Stop talking Price and talk Value instead

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Education in Sales, Sales Tips

We have been exploring the increasing spate of businesses and sales people complaining about ‘price’ being their biggest issue when it comes to not closing enough sales.

“Our prices are higher than our rivals. That’s the main reason for us losing business opportunities…” We have heard that statement at just about every sales training course we have ever run.  Not just in Australia, but across much of the world.

In our opinion using the price argument is a lazy excuse: blaming high prices for the failing to get a deal is an easy way out for

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Just shut up and close the sale

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Sales Skills

Sun Tzu, the an ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher, said ‘Move swiftly to overcome resistance…’. In selling that is interpreted as closing when you get a buying signal.

Yet how many times have we heard the story about the sales person who is so excited about their products they get caught up in convincing the client of their buying decision by continuing to list the associated benefits thus missing the client’s buying signal only to lose the sale?

The buyer gives the sales person a clear buying signal like: ‘Where do I sign? When do we start? How many can …

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A seismic shift in the way we sell

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

If you were looking for things to settle down and a return to the good old days of selling in 2012 and beyond think again. We’re never going back. It’s now time to adapt and forge a new path for sellingin your business.

Selling is now everybody’s business and everybody lives by selling something with ‘A Seismic shift in the way we sell’ voted the seventh most important sales trend for 2012 fromThe 12 Sales Trends of 2012by our readers.

The way we sell and the way we do business …

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Solution Selling Isn’t as Dead as Some People Thought!

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Communication, Customer Service, Education in Sales, Mindful selling, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Skills, Sales Tips

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, salespeople had a clearly defined role. They called on prospective customers, asked a lot of questions in an attempt to understand their customer’s needs, and in many instances they inadvertently helped their customers crystalise their thinking and clarify their needs. At that time salespeople controlled the sales process and comfortably directed their buyers. And buyers were happy to be led because they didn’t know any better.

Back in the 1970’s salespeople had an important role to play in providing …

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Sales on the University agenda? – The final results

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Leadership, Sales Research

Sales has been excluded from the academic landscape, until now. Barrett is one of the first consultancies to ask the question: Should selling be studied at degree level at University?

Why?

Based on Barrett’s long standing involvement in sales and the development of sales professionalism, we wanted to fully understand how people think and feel about the profession of selling not being studied at Australian universities and business schools and how strongly they felt about its inclusion.

Specifically, Barrett wanted to delve into the perceptual reputation of the profession of selling within our communities and the “usefulness” of having sales qualifications at …

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100m Prospecting Sprint. On your marks. Get set. Prospect!

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Prospecting, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership

Prospecting is the oxygen that fuels the sales fire. It is the ignition point that allows us to get in front of prospective buyers. Great sales people like great athletes do not leave prospecting to chance. They make sure that making prospecting sales calls features regularly in their weekly sales activities. Many experienced sales people make sure they do two or three 2 hour blocks of prospecting every week: calling on both new and existing accounts looking for new business opportunities. By doing this they make sure that they always have viable, …

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Customer Satisfaction & Retention Booster

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Customer Service, Marketing, Sales Management, Sales Relationships, Sales Results, Sales Tips, Success

It is five to ten times easier to keep a customer we have than to get a new one – so taking customer satisfaction and retention seriously should be serious business. We already have the most powerful marketing tool to boost customer satisfaction and increase customer retention, as well as improve employee morale and develop new products and services that are exactly what our customers want and need. The problem is that most companies don’t use it.

There is no more useful tool in our marketing armoury than our front-line sales and service people. …

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B2B Field sales force to halve

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Customer Service, Education in Sales, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Pioneer, Sales Tips, Sales Training

What will sales teams look like over the next 5-10 years? How will we sell to and service our clients? Will our businesses actually require field sales representatives as all?

With ‘Field Sales Force Numbers To Halve’ voted the sixth most important sales trend for 2012 from The 12 Sales Trends of 2012 by our readers, these are critical questions business and sales leaders need to ask themselves if they want to have an effective sales effort.

WHY? With access to so much information available and a plethora of …

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Would You Listen to You?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Call Reluctance, Communication, Education in Sales, Sales Culture, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Tips

Many sales people, especially those new to sales, often take it personally when a prospect says ‘NO’ and fail to persist with their prospecting efforts while others turn prospecting into stalking not knowing how to engage a prospect effectively. Either way, these people are failing to favourably and persistently position themselves with prospects thus limiting their sales opportunities even further. In sales there is a fine line between persistence and stalking a prospect. Did you know:

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Recognition or Praise?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Education in Sales, Emotional Intelligence, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Motivation & Rewards, Sales Relationships, Sales Results, Sales Talent, Sales Tips

Sales managers are being told to do more with less, to work smarter to get peak performance from their sales teams, despite increasingly limited resources. As tough as it is, there is one tool in the sales manager’s portfolio that is never in short supply – Praise!

Yet for some reason, many sales managers find it challenging to show their appreciation for their sales people’s efforts, reluctantly doling out praise as if it was in short supply. …

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