Check the ‘Sales Fitness’ of your Sales System

By / / Sales Benchmarking, Sales Consulting, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership, Sales Strategy, Systems Thinking

For those people who have been reading my work for some time know that in order to achieve peak sales fitness, now and in the long term, I advocate that business and sales leaders and their sales teams need to adopt a Systems approach to sales operational excellence in order to sell better, deliver competitive sales strategies that work, find new uncontested markets and at the same time minimising execution risk on the ground.

My persistence in promoting and advocating for a Systems approach to sales excellence is deliberate on every level because if we want to stay in business and …

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The 5 Dimensions for Sales Alignment, Harmony & Success

By / / Assessments, Education in Sales, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership, Success

As CEOs and sales leaders, we understand that there are many factors that make for a successful sales strategy, operating system and sales team in the competitive, complex, variable world of selling. Leading a sales team and operation is like bringing together an orchestra where there is a fine line between success and failure, being harmonious or out of tune.

As sales professionals, we can often find ourselves either ‘firing on all cylinders’, ‘kicking goals’ and ‘getting the job done’ or feeling ‘not quite right’, ‘out of sorts’, or ‘off our game’ and often not really sure as …

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Sales Leadership – the power of preparedness, curiosity and courage in times of flux

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Attitudes & Behaviours, Emotional Intelligence, Sales Leadership, Sales Trends

Sales Trend 7 from the Barrett’s 12 Sales Trends Report for 2018 is about leadership, in particular, which characteristics are key for leaders in times of flux.

The state of flux we are experiencing, is bringing about a shift in the top key qualities required to be an effective business executive and leader.

It’s not necessarily a completely different set of qualities, but a change in their order of relevance for navigating a changing, ‘fluxy’ kind of world.

Douglas A. Ready, a senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and the founder and president of ICEDR, says “We need to …

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We all want better sales performance, but what works best?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Sales Coaching, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales performance, Sales Results, Success

Most of us will agree that as sales leaders we want better and more consistent sales performance. The approaches on how to get there, however, vary greatly.

Some tactics offer a temporary lift in sales while other strategies deliver more sustainable changes and lifts in performance over the long term.

We’ve outlined three different approaches organisations take to improve sales performance and their impact.

Annual sales training session/conference – 1 or 2 day workshop

Effect
Result score out of 10

Popularity
9

Long term effectiveness
2

Team building
7

Risk
5

Return on investment
3

This is by far the most popular choice amongst sales managers and business leaders. However, the question that needs to be asked …

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The alarming findings about the Peter Principle & Sales Managers

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Coaching, Collaboration, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Talent

Have you ever worked with someone who was really effective in one role but then promoted to other roles, usually management, and ended having no idea and no real capacity to fulfil that role in a competent manner?

Chances are your answer is ‘yes’.

This is a common occurrence in many organisations where people are continually promoted until they are no longer effective in their roles – basically they rise to their level of incompetence. This is referred to as the Peter Principle which was highlighted by Dr. Laurence J. Peter in 1969.

Basically, the problem arises when the skills that makes someone …

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What does Selling Better mean for customers and shareholder return?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Ethics & Values, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Sales Relationships, Sales Results

I have to start with the bad news on this topic.

Are any of us surprised by the current revelations stemming from the Australian Banking Royal Commission?

Possibly not.

Are any of us surprised as to the extent of the unethical and illegal behaviours documented and admissions made by senior management into the systemic corruption of their businesses, especially in the financial planning sector?

Possibly yes.

It is utterly astounding, the admissions being made by senior management of the likes of AMP and CBA. Then comes the audacity of blaming growing shareholder returns as their excuse to exploit and deceive customers. Saying they were unaware …

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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 …

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The Power of Optimism and Opportunity for Sales & Business

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Opportunity, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership

Bob Safian, Editor in Chief of Fast Company, said: “…Uncertainty reigns as rapid change disrupts expectations and social norms. Global leadership is fractured and economic conditions fluctuate widely. Specters loom, from climate change to cyberterrorism. The relentless pace can make you want to curl up in a corner, wary of what might come next. Or you can stare unblinkingly at this time of chaos and dig into the difficult work of building a better tomorrow.”

What do you see?

What will you choose?

It all starts with opportunity and optimism[1].

Opportunity is a time or set of circumstances that makes it possible …

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I’m really frustrated because we could all achieve magnificent sales results if only…

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Sales Coaching, Sales Essentials, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Strategy, Sales Training

I am, by nature, a realist optimist who looks at what we can do, how we can make things better and so on. But I don’t do things on a whim, my team and I study what is best practice and look to design, build and weave the various ingredients together to create cost effective, human-centred, strategy and process driven transformation frameworks and journeys that deliver magnificent results and highly capable people when it to comes to selling better.

So effective – cost wise and results wise – that it becomes a no-brainer.

Yet, too many business and sales leaders opt for …

I’m really frustrated because we could all achieve magnificent sales results if only… Read Post »

Don’t die wondering, the real secret to sales success – Part I of II: the business

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Innovation, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership, Sales Pioneer, Sales Process Maps, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Strategy, Sales Tips, Strategy, Success

I know, I know, I know.

How many times have we seen the ‘Secrets to Sales Success’ plastered over the internet only to be left disappointed?

Usually, these ‘secrets’, once you look into them, either leave you feeling duped because of the unethical biases they take, or you are left with lots of little bits and pieces of advice that are ok but they are not coordinated in a manner that you can manage and move forward with them.

Like the diet and wellness industries, you could spend a lifetime trying to work out what you should do to improve your chances at …

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