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The decarbonised salesperson

By / / Blog, Decarbonising, Ethics & Values, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Talent, Sales Trends

Sales trend 12 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2022 explores what ‘decarbonised’ salespeople look like and how employers can attract them.

Written in collaboration with ReillyScott.

Given my long-standing public commitment to climate action and a clean green sustainable world, it may come as no surprise to readers that I receive connections, feedback, questions and requests from seasoned salespeople professionals looking to transition into ‘decarbonised/ing’ sales roles and businesses.

Many do not want to work for or be associated with businesses that are not committed to a renewable, decarbonised world.

They understand selling is the vehicle that allows …

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The Unsung Heroes of Brand Success

Recruiting and Retaining Salespeople

By / / Assessments, Blog, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Talent

Many of our clients have been looking for salespeople over the last few months and their experience seems to reflect what the stats are saying: it’s taking longer to fill these positions and the turnover is higher.

Our sales teams are the primary human face of our organisation and so these are critical roles.

Let’s look at recruitment first 

Effectively predicting sales performance is critical to the success of any business, and using well designed, rigorous psychometric assessments as part of a sales selection process can really boost our chances of finding and retaining the right salespeople.

We have been using …

Recruiting and Retaining Salespeople Read Post »

Sales tips for uncertain times – Here’s how

By / / Blog, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Remote selling, Sales Assessments, Sales System, Sales Tips, Sales Training, Success

Uncertainty has been our permanent companion over the last two years, and as business and sales leaders and professionals, ‘adaptation’ is -or at least, it should- be our way of doing business. We can shift our thinking by leveraging all that we have learned to propel business forward.

Here are 3 things that have helped our clients adapt in these changing times:

1. Remote Sales Training

Here’s how a remote blended learning approach works and delivers results

More businesses are coming to terms with the fact that in some cases a classroom setting is not feasible for the foreseeable future, or they prefer to …

Sales tips for uncertain times – Here’s how Read Post »

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Using assessments when recruiting salespeople

By / / Assessments, Call Reluctance, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales performance, Sales Talent

Your sales teams are the primary human face of your organisation and – still – identifying and retaining high performing sales talent continues to elude many businesses. 

A successful salesperson will not only enable your organisation to ride out the economic uncertainty but will also ensure you are ready to seize the opportunities that present during the recovery.

Effectively predicting sales performance is critical to the success of any business, and using well designed, rigorous psychometric assessments as part of a sales selection process can really boost our chances of finding and retaining the …

Using assessments when recruiting salespeople Read Post »

how-do-I-keep-the-cabin-safe-and-people-calm

How do I keep the cabin safe and people calm?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Communication, covid-19, Opportunity, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Coaching, Sales Consulting, Sales Measures - Inputs & Outputs, Sales Psychology, Sales Skills

In HR you support “pilots and crews” to help them run smooth operations. When a crisis like this one hits out of the blue, and sales and service operations are disrupted, if not brought to a complete halt, it is critical to help everyone get back on their feet again and find solid ground quickly and safely.

Whether your business has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis directly or through the ripple effect across the value chain from suppliers to the customer experience, your sales and service leaders and teams are probably concerned, both personally and from …

How do I keep the cabin safe and people calm? Read Post »

How should I assess a sales recruit?

By / / Assessments, Attitudes & Behaviours, Call Reluctance, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Talent

Last time I wrote about what we should be looking for in a good sales recruit.

This time we will look at how we go about assessing a sales recruit.

There are a myriad of ways you can assess someone – some are legitimate and purpose built for sales recruitment while other methods wouldn’t stand up in a court of law even if they work for you. 

Let’s take intuition or gut feel for instance.

There is nothing wrong with using your gut feelings or intuition; however, using it as your only source of assessment criteria will make it hard …

How should I assess a sales recruit? Read Post »

What should I be looking for in a good sales recruit?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Role Clarity, Sales Skills, Sales Talent

What should I be looking for in a good sales recruit?

This is a vexing question for many sales and business leaders.

And some of the answers we still hear aren’t very helpful either.

‘They must be hunters.’

‘They need to be hungry.’

‘They’ve got to be able to close deals.’

‘They must have a mortgage and family so they are ‘motivated’ to sell more.’

‘They must have industry experience.’

Notice anything familiar about most of these answers?

They are all stuck in the ‘aggressive, self-serving, desperate approach to selling’ paradigm which is not what good selling actually is …

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What you need to drive your sales strategy

By / / Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Culture, Sales Strategy, Strategy

The frequently used business model of having sales under marketing, and therefore not having a separate sales strategy is no longer effective in today’s complex market place.

Sales strategies developed by non-sales driven executives tend to be little more than tactical ways to support the marketing drive, brand equity, corporate philosophy and/or the value/volume targets. Most organisations could have survived like this in a product focused 20th century world, but not anymore.

Today, selling is much more complex than just getting business (new or incremental).

Sales now has to re-examine its mission. It has to unshackle itself from marketing, …

What you need to drive your sales strategy Read Post »

How to give every salesperson the best start to their sales career

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Results, Sales Strategy, Sales Talent, Sales Tips, Strategy

This is how most salespeople are inducted into their sales careers:

“Welcome to our team, Rebecca. It’s great to have you on board. Here is your list of ABC accounts and the products brochure which outlines all the products we sell. I also want you to meet our best salesperson, Ben. He is awesome. As part of your induction I want you to go out on the road and learn to be just like Ben.”

That’s it, give or take a few iterations.

Rebecca is thrown in the deep end and at best asked to mimic Ben with no real context, no reference …

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Sales Trend 6 – Recruiting for Change and Evolution

By / / Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Trends

The 2015 Sales Trend 6 – Recruiting for Change and Evolution is focused well and truly on adapting how we recruit. In short, we need to look for people who want to make a difference and can improve business.

People have been trying to identify how to hire the ‘right’ people, especially the right salespeople, for as long as jobs have existed. There are constant fluctuations and changes in recruitment processes, with people always striving to find the most accurate way of predicting on-the-job performance. Over the last decade think psychometric testing, social media background …

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