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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Why you shouldn’t let rudeness lead to the ruination of business and sales

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Communication, Customer Service, Ethics & Values, Life Skills, Presentation & Grooming, Sales Relationships, Self Development, Wellbeing

In the midst of the trend and hype of ‘customer centricity’, ‘the customer experience (CX)’, ‘customer excellence’ and other such terms it appears there is something amiss – the rise and rise of rudeness, incivility, disrespectful behaviour, and the trend of behaving badly at work.

This is not a new phenomenon; however, it is reaching epic proportions and affecting many businesses, their staff, customers and suppliers as we speak with devastating consequences.

Ray Williams writing for ‘Psychology Today’ back in October 2016 said this: “Has incivility become the new norm in America? Fundamental ethical values such as respect, fairness, honesty, personal responsibility …

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Why online prospecting is often lazy and very annoying

By / / Call Reluctance, Prospecting, Sales Relationships, Social Sales

This week’s article comes off the back of last week’s topic ‘ Getting prospects to talk to you’.

It will take a different approach. I have documented the conversation John Smibert and I had in relation to online prospecting. Here it is. Enjoy.

John: “…I was thinking that subject to the particular company, products and industry that maybe a phone call is not always the first contact these days. The reason this came to mind is that with the advent of social selling many salespeople are having considerable dialog with potential customers before making a phone call – many are …

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How to avoid the ‘Race to the Bottom’ & mutual destruction

By / / Procurement, Sales Relationships, Sales Research, Sales Trends

The recent news about Coles and Woolworths being taken to task by the ACCC for their questionable dealings with suppliers has highlighted a major problem plaguing customer-supplier relationships.

Barrett’s first Sales Trend for 2015 is ‘Race to the Bottom’ because of the drastic impact this unsustainable pricing strategy is having on sales and buyer relationships. Edward Rayner, a procurement specialist gave us important insights into this major issue and presented some important questions and strategies sales teams can employ to help avoid mutual destruction.

Here are some of Rayner’s findings.

A customer-supplier engagement strategy that …

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Sales Trend 12 – The Enlightened Sales Person

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Collaboration, Communication, Sales Relationships, Sales Trends, Uncategorized

As the year comes to a close so do we present the 12th and final Sales Trend for 2014. This sales trend is seeing a new kind of salesperson emerging in our midst. Not common by any stretch of the imagination, but appearing in businesses slowly but surely. Smart companies are becoming aware that they need a new kind of salesperson, especially at the higher levels of business. The days of the flashy, aggressive, all talking ‘pitch master’ , or ‘you’re my mate’ schmoozer are fading fast from most industries with only …

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Does ‘Gratitude’ belong in B2B sales?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Life Skills, Sales Relationships

I have been thinking about how salespeople and others who are responsible for bringing in new business to their organisations feel when they get heartfelt thanks and feedback from their clients for a job well done.

The sort of feedback that actually tells the salesperson that they really made a difference to that client’s situation, life or business; that the client was grateful to have worked with them because they are better off with them than without them; that the client really appreciated the efforts that the salesperson made to make the most of the situation.

I know how I feel when …

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How Selling can be an act of Kindness

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Collaboration, Life Skills, Mindful selling, Sales Relationships

Since I started Barrett in January 1995, I have met thousands and thousands of salespeople and sales leaders and whilst I can tell you many stories about these encounters the one thing I can say is that the motivation driving the vast majority of these sales and service people, and sales leaders is the desire to help people, their clients, be successful and do the right thing by them.

Very few people that I have met want to harm or take undue advantage of others, even when pressed to meet targets …

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Sales Psychology – The Theory of Mind

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Emotional Intelligence, Life Skills, Mindful selling, Sales Psychology, Sales Relationships

When we interact and work with people (customers, colleagues, managers, friends, family, etc.) it is important to be able to interpret and understand where the other person is coming from – their perspective, especially if we want to continue interacting and working with them in a manner that is beneficial to both parties. Interpreting and understanding where another person is coming from does not automatically imply that we agree with their perspective.

We may not agree. However, we at least know where they stand, what their perspective is, how they see the world. Ideally, the other person would respond in kind …

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