Why we can all benefit from thinking like a ‘freak’

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Sales Psychology, Sales Skills, Success

Steven Levitt, the co-author of Freakonomics, SuperFreakonomics, Think like a Freak and When to Rob a Bank, defines thinking like a freak as: “…putting away your moral compass and not worrying about what the answer “should” be, but focusing on what the answer really is. It means thinking hard about causality. It means going beyond the obvious to consider all the possibilities — but still being willing to accept the obvious.”

When businesses, and especially, sales teams and salespeople come across challenges, they usually try to solve them by using the same parameters and approaches they had used in past, but …

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Don’t die wondering, the real secret to sales success – Part I of II: the business

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Innovation, Sales Culture, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership, Sales Pioneer, Sales Process Maps, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Strategy, Sales Tips, Strategy, Success

I know, I know, I know.

How many times have we seen the ‘Secrets to Sales Success’ plastered over the internet only to be left disappointed?

Usually, these ‘secrets’, once you look into them, either leave you feeling duped because of the unethical biases they take, or you are left with lots of little bits and pieces of advice that are ok but they are not coordinated in a manner that you can manage and move forward with them.

Like the diet and wellness industries, you could spend a lifetime trying to work out what you should do to improve your chances at …

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It’s all about Opportunity: A future – disrupted & reimagined

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Innovation, Life Skills, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Leadership, Sales Pioneer, Success

On December 4 (Melbourne) and 6 (Sydney) 2017, Barrett will be attending The Future: Disrupted and Reimagined event featuring Malcolm Gladwell, author of five New York Times bestsellers — The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants, and Steven Levitt, economist and co-author of Freakonomics, SuperFreakonomics, Think Like A Freak and When To Rob a Bank.

Gladwell and Levitt are some of the world’s most interesting and outstanding writers talking about the 21st century world and how we can rethink and reimagine our future in times of great …

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Selling Professional Services

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Tips, Success

Even the once exclusive professions of accounting, medicine, law and engineering have come to realise that they can no longer survive on referrals and reputation alone; that marketing the firm, whilst it stimulates awareness and interest, is not enough to generate the levels of new business needed to cover the costs of running a professional practice.

Decades ago these professionals relied on their network of referrals. They developed a reputation amongst a select group of their friends that made them an attractive option that brought business to their door. Those days and that situation has however changed.

Today, with universities turning out …

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Why self-discipline and being organised pays

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Planning, Sales Results, Sales Tips, Self Development, Success

Being organised makes good dollars and cents.

To be on track with your sales quota you need to be organised, have a plan you stick to, and use a system for effective selling.

It’s never too late to start, regardless of where you are on the road towards realising your sales targets. All it really takes is some thought and self-discipline to organise yourself.

Probably the single biggest reason we see sales executives struggle to make sales targets is simply a lack of organisation or discipline to stick to a system of selling. We are not talking about a formula, but rather the …

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Why I cannot relate to the typical salesperson stereotype and why we need a new one for the 21st century

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

If you cannot relate to the typical salesperson stereotype you are not alone. Many people we speak to, including many salespeople themselves, have never been able to relate to the fast talking, overly confident and ambitious, competitive, win at all costs, know-it-all, we-are-the-frontline-and-without-us-you-wouldn’t-have-a-job persona that is often portrayed as the ideal salesperson stereotype in the media and business world via films, press, social media, books, articles, and so on.

Today, many people, of all sorts of persuasions – entrepreneurs, start-up founders, professional services (law, accounting, engineering, architects, etc.), technical people, customer service staff, internal teams, membership groups, not-for-profits, even government bodies …

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Without a Strategic Sales Force, you are doomed to fail

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Education in Sales, Sales Leadership, Sales Strategy, Success

A strategic sales force – one driven by a focused sales strategy and robust sales operation framework rather than a panel-beaten corporate / marketing strategy or territory plan for capturing incremental share of spend, is a highly treasured asset. A strategic sales force will deliver better results for the organisation’s customers and as a result, for the organisation itself.

A great case study for sales strategy and a strategic sales force.

When we met mid last year, the relatively new Sales Director of the Australian Asia Pac division of a major global equipment manufacturer, was facing declining markets, loss of major accounts, …

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Lessons for sales teams from an elite sportsman

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Competition, Education in Sales, Networking, Sales Leadership, Success

As part of our team’s regular coaching and development, a couple of weeks ago  Franco Crismann, one of Barrett’s BDMs went to a senior management business event at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) where Brian Lake, former Hawthorn/Western Bulldogs AFL footballer, spoke about maintaining a winning culture at work. Here is Franco’s report and reflections on the session:

“We had a room filled with C Level managers who were listening to a sports star talking about business and maintaining a winning culture at work, and I noticed them nodding in agreement. This, to be honest, surprised me.

What I …

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Why Marketing can’t fix a Sales Problem

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Sales Results, Success

When sales start to dry up or the business doesn’t seem to be getting traction with customers, many small to medium (SME) sized businesses will usually turn to Marketing in the first, and often only instance, as their preferred solution to fixing poor sales results.

Why? Because many people have been taught to think they have a marketing problem when they actually have a sales problem.

As a result, many start-ups and SME businesses have failed to get traction and then fallen over because they didn’t address their sales problem with the right sales solution, instead relying on marketing.

Unless you are an …

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David Bowie – a role model for all entrepreneurs

By / / Business Acumen, Collaboration, Entrepreneurship, Life Skills, Marketing, Sales Strategy, Self Promotion, Success

The sad passing of David Bowie this last week has brought a huge wave of emotional outpouring from many parts of the world including myself. I grew up with David Bowie. He has been in my life as long as I can remember. He was, I admit, my most favourite  music star of all. I loved everything about him and remember him with much love and affection. I have the books and albums, I have been to his concerts, and most recently attended that wonderful exhibition ‘David Bowie is’ which tracked his life and highlighted his contributions to music, art, …

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