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Your Clients Don’t Want Your Product (And Why That’s Great News)

By / / Customer-centric, Features, Sales Tips, Solution Selling, Value Based Selling

In 30 seconds

Nobody wants a mortgage: they want a home. Nobody wants insurance: they want peace of mind. This truth applies to almost every product: clients don’t want what you sell, they want what it does for them. Yet many salespeople stay fixated on features, forgetting the problem their product solves. Great salespeople shift focus to the client’s desired outcome. Fall in love with their problems, translate features into clear benefits, and ask discovery questions about their world, not your product. By selling outcomes instead of specs, you stop pushing and start helping. And the more you help, the more you’ll sell.

Your Clients Don’t Want Your Product (And Why That’s Great News) Read Post »

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“Would You Like Fries With That?”

By / / Blog, Sales Process Maps, Sales Skills, sales-process-map, Selling Better, Solution Selling, Up-selling & Cross Selling

In 30 seconds

Upselling is not merely about increasing a customer’s bill; it’s about adding value by offering complementary products or services that enhance the primary purchase. When done correctly, it addresses the customer’s specific situation, improves the overall deal, and strengthens customer relationships. Successful upselling requires a deep understanding of the customer’s needs and should be integrated into the sales process, not treated as an afterthought. The key is to present upsell options as part of the overall solution, making it a natural extension of the sales conversation.

In 2 minutes

Upselling is a classic sales technique used to add items to …

“Would You Like Fries With That?” Read Post »

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Striking Balance – Barrett’s 12 Sales & Business Trends for 2024

By / / Blog, Business Growth, Collaboration, Communication, Customer experience, Customer Service, Customer-centric, Digital credentials, Education in Sales, Emotional Intelligence, Ethics & Values, Human-centred, Hybrid Selling, Leadership, Learning and Development, Opportunity, Sales Consulting, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Growth, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Methodology, Sales Operations, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Strategy, Sales Tips, Sales Training, Sales Trends, Selling Better, Soft skills, Solution Selling, Strategy, Success, Value Based Selling

In December 2023 we published Barrett’s 12 Sales & Business Trends for 2024. This is a summary of that report, in case you missed it.

For decades, the business world has been dominated by what looked like opposites to choose from. You could be a hunter or a gatherer, a manager or a leader.

These concepts have been pitched to the business community as opposing and mutually exclusive choices, forcing a binary mindset. These polarisations don’t apply to modern businesses and sales operations – and they haven’t served us well for some time now.

In 2023 we’ve worked with businesses across industries and …

Striking Balance – Barrett’s 12 Sales & Business Trends for 2024 Read Post »

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Beyond the Transaction

By / / Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Customer Service, Sales Consulting, Sales Relationships, Sales Skills, Sales Tips, Solution Selling, Uncategorized, Value Based Selling

In 30 seconds

Selling is much more than completing transactions, particularly in B2B and complex B2C environments. Delivering value is crucial for building long-term relationships with customers. To shift to value-based selling, you can start with this 4-step approach:

  • Focus on customer needs
  • Shift to consultative selling
  • Demonstrate ROI
  • Collaborate with customers

    • By moving beyond transactions and adopting a value-based selling approach, businesses can better meet these expectations and build stronger, better customer relationships.

    In 2 minutes

    In the past, sales were often focused solely on completing transactions. However, in today’s market and particularly in B2B and complex B2C environments, customers expect more from the sales and service …

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    Solution Selling & Value-based Selling

    By / / Blog, Sales Skills, Sales Training, Selling Better, Solution Selling, Value Based Selling

    Are they the same?

    The terms ‘Solution Selling’ and ‘Value-based Selling’ are sometimes used interchangeably. But are they the same?

    The short answer is NO.

    So, what are Solution Selling and Value-based Selling?

    Let’s start with Solution Selling

    Solution Selling is about how customers view solutions, not how salespeople define solutions. All the methods that support real Solution Selling encourage salespeople to work with their customers to gain an understanding of what the customer believes is an ideal solution for them.

    Solution Selling is a sales method that has been, and continues to be, led by customer demands. In fact, it evolved from other methodologies around …

    Solution Selling & Value-based Selling Read Post »

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    Customer Experiences – Difficult or just different?

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Common Ground, Communication, Customer experience, Customer Service, Human-centred, Solution Selling

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    Selling Better, Faster using Real Time Sales Education

    By / / Coaching, Collaboration, Customer Service, Education in Sales, Environment & Sustainability, Optimism, Sales Coaching, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales performance, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Training, sales-process-map, Selling Better, Solution Selling

    I’m feeling elated.

    I’m feeling vindicated.

    I’m feeling very optimistic about the future of sales education and sales mastery.

    Three weeks ago we started working with and coaching a telesales team of 9 people based in regional NSW.

    Week one post the first session, sales had already started to improve and by week three, this sales team had their best sales week ever. The sales leader revealed this in the session we had this week and attributed it to the training we are doing.

    Now that’s something to be optimistic about.

    How did we do this?

    Our focus was to help them sell better, faster using real …

    Selling Better, Faster using Real Time Sales Education Read Post »

    The Holy Trinity of Selling

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Buying, Collaboration, Common Ground, Communication, Ethics & Values, Opportunity, Sales Skills, Sales Talent, Solution Selling

    This post has been inspired by my colleague, Ben Shute, who I work arm in arm with bridging the divide between sales and procurement. He wrote about the Holy Trinity of Procurement Skills and so challenged me to do the same for Sales.

    Here is my contribution.

    The profession of selling requires a whole range of capabilities. It’s hard to know where to begin to define the 3 core elements for sales – the Holy Trinity of Selling.

    So I’ll start with the master categories of Knowledge, Skills and Mindset from Barrett’s Sales Competency Dictionary.

    Knowledge

    Let’s …

    The Holy Trinity of Selling Read Post »

    The rise of Ethical Selling in the new world order: The history of Sales Methodologies, revised & updated

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Ethics & Values, Selling Better, Solution Selling

    Selling is a hot topic, especially the louder calls for more ethical, fairer, purpose driven business and selling practices. Given the recent findings from the Australian Banking Royal Commission and the emerging new world transparency highlighting various unethical, immoral and unsustainable business and sales practices across the collective value chain, the rise of an Ethical Purpose Driven Selling Methodology, as the new world order, is making its way into mainstream consciousness.

    This got us revisiting our whitepaper, The History of Sales Methodologies – why some work and others don’t which we published in 2013. We wondered if there were enough significant …

    The rise of Ethical Selling in the new world order: The history of Sales Methodologies, revised & updated Read Post »

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