Is your organisation your worst ‘Sales Blocker’?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Collaboration, Customer Service, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales performance, Sales Results, Strategy, Success

Many articles have been written about the many, many excuses salespeople come up with as to why they haven’t hit their sales targets, why they find it hard to sell, and so on.

The accusatory finger always seems to be pointing at the salespeople. And sometimes this is fair, however, there are many reasons why it’s not always the salesperson’s fault.

There are many reasons why salespeople are prevented from carrying out their sales duties effectively. This article is about highlighting the blockers or blockages in their way – intended or unintended.

Let’s explore these blockers and see how we can remove them …

Is your organisation your worst ‘Sales Blocker’? Read Post »

How Sales and Marketing can excel in a world in flux

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Attitudes & Behaviours, Collaboration, Marketing, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Results, Sales Trends

In this sales trend from the Barrett’s 12 Sales Trends Report for 2018, David Hubbard explains what sales and marketing can do working together to excel at generating revenue.

Who’s in flux? The Buyer. They have dramatically changed how they identify, evaluate and purchase solutions over the past 10 years, and they continue to evolve. Every member of the buyer team for B2B and considered B2C purchases has instant mobile access to the information they need throughout each stage of their purchasing process.  Even when they are fully engaged with us, they are constantly interacting with our competitor’s information.

As a …

How Sales and Marketing can excel in a world in flux Read Post »

Want to find & own uncontested markets? Try Blue Ocean Strategy

By / / Business Acumen, Competition, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Opportunity, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Results, Sales Strategy, Strategy, Success

In today’s cluttered business landscape and global marketplace, finding uncontested markets to sell into and own, free of competition, at least for the foreseeable future, is getting harder, and harder and harder.

Developing innovative ideas that turn into something new, unique and viable, are not easy to copy, and deliver revenue and healthy margins is equally tough.

Rethinking our marketplaces, our traditional customers and non-customers, and how we sell and deliver real value to them, that they are prepared to pay for, well that’s another difficult challenge too.

Most businesses these days find that they are increasingly competing head to …

Want to find & own uncontested markets? Try Blue Ocean Strategy Read Post »

What are the biggest sales issues & opportunities for CEOs & Sales Leaders today?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Sales Benchmarking, Sales Consulting, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Strategy, Strategy

Since late 2014, we have been rolling out the Sales Strategy & Operations Audit working with a wide range of businesses across industries in the public, private, and N4P sectors to help them sell better.

In 2017, we compiled the Barrett Sales Strategy & Operations Benchmark Report for 2015-2017 based on over 20 companies and found several trends emerging that are relevant across businesses and industries. We are also seeing this across many other businesses with or without the audit.

Here is what we found:

The biggest sales issues facing CEOs & Sales Leaders today:

  • Average or below average: Every business …

    • What are the biggest sales issues & opportunities for CEOs & Sales Leaders today? Read Post »

    Sales Trend 4: Buyer Behaviours, AI & the Future of Sales Roles

    By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Attitudes & Behaviours, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Customer Service, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Trends

    Sales Trend 4 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2018 is about buyer behaviours and the future of sales roles.

    According to Gartner Research, by 2020 85% of interactions between businesses will be executed without human interaction. [i]

    Automation has already diminished the number of people required for blue collar manufacturing roles; however, with the advent of AI (artificial intelligence), big data and algorithms, we are beginning to see sweeping changes happening across the once untouchable white collar sector, including the very people-oriented roles of sales, as many buyers shift part or all of their buying journey …

    Sales Trend 4: Buyer Behaviours, AI & the Future of Sales Roles Read Post »

    What does Selling Better mean to sales team’s retention rates?

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Customer Service, Education in Sales, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Essentials, Sales Process Maps, Sales Strategy, Selling Better, Uncategorized

    What do you make of this statistic?

    The average tenure of a sales representative across Europe and USA is currently 15 months.

    Ouch!

    There are other stats that also show the average staff turnover can be anything around 25-50% per annum, or more in some cases.  Some call centres experience turnover rates of over 70% per annum.

    These statistics are alarming because the costs associated with poor engagement and high staff turnover are monumental and can manifest in many ways including decline in sales, poor customer service, loss of reputation leading to more loss of customers and employees, and impaired recruitment. If not addressed, …

    What does Selling Better mean to sales team’s retention rates? Read Post »

    Sales Strategy: Ditch short-termism for robust sales strategies that drive more & better sales now & over the long-term

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership, Sales Market Segmentation, Sales Research, Sales Results, Sales Strategy, Strategy, Success

    ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, every road will lead you nowhere’.

    This famous quote is attributed to Henry Kissinger.

    Why have I led with this quote? Sadly, in today’s busy, noisy and complex world, this quote represents a common state of affairs for many organisations’ CEOs, Executive Leaderships Teams, Sales Leaders and their sales teams who are struggling to make sales, retain their relevance with clients, and generate profit.

    Instead, many are finding themselves in a race to the bottom price war which is not a strategy for success, instead it’s a reaction to short-termism which only leads to one’s …

    Sales Strategy: Ditch short-termism for robust sales strategies that drive more & better sales now & over the long-term Read Post »

    Are your sales conferences pumping or slumping?

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Brand & Reputation, Collaboration, Communication, Sales Conference, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Strategy, Teamwork

    *** Trigger Warning: May contain traces of sarcasm ***

    We’ve all been there: a sea of people, pulled together from across the country or region, locked in a windowless room with artificial light, seated at round tables with mints and water, patiently waiting for the parade of presenters to finish their ‘Death by PowerPoint’ presentations so we can get to the coffee station during the day and then the bar at night to start really engaging with our colleagues. During the day some relief can be found in the smartphones that everyone will be less and less discreetly looking at repeatedly, …

    Are your sales conferences pumping or slumping? Read Post »

    Back to sales basics

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, CRM, Education in Sales, Marketing, Prospecting, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Essentials, Sales Results, Sales Tips, Social Media

    I like to keep on top of what is current, what is emerging, and what is still an idea. This is why I make time each week to do research as it helps me navigate my way around the present and into the future. However, I am finding there is so much to read, so much to get my head around, and so much to integrate into my business that it can take up a lot of time… and it only seems to be increasing.

    This is why I want to get back to basics.

    As I wade through all of the …

    Back to sales basics Read Post »

    Get more sales by aligning your sales process to the buying process

    By / / Sales Consulting, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Process Maps, Sales Results

    In the classic Bill Murray movie Caddyshack, he tries in vain to catch a gopher (rodent) ruining the golf course. Eventually, it occurs to him that “in order to catch a gopher, you have to think like one…” It was a good movie, with good advice from Murray. And it is good advice for salespeople who want to “catch” customers: they need to think like their customers.

    What this means is that salespeople have to go about learning and understanding how customers buy. Salespeople know, at all times, where their prospects are in their sales cycle. The problem is that they …

    Get more sales by aligning your sales process to the buying process Read Post »

    Scroll to Top