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The Moral Case for Human-centred Businesses

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Ethics & Values, Human-centred, Sales Trends, Uncategorized

Sales trend 2 of Barrett’s 12 Sales Trends Report for 2023 presents the moral case for putting humans at the centre of businesses.

Adam Smith, often referred to as the father of capitalism, was, in fact, a moral philosopher and said, “Markets could not flourish without a strong underlying moral culture, animated by empathy and fellow-feeling, by our ability to understand our common bond as human beings and to recognize the needs of others.” Smith recognised the moral aspects of humans and the importance of supporting the common good when it came to creating healthy and prosperous societies. …

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Putting humanity back on the corporate map

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Collaboration, Ethics & Values, Human-centred

It’s time we put humanity back on the corporate map

This was my core purpose when I started Barrett Consulting Group on 9th January 1995, and it still is today, 28 years later.

Prior to starting Barrett, I’d been in corporate for 11 years, giving my best, but feeling out of sorts, unsure about the purpose of business and sales. Something didn’t feel right.

I could see back in the late 1980s and early 1990s that business priorities were dramatically shifting:

  • People were being reduced to consumers with an overemphasis on profit maximisation, shareholder return, and reductionism at the expense of holistic systems, humans, …

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    Cats take the road less travelled by being human-centred

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Human-centred, Success, Wellbeing

    Despite the prevailing ‘leadership’ paradigms of the last 40-50 years of ‘win-at-all-costs’ profit maximisation, command-and-control, and the cult of celebrity CEOs, that haven’t been good for business sustainability, or the wellbeing of employees, suppliers, customers, communities, and the planet, it’s deeply satisfying as both a long-time advocate for human-centred, sustainable business practices and a Cats supporter, to see the Geelong Football Club (GFC) not only win another premiership but choose a different model to do so.

    A model that values a human-centred, inclusive, community-minded, and respectful culture.

    A model that includes and values the contributions made by all sorts of people making …

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    Sales Career? There’s plenty to be proud of

    Sales Career? There’s plenty to be proud of

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Self Development

    Pride is a contentious subject especially when it is associated with the sales profession.

    On one hand, Pride is defined as a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired.  Associated feelings like Satisfaction, Content, Fulfillment, Pleasure, Delight and Joy also spring to mind.

    On the other hand, Pride, or the more accurate term Vainglory, describes excessive or ostentatious pride especially in one’s achievements resulting in vanity and potentially arrogance, conceit, pomp, ostentation, egotism, narcissism, pride, vanity, ego trip and …

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    Short-termism or Sustainable Business Growth for the new FY?

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Business Growth, Environment & Sustainability, Human-centred, Strategy, Sustainability & Environment

    As we enter the new financial year in Australia, we, as business leaders, teams, and shareholders have a choice – we can choose short-termism or sustainable business growth strategies.

    If we choose short-termism, we’re compromising any sustainable growth strategy. Short-term performance pressures on leaders and investors can result in an excessive focus on their parts on quarterly earnings, with less attention paid to strategy, fundamentals, and long-term value creation.

    Short-termism is not sustainable.

    The pandemic, current energy crisis and climate change have exposed the devastating effects of short-termism and lack of sustainable growth strategies like investment in a renewable energy economy.  Everyone is …

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    cultivating-positivity-and-teams-leads-to-better-productivity-and-culture

    Cultivating Positive & Productive Sales Teams & Cultures

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Collaboration, Competition, Human-centred, Leadership, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales performance, Sales Results

    I want you to imagine a field sales team of 20 B2B salespeople, each of whom has their own well-defined sales territory (it could be industry-based or geographical, doesn’t matter) and sales targets. They have access to sales support and customer service. Every month this sales team, including sales support, meets (virtually and occasionally in person) to workshop their territory plans looking at what’s working and what’s not.

    These meetings are focused on moving forward and how to get better sales traction and deliver on results. Sure, each salesperson is required to enter their activities and deal progress in the CRM …

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    Selling – a powerful agent for change

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Common Ground, Human-centred, Life Skills, Sales Skills, Selling Better

    I live by the philosophy that everybody lives by selling something.

    I also believe -I know- that Selling is a powerful agent for personal, social and political change.

    Many people treat selling as a business function, which it is. However, they often see it as something done by others – those called salespeople. Yet when it comes to enacting any kind of change – personal, social, environmental, political – we need to embrace our inner salesperson to take charge and take action.

    Knowing how to sell, ethically and honourably, is a game changer on every level.

    We might have an idea or initiative we …

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    zoe daniel in front of crowd

    A Teal Test of Character

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Collaboration, Common Ground, Ethics & Values, Leadership, Sales Driven Organisations, Teamwork, Vision, Mission & Purpose

    As the saying goes “A crisis doesn’t develop character, it reveals character”.

    And there is nothing like leading and working on a political campaign to test one’s character.

    In early November 2021 I accepted the offer of becoming Zoe Daniel’s campaign manager for the seat of Goldstein at the 2022 Federal Election.

    I didn’t accept the offer lightly. Truth is I have never run a political campaign of any kind before, but when I thought about it, a political campaign is the ultimate example of an on-the-ground human-to-human sales led campaign and I have helped run many successful sales led campaigns before …

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    Reminder: Everybody lives by selling something

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Human-centred, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Talent, Selling Better, Success

    Everybody lives by selling something

    Within a business, this means that everybody needs to be an ambassador for our organisation. There needs to be recognition that everyone is in one of two roles: 1) actively involved in selling, or 2) supporting someone who is. Without sales there’s no business.

    Selling is a human domain

    Selling isn’t the domain of salespeople, it is a human domain. For those of us who have talents and capabilities we want to take to market we need to harness the competencies of human-centred, ethical selling practices. Without this essential set of life skills, we cannot …

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    barrett-sales-blog-the-race-to-zero-trend-04

    The Race to Zero

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Brand & Reputation, Decarbonising, Environment & Sustainability, Innovation, Marketing, Sales Trends, Sustainability & Environment

    In Sales Trend 4 of the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2022 guest author Ben Peacock from Republic of Everyone explains what brands are doing to lower their climate impact and why it’s crucial that they do so.

    By guest author Ben Peacock – Founder, Republic of Everyone

    You might be too young to remember, but sometime in 2009 Cascade launched a beer called Cascade Green.

    The bottle was green, the billboards were green, made of real plants growing where usually only ads would be, the beer was green – 100% carbon neutral – and it …

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