How fit is your sales team?

By / / Sales Assessments, Sales Skills, Sales Talent, Sales Training

Earlier this year we had the opportunity to put a client’s field sales force through the Barrett Sales Fitness Circuit to test their sales fitness.

The Sales Fitness Circuit is designed to reinforce and continue the process of learning from the Barrett Sales Communication Training. The Sales Communication competencies (skills, knowledge and mindset) covered in the initial training is put to the test through a series of exercises. The aim is to embed the learning from the training as a way of life in the sales team’s actions and thinking.

Specific skills, competency enhancement, and behaviour …

How fit is your sales team? Read Post »

What do your sales people really need to know and apply?

By / / Business Acumen, Sales Assessments, Sales Pioneer, Sales Planning, Sales Skills, Sales Talent, Sales Tips, Sales Training, Self Development

In today’s market selling skills training does not equal product training or pressure tactics. If product training or pressure selling (the hard sell) are on the top of your sales training agenda or the only training you offer your sales people then you may want to rethink your sales training strategy.

What is expected of sales people today by way of skillful thought and action goes way beyond the product or the hard sell.

Let’s first look at what clients want. This will then help us determine what sales people need to be able to do.

Clients today …

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Testing times when recruiting ‘good’ salespeople

By / / Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Research, Sales Talent, Uncategorized

When I consider how I spend my time professionally, I find it is often devoted to demystifying two things:

1. What is ‘good’ selling?
2. The proper use of psychometric assessments, especially in sales recruitment

Having written on the former on many occasions, I would like to dedicate this space to the latter – the proper use of psychometric assessments in sales recruitment.

To put this into perspective, my business has psychometrically assessed 40,000+ people in sales, business development and leadership roles using a variety of purpose built assessments. This has provided us with valuable insight into what assessments work best in …

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Why you can’t have a one-type-of-sales-person-does-it-all approach

By / / Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Consulting, Sales Skills, Sales Talent

I find it somewhat frustrating when people make simplistic claims and statements about salespeople like: ‘super sales performers are all risk takers and oblivious to rejection and failure’.

Statements like this are simply not true and trivialise the complex world of selling by trying to box people without proper analysis and insight.

There is a large body of research that shows there are many types of sales people for different types of clients, products, and markets. Just because a sales person may be excellent in one market may not mean they are well suited for another.

Take call centres for instance. If the …

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The cost of poor sales selection

By / / Assessments, Brain Science, Brand & Reputation, Competition, Performance Management, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Management, Sales Psychology, Sales Research, Sales Talent

Have you ever done the math on how much sales recruitment costs you, especially when you get it wrong?

If you are like most managers then chances are you haven’t. So let’s consider the costs, overt and covert, involved in sales recruitment.

If you don’t know it already, sales recruitment is one of the toughest assignments around. I know this firsthand, as I was in this role for over 8 years with a leading consultancy and recruitment company. During this time, I interviewed about 8,000 sales people face-to-face in the technical, industrial, medical, and scientific industries. Remember, this is not counting all …

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Who’s in charge of your sales recruitment?

By / / Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Management, Sales Talent

1. How much is a good sales person worth to you?
2. How much is a good hiring manager worth to you?

Speaking about recruitment in these current economic times may seem foolish, however in the area of selling, this is where you could make great strides by picking up highly effective sales people who have found themselves on the job market or are looking for a better business to work in. I know of a few highly competent sales people and sales managers who have been let go along with other staff as part of large staff reduction strategies.

In …

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Daring to be Different (part 2)

By / / Assessments, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Management, Sales Skills, Sales Talent

Here is the second of two articles about recruiting top performing sales people and daring to do so from outside of your industry.

Even though I have not worked as a traditional recruitment consultant for more than 14 years many of my long standing clients still talk about those ‘out of the box’ placements we made. Was it just the recruitment approach that made the difference. Well NO. What these savvy mangers is did was make sure the culture and the business could accommodate these ‘new’ types of people.

They took their current team along on the journey to …

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Don’t confuse quantity for quality, or biggest for best

By / / Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Talent

Attracting and Searching for Candidates
Just like sales, in today’s market you need a combination of ‘Push & Pull ‘ contact strategies for finding the right candidates for your business. Advertising alone is not likely to yield the candidates you seek. When you decide to recruit externally, the following methods are available to select from:

  • Advertising (On-line job boards (MyCareer, SEEK, CareerOne, etc.); Newspapers;Magazines;Radio and television)
  • Recruitment Agencies
  • Executive search firms
  • Viral Marketing email campaigns
  • University Job Boards
  • In-store Advertising (shop window)
  • Family & Friends
  • Your own website
  • Information Seminars
  • Search (direct contact)
  • Networks
  • On-line network groups (My space;Link Me;Linked in)

With the advent of online job boards, many people can DIY …

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Getting Sales Recruitment Right

By / / Assessments, Attitudes & Behaviours, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Role Clarity, Sales Assessments, Sales Consulting, Sales Psychology, Sales Talent

Your small business is growing and diversifying. You’ve experimented with bringing in an inexperienced sales person (who did not work out). You realise you need a more experienced direct sales person, but you don’t know where to go or what to look for.

All you know is you need a sales person who is able to prospect for, and win, new business opportunities on a consistent daily basis, however you are not really able to detail anything else. You know your recruitment approach is haphazard at best. And what’s worse, it’s costing you big time.

You are not alone. Many SMEs …

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What is good selling?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Assessments, Sales Coaching, Sales Pioneer, Sales Research, Sales Skills

Like many people, I have always been curious about what makes “great sales performance”. This is a perplexing question that has been asked and attempted to be answered by many people over the years.

Also, are great sales people born? (most people believe this to be true – but it’s not). What does it take to be an elite sales performer, and can anyone learn how to sell well?

Many people have looked for one magic quality, one key ingredient that distinguished top performing sales people from all others- a magic ingredient with which only the special are anointed.

Here are some of …

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