Short-termism or Sustainable Business Growth for the new FY?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Business Growth, Environment & Sustainability, Human-centred, Strategy, Sustainability & Environment

As we enter the new financial year in Australia, we, as business leaders, teams, and shareholders have a choice – we can choose short-termism or sustainable business growth strategies.

If we choose short-termism, we’re compromising any sustainable growth strategy. Short-term performance pressures on leaders and investors can result in an excessive focus on their parts on quarterly earnings, with less attention paid to strategy, fundamentals, and long-term value creation.

Short-termism is not sustainable.

The pandemic, current energy crisis and climate change have exposed the devastating effects of short-termism and lack of sustainable growth strategies like investment in a renewable energy economy.  Everyone is …

Short-termism or Sustainable Business Growth for the new FY? Read Post »

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Decarbonised Economic Models & Systems

By / / Blog, Decarbonising, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Human-centred, Sustainability & Environment

“It is not for us to forecast the future, but to shape it”. Antoine de Saint-Exupery

In Sales Trend 6 we explored decarbonised sales systems and sales strategies. In Sales Trends 7 we look at economic models that promote decarbonised systems and organisations.

Key operating models that can be deployed now and in the immediate future to create decarbonised economies, business models, and in turn sales systems and operations include Circular Economy, GreenShoring, and Doughnut Economics. 

Circular Economy

Circular Economy is an alternative to the linear “Take, Make, Consume and Dispose” mindset and business model which can help deliver …

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Cultivating Positive & Productive Sales Teams & Cultures

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Collaboration, Competition, Human-centred, Leadership, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales performance, Sales Results

I want you to imagine a field sales team of 20 B2B salespeople, each of whom has their own well-defined sales territory (it could be industry-based or geographical, doesn’t matter) and sales targets. They have access to sales support and customer service. Every month this sales team, including sales support, meets (virtually and occasionally in person) to workshop their territory plans looking at what’s working and what’s not.

These meetings are focused on moving forward and how to get better sales traction and deliver on results. Sure, each salesperson is required to enter their activities and deal progress in the CRM …

Cultivating Positive & Productive Sales Teams & Cultures Read Post »

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Barrett – participant of the United Nations Global Compact

By / / Blog, Common Ground, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Human-centred, Selling Better, Sustainability & Environment

As a business, Barrett has been committed to ethical business and sales practices since we opened our doors in 1995. We have remained true to our principles and values that reflect that commitment:

  • Ethical, human-centred and sustainable selling practices and ethos
  • Fair and mutual exchange of value
  • Mutual success and prosperity
  • Long term sustainability
  • Designing and enacting business, leadership, and sales practices for a better world

In December 2009 we published the first issue of the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report. It was titled ‘12 Sales Trends for 2010: No more “Business as usual”’. Sales trend 10 in that report was focused on sustainable selling – …

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Selling – a powerful agent for change

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Common Ground, Human-centred, Life Skills, Sales Skills, Selling Better

I live by the philosophy that everybody lives by selling something.

I also believe -I know- that Selling is a powerful agent for personal, social and political change.

Many people treat selling as a business function, which it is. However, they often see it as something done by others – those called salespeople. Yet when it comes to enacting any kind of change – personal, social, environmental, political – we need to embrace our inner salesperson to take charge and take action.

Knowing how to sell, ethically and honourably, is a game changer on every level.

We might have an idea or initiative we …

Selling – a powerful agent for change Read Post »

Reminder: Everybody lives by selling something

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Human-centred, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Talent, Selling Better, Success

Everybody lives by selling something

Within a business, this means that everybody needs to be an ambassador for our organisation. There needs to be recognition that everyone is in one of two roles: 1) actively involved in selling, or 2) supporting someone who is. Without sales there’s no business.

Selling is a human domain

Selling isn’t the domain of salespeople, it is a human domain. For those of us who have talents and capabilities we want to take to market we need to harness the competencies of human-centred, ethical selling practices. Without this essential set of life skills, we cannot …

Reminder: Everybody lives by selling something Read Post »

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Selfishness is NOT next to godliness: An Antidote to Corruption

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Human-centred, Trust

The 9th of December is International Anti-corruption Day, and corruption is rife at the moment.

When you have senior politicians and business leaders downplaying their corruption as business as usual, Houston we have a problem.

The UN states “Corruption affects all areas of society. Preventing corruption unlocks progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, helps protect our planet, creates jobs, achieves gender equality, and secures wider access to essential services such as healthcare and education. 

“The 2021 International Anti-Corruption Day seeks to highlight the rights and responsibilities of everyone – including States, Government officials, civil servants, law enforcement officers, media representatives, the …

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The many ways of saying ‘no’ to a client

By / / Blog, Customer experience, Customer Service, Human-centred, Sales Driven Organisations

AND WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO GET IT RIGHT

Ever wondered how your team or your colleagues convey a “no” to their customers when necessary? Or how consistent this kind of communication is across different account managers? Here is a real-life example, copied and pasted from the original emails.

Background: A bank customer asked his bank to reorganise his home loans, no change to the overall amount, just shifting the various parts to accommodate evolving market conditions.

In response to this request, the client was sent a new set of Terms and Conditions to sign. These new T&Cs included a paragraph about the …

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is-it-easy-to-deal-with-your-business

In your clients’ shoes: is it easy to deal with your business?

By / / Blog, Brand & Reputation, Customer experience, Customer Service, Human-centred

I don’t think people will find it surprising that in the last year, in particular, business leaders – those leaders of corporations and big business- have been focusing on making managing and dealing with clients more ‘efficient’ for their businesses. We all know that means automating as much as possible.

This is not new, businesses, especially those in B2C markets with lots of consumers like airlines, travel operators, banks, telcos, energy providers, and so on have taken on customer automation with gusto but it seems to have gone to the extreme. The extremes of customer automation now make it virtually impossible …

In your clients’ shoes: is it easy to deal with your business? Read Post »

An Antidote to Corruption: Human-centred Business & Sales

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Ethics & Values, Human-centred, Selling Better

We know where there’s corruption you will always find poor or no governance, lack of transparency, nepotism, poor work conditions that exploit the vulnerable, high staff turnover, profit maximisation and cost stripping at the expense of sustainability, tax avoidance, and unethical leaders, underpinned by vested interests, at the helm of enterprises looking for self-enrichment at our expense promoting the ‘greed is good’ mantra.

For almost 20 years, Australia ranked in the top 10 least corrupt countries. However, by 2018, we’d fallen 8 points to 13. The fact that we are falling down the scale raises serious questions about the …

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