Are you making the most of Psychometric Assessments?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Performance Management, Value Proposition & Value Add

Many of us actively recoil when we see the words ‘Psychometric Assessments’. This may be due to fear of the unknown, seeing them as ‘tests’ or just tedious questionnaires. While you would not be alone in this, we on the other hand are advocates (of the right Assessments). At Barrett, we spend much of our time demystifying what Assessments actually are and how businesses can benefit from using them. So even if you have been brave enough to use Assessments, most people do not know how to get the most out of them. Often the Assessment process is seen as …

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Walk a mile in my shoes

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Emotional Intelligence, Sales Skills

‘Walk a mile in my shoes‘ is a song written by Joe South and made famous by Elvis Presley. The song is very much about challenging closed mindedness, respecting and honouring differences, and learning how to get along with each other. However, I propose that it also has a lot to say to sales and marketing people. For instance, the first verse sets it up well:

If I could be you and you could be me for just one hour
If we could find a way to get inside each other’s mind
If …

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Why is ‘cheap’ a false economy?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Ethics & Values, Negotiation, Procurement, Sales Culture, Strategy

Understandably everyone wants to save money, especially in these times, however we need to be aware of falling victim to false economy. False Economy is an expression that refers to an action which saves money at the beginning but which, over a longer period of time, results in more money being wasted than being saved.

For instance, I have never understood why some people will drive half an hour across town to get their petrol two cents a litre cheaper, all the while using up what they may save by driving across town, notwithstanding the time it took to travel there …

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I’m not a sales person but I have to sell. What do I do?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Call Reluctance, Self Development, Self Promotion

After thousands of hours of study and many years honing technical skills to be a competent professional in your chosen field, it can come as a rude shock that you now need to sell your services and capabilities as well. In today’s busy market, a competent selling capability isn’t a nice-to-have it is an essential business and life skill.

Interestingly, the topic of selling and growing a business often doesn’t feature in those university lectures does it? In fact, selling is in many cases covered over and, if spoken about at all, was only mentioned as an unsavoury aspect employed by …

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What makes customers unhappy?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Customer Service

What’s happened to having a pleasant, hassle free customer experience in this country? We are hearing more and more war stories from customers. Some go to buy something and are met with whinging, whiny staff or others return to a supplier (retailer or B2B) with a query, return, or problem to be resolved to be met by resistance, apathy, excuses, and, worst of all, customers being informed of their lack of understanding about how the company in question works.

I mean, do we really expect our customers to be fully aware of and understand the following:

  • The reasons why we haven’t …

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Where is your inner six year old when you need them?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Call Reluctance, Life Skills, Sales Skills

One of the biggest issues for sales people is knowing the right questions to ask customers.

In our experience many people complain of not knowing how to structure questions, or knowing what type to ask and when to ask them. In fact, we have found that many people are often caught wanting in the questioning department and suffer from what we call ‘amnesia questionitis’.

Why is this so? Why are so many people paralysed when it comes to the vital skill of questioning?

If you have been around any children aged from 3-6 years old you will know that they do not suffer …

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Is Call Reluctance® choking your sales effort?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Call Reluctance, Coaching, Prospecting, Sales Coaching, Sales Psychology, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Tips, Self Promotion

Whether we are working for a private or public company, a “not for profit” or government institution, all of us are in some way competing for access to a revenue source to fund our existence.

How capable people are to take on the responsibility for improving the revenue line of a company is a hot topic in today’s competitive market.

Research shows that no longer can companies and their people rely on their technical competence, passive referrals, reputation, brand or blanket advertising to bring in new business and revenue streams as they may have done in the past. They also need to …

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Whada ya rates?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Emotional Intelligence, Mindful selling, Negotiation, Sales Skills, Uncategorized

Whada ya rates? ‘Cos I’m a wholesaler and I can do better rates than them. I can look at your thingos and give you a better deal”

This is an excerpt from a call I received from a telecommunications wholesaler the other day. As you can see this is not someone asking about my business rates but what I am paying for a particular service. I am the supposed client in this exchange. To make matters worse, when the caller introduced himself he said his name was John – that’s it, no where he was calling from or why he was …

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Help my sales people can’t close sales

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Call Reluctance, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Negotiation, Sales Skills, Sales Tips, Sales Training

‘My sales people are not closing sales’ is the most common complaint we hear.

The biggest cause for people not being able to close sales it not the close itself. It often starts at the beginning of the sales call.

Sales people need to be able to properly understand client’s needs and discuss possible solutions that meet those needs with the relevant products and services before any close can take place. Once this has happened they can close the sale but not before. If a sales person cannot meet a client’s needs with their products and services then it is a ‘no …

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Help! My sales team isn’t coping with the fallout from the GFC

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Emotional Intelligence, Resilience, Sales Coaching, Sales Leadership, Sales Results, Sales Tips, Sales Training, Wellbeing

Many sales people, for the first time, are experiencing tough times when it comes to selling and many are not sure how to handle themselves in these difficult situations.

The current climate is, indeed, a test of character.

Many sales people, especially those in their 20’s and 30’s have not likely experienced selling in tough markets before. For the past 12 years prior to 2008, at least, the business climate in our market place has been, for the most part, buoyant. As we all know it’s very easy to sell when times are good.

It now begs the question: How well have …

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