With business becoming much more complex and value harder to discern in product sales alone, Sales Trend 7, Sell and Deliver Value or Commoditise, sees business leaders making serious decisions about how to do business. In essence, they have two choices in terms of the way to run legitimate operations:
2017 Sales Trend 7 – Sell and Deliver Value or Commoditise Read Post »
Do you frequently discount to win business? Does your brand seem to matter less to customers today? It’s no wonder. Customers can do a Google search of your product or service and, within minutes, learn about your product, your competitors, what customers think of you, and find the lowest prices. So, with this kind of information at their fingertips, why would they need to meet with a salesperson?
It’s a critical question in today’s selling environment – and one you need to think about if you want to sell better.
In recent observations done by Barrett we noticed a …
How to avoid the discount trap Read Post »
When sales start to dry up or the business doesn’t seem to be getting traction with customers, many small to medium (SME) sized businesses will usually turn to Marketing in the first, and often only instance, as their preferred solution to fixing poor sales results.
Why? Because many people have been taught to think they have a marketing problem when they actually have a sales problem.
As a result, many start-ups and SME businesses have failed to get traction and then fallen over because they didn’t address their sales problem with the right sales solution, instead relying on marketing.
Unless you are an …
Why Marketing can’t fix a Sales Problem Read Post »
The sad passing of David Bowie this last week has brought a huge wave of emotional outpouring from many parts of the world including myself. I grew up with David Bowie. He has been in my life as long as I can remember. He was, I admit, my most favourite music star of all. I loved everything about him and remember him with much love and affection. I have the books and albums, I have been to his concerts, and most recently attended that wonderful exhibition ‘David Bowie is’ which tracked his life and highlighted his contributions to music, art, …
David Bowie – a role model for all entrepreneurs Read Post »
Product differentiation is getting harder, Me2 products are flooding the markets, quality is being commoditised, and as a result margins are being squeezed and value is at risk of being shed if we don’t know how to articulate the real value we deliver beyond product and price and demonstrate our competitive edge.
With so much choice and competitors fighting for our clients’ attention, it is critical that we find and define our competitive edge.
How do we define our competitive edge?
That depends on what we want to deliver to our customers and how we want to run our businesses.
Today, …
How to find your competitive edge and compete successfully Read Post »
As I have previously written one of our biggest issues in running effective sales operations and executing effective sales strategies is the persistence of ‘point’ or ‘silver bullet’ solutions that mislead and distract. If you recall, a point solution solves one particular problem without regard to related issues and unfortunately, point solutions often don’t deliver meaningful or sustainable results.
That is why we need to embrace Systems Thinking as the way to lead and manage sales teams and operations.
What is Systems Thinking?
Systems Thinking is a holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system’s constituent …
Sales Systems Thinking, the key to effective sales strategy and operations Read Post »
This series of ‘Survival of the Adaptive’ articles will look at the key things we need to do as sales teams to contend with the many changes afoot in our 21st century world and market place.
Part 2 is all about developing a well-informed sales force
A decade ago, when traditional product-pushing sales were all that mattered, most sales leaders employed and trained well motivated salespeople – usually with what they referred to as “industry experience”. Today that is hardly enough!
Many of these sales leaders now confess to being less certain that industry experience or having …
Survival of the Adaptive P2: Develop a well-informed sales force Read Post »
It is a harsh reality – product demand and brand scores are down. Some contributing factors to this decline are: bad experiences with retailers or suppliers, poor responses from intermediaries, mediocre service levels, automated procurement practices, stripped down pricing, and an increased number of competitors with products that are just as good and brand names that are just as well respected.
In the face of this growing complexity and a challenging global economic environment, salespeople face continuing demands to meet higher sales quotas. And this in markets most likely suffering from already squeezed margins, and buyers who are sceptical and reluctant …
How should sales teams adapt to changes in the marketplace? Read Post »
Many of us have been there and some of us are yet to experience the gut wrenching experience when we finally, consciously realise that our sales pipeline and revenue numbers are in drastic decline and we are in deep, deep trouble. We realise all too dramatically that we are having the business and sales equivalent of a heart attack.
The brutal facts finally hit us hard in our face, our chest, our guts and we realise we may not survive.
Yet, the causes and signs were there for us all to see. Like a heart attack, a combination of activities caused this …
First Aid Kit for a Sales Recovery Read Post »
There comes a time when we realise that amidst change we cannot keep living the old way, doing the same old things expecting different outcomes.
This time has come for Product Selling. Product or Transactional Selling, especially in B2B and complex B2C, is now obsolete.
However, the amount of product companies that are now finding they are rapidly losing margins and being reduced to commodity traders is staggering. We have the makings of a perfect storm where customers are taking full advantage of these conditions at the expense of the product companies.
Many product companies have fallen prey to the ‘ It’s time for Hybrid Sales Teams & Hybrid Businesses Read Post »