Why your company needs a Sales Strategy & Operations Audit NOW

By / / Assessments, Blog, Case study, Role Clarity, Sales Benchmarking, Sales Consulting, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership, Sales Market Segmentation, Sales Strategy, Sales System, Strategy

Despite the pandemic it looks like the GDP will be off the Richter Scale in Australia in 2022. So how will businesses set themselves up to navigate the sales growth opportunities?

The answer: Conduct a Sales Strategy & Operations Audit.  

However, sales strategy is too often neglected, and it can be the difference between business failure and profitability.

For example, in December 2017, I met with the newly appointed Executive GM of a $4B publicly listed company operating in an essential wholesale and distribution channel. The business was in a whole world of pain including sales and share price …

Why your company needs a Sales Strategy & Operations Audit NOW Read Post »

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How a Sales Process helps your sales team sell better, faster

By / / Blog, Role Clarity, Sales Process Maps, Sales Tips, sales-process-map

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The most current and effective iteration of the modern sales profession has been around for the last 15-20 years i.e. client centric solution selling, and yet, most salespeople still learn how to sell by default, not design.

The perpetual whinging by various CEOs and sales leaders of ‘Why can’t my average sales performers be like my top performers?’ or ‘It takes too long to get my new …

How a Sales Process helps your sales team sell better, faster Read Post »

What should I be looking for in a good sales recruit?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Role Clarity, Sales Skills, Sales Talent

What should I be looking for in a good sales recruit?

This is a vexing question for many sales and business leaders.

And some of the answers we still hear aren’t very helpful either.

‘They must be hunters.’

‘They need to be hungry.’

‘They’ve got to be able to close deals.’

‘They must have a mortgage and family so they are ‘motivated’ to sell more.’

‘They must have industry experience.’

Notice anything familiar about most of these answers?

They are all stuck in the ‘aggressive, self-serving, desperate approach to selling’ paradigm which is not what good selling actually is …

What should I be looking for in a good sales recruit? Read Post »

Sales – the new team sport

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Attitudes & Behaviours, Collaboration, Role Clarity, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Results, Sales Trends

Sales trend 9 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2019 explores the characteristics and benefits of truly integrated sales teams.

The future of the individual ‘solo’ salesperson is coming to an end for most businesses.

What is taking their place is an integrated team of people working on sales together.

Sales leaders do not need teams of individual B2B salespeople, they need people with a diverse range of skills working as integrated teams across a range of sales disciplines and capabilities.

Teams who can cover areas such as sales and territory planning, account development, CRM & sales pipeline …

Sales – the new team sport Read Post »

Is your sales team Sinking or Swimming?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Role Clarity, Sales Coaching, Sales Essentials, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Training

Even with the wide availability of information, sales training resources and systems to get salespeople up to speed and selling, too many salespeople are still being thrown in the deep end without any support or induction, and are expected to sell.

Now, if you are an experienced salesperson you would probably navigate your way fairly quickly – that is if you actually know what you need to know, do and say.

If your organisation is like most companies, some effort is usually invested in product training but not usually in ‘how we sell around here’.

Selling is an unusual profession in …

Is your sales team Sinking or Swimming? Read Post »

Clarity & Purpose – a recap of 2015

By / / Role Clarity, Sales Leadership

This is our last sales blog for 2015,  our first blog for 2016 will be out the week of January 11th.

For our clients and the team at Barrett, 2015 has been the year of clarity and purpose with many of our clients being able to put in place sound sales strategies, sales operations frameworks and development programs to set up their sales teams for success in 2016 and beyond.

Not happy dealing with the status quo, these smart business leaders have been looking at how they can transition their sales teams and businesses from being:

  • product driven to ideas and solutions driven
  • individualistic …

Clarity & Purpose – a recap of 2015 Read Post »

Does anyone really know what I’m supposed to be doing?

By / / Assessments, Role Clarity

Do you often find yourself torn between meeting the needs of your manager, the desires of your customers and the requirements of your role? If you answered ‘yes’, you’re not alone. All too often we see salespeople who feel they are ‘the meat in the sandwich’. They consistently go above and beyond to meet all their stakeholders’ needs, often leading to increased stress, frustration, fatigue and burnout. In these instances, it is not uncommon to find that different stakeholder groups have a different perspective or understanding of the required capabilities, competencies and performance criteria for the salesperson’s role. This can …

Does anyone really know what I’m supposed to be doing? Read Post »

How do your clients really perceive you?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Communication, Education in Sales, Mindful selling, Prospecting, Role Clarity, Sales Coaching, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Sales Relationships

Perception is reality. So what do your clients really think of you? Would you be happy with how they perceive you? Are they thinking any of the following when they think about you and your company?:

  • ‘I’m so glad I’ve met you; my life/business is better off for knowing you.’
    or
  • ‘Oh that guy (gal), yeh they’re pretty good’
    or
  • ‘They’re nice but I don’t always have the time to chat with them’
    or
  • ‘That arrogant so and so’
    or
  • ‘Aghhh, I don’t trust them, get them out of my office now’
    or
  • ‘Who?’

    • Good relationships take time and effort to build and create something really valuable …

    How do your clients really perceive you? Read Post »

    Stop Throwing our Salespeople and Sales Managers into the Deep End

    By / / Education in Sales, Role Clarity, Sales Coaching, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Relationships, Sales Training, Success

    Isn’t it about time we stop throwing our sales people and sales managers in the deep end and expecting them to swim – or sell and lead with no support or training in this case? Isn’t it about time that we had frank conversations with our potential recruits about what sales and sales manager roles really entail and make sure our recruits really do have the skills, mindset and knowledge to take on the …

    Stop Throwing our Salespeople and Sales Managers into the Deep End Read Post »

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