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Sales Trend 1 – Profit AND Common Good

This is Sales Trend 1 from Barrett’s 12 Business and Sales Trends for 2024. You can download the full report here.

In 30 seconds

Balancing profits and community well-being is vital for modern businesses. This human-centred approach fosters brand reputation and trust. It also boosts employee morale, productivity, and attracts top talent. Such businesses stimulate economic growth in their communities, leading to a mutually beneficial relationship. Additionally, they address systemic inequalities, promoting inclusivity, diversity, and innovation. This trend signifies a paradigm shift with long-lasting implications, promoting sustainability and inclusiveness. Integrating profits with community well-being is a fundamental pillar of …

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Why Humanity Sells Better

In 30 Seconds

The idea for the Selling Better movement and sales methodology started back on 9 January 1995, when I launched Barrett Consulting Group with just $3,000. I wanted to put humanity back on the corporate map which is why Selling Better isn’t about manipulation or pressure, but about genuine connection and shared value. This philosophy and its sales methodology replaces pushy sales tactics with authentic listening, building trust, and offering real benefits. Selling Better is a business savvy and emotionally intelligent way of selling.

Key advantages:

  • Personal Touch: Build strong relationships and understand your client’s needs.
  • Professional Powerhouse: Master sales skills …

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Barrett Sales Trends 2023 Humans at the Centre

Humans at the Centre

In December last year we launched the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2023 – Humans at the Centre.

This Sales Trends Report explores the ethics and values, systems and strategies, processes and tools, and ideas and models that businesses and sales operations need to adopt to become truly human-centred and businessworthy.

You may have seen sales trends 1, 2, 3, and 4 as they make it monthly into the blog. (Links at the bottom of this article.)

You can download the full report here and read what each trend is about below.

Humans at the Centre

Sales trend 1 – The …

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Being Respectful Pays on Every Metric

For a long time, getting ahead in business has been promoted as a war to be won, going into battle, beating the competition, and having a “be tough, no wimps” policy which has created leaders, teams and cultures that are often combative, hyper-competitive (think Survivor) and, in some cases, downright dangerous and toxic to be around.

The accompanying put-downs, bullying, shaming, physical threats of violence, and constant yelling at your team, individuals and colleagues to ‘boost performance’ might make for entertaining TV shows and movies but it does not improve performance. Instead, it has the opposite effect severely diminishing people and …

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Tackling the Rise of Rudeness with Courtesy & Respect

If you’re sensing that rudeness and incivility are on the rise lately, you would be right.

Research shows that since the pandemic incidents of rudeness and incivility have been escalating worldwide.

Before we look further at the statistics, let’s look at Rudeness and Incivility themselves.

Culturally, people can be perceived as rude if they are too direct, blunt, or cheeky, or if they do not follow certain social mores – customs and codes of behaviour established by a social group- whether they intended to behave that way or not; however, this is not what we are talking about here.

This post is specifically calling …

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the-moral-case-for-human-centred-businesses

The Moral Case for Human-centred Businesses

Sales trend 2 of Barrett’s 12 Sales Trends Report for 2023 presents the moral case for putting humans at the centre of businesses.

Adam Smith, often referred to as the father of capitalism, was, in fact, a moral philosopher and said, “Markets could not flourish without a strong underlying moral culture, animated by empathy and fellow-feeling, by our ability to understand our common bond as human beings and to recognize the needs of others.” Smith recognised the moral aspects of humans and the importance of supporting the common good when it came to creating healthy and prosperous societies. …

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barrett-sales-trends-2023-01-the-case-for-human-centred-economics

The Case for Human-centred Economics

Sales trend 1 of Barrett’s 12 Sales Trends Report for 2023 is about why we need to become human-centred in our economic activities.

By guest author TOBY KENT // Toby Kent is a Partner in PwC’s Energy Transition team and leads PwC’s work with privately held companies.

The challenge afoot

A human-centred economy is one in which the primary, and arguably only goal, of an economic system should be to better the lives of those within it. The focus of a Human-Centered Economy is to maximize human welfare.

In a recent role, I focused a lot on urban issues. I would often deride …

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put-humanity-back-on-the-corporate-map

Putting humanity back on the corporate map

It’s time we put humanity back on the corporate map

This was my core purpose when I started Barrett Consulting Group on 9th January 1995, and it still is today, 28 years later.

Prior to starting Barrett, I’d been in corporate for 11 years, giving my best, but feeling out of sorts, unsure about the purpose of business and sales. Something didn’t feel right.

I could see back in the late 1980s and early 1990s that business priorities were dramatically shifting:

  • People were being reduced to consumers with an overemphasis on profit maximisation, shareholder return, and reductionism at the expense of holistic systems, humans, …
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    The decarbonised salesperson

    Sales trend 12 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2022 explores what ‘decarbonised’ salespeople look like and how employers can attract them.

    Written in collaboration with ReillyScott.

    Given my long-standing public commitment to climate action and a clean green sustainable world, it may come as no surprise to readers that I receive connections, feedback, questions and requests from seasoned salespeople professionals looking to transition into ‘decarbonised/ing’ sales roles and businesses.

    Many do not want to work for or be associated with businesses that are not committed to a renewable, decarbonised world.

    They understand selling is the vehicle that allows …

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    TheRaceToTheBottom

    Does anyone benefit from a race to the bottom?

    This is not the first time I have written about Race to the Bottom issues, nor will it likely be the last. However, I am prompted to raise this topic again given the rise in businesses, especially those in the building sector, going bust.

    We work across industries and last week I was working with a B2B sales team in the building and construction sector about how to deal with their civil contractor clients who are caught in fixed price contracts (of their own making) with their developer clients and are now trying to avoid price increases with our client expecting …

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