How to give every salesperson the best start to their sales career

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Results, Sales Strategy, Sales Talent, Sales Tips, Strategy

This is how most salespeople are inducted into their sales careers:

“Welcome to our team, Rebecca. It’s great to have you on board. Here is your list of ABC accounts and the products brochure which outlines all the products we sell. I also want you to meet our best salesperson, Ben. He is awesome. As part of your induction I want you to go out on the road and learn to be just like Ben.”

That’s it, give or take a few iterations.

Rebecca is thrown in the deep end and at best asked to mimic Ben with no real context, no reference …

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Are sales teams driven by greed and desperation dying out?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Culture

The other week one BDM from my sales team called the sales director of a business that sells advertising in industry magazines to speak to him about his priorities for his telephone sales team. We had been referred to this sales director by the managing director of the same company.

After a brief introduction and explanation about the reason for the call, the BDM from Barrett asked the sales director about his priorities in the ‘selling better’ space to see if Barrett could help them. The sales director hit back saying “Listen mate, I run a tight sales team here. I …

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Why commission selling in financial services should be banned

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Ethics & Values

Here we are again, talking about unethical and corrupt sales practices in the Financial Services Industry.

The Youi fiasco, first reported by Fairfax on 28 August 2016 ‘Does Youi owe you?’, offers one of the worst examples of unethical sales behaviour and bad sales commissions plans I have ever heard of. If the reports by the inside whistle-blowers about the way customer leads are distributed and commissions are paid are to be believed (and I have no reason not to, given the overwhelming number of consumer complaints), then we have every right to be disgusted with the way the Youi …

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Why I cannot relate to the typical salesperson stereotype and why we need a new one for the 21st century

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Ethics & Values, Solution Selling, Success, Wellbeing

If you cannot relate to the typical salesperson stereotype you are not alone. Many people we speak to, including many salespeople themselves, have never been able to relate to the fast talking, overly confident and ambitious, competitive, win at all costs, know-it-all, we-are-the-frontline-and-without-us-you-wouldn’t-have-a-job persona that is often portrayed as the ideal salesperson stereotype in the media and business world via films, press, social media, books, articles, and so on.

Today, many people, of all sorts of persuasions – entrepreneurs, start-up founders, professional services (law, accounting, engineering, architects, etc.), technical people, customer service staff, internal teams, membership groups, not-for-profits, even government bodies …

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Without a Strategic Sales Force, you are doomed to fail

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Sales Leadership, Sales Strategy, Success

A strategic sales force – one driven by a focused sales strategy and robust sales operation framework rather than a panel-beaten corporate / marketing strategy or territory plan for capturing incremental share of spend, is a highly treasured asset. A strategic sales force will deliver better results for the organisation’s customers and as a result, for the organisation itself.

A great case study for sales strategy and a strategic sales force.

When we met mid last year, the relatively new Sales Director of the Australian Asia Pac division of a major global equipment manufacturer, was facing declining markets, loss of major accounts, …

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Sales Trend 7 – Buyer Behaviours in Transition

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Procurement, Sales Research, Sales Trends

Sales Trend 7 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends for 2016 Report is ‘Buyer Behaviours in Transition’.

For some time now we have seen many suppliers falling victim to the ‘race to the bottom’ mentality and tactics driven by various businesses and their procurement teams, especially from the oligopolies that exist here in Australia and the large international corporates.

As highlighted in 2015, our Sales Trend 1 was  ‘Race to the Bottom’ which showed the culmination of the disastrous effects of such short term thinking and tactics on business success, innovation and profitability.  While this …

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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? …

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Lessons for sales teams from an elite sportsman

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Competition, Education in Sales, Networking, Sales Leadership, Success

As part of our team’s regular coaching and development, a couple of weeks ago  Franco Crismann, one of Barrett’s BDMs went to a senior management business event at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) where Brian Lake, former Hawthorn/Western Bulldogs AFL footballer, spoke about maintaining a winning culture at work. Here is Franco’s report and reflections on the session:

“We had a room filled with C Level managers who were listening to a sports star talking about business and maintaining a winning culture at work, and I noticed them nodding in agreement. This, to be honest, surprised me.

What I …

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Why Marketing can’t fix a Sales Problem

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Sales Results, Success

When sales start to dry up or the business doesn’t seem to be getting traction with customers, many small to medium (SME) sized businesses will usually turn to Marketing in the first, and often only instance, as their preferred solution to fixing poor sales results.

Why? Because many people have been taught to think they have a marketing problem when they actually have a sales problem.

As a result, many start-ups and SME businesses have failed to get traction and then fallen over because they didn’t address their sales problem with the right sales solution, instead relying on marketing.

Unless you are an …

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Lessons from Introverts on how to be better salespeople

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Neuroscience, Sales Culture, Sales Talent

Last week I wrote about the value that engineers, technicians, scientists and mathematicians can bring to the world of selling into the 21st century. I mentioned their qualities of analytical thinking, problem solving, their deep knowledge base, among other things. I also referred briefly to the traits of introverts, ambiverts and extroverts.

As mentioned it has been a long held belief that extroverts made the best salespeople; the gift of the gab, being charming and persuasive, telling a good story, people oriented and friendly, and all that.

However, the qualities of introversion and ambiversion are proving, in some or …

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