Are you capitalising on your Prime Selling Time?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Prospecting, Sales Skills

If you watch successful sales people go about their daily business activities you will notice that they lead a very disciplined life – they know what they need to do each day and when they need to do these key activities. They make sure they make time for the important stuff and they hardly ever miss a beat. They know there is no excuse for not making prospecting calls or forgetting to do research.  There is no excuse for not getting proposals in on time or not scheduling client meetings in an organized fashion or forgetting to follow up when …

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Why the Web is making salespeople more, not less important

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Driven Organisations

Contrary to what the pundits say, the Web is making salespeople more, not less important. In December 2012, we published the 12 Sales Trends Report for 2013 and released a brief summary of each trend. This month we are focusing on the Sales Trend “Instant Access to Solutions”. The media is guilty of creating the propaganda around the demise of selling – propaganda that is not true. Too often a headline reports that buyers are turning to the Internet to do their shopping, leaving salespeople and companies out of …

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Writing, brain research and being a better salesperson

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Neuroscience in Sales

How does the act of writing affect your brain?* This is an interesting question that Rebecca Accadia, Barrett’s resident Organisational Psychologist, posed to us when she presented some research and facts she found on brain science thanks to Benjamin Starr. As highlighted in a previous post, Take Note, we emphasized the importance of taking notes in client meetings and why it is so important to our success as sales people. Now we have some brain science facts to back it up.  Here’s what Rebecca found and why we, as …

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Why addressing Risk is 3 times more important than the benefits

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Education in Sales, Neuroscience in Sales, Sales Psychology, Sales Skills

Plenty of time and effort is put into talking up the benefits of our products and services in a selling situation. Sales people often focus on why the benefits are important to our clients and how our client will be better off if they buy from us, etc.  This has been the mainstay of sales for years. Think of all the time, effort and money that goes into meetings, brainstorming sessions, designing and creating glossy brochures and marketing materials (hard copy and virtual) to define and promote the benefits of what we do and offer. …

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Sales Psychology – The Theory of Mind

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Emotional Intelligence, Life Skills, Mindful selling, Sales Psychology, Sales Relationships

When we interact and work with people (customers, colleagues, managers, friends, family, etc.) it is important to be able to interpret and understand where the other person is coming from – their perspective, especially if we want to continue interacting and working with them in a manner that is beneficial to both parties. Interpreting and understanding where another person is coming from does not automatically imply that we agree with their perspective.

We may not agree. However, we at least know where they stand, what their perspective is, how they see the world. Ideally, the other person would respond in kind …

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Is anyone listening to me?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Sales Meetings, Sales Skills

We’ve talked long and hard about how sales people need to listen, listen, listen to the client.  Not just hear but really listen to what is being said, how it is being said and so forth.  Seeking to understand your clients and prospects is critical to any effective sales relationship. However, we talk very little about how sales people get others listening – meaningfully – to them.  Let’s face it, you need to have something to say once you have worked out how you are going to help your prospect or client. How you present …

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Never forget Selling is a Doing job – a quality Doing job

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Sales Coaching, Self Development

Every week we can learn something new about ourselves, our business, our clients and markets even if we have been in sales for many years.  However, we can only learn something new if we take the risk and put ourselves out into the market place on a regular and consistent basis and we pay attention to the details.  And the amount of details salespeople need to pay attention to is extraordinary.  Paying attention to what we do and how we do it is how we continue to evolve in an ever changing world – it is how we create success. …

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The University of Selling

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Skills, Sales Training, Self Development

[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_link_target=”_self” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” overlay_strength=”0.3″ column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column_text]Until now, there has been no officially recognised benchmark for Selling at tertiary level nor salespeople who can claim a university qualification as their own. On the other hand Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Production, Engineering, Business Administration, IT, Research & Design, Human Resources, Logistics, Procurement and even Entrepreneurship all have recognised tertiary qualifications in the business stream with many proud graduates. The nature of the sales role is one that demands practical implementation, so many salespeople have …

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Corporate social responsibility at the sales coal face – no more only ‘what’s in it for me’

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

Imagine our organisations making people feel good because they bought from us; imagine people changing their behaviours for the better because  our organisations showed them how; imagine the kinds of conversations and messages that will happen in our businesses when our people see what their contribution is making to the lives of their customers and their teams.

This is not the stuff of fantasy this is now happening in real time with real people. In late 2012 we published the detailed 49 page 12 Sales Trends Report for 2013 and released …

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Selling Professional Services

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Education in Sales, Sales Skills, Sales Training

This article first appeared on June 12, 2013 on BRW (now closed magazine as of 2016)

Professional services providers face a challenge that many within the sector are struggling to come to terms with. For centuries the sector – comprising doctors, lawyers, accountants engineers and the like – enjoyed a somewhat exalted position in society.

Ignorance among the general populace, fuelled primarily by the high cost of education, made studying to be a doctor, lawyer or other profession out of the reach of most, and created an impression that being a professional made the individual somewhat special.

However today, wide, relatively easy access …

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