Trust is the heartbeat of business, sales and society

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Communication, Competition, Ethics & Values, Sales Culture, Sales Relationships

I have been writing about Trust in sales and business for many years; however, this year has seen a rise in my output on this topic, especially with the fallout from the Banking Royal Commission with posts such as:

The Flight to Ethical Selling – how the banks can avoid a royal commission

What does Selling Better mean for customers and shareholder return?

What are the biggest issues facing CEOs and sales leaders today?

Yet, trust is the heartbeat of business, sales and society.

Without this life force pumping vitality through our collective systems every day …

Trust is the heartbeat of business, sales and society Read Post »

What does Selling Better mean for customers and shareholder return?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Ethics & Values, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Sales Relationships, Sales Results

I have to start with the bad news on this topic.

Are any of us surprised by the current revelations stemming from the Australian Banking Royal Commission?

Possibly not.

Are any of us surprised as to the extent of the unethical and illegal behaviours documented and admissions made by senior management into the systemic corruption of their businesses, especially in the financial planning sector?

Possibly yes.

It is utterly astounding, the admissions being made by senior management of the likes of AMP and CBA. Then comes the audacity of blaming growing shareholder returns as their excuse to exploit and deceive customers. Saying they were unaware …

What does Selling Better mean for customers and shareholder return? Read Post »

Are your sales conferences pumping or slumping?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Brand & Reputation, Collaboration, Communication, Sales Conference, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Strategy, Teamwork

*** Trigger Warning: May contain traces of sarcasm ***

We’ve all been there: a sea of people, pulled together from across the country or region, locked in a windowless room with artificial light, seated at round tables with mints and water, patiently waiting for the parade of presenters to finish their ‘Death by PowerPoint’ presentations so we can get to the coffee station during the day and then the bar at night to start really engaging with our colleagues. During the day some relief can be found in the smartphones that everyone will be less and less discreetly looking at repeatedly, …

Are your sales conferences pumping or slumping? Read Post »

Forget NPS, it’s about NES (net easy score)

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Customer Service, Sales Culture, Sales Measures - Inputs & Outputs

Making ‘my life’ easy in this complex world is customer experience gold.

However, everybody obsesses about their NPS – net promoter score.

If you haven’t heard about NPS before, it’s a metric for assessing customer loyalty for a company’s brand, products or services. Many companies use NPS as part of their customer relationship management (CRM) strategy because the metric is easy to calculate.

Getting promoted more often for the right reasons is only underpinned by how well we address our customers’ needs and priorities and how easy we make the experience for them.

Too many companies have not addressed the customer’s buying journey and …

Forget NPS, it’s about NES (net easy score) Read Post »

Sales Trend 1 – The Selling Better Manifesto

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Education in Sales, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Innovation, Mindful selling, Opportunity, Sales Pioneer, Sales Trends, Success, Uncategorized, Wellbeing

Sales Trend 1 of the Barrett 12 Sales Trends for 2018 Report is our Selling Better Manifesto. It talks about the Selling Better Movement and it explains why we have started it.

We have created The Selling Better Movement with the hope it will help people understand that there’s a better way of doing business.

A way in which we can all be prosperous.

The Selling Better Movement is an ethical and human-centred selling ethos underpinned by a practical selling philosophy.

The modern business landscape offers a world of possibility. More and more people are stepping out to unearth …

Sales Trend 1 – The Selling Better Manifesto Read Post »

Why you shouldn’t let rudeness lead to the ruination of business and sales

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Communication, Customer Service, Ethics & Values, Life Skills, Presentation & Grooming, Sales Relationships, Self Development, Wellbeing

In the midst of the trend and hype of ‘customer centricity’, ‘the customer experience (CX)’, ‘customer excellence’ and other such terms it appears there is something amiss – the rise and rise of rudeness, incivility, disrespectful behaviour, and the trend of behaving badly at work.

This is not a new phenomenon; however, it is reaching epic proportions and affecting many businesses, their staff, customers and suppliers as we speak with devastating consequences.

Ray Williams writing for ‘Psychology Today’ back in October 2016 said this: “Has incivility become the new norm in America? Fundamental ethical values such as respect, fairness, honesty, personal responsibility …

Why you shouldn’t let rudeness lead to the ruination of business and sales Read Post »

The Flight to Ethical Selling – how the banks can avoid a royal commission

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Ethics & Values, Performance Management, Sales Culture

Everybody lives by selling something and so it is true for the banks and financial services businesses; however, it seems that too many people in some divisions of some of the banking, financial planning and insurance institutions have confused ethical selling with unethical selling practices. Not all banks and financial institutions, mind you, but enough of the big ones to erode trust so badly that people are baying for a royal commission.

When I first started introducing the discipline of Selling to the Australian banking sector back in early 1990’s I was met with a ‘we don’t sell’ mentality even though …

The Flight to Ethical Selling – how the banks can avoid a royal commission Read Post »

Sales Trend 10 for 2017 – Personal Branding – The Foundation of Social Selling

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Brand & Reputation, Sales Trends, Social Sales

Sales Trend 10 from Barrett’s 12 Sales trends Report for 2017 is about the relation between personal branding and social selling.

It is an interesting fact that the ‘extraordinary’ of yesterday becomes the ‘ordinary’ of today.

Have you noticed that the most extraordinary salespeople of 5 years ago are often the ordinary salespeople today—or gone. Why is this?

The world of sales has changed dramatically in the last 5 years and some selling organisations and their salespeople are not adapting fast enough. As a result, a lower percentage of salespeople are achieving their targets and vendors are struggling to grow …

Sales Trend 10 for 2017 – Personal Branding – The Foundation of Social Selling Read Post »

It’s time to be taken seriously – no more Harvey Weinsteins please

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Ethics & Values, Gender & Sales, Life Skills, Resilience, Wellbeing

In October 1983, I found myself in the clinical room of a middle aged medical doctor whom I was meeting for the first time. I was not a patient, I was a 21 year old medical sales representative doing her job.

He was a doctor in my sales territory. I was new to professional selling. I was on my own. Nothing unusual here except that when I came into his room and sat down, he stood up and went to lock the door then came over to me, sat down beside me and attempted to hand me a glass of whisky.

I …

It’s time to be taken seriously – no more Harvey Weinsteins please Read Post »

Rethinking our economy… How do we sell in a Circular Economy with Doughnut Economics?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Innovation, Strategy, Sustainability & Environment, Wellbeing

Go out on a limb

It’s hard not to notice that we all have quite a bit on our agendas; lots of things competing for our time and attention; too many things that are likely to leave us feeling overwhelmed, overloaded and often confused.

People are asking lots of questions, e.g.:  Which way to turn? Which way to look? What to do? What is right? What is wrong? Who should we believe? Where do we go?

But, as we always say ‘It all starts with OPPORTUNITY’. So I invite you to go out on a limb with this article. I need you to …

Rethinking our economy… How do we sell in a Circular Economy with Doughnut Economics? Read Post »

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