Why you shouldn’t let rudeness lead to the ruination of business and sales

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Communication, Customer Service, Ethics & Values, Life Skills, Presentation & Grooming, Sales Relationships, Self Development, Wellbeing

In the midst of the trend and hype of ‘customer centricity’, ‘the customer experience (CX)’, ‘customer excellence’ and other such terms it appears there is something amiss – the rise and rise of rudeness, incivility, disrespectful behaviour, and the trend of behaving badly at work.

This is not a new phenomenon; however, it is reaching epic proportions and affecting many businesses, their staff, customers and suppliers as we speak with devastating consequences.

Ray Williams writing for ‘Psychology Today’ back in October 2016 said this: “Has incivility become the new norm in America? Fundamental ethical values such as respect, fairness, honesty, personal responsibility …

Why you shouldn’t let rudeness lead to the ruination of business and sales Read Post »

Professional Jealousy?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Ethics & Values, Life Skills, Self Development, Self Promotion, Success

How those who shame others for selling themselves are the biggest losers

Let’s begin with a story about an excellent scientist. Someone so passionate and competent about his subject area that he happily and productively spent years studying the topic, getting to know it deeply and how it affects the world; how it is part of a broader system.

Then, with this great body of work and innovative ideas to share, he happily and proactively goes about meeting, informing and persuading key people as to the importance of his ideas and how these ideas can change things for the better.

The target audiences …

Professional Jealousy? Read Post »

It’s time to be taken seriously – no more Harvey Weinsteins please

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Ethics & Values, Gender & Sales, Life Skills, Resilience, Wellbeing

In October 1983, I found myself in the clinical room of a middle aged medical doctor whom I was meeting for the first time. I was not a patient, I was a 21 year old medical sales representative doing her job.

He was a doctor in my sales territory. I was new to professional selling. I was on my own. Nothing unusual here except that when I came into his room and sat down, he stood up and went to lock the door then came over to me, sat down beside me and attempted to hand me a glass of whisky.

I …

It’s time to be taken seriously – no more Harvey Weinsteins please Read Post »

Don’t die wondering, the real secret to sales success – Part II of II: the person

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Education in Sales, Emotional Intelligence, Life Skills, Prospecting, Resilience, Sales Skills, Solution Selling

How many times have we all been tempted to click on a link that offers us ‘the secret of sales success’ only to find a website or article that is promising a silver bullet ‘if only you do this one thing’ which doesn’t help us at all?

As I mentioned last week, the business of sales excellence is like the diet industry, full of tempting offerings that lead us nowhere fast.

It is only natural that people want simple answers to complex problems. ‘The world would be so much easier if only…’ we sigh.

However, “Explanations exist; they have existed …

Don’t die wondering, the real secret to sales success – Part II of II: the person Read Post »

It’s all about Opportunity: A future – disrupted & reimagined

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Innovation, Life Skills, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership, Sales Pioneer, Success

On December 4 (Melbourne) and 6 (Sydney) 2017, Barrett will be attending The Future: Disrupted and Reimagined event featuring Malcolm Gladwell, author of five New York Times bestsellers — The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants, and Steven Levitt, economist and co-author of Freakonomics, SuperFreakonomics, Think Like A Freak and When To Rob a Bank.

Gladwell and Levitt are some of the world’s most interesting and outstanding writers talking about the 21st century world and how we can rethink and reimagine our future in times of great …

It’s all about Opportunity: A future – disrupted & reimagined Read Post »

Why manners & courtesy are vital for successful selling, businesses & societies

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Ethics & Values, Life Skills

Sometimes, the seemingly trivial daily acts we perform are the most important. Courtesy is but one example.

For instance, while driving your car, do you ever want to switch lanes but are prevented from changing by the heavy traffic? How do you feel when someone, recognising your problem, slows down, waves to you and lets you in? Your mounting frustration is likely to instantly transform into relief and thankfulness. You probably raise your hand as a sign of thanks and change lanes. Later, when you see someone else in a similar situation, do you also slow down and let them in? …

Why manners & courtesy are vital for successful selling, businesses & societies Read Post »

Why cultivating the quality of Discernment leads to better sales outcomes

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Ethics & Values, Life Skills

In this busy, cluttered and complex world the ability to make good judgements is becoming increasingly important. That is why I have been encouraging myself and others to cultivate the quality of Discernment.

What is discernment?

Discernment is the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure[1]. It comes from from Old French discerner (13c.) “distinguish (between), separate” (by sifting), and directly from Latin discernere “to separate, set apart, divide, distribute; distinguish, perceive,” from dis- “off, away” (see dis-) + cernere “distinguish, separate, sift” (see crisis)[2].

‘Applying the wisdom of our intuition to discover what is …

Why cultivating the quality of Discernment leads to better sales outcomes Read Post »

The vital life (& sales) skill of Reflection

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Life Skills, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, Self Development, Time Management, Wellbeing

As I sit at my desk writing this article I am reflecting on the past 4-5 weeks where sitting at my desk and taking time to think, ponder, and reflect on ideas, my team, my work, our strategy, our wellbeing and so on has been few and far between. On one hand I am grateful that we are fully engaged (our work word for ‘busy’) and active with our work and clients, on the other hand I am mourning the lack of those small time outs when I can create the space to look into both the details and vast …

The vital life (& sales) skill of Reflection Read Post »

Women in Sales Leadership: advice to my younger self

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Collaboration, Education in Sales, Ethics & Values, Life Skills, Sales Leadership, Wellbeing

Over 2 days on 5 & 6 April 2016 I had the privilege of chairing the 2016 Women in Sales Leadership Conference in Sydney, Australia. The theme for the event was ‘Advice to my younger self’.

We had over 20 senior sales leaders from around Australia presenting to a room full of women in sales and sales leadership roles from a range of industries. We had young women in their 20’s embarking on their sales careers through to many senior sales leaders with 30+ years’ experience in sales and sales leadership.

Interestingly, unlike other sales conferences I have attended over the years, …

Women in Sales Leadership: advice to my younger self Read Post »

Why everybody benefits from knowing when to say ‘NO’

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Life Skills, Sales Tips, Self Development

Seth Godin is a master at providing pithy, sage advice and I couldn’t go past a recent post of his that really spells out the importance of knowing when to say NO.

His article made me recall an earlier article I wrote back on 2007 called ‘Learn to say NO’ which focused on standing up for your value and pricing and not being intimidated by bully buyers.

All of this coincided with an article in The Age newspaper this week about ‘The customer can be wrong’ highlighting the issue of employee safety around sexual harassment of staff by customers.

What’s happening …

Why everybody benefits from knowing when to say ‘NO’ Read Post »

Scroll to Top