Collaboration – The New Competition

By / / Communication, Customer Service, Performance Management, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Relationships, Sales Skills, Success, Teamwork

The New Competition was voted by you as the number 7 Sales Trend for 2010. Over the coming years, we will see collaboration become the new competition. Markets around the world are crying out for collaboration as innovation and differentiation become scarce in a sea of commoditised products and services.

Sales people who see themselves as collaborators, both internally (colleagues, departments) and externally (customers, competitors), will prosper more than ever during 2010 and beyond.

A large 5 year long research study conducted by B. Rosenbaum, Business Horizons, entitled Seven Emerging Sales Competencies and published in Jan/Feb 2001 revealed what makes highly successful …

Collaboration – The New Competition Read Post »

Is internal competition eating away at your sales results?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Ethics & Values, Performance Management, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Relationships, Sales Talent, Self Development, Strategy, Success, Teamwork, Value Proposition & Value Add

Many sales cultures are traditionally based on respect for authority, status and success, and encouraging competitive, challenging and achievement-oriented atmospheres. Although this is not true for all businesses, especially in the 21st Century! There are a growing number of businesses adopting more collegiate, lead team approaches. However, despite different types of cultures, sales performance and results are usually derived from the efforts of individuals. Harnessing those individual efforts to achieve synergy (the sum is greater than its individual parts) is a key task of management, yet so many get it wrong. Let’s take a look …

Is internal competition eating away at your sales results? Read Post »

How do you create future sales superstars?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Assessments, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Skills, Sales Talent, Sales Training, Strategy, Success, Value Proposition & Value Add

How many of us entered our sales careers with our eyes wide open? Fully aware of what it takes to be an effective sales person – ably resourced with the tools, processes, plans and support essential to our success. Knowing full well what you were getting yourself into.

For most, if not all of us, our initiation into sales was nothing like this, and was cushioned with little or none of these luxuries. Does the analogy “sink or swim” resonate with anyone?

All of this makes the story I am about to share quite unique and refreshing. Recently, …

How do you create future sales superstars? Read Post »

Now for something completely different – a gift for you

By / / Sales Tips, Success

To our dear Barrett Sales Blog Readers

Some of you may not be aware that since February 2007 we have published over 160 articles on the sales profession covering topics on Sales Management and Leadership; Sales Skills and Process; Sales Strategy and Sales Planning; Sales Tips; Mindset and Attitudes; Qualities of Elite Sales Performers; CRM;

Now for something completely different – a gift for you Read Post »

Why ‘everybody lives by selling something’ is key to your success

By / / Sales Culture, Success

‘Everybody lives by selling something‘ was the trend, in our 12 Sales Trends for 2010, voted as second most important for businesses in 2010. It is a very significant trend on many levels as it involves everyone, not just the people who are labelled as ‘sales’.

‘Everybody lives by selling something’ has had a profound impact on our business at Barrett. Since we introduced this as our core philosophy and principle behind our work it has been amazing how many people feel …

Why ‘everybody lives by selling something’ is key to your success Read Post »

Creating an effective sales performance management system

By / / Coaching, Performance Management, Sales Coaching, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Leadership, Sales Talent, Success

Following on from last week’s article about managing and measuring the right things in sales, I thought it would be worth looking at some of the key principles for effective sales performance management systems.

The first place to start is to align your sales performance management system and subsequent key measures to your organisation’s strategy and goals. It’s then the job of the CEO and the Sales Leader to ensure the organisation (that means everyone else who supports the sales effort) is aligned to the sales performance management system. When this dimension is in place …

Creating an effective sales performance management system Read Post »

The Entrepreneurial Sales Person

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Emotional Intelligence, Neuroscience in Sales, Prospecting, Resilience, Role Clarity, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Motivation & Rewards, Sales Relationships, Sales Talent, Self Development, Success

As part of my ongoing professional and personal development I belong to a CEO leadership group where we meet monthly and discuss a whole range of topics to stimulate our thinking and decision making.

Recently we discussed the concept and qualities of Successful Entrepreneurs. Besides making the obvious comparisons with ourselves as to whether we met the criteria of successful entrepreneurs I found the content translated extremely well into what I and other research is seeing in successful sales people today.

It seemed to me that successful sales people had a lot in common with successful entrepreneurs who are often the main …

The Entrepreneurial Sales Person Read Post »

Exceptional Prospectors

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Call Reluctance, Competition, Networking, Prospecting, Resilience, Sales Pioneer, Sales Psychology, Sales Relationships, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Talent, Sales Tips, Self Promotion, Social Media, Social Sales, Success
  • “My most important appointment is prospecting and I do it first up every day.”
  • “I qualify all leads I generate and have an approach to handle those that aren’t ready yet.”
  • “People appreciate a professional sales approach and are able to make an informed decision to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ because I clearly explain, up front, my reason for contacting them using a customer centred approach. They need only say ‘no’ if they’re not interested.”
  • “I have a list of categorised prospects or influencers and a set approach for each category.”

    • Is this what you say, and how you feel and act about prospecting?

    These …

    Exceptional Prospectors Read Post »

    Professional Services firms are feeling the pinch

    By / / Brand & Reputation, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Marketing, Prospecting, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Motivation & Rewards, Strategy, Success

    Take note: Lawyers, Accountants, Engineers, Marketing Consultants et al

    Professional Services Firms are struggling when it comes to keeping and finding business. This on top of the fact that many have to come to grips with the fact they need to sell. The market has definitely changed. You cannot sit there aggressively waiting for the phone to ring anymore.

    In speaking with one partner from a well respected law firm, he vented his frustration at the lack of action being taken in his firm by partners and their teams in terms of driving the push to find new business in current and …

    Professional Services firms are feeling the pinch Read Post »

    Some Good News Sales Stories

    By / / Negotiation, Sales Relationships, Sales Skills, Success

    You don’t have to discount price to win good business and good customer relationships even in tough markets.

    I mentioned earlier this year my team and I are working on a large sales fitness training assignment in the finance sector around Australia. These guys are hard up against it when it come to ‘price’ being a key target at the moment. A number of their competitors are trying to buy market share with discounted prices. The market is being hammered with ‘discounting’ of all sorts – some clear, some not so clear and some very dubious.

    Many people have commented ‘Is this …

    Some Good News Sales Stories Read Post »

    Scroll to Top