12 Sales Trends for 2016: Sales Trend 1 – Beyond Profit Erosion

By / / Sales Research, Sales Strategy, Sales Trends

Sales Trend 1 of Barrett 12 Sales Trends for 2016 is “Beyond Profit Erosion”.

After decades of revenue and profit growth markets are no longer what they used to be. The current situation of profit erosion has been decades in the making with a combination of factors including:

  • Low interest rates and the abundance of cheap money creating the conditions for growth mainly through Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Cost cutting to reduce duplication and redundancies and grow profits
  • Technology and automation having taken over many labour intensive processes
  • Buyers’ stripping apart of complex offers into their individual parts thus diminishing or dismissing the …

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12 Sales Trends for 2016 – Less is More

By / / Sales Trends

What happens when we have so much information that it is impossible to even decide what to read? When we have so many things to do that we are rarely at one place at one time for more than a few minutes? We constantly check our phones, computers or tablets. We are online and connected 24/7. We have an overload of information, stuff, processes, stress… There’s a reason why ‘de?cluttering’ businesses are growing in number around the world. People are seeking help to go back to basics, to a clearer and simpler life, with less stuff.

Organisations are run by people …

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2015 Sales Trend 11 – The rise of the freelancer

By / / Sales Trends

The Sales Trend 11 of our 12 Sales Trends for 2015 is The Rise of the Freelancer.

Over the past few years there has been a dissonance between two discourses happening at the same time. On the one hand we hear continuously from friends, family, acquaintances and colleagues that the job market is very difficult and more and more people are struggling to find fulfilling work or any kind of work at all. On the other hand, companies and organisations in general say that they can’t find the right talent that they need. How can these two happen …

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Sales Trend 10 – Oops! I’m in sales

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Customer Service, Education in Sales, Sales Trends

Barrett’s Sales Trend 10 for 2015 is ‘Oops! I’m in sales’.

The general stereotypical view of selling and salespeople has remained relatively stable over the past 50 or so years, with the most commonly associated words and concepts being fairly specific (i.e. ‘used car salesman’) and/or negative (i.e. ‘pushy’, ‘sleazy’, ‘dishonest’)[1]. Even by people working in the sales profession, these schemas are often what they refer to when asked to describe sales. However, very slowly, this is starting to change.

Many companies and sales people are actively trying to change these stereotypes by promoting more positive behaviours …

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Sales Trend 9 – Back to the Village

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Environment & Sustainability, Sales Trends, Sustainability & Environment

Barrett’s Sales Trend 9 for 2015 is ‘Back to the village’.

As globalisation became more and more prominent, Australian consumers in turn, became excited about being able to purchase items from all over the world. Suddenly they were exposed to a wider variety and range of products than ever before, and could boast about owning items from across the globe. As the novelty of “worldly” products began to wane, and the economic impact of the import/export markets were felt more locally, people started to shift back to purchasing Australian made products.

In recognition of this, the Australian government launched …

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Sales Trend 8 – Unearthing the Real Neuroscience in Sales – We cannot read minds yet

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Neuroscience, Neuroscience in Sales, Sales Trends

Sales Trend 8 of Barrett’s 12 Sales Trends for 2015 is about “neuroselling”.

Recently, there has been a shift from economic models to emotion-based or psychological models of selling. The shift to emotional, psychological, and scientific models has been occurring across other areas of business for many years, so it comes as no surprise that it is now happening in sales. However, rather than talking about emotion-based models, people are jumping straight to scientific terminology and talking about using neuroscience in sales.

Cognitive neuroscience (a branch of neuroscience, which is the study of the nervous system as a whole) …

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Sales Trend 7 – Beyond Sales KPIs

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Performance Management, Sales Coaching, Sales Leadership, Sales Trends

The 2015 Sales Trend 7 – Beyond Sales KPIs see our focus shifting to how we can get closer to the moments of truth and measure sales effectiveness in a complex world. In a nutshell, this trend is showing leadership moving from a deficiency orientation (i.e. performance management when things go wrong) to a competency orientation (i.e. coaching people to achieve their best performance). It is important to note that this trend also requires a mindset shift amongst the managers involved in such a transformation.

Most companies at some stage in their history have struggled with identifying the …

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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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Sales Trend 5 – The New Accountability in Holistic (sales) Learning

By / / Coaching, Education in Sales, Sales Coaching, Sales Skills, Sales Training, Sales Trends, Self Development

Sales Trend 5 of our Sales Trends Report for 2015 is about the new accountability is holistic learning. Learning and Development (L&D) across the board, and especially in sales, has slowly but continuously been changing over the past few years. There are a variety of factors influencing this recent development. The ongoing challenge through these changes has been that it is not a single “trend” that has determined the necessary adjustments to be made to keep up with developments in the area, but a number of aggregated trends and factors that have simultaneously been responsible for supplying …

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2015 Sales Trends Event – How to sell better in a complex world

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Ethics & Values, Sales Leadership, Sales Trends, Strategy, Success

On Wednesday 6 May we hosted our 2015 Barrett 12 Sales Trends Annual Business Breakfast where many senior business and sales leaders came to hear about and discuss the theme for the event this year, ‘Transparency and the Middle Path’ – How to sell better in a complex world. It was great to see the room filled to capacity again as it was for the inaugural event last year.

It also gave us the opportunity to formally celebrate our 20th year in business and thank the Barrett team and our clients and supporters, many of whom were there …

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