Sales Trend 10 – Oops! I’m in sales

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Customer Service, Education in Sales, Sales Trends

Barrett’s Sales Trend 10 for 2015 is ‘Oops! I’m in sales’.

The general stereotypical view of selling and salespeople has remained relatively stable over the past 50 or so years, with the most commonly associated words and concepts being fairly specific (i.e. ‘used car salesman’) and/or negative (i.e. ‘pushy’, ‘sleazy’, ‘dishonest’)[1]. Even by people working in the sales profession, these schemas are often what they refer to when asked to describe sales. However, very slowly, this is starting to change.

Many companies and sales people are actively trying to change these stereotypes by promoting more positive behaviours …

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If you’re not selling, you’re supporting someone who is

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Collaboration, Communication, Customer Service, Marketing

Last week I wrote about ‘making promises you can keep and keeping the promises you make’ and when the rhetoric and reality do not coincide thus leaving customers disappointed at best and downright cynical and mad at worst.

No business is perfect that’s for sure; however, if the intention of the business and its people is to genuinely help and serve customers for a fair exchange of value (whatever that is deemed to be) then everyone in the company needs to be trained -in what is relevant to each role: how to sell, serve and/or communicate- to a …

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Making Persuasive Sales Presentations

By / / Communication, Sales Presentation & Grooming, Sales Skills

How persuasive are you?

Persuasiveness is the power to induce the taking of a course of action or the embracing of a point of view by means of argument or entreaty.

One of the mistakes salespeople make when doing sales presentations is their tendency to be more informative than persuasive. That difference is costing companies millions of dollars a year in lost sales opportunities. The reason for this is simple. It’s far easier to dispense information than it is to interact with an audience (buyers, stakeholders, etc.) and try and persuade someone to make a commitment to our offer. As a result many sales professionals linger …

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Getting your sales perspective in 2015

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Communication, Emotional Intelligence, Life Skills, Sales Psychology, Sales Skills, Value Based Selling

Perspective Taking is a critical life skill that can serve us well no matter what role we are in.

Perspective Taking is also a vital sales skill if we want to develop viable relationships with clients, influence people to consider and buy our offerings, grow sales and lead successful sales careers.

What is Perspective Taking?
Perspective Taking is the act of viewing a situation, or understanding a concept, from an alternate point-of-view. Perspective Taking is the process of temporarily suspending one’s own point-of-view in order to view a situation as someone else might. This process does not necessitate any form of affinity, …

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Sales Trend 12 – The Enlightened Sales Person

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Collaboration, Communication, Sales Relationships, Sales Trends, Uncategorized

As the year comes to a close so do we present the 12th and final Sales Trend for 2014. This sales trend is seeing a new kind of salesperson emerging in our midst. Not common by any stretch of the imagination, but appearing in businesses slowly but surely. Smart companies are becoming aware that they need a new kind of salesperson, especially at the higher levels of business. The days of the flashy, aggressive, all talking ‘pitch master’ , or ‘you’re my mate’ schmoozer are fading fast from most industries with only …

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Sales Managers – the importance of making it personal

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Communication, Sales Management, Wellbeing

We could be forgiven for thinking that everything about selling revolves around numbers, developing new opportunities, making sales and achieving results. Because that is what is usually written and spoken about at board room tables, sales meetings, and in manner of articles.

The pursuit of finding securing opportunities is relentless.

It is little wonder then that many salespeople find themselves feeling off colour or even distressed every now again, especially when times or markets are tougher than usual. It is hard enough to maintain your own momentum, let alone having a Sales Managers – the importance of making it personal Read Post »

The problem with noisy call centres

By / / Brand & Reputation, Communication, Customer Service

If you look up ‘Noisy Call Centres’ on the web you will find a lot of information about the welfare of call centre staff. Often working in open plan office environments side by side, with many people speaking at once, ringing phones, office equipment hum and in some cases loud music in the background, you can understand why the welfare of staff is top of mind.

The ability to concentrate and do your job well in these environments can be severely hampered by all these distractions. Try selling and servicing in these conditions – it can be very challenging. Especially for …

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Going mobile – the rise of Smartphones in Sales

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, CRM, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Meetings, Social Media, Social Sales

In December 2012, we published the 12 Sales Trends Report for 2013 and released a brief summary of each trend. This month we are focusing on the Sales Trend “Going mobile – the rise of smartphones in sales”. As Australia deals with the challenge of becoming more globally competitive, organisations are making greater use of both increased mobility as well as tele-conferencing using smartphone technology.   Anecdotal research is showing that smartphones are giving salespeople an edge in a number of ways. This sales …

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What’s your Elevator pitch?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Success

“So what do you do?”

How many times have you been asked that question? At a networking function, a business event, at a BBQ, in the elevator, anywhere?

How did you go answering the question?

You may have nailed it in a clear succinct sentence or like many people you may have stumbled, paused, gather your thoughts and then launched into a jumbled monologue about what you do and how you do it that ended up either boring your questioner or losing them in the details.

Sound familiar?

Many people find it difficult to articulate what they do in a simple easy to understand statement …

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Sales Psychology – The Theory of Mind

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Emotional Intelligence, Life Skills, Mindful selling, Sales Psychology, Sales Relationships

When we interact and work with people (customers, colleagues, managers, friends, family, etc.) it is important to be able to interpret and understand where the other person is coming from – their perspective, especially if we want to continue interacting and working with them in a manner that is beneficial to both parties. Interpreting and understanding where another person is coming from does not automatically imply that we agree with their perspective.

We may not agree. However, we at least know where they stand, what their perspective is, how they see the world. Ideally, the other person would respond in kind …

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