david-bowie-the-future-belongs-to-those-who-can-hear-it-coming

Bowie & Me – 26 years on

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Collaboration, Entrepreneurship, Everybody lives by selling something, Innovation

Blog Podcast

Your browser does not support other methods, please download it.

  Download (use ‘right click’ then ‘save as’) 

On 9th January 1995, the day after David Bowie’s 48th birthday, I started Barrett Consulting Group with $3,000 and a dream of doing something significant in the world of sales, service, human relationships, business, ethics, and sustainability, confident in my ability to sell, to learn, be helpful and find my way forward from there.

Each year I revisit this milestone in my career. Each year I …

Bowie & Me – 26 years on Read Post »

2020-sales-trends-virtual-event--the-time-is-now

2020 Sales Trends Virtual Event – The Time is NOW

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Collaboration, Common Ground, covid-19, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Human-centred, Opportunity, Optimism, Remote selling, Sales Strategy, Sales System, Sales Trends, Selling Better

Blog Podcast

Your browser does not support other methods, please download it.

  Download (use ‘right click’ then ‘save as’) 

What a year it has been. 

On Friday 13th March, as we were observing the COVID-19 situation we decided to postpone the Barrett Annual Sales Trend Breakfast, planned for March 25th.

Nine months later, on 25 November, we hosted our event virtually. We explored the 2020 Sales Trends, which seem to be even more relevant now than when we wrote them. For our virtual event we assembled our …

2020 Sales Trends Virtual Event – The Time is NOW Read Post »

lessons-I-am-learning-about-myself-and-my-business-during-COVID-19

Lessons I’m learning about myself & my business during COVID-19 – The Sequel

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Collaboration, Communication, covid-19, Life Skills, Resilience, Strategy, Teamwork

Blog Podcast

Your browser does not support other methods, please download it.

  Download (use ‘right click’ then ‘save as’) 

Four months into the pandemic, I wrote about lessons that I was learning about myself as a leader, and my business. Like for so many people, lessons keep revealing themselves to me this year, so I thought I would write a sequel.

The second part of the year presented more and different challenges, like the second and stricter lockdown in Melbourne, governments around …

Lessons I’m learning about myself & my business during COVID-19 – The Sequel Read Post »

7 things you can do better

Why Collaboration, not Competition, leads to better sales results

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Collaboration, Common Ground, Competition, Ethics & Values, Sales Management, Sales performance, Sales Research, Sales Results, Selling Better, Success, Teamwork

Traditionally, the trope of the solo sales superstar or rainmaker has ruled the hearts and minds of many. Lauded for ‘single-handedly’ winning major accounts, bringing in the most amount of deals, or some other super human sales feat, what might surprise those not as familiar with sales and how selling works, is that none of these sales superstars could have achieved their results without the help of others, because no one lives or works in isolation.

Despite the popular myths, it has been known for nearly 20 years that the most successful salespeople are collaborators and team players, not individual sales …

Why Collaboration, not Competition, leads to better sales results Read Post »

rsr_national_initiative

A ready-to-go program to avoid the ‘Insolvency Tsunami’ & save your business

By / / Blog, Collaboration, covid-19, Education in Sales, Entrepreneurship, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Essentials, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Strategy, Strategy, Success

I read an article in The Age, Thursday 23 July 2020 about how some of the major banks are warning against jumping on the debt bandwagon to save businesses during the crisis, despite the tax payer backed loan scheme. I couldn’t agree more. Any self-respecting business, especially SMEs cannot and shouldn’t borrow more money if they do not have some certainty about where their business opportunities, customers, and sales revenue is going to come from now and in the future.

Earlier in the week I also read a press release by Kate Carnell, the Australian Small Business & Family Enterprise Ombudsman, which …

A ready-to-go program to avoid the ‘Insolvency Tsunami’ & save your business Read Post »

time_is_now

The Time is NOW for Purposeful Optimism

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Collaboration, covid-19, Innovation, Life Skills, Opportunity, Optimism, Purposeful Optimism, Resilience, Sales Essentials, Sales Skills, Sales Strategy, Selling Better, Strategy, Success, Wellbeing

I get the feeling, at this stage of the COVID-19 crisis, that many of us feel like we are living in a kind of ‘Twilight Zone*’ – an ambiguous area between the boundaries of two concepts, conditions – a grey zone; or a state of surrealism, where things that should not make sense seem to do so; or an indefinite or transitional condition. Take your pick.

For many of us, everything we have taken for granted or accepted as standard has been thrown into question. If you’re like me, you’re likely asking yourself, your family, your team, your clients and suppliers, …

The Time is NOW for Purposeful Optimism Read Post »

The Unsung Heroes of Brand Success

The Unsung Heroes of Brand Success

By / / Blog, Brand & Reputation, Collaboration, Customer Service, Marketing, Sales Training, Success

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the greatest of them all?”

The majority would cry Brand of course – brand maketh the company. This includes brand aesthetics, logos and messaging (branding and promises), product design, marketing activities (advertising, social media, etc.), brand recognition, and so on.

When we talk about famous successful brands such as Apple, we know that they have big – read huge – marketing budgets. They have invested heavily to make it just right. Those most successful, like Apple, have also managed to create a large loyal following base which makes them the greatest of them all.

The power …

The Unsung Heroes of Brand Success Read Post »

No, but actually… the time is now

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Attitudes & Behaviours, Collaboration, Environment & Sustainability, Optimism, Resilience, Sustainability & Environment, Trust, Wellbeing

Sales trend 3 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2020 discusses why climate action now makes good (business) sense and why it’s important to focus on achieving desirable outcomes and not just avoiding negative impacts.  

The following text has been slightly modified to cater for the changes that have taken place since it was first published. You can read the full version here.

By guest author TOBY KENT // Chief Resilience Officer, Melbourne

It is 2020, the year for which countries and businesses were all frantically setting climate change reduction targets less …

No, but actually… the time is now Read Post »

Organisations are nothing without communication and relationships

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Collaboration, Communication, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Teamwork

Organisations can only exist when there is an active system of communication between parties that creates the scaffolding of relationship dynamics. Without communication and relationships, organisations are hollow, empty. And as much as good communication can do for an organisation, bad communication or the lack thereof can tear it down.

In times of crisis and major up upheaval like we are all currently experiencing– in families, businesses, communities, governments, economies and societies – the content, quality and frequency of communication is paramount to our survival, literally.

In particular, what we say as leaders, how we say it and how often we say …

Organisations are nothing without communication and relationships Read Post »

Necessity is the mother of invention: How to keep on selling better during COVID-19

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Collaboration, Common Ground, Communication, Ethics & Values, Opportunity, Sales Essentials, Sales Leadership, Sales Planning, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Strategy, Sales Tips, Sales Training, Selling Better, Strategy, Success, Wellbeing

As the world responds to contain the COVID-19 disease, we want to make sure that your and our teams stay safe so we are adjusting our commitments and activities in accordance to current regulations.

We also understand that for businesses these are troubling times, but there are ways forward. As they say ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. We want to stay by your side and help you assess your situation, whether that be devising a sales strategy in line with the new reality, or helping your staff keep the business going in a feasible and responsible way. At Barrett we …

Necessity is the mother of invention: How to keep on selling better during COVID-19 Read Post »

Scroll to Top