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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Why using Sales Intelligence helps you close more sales

By / / CRM, Sales Results, Sales Tips

Whilst many salespeople complain of their frustrations with getting an initial appointment with new prospects, it’s the next step – converting these initial buyer-seller conversations into a presentation opportunity – that should be more of a concern. Research from CSO Insights shows an alarming erosion in the ability to move a sale from an initial conversation with around only 48% of these being converted. This is down from a high of around 58%.

The study on sales intelligence by CSO says the reason companies are struggling to move prospects past initial conversations is that today’s ultra-informed buyers want …

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Sales Reporting – Why Bother?

By / / Sales Forecasting, Sales Measures - Inputs & Outputs, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Tips

Recently, I met a very impressive young Sales Manager. Let’s call him Sam. Sam knew his sales stuff. He knew what to look for when it came to accurate reporting of sales data. Nothing too complicated. He was conscious of focussing on the key measures and not overloading his sales team with too much reporting because he wanted his sales team out there selling instead of being glorified administrators.

Sam is my kind of sales manager. There for his people and his company making sure that his sales team knew exactly what was expected of them in terms …

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How buying patterns have changed

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Procurement, Sales Results, Social Sales, Value Based Selling

Salespeople everywhere are faced with demands to meet increasingly high quotas in the face of growing market complexity and relentless financial pressure. There is also more competitors with Me2 products –just as good as brand names–, and an increased pressure on margins with buyers reluctant to make early commitments. Salespeople are facing demands like they never had before.

Current research from the Behaviour & Economic Research team at NAB¹  states that forward orders (in 2014) were very patchy for both big businesses and SMEs, making it very hard to forecast sales and manage pipelines. This only confirms the reticence of buyers …

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What if we sell better instead of only selling more?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Environment & Sustainability, Sales Results, Success, Sustainability & Environment

What if we aimed to sell better instead of focusing on only selling more?

At risk of giving every sales manager and business leader a coronary with this question, especially if we are running behind on our sales targets, I would like us to consider the following proposition.

‘Strive not to be the best company in the world, but the best company FOR the world’

What if we took this approach to business?

This is the philosophy of BCorps which is encouraging the proliferation of a new type of company that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. They …

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Top 13 Sales Issues for businesses in 2014

By / / Education in Sales, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership, Sales Results

As we get close to our celebration of 20 years in business we thought we would share with you the most common and critical sales problems that are affecting sales teams large and small, across all sorts of markets and industries in 2014. Here they are:

  • Businesses not making sales quota overall
  • Not enough salespeople making quota
  • Win/lose ratio unacceptably low
  • Deals taking too long to close
  • Leads/sales ratio too low
  • Not getting enough client meetings
  • Margins being squeezed
  • Chasing poorly qualified leads
  • Not engaging with decision makers
  • Salespeople not able to engage effectively at C level
  • Salespeople not understanding the client’s perspective
  • Too much discounting
  • Losing deals on price

    • The list contents may …

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    What does a successful sales team & culture look like?

    By / / Sales Culture, Sales Results, Sales Strategy

    Creating a viable, healthy, fit, and robust sales team and supporting culture takes effort, consistent effort. It doesn’t happen by chance. We have to be able to hold in our grasp –our thinking, our frame of reference– several aspects including purpose, strategy, performance standards, people, competition, change, technology, and of course, all of the variables outside of our direct control such as PEST (politics, economic, society, technology) or STEER.

    The biggest issues that keep most sales teams from being and consistently performing at their best are:

    • No sales strategy to direct and guide the sales team and business
    • The …

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    5 things you can do to improve your sales results now

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Pipeline, Sales Results, Sales Tips, Success

    Yes, the world of business and especially B2B selling is getting more complex every day. Buyers’ decision making processes, especially on larger deals, are taking longer, up to 20% longer than 5 years ago. And the decision making process usually involves a range of people not just one key decision maker. Making a good sale involves many moving parts.

    So what can we do to improve our sales results now? Here are 5 things you can do immediately to help you win more sales and keep the sales momentum going.

  • Build Your Sales Pipeline: you usually need 3-4 times your sales budget …

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    How to avoid the 7 deadly sins of selling

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Results, Sales Tips, Success

    The first objective of effective sales training and coaching is to help us, salespeople, become aware of any bad habits we may have developed over time. The next objective is to admit that these bad sales habits are deterrents to our success. By breaking these bad habits down and see them for what they are we can begin to rebuild our sales skills by putting in place healthy sales habits that lead to success.

    However, even if you do not have the opportunity to attend good sales training or have access to …

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    How to build a High Performance Sales Unit

    By / / Performance Management, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Results

    How does one go about building a high performance sales unit? What does a high performance sales person actually look like? What needs to be in place for high performance sales to flourish? These and other questions are on the minds of many sales leaders, and if they are not they should be. They are vexed questions too – not easily answered. Here’s why… Unlike a computer which is a complicated system that has predictable outputs, sales operations are complex systems with many variables and unpredictable outputs. Yet, many sales leaders from around the world continue …

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