Are sales teams driven by greed and desperation dying out?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Culture

The other week one BDM from my sales team called the sales director of a business that sells advertising in industry magazines to speak to him about his priorities for his telephone sales team. We had been referred to this sales director by the managing director of the same company.

After a brief introduction and explanation about the reason for the call, the BDM from Barrett asked the sales director about his priorities in the ‘selling better’ space to see if Barrett could help them. The sales director hit back saying “Listen mate, I run a tight sales team here. I …

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Lessons from Introverts on how to be better salespeople

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Neuroscience, Sales Culture, Sales Talent

Last week I wrote about the value that engineers, technicians, scientists and mathematicians can bring to the world of selling into the 21st century. I mentioned their qualities of analytical thinking, problem solving, their deep knowledge base, among other things. I also referred briefly to the traits of introverts, ambiverts and extroverts.

As mentioned it has been a long held belief that extroverts made the best salespeople; the gift of the gab, being charming and persuasive, telling a good story, people oriented and friendly, and all that.

However, the qualities of introversion and ambiversion are proving, in some or …

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Sales Trend 5 – The Way We Sell Around Here

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Culture, Sales Strategy, Sales Training, Sales Trends

Sales Trend 5 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends for 2016 Report is ‘The way we sell around here’.

The Sales Dream – A low cost, high performing sales force that delivers more sales at better margins to increasingly loyal customers. Sounds like some utopian vision. Not necessarily.

This sales trend highlights the best practices being adopted by smart companies who are focused on embedding ‘How We Sell Around Here’ as their minimum standard of sales excellence and how they are reaping the rewards of their continuous learning programmes and sound sales strategies. They know that if any business …

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The power of language and intent in Sales & Coaching

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Coaching, Communication, Neuroscience, Sales Coaching, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Psychology

For the last 5 weeks I have been working around Australia helping a major client get their sales leadership team ready to roll out their new Sales Strategy and Sales Process, their version of ‘the way we sell around here’. It’s been pretty exciting and extremely well received. Why? The language we are using is clear, simple, strong and positive. Our intent is purposeful and inspiring. There is a compelling reason to want to be a part of this new era. People can see a clear pathway forward.

Part of this sales strategy and sales process roll out …

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‘How we sell around here’ equals sales success

By / / Education in Sales, Sales Coaching, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Management, Sales Research, Sales Results

Many years ago, and for many years, when salespeople were recruited into the sales team of a business they would be schooled in ‘how we sell around here’.

New salespeople regardless of their experience would be introduced to the business’ sales plan, target markets and customer segments, the product range, the current sales processes, tools and templates, and so on. Sales managers would put these new recruits through their paces making sure that they knew how to sell.

Now, I admit some of the sales processes these new sales recruits were schooled in where not always ideal or even ethical, but the …

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Lessons for Sales from ‘Good to Great’

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Research, Sales Results, Sales Talent, Self Development, Success

Jim Collins (author of “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t”) stimulates a thought that many sales managers should be asking themselves right now: “What makes good salespeople great?”

At Barrett we work with sales managers and salespeople every day, and recently asked that question of a number of people in both categories. The response wasn’t that startling. What Barrett learned is that few sales managers, and even fewer salespeople, could actually define what “great” selling actually means. This has confirmed Barrett’s findings that many salespeople let themselves down because they …

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Warren Buffett’s wisdom and effective sales team

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations

How can we build effective sales teams for the short and long term?

This is the perennial question that has been asked by sales managers and business leaders for years.

The simple answer is bit by bit, over time by investing wisely in the right things.

Warren Buffett knows a thing or two about investing and his insights and wise counsel hold very true for building highly effective sales teams. Here are some of his famous quotes and how we see them in relation to building sales teams:

  • There are no bonus points for complicated investments. The truly big investment idea can usually be …

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    12 Sales Trends Reports for 2015 – Transparency and The Middle Path – The Summary

    By / / Sales Culture, Sales Research, Sales Tips, Sales Trends

    The theme for Barrett’s Sales Trends for 2015 is ‘Transparency and the Middle Path’. This theme stems from the idea of everything in moderation and a new openness whether by choice or not.

    Over the years, salespeople and organisations have often focused solely on a single idea, shifting from one to the other as strategies proved ineffective. More recently, there has been a realisation that a more balanced approach (where a number of different aspects are given equal weighting) is potentially more appropriate and more effective for their businesses, especially in an increasingly complex world. This makes sense; however, it isn’t …

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    Sales Trend 8 – A Radical Shift in the Sales Mindset

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Trends

    This sales trend is all about the radical shift in the sales mindset that currently is underway in organisations as prophesised by The Cluetrain Manifesto 15 years ago. A slow burn, we acknowledge, but with consumers in such a powerful position, product no longer the centre piece of the sale, and value being more important than price, the time has come for sales teams and everyone in their businesses to work with customers, helping them achieve their goals and, in doing so, sales teams will achieve theirs.

    Smart companies are moving from …

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    Are you serious?

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Skills, Sales Training, Success

    Today’s article is a bit of a rant I have to admit. I wrote the text below after one of those phone calls I receive, and as you may tell, I was a bit upset afterwards. Bear with me though, I’m sure you’ll see the point I’m trying to make.

    Have you ever considered how much it costs and how much effort it takes to become and remain a highly skilled professional these days? Think about a competent marketing manager, a skilled engineer or IT specialist, a capable accountant, bookkeeper, publicist or journalist, a reliable chef, event manager or hairdresser? We’re …

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