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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Why ‘everybody lives by selling something’ is key to your success

By / / Sales Culture, Success

‘Everybody lives by selling something‘ was the trend, in our 12 Sales Trends for 2010, voted as second most important for businesses in 2010. It is a very significant trend on many levels as it involves everyone, not just the people who are labelled as ‘sales’.

‘Everybody lives by selling something’ has had a profound impact on our business at Barrett. Since we introduced this as our core philosophy and principle behind our work it has been amazing how many people feel …

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Lead the way

By / / Communication, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership

In December 2009 we published The 12 Sales Trends of 2010 and invited readers to vote on what they thought are the most important trends in sales. Thank you to everyone who shared their views and voted. Each month we will explore one of the trends in more detail, starting with the trend voted as most important, Lead the Way. As voted by you, here are the sales trends for 2010 in order of importance:

1. Lead the Way
2. Everybody lives by selling something
3. Back to Basics
4. Social Sales
5. …

Lead the way Read Post »

Do you have the sales force your strategy needs in 2010?

By / / Sales Consulting, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Strategy, Strategy

The other week I ran a webinar for SmartCompany.com.au on “How to clearly manage and measure your sales team”. During the webinar I was asked many questions, one of which came from a senior sales leader, “With some time to reflect over the Christmas break, what is the one thing I should focus on getting right for my business?”

Given that business as usual is not ‘usual’ anymore, I suggested the following:

1. Review your business and sales strategy

  • Do you have the right strategy in place?
  • What has changed over the last 12 months
  • How has your client mix changed? i.e. …

Do you have the sales force your strategy needs in 2010? Read Post »

Sales is a team effort

By / / Communication, Customer Service, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Skills, Teamwork

Sales numbers and sales processes should be understood and owned by everybody in your organisation. In today’s world if you are not directly in sales you are supporting someone who is. This is why sales really is a team effort.

Rather than being just about a feel good factor and great staff alignment, this has practical applications as well. For instance with the ability for customers (or anyone) to find and connect with anyone in your organisation through many difference channels (i.e. social networks, Google, etc.) the whole business needs to be sales fit.

With anyone being able to contact anyone …

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Creating an effective sales performance management system

By / / Coaching, Performance Management, Sales Coaching, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Leadership, Sales Talent, Success

Following on from last week’s article about managing and measuring the right things in sales, I thought it would be worth looking at some of the key principles for effective sales performance management systems.

The first place to start is to align your sales performance management system and subsequent key measures to your organisation’s strategy and goals. It’s then the job of the CEO and the Sales Leader to ensure the organisation (that means everyone else who supports the sales effort) is aligned to the sales performance management system. When this dimension is in place …

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The coming together of sales leaders in Australia

By / / Business Acumen, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Networking, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Research, Strategy

I recently had the opportunity to attend the inaugural Optimising the Sales Force Conference (osf2009, site not exist anymore), along with over 120 high level sales leaders across Australia. I was privileged to be part of the panel of international and local experts presenting on sales effectiveness where we explored the latest research on sales strategy, leadership, learning and development, sales management, sales people, and current market trends.

This was the first time in Australia we have had the opportunity to come together as a profession and share ideas and discuss important matters moving forward. There have, of course, been industry …

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Why developing your Sales Managers is the key to your sales success

By / / Business Acumen, Coaching, Competition, Education in Sales, Performance Management, Sales Coaching, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Strategy

It may surprise you to discover that many Sales Managers learn how to be a Manager on their own.

According to the latest international study on Sales Training and Sales Force Effectiveness, many Sales Managers are given very little or no support when it comes to being a competent, effective Sales Manager. In fact, many Sales Managers reported that they were given no formal training in Sales Management practices, either before or during their tenure as a Sales Manager.

The study reported that Sales Management training is the category of sales training …

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‘Great’ at sales but they don’t ‘fit’ the culture

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Ethics & Values, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Culture, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Uncategorized

Sound familiar? A ‘good’, maybe even ‘great’, salesperson is recruited and hits the ground running, kicking sales goals in the new role, however within a short space of time they have alienated their team, decided that the role is not for them, and left the organisation. As we know the cost of this selection is huge and begs the question, why did this ‘great’ salesperson not work out?
While there are many possible scenarios and reasons, we often find that a major contributor is the cultural ‘fit’ between the individual and the organisation. In recent times there has …

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Why everybody lives by selling something – part 2

By / / Brand & Reputation, Collaboration, Education in Sales, Marketing, Procurement, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Leadership, Sales Results, Social Media, Social Sales

For some time now I have been testing the concept of ‘everybody lives by selling something’ with almost everyone I meet, including senior leadership teams (comprising of HR, Finance, IT, Operations, and Sales), primary school teachers and administration staff, senior banking risk professionals, and health professionals (including my podiatrist and GP).

I am curious to see how people respond and how they see themselves in relation to the concept of ‘everybody lives by selling something’.

Often when one mentions the words ‘selling’ or ‘sales’ you can see people visibly recoil in disgust, with many immediately saying something like “I don’t sell” or …

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