Why Sales is still the elephant in the room

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Strategy

Have you noticed that nearly everyone you meet from CEOs and leaders to professionals services firms, not-for-profits and universities, to the people in the street want to do anything but actually sell and talk about sales?

Many of them will tell you that they want to grow their businesses, deliver better revenue and profits, drive better customer experiences, be taken more seriously by their clients, build better relationships, attract more customers, etc.

To achieve these things they will tell you they are trying out some special apps, social media strategies, CRM systems, developing their leadership styles, EQ assessments, agile work environments, flexible …

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How Retail Discount Advertising negatively impacts B2B Sales – Part II

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Sales Results, Sales Strategy, Sales Tips, Solution Selling

How to shift the conversation from Price to Value

In last week’s post we talked about how –given that every business executive is a consumer, and the amount of discount sales in the retail sector- the expectation of ‘better price’ is impacting B2B sales.

We concluded that a more pragmatic approach is needed, based on value rather than absolute price.

This is the point we need to understand as sales people and business leaders: the client does not really see a price, they see and are looking for value.  So our real mission as sales people is to find out what …

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The power of Sales Process Maps to deliver best sales practice

By / / Coaching, Education in Sales, Sales Benchmarking, Sales Coaching, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Process Maps, Sales Talent

Most new salespeople are thrown in the deep end when it comes to sales induction.

“Here go out with Josephine, our best sales person and be like her.”

Most salespeople, in general, are given no articulated sales process which means there’s nothing specific to be coached or trained to or to follow.

In sales teams we often have the blind leading the blind when it comes to achieving sales best practice.

Why? Because most businesses do not have an articulated sales process map(s) for their salespeople to follow. They treat selling as an action not as a profession with clearly defined …

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Sales Trend 2 – The Silent Majority

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Sales Talent, Sales Trends

Sales Trend 2 from our 12 Sales Trends for 2017 report is about the new salesperson stereotype.

The history of sales methodologies and sales people is full of twists and turns. With a few excellent –or at least well-intentioned– ways of selling and many others that are the complete opposite.

There was a time when the salesperson was the only one with information about new products—from the end of the 19th century to mid-20th century; they were the experts and customers were in their hands when it came to make a buying decision. This produced a situation where many sales …

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Selling Better Case Study: How to do it properly

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Customer Service, Education in Sales, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership, Sales Results, Sales Strategy

A Barrett Selling Better Case Study

Here is a brief snap shot of the current results of a major Selling Better project we started with one of our clients in 2015: 60 salespeople plus managers in a mid-tier speciality banking and finance company, Australia.

  • 130% of sales budget year to date
  • Sales pipeline confirmed business out to 24 weeks versus previous 14 week benchmark
  • Sales team realignment to match higher value customer market opportunities
  • Sales team finding and winning larger, more profitable sales with better quality clients
  • Customer retention (of the right kind of customers) at 100%
  • The CVP (customer value proposition) has been adopted across the …

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Getting prospects to talk to you

By / / Call Reluctance, Education in Sales, Prospecting, Sales Skills, Sales Tips

Do you take time to really think about why you are calling a prospect or a client?  Do you reflect on how effective you have been post the call?

Making prospecting calls to new prospects and existing clients is still one of the most important sales and business development activities you can do on a daily basis.  Even with all the electronic communication and marketing options at hand most businesses still need to have someone prospecting for them to build and forge real business relationships. Top performing salespeople make sure prospecting is part of their daily repertoire.

Prospecting …

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How to give every salesperson the best start to their sales career

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Results, Sales Strategy, Sales Talent, Sales Tips, Strategy

This is how most salespeople are inducted into their sales careers:

“Welcome to our team, Rebecca. It’s great to have you on board. Here is your list of ABC accounts and the products brochure which outlines all the products we sell. I also want you to meet our best salesperson, Ben. He is awesome. As part of your induction I want you to go out on the road and learn to be just like Ben.”

That’s it, give or take a few iterations.

Rebecca is thrown in the deep end and at best asked to mimic Ben with no real context, no reference …

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Why I cannot relate to the typical salesperson stereotype and why we need a new one for the 21st century

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Ethics & Values, Solution Selling, Success, Wellbeing

If you cannot relate to the typical salesperson stereotype you are not alone. Many people we speak to, including many salespeople themselves, have never been able to relate to the fast talking, overly confident and ambitious, competitive, win at all costs, know-it-all, we-are-the-frontline-and-without-us-you-wouldn’t-have-a-job persona that is often portrayed as the ideal salesperson stereotype in the media and business world via films, press, social media, books, articles, and so on.

Today, many people, of all sorts of persuasions – entrepreneurs, start-up founders, professional services (law, accounting, engineering, architects, etc.), technical people, customer service staff, internal teams, membership groups, not-for-profits, even government bodies …

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Without a Strategic Sales Force, you are doomed to fail

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Sales Leadership, Sales Strategy, Success

A strategic sales force – one driven by a focused sales strategy and robust sales operation framework rather than a panel-beaten corporate / marketing strategy or territory plan for capturing incremental share of spend, is a highly treasured asset. A strategic sales force will deliver better results for the organisation’s customers and as a result, for the organisation itself.

A great case study for sales strategy and a strategic sales force.

When we met mid last year, the relatively new Sales Director of the Australian Asia Pac division of a major global equipment manufacturer, was facing declining markets, loss of major accounts, …

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Lessons for sales teams from an elite sportsman

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Competition, Education in Sales, Networking, Sales Leadership, Success

As part of our team’s regular coaching and development, a couple of weeks ago  Franco Crismann, one of Barrett’s BDMs went to a senior management business event at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) where Brian Lake, former Hawthorn/Western Bulldogs AFL footballer, spoke about maintaining a winning culture at work. Here is Franco’s report and reflections on the session:

“We had a room filled with C Level managers who were listening to a sports star talking about business and maintaining a winning culture at work, and I noticed them nodding in agreement. This, to be honest, surprised me.

What I …

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