introduced to a body of research* that focused specifically on the concept of self-promotion, prospecting, and new business development, and the learned behaviours and attitudes that give rise to the fear of self-promotion and sales call reluctance. This body of research was an illuminating, eye-opening, life changing experience for me in many ways – it was a key catalyst that helped kick-start the work I do today. Since then I’ve had the privilege of introducing tens of thousands of people to this research that includes …

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Listening beyond self interest to achieve a fair exchange of value

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Business Acumen, Common Ground, Communication, Life Skills, Sales Tips

Back in 2012, I wrote the article – Are you really listening or just waiting to speak – which resonates with salespeople and leaders and gets them thinking about how well, or not, they really listen to others and how comfortable they are with silence and creating the space for others – in this case, their clients – to be heard and understood.

As we say in the Selling Better Manifesto, Selling is about creating a fair exchange of value between buyer and seller; it’s about mutual prosperity. For that to happen, we need to …

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Rebuilding Leadership for a Better Normal

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Leadership, Sales Leadership, Sales Trends

Sales Trend 5 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2021 looks into what business leaders need to stop, start, and keep doing to rebuild leadership for a better normal.

At a local level, throughout 2020, we’ve seen many businesses, their leaders, employees and customers go through tremendous personal and economic pain while others have prospered and gone from strength to strength.

Taking the lead in such an unprecedented time of chaos and uncertainty means that business owners, boards and C-suite leaders including sales leaders simply have no option but to continue to work through all their choices, …

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I’m in sales, you’re in sales, we’re all in sales

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Brain Science, Call Reluctance, Everybody lives by selling something, Human-centred, Life Skills, Opportunity, Prospecting, Sales Psychology, Selling Better, Success

When my eldest son was eleven, he said to me ‘Mum I don’t believe everybody lives by selling something’. I said, ‘That’s interesting, why do you say that?’ and he started to try to persuade and convince me as to why this statement wasn’t true. So I said to him ‘by you trying to persuade and convince me why this isn’t true, aren’t you trying to sell me something?’ To which he said ‘Ahh, I get it Mum.’

Yes, we are all in sales, one way or another.

If you have ever tried to initiate contact with a person …

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