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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7 things you can do immediately to sell better now plus some extras

By / / Blog, Business Acumen, Collaboration, Common Ground, Gratitude, Opportunity, Sales System, Strategy, Success, Trust

In September 2019 I wrote an article “7 things you can do immediately to improve your sales results in challenging markets” and while a lot has happened since, the core elements of this advice remain true. However, given the advent of Covid and the many lessons learned since, I’d like to include and emphasise the virtues of Trustworthiness, Cooperation and Gratitude because they underpin good business.

Many people’s perspectives and priorities have shifted in the last year beyond the mere matter of making money. They are closely examining their relationship to work, careers, each other …

7 things you can do immediately to sell better now plus some extras Read Post »

difficult-or-just-different

Customer Experiences – Difficult or just different?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Common Ground, Communication, Customer experience, Customer Service, Human-centred, Solution Selling

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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

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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Generation Equality in Sales = much better sales results

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Common Ground, Ethics & Values, Gender & Sales, Sales performance, Sales Results, women-in-sales

This Sunday, 8 March 2020, marks International Women’s Day and the United Nations’ theme for 2020 is:

I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights.

The theme is aligned with UN Women’s new multigenerational campaign, Generation Equality, which marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Given the theme of Generation Equality it seems only apt that we take a look at what women and men can learn from each other when it comes to having successful sales careers. But before I dive into the topic in more depth here is a brief history on how …

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Sales Trend 2 – A better way of doing business

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Common Ground, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Opportunity, Selling Better, Sustainability & Environment, Wellbeing

Sales trend 2 of the Barrett 12 Sales Trend Report for 2020 is about what businesses and sales teams can do now to start making a difference for people and the planet.

The time for talking is past. The planet and its inhabitants can’t wait any longer. Now is the time for decisive action.

Businesses and organisations can, and should, be part of the solution and support sustainable development, wellbeing and a prosperous future for all.

The blue print is here.

The navigation system is ready for deployment. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for every business and organisation …

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Fairness in trading terms for SMEs

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Common Ground, Entrepreneurship, Ethics & Values

You know the story ‘small business wins huge deal with large client’. Amazing.

Everyone is celebrating. ‘Biggest deal we’ve ever had. OMG’

So after the win, the small business sends their terms and conditions for signing and the big client comes back with “we can’t sign your payment terms of 14 days, our payment terms are 60 days after the end of the month of invoice”, that is, if you are lucky, because the reality can be  90 days or more. Which is really bad for business, especially small businesses.

But, the small business agrees because ‘it’s such a good opportunity’ not necessarily …

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Gratitude and Materialism

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Buying, Common Ground, Emotional Intelligence, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Gratitude, Life Skills, Sustainability & Environment

Practising gratitude has made me focus on other matters and much less on material things. I have found that I am far less worried about ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ or experiencing FOMO (fear of missing out). I think less about things and more about people.

There is a place for materialism in our world. I appreciate nice things. I am not an ascetic who disavows material goods or worldly possessions. But I don’t feel the need to strive for them madly. I also understand and appreciate how materialism works as a driver for so much of …

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