How prepared is ‘The Lucky Country’ for tough times?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Collaboration, Ethics & Values, Innovation, Opportunity, Sales Strategy, Selling Better, Strategy, Success, Uncategorized

Ah the good times…

Ah 28 years of uninterrupted growth…

Ah Australia, ‘The Lucky Country’*…

Ah ‘How good is Australia?’…

Pssst. But don’t talk about the R** word…

We are indeed fortunate in Australia to have access to many resources, space, and talented people; however, our luck maybe running out if we carry on drinking the ‘recession avoidance’ Kool Aid, carry on with our old ways of managing business and thinking everything is rosy instead of adapting to the array of changes, challenges, and opportunities that are out there in the market place.

Which is why I couldn’t go past economist Jim Stanford’s comments in Paddy …

How prepared is ‘The Lucky Country’ for tough times? Read Post »

2019 Sales Trends Event  – Trust me, I’m in Sales

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Business Acumen, Collaboration, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Gratitude, Innovation, Opportunity, Optimism, Procurement, Sales Consulting, Sales Leadership, Sales Pioneer, Sales Research, Sales Trends, Selling Better, Strategy, Success, Sustainability & Environment

On 27 March 2019 we hosted our 7th Sales Trends Business Breakfast celebrating the 10th edition of the Barrett Annual 12 Sales Trends Report with Trust as our central theme.

Over 120 people attended the event, mostly business people but we also had the Year 11 International Baccalaureate Student Representatives of the Melbourne Montessori School attend to further their knowledge and education as they study Business Management.

The attendees heard from our special guest speakers, Suzanne Paynter, Strategy and Policy Advisor for the Future Business Council, and Andrew Smith, Head of Business Customer at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, and myself, where we …

2019 Sales Trends Event  – Trust me, I’m in Sales Read Post »

Ignore customer relationships at your peril: The demise of out-of-touch political parties

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Communication, Optimism, Selling Better, Strategy, Success

Even in the advent of big data, the nature of developing genuine customer relationships is generally not understood well enough by most businesses, and is not often on the agenda for thorough examination.

This got me thinking about political parties and the nature of their relationships with their party members and the broader communities upon which they rely upon to get elected.

In speaking with Leslie Roberts, Principal of ERM Advisory, he states that ‘In advice-based professional practices, such as accounting, financial planning, legal services, etc. it is all too common for the topic of customer relationships to be subject to gut-feeling, …

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Less IS More when it comes to Sales Planning & Market Segmentation

By / / Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Market Segmentation, Sales Planning, Sales Results, Sales Strategy, Selling Better, Strategy, Success

Less Is More when it comes to doing good strategy, sales planning and market segmentation.

As Michael Porter, Professor and ‘Father’ of Competitive Strategy (Harvard Business School), says:

  • The essence of good strategy is choosing what not to do;
  • The essence of strategy is that you must set limits on what you are trying to accomplish; and
  • Strategy 101 is about choices. You cannot be all things to all people. It’s about making choices, trade-offs. It’s about being deliberately different

This is the essence of good strategy, yet time and time again we see many sales teams experiencing …

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Sales Trend 6: Moving CX & HX – really it’s all about people now

By / / 12 Sales Trends Pages Category, Customer Service, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Results, Sales Strategy, Selling Better, Strategy

Sales Trend 6 of Barrett’s 12 Sales Trends for 2018 is about the ‘human experience’ in businesses and sales.

The terms Customer Experience and Customer Centric have been around for some time. These terms are now referred to in shorthand as CX. Now a new term is emerging – HX, the Human Experience.

What does all this mean? Aren’t they the same thing?

This sales trend explores the terms CX and HX and helps put into perspective the old and the new when it comes to creating a competitive winning edge in sales and business.

Let’s look at some definitions first:

In commerce, customer …

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Is your organisation your worst ‘Sales Blocker’?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Collaboration, Customer Service, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales performance, Sales Results, Strategy, Success

Many articles have been written about the many, many excuses salespeople come up with as to why they haven’t hit their sales targets, why they find it hard to sell, and so on.

The accusatory finger always seems to be pointing at the salespeople. And sometimes this is fair, however, there are many reasons why it’s not always the salesperson’s fault.

There are many reasons why salespeople are prevented from carrying out their sales duties effectively. This article is about highlighting the blockers or blockages in their way – intended or unintended.

Let’s explore these blockers and see how we can remove them …

Is your organisation your worst ‘Sales Blocker’? Read Post »

Want to find & own uncontested markets? Try Blue Ocean Strategy

By / / Business Acumen, Competition, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Opportunity, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Results, Sales Strategy, Strategy, Success

In today’s cluttered business landscape and global marketplace, finding uncontested markets to sell into and own, free of competition, at least for the foreseeable future, is getting harder, and harder and harder.

Developing innovative ideas that turn into something new, unique and viable, are not easy to copy, and deliver revenue and healthy margins is equally tough.

Rethinking our marketplaces, our traditional customers and non-customers, and how we sell and deliver real value to them, that they are prepared to pay for, well that’s another difficult challenge too.

Most businesses these days find that they are increasingly competing head to …

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The differences between business, sales, and marketing strategies

By / / Marketing, Sales Strategy, Social Sales, Strategy

This week we thought we would touch on the differences between business, sales, and marketing strategies. The reason for that is that there’s usually confusion between sales and marketing strategies. To avoid confusion, it’s always good to look at definitions.

Michael Porter defines strategy as the set of choices that define a company’s distinctive approach to competing, and the competitive advantages on which it will be based. There are two different levels: corporate strategy, which is the strategy for the business overall (the portfolio of businesses); and business strategy, which determines how each business will compete. Business strategy is a high …

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What are the biggest sales issues & opportunities for CEOs & Sales Leaders today?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Sales Benchmarking, Sales Consulting, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Strategy, Strategy

Since late 2014, we have been rolling out the Sales Strategy & Operations Audit working with a wide range of businesses across industries in the public, private, and N4P sectors to help them sell better.

In 2017, we compiled the Barrett Sales Strategy & Operations Benchmark Report for 2015-2017 based on over 20 companies and found several trends emerging that are relevant across businesses and industries. We are also seeing this across many other businesses with or without the audit.

Here is what we found:

The biggest sales issues facing CEOs & Sales Leaders today:

  • Average or below average: Every business …

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    Sales Strategy: Ditch short-termism for robust sales strategies that drive more & better sales now & over the long-term

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership, Sales Market Segmentation, Sales Research, Sales Results, Sales Strategy, Strategy, Success

    ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, every road will lead you nowhere’.

    This famous quote is attributed to Henry Kissinger.

    Why have I led with this quote? Sadly, in today’s busy, noisy and complex world, this quote represents a common state of affairs for many organisations’ CEOs, Executive Leaderships Teams, Sales Leaders and their sales teams who are struggling to make sales, retain their relevance with clients, and generate profit.

    Instead, many are finding themselves in a race to the bottom price war which is not a strategy for success, instead it’s a reaction to short-termism which only leads to one’s …

    Sales Strategy: Ditch short-termism for robust sales strategies that drive more & better sales now & over the long-term Read Post »

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