Barrett Sales Blog - Helping people and businesses to sell better

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Prospecting Without Proximity Does Not Convert

By Sue Barrett / 17/07/2026 / Business Development, Digital Social Selling, Prospecting, Uncategorized

In 30 seconds

Problem: Sales teams keep measuring call volume, but ANZ research shows 72 percent of the buyer’s shortlist is set before a vendor is contacted, and the day-one shortlist wins the deal 94 percent of the time.

Shift: The phone call has not stopped working, but it now arrives after the decision that matters most. It is judged against whatever visibility the buyer already has of the seller.

Solution: Build proximity deliberately, well before the buying journey starts, so a name is already on the shortlist when it forms, and the call is answered because there is already a reason to.

Prospecting Without Proximity Does Not Convert Read Post »

Your company account is talking. Your people are silent.

By Sue Barrett / 10/07/2026 / Digital credentials, Digital Social Selling, Hybrid Selling, Social Sales

In 30 seconds

The Problem: Your company account is active, but the people who do the work are invisible where buyers actually decide. When a buyer researches the person calling them and finds a thin or empty profile, that alone can cost the meeting. LinkedIn’s research shows half of buyers avoid sellers with incomplete profiles.

The Shift: Digital social selling is not a marketing campaign, and it is not your logo’s job. It is a distinct discipline: your commercial people being visible, credible and useful where buyers research.

The Solution: Make it shared accountability. Marketing builds the tools, leadership expects it, the C-suite models it, every individual owns their presence.

Your company account is talking. Your people are silent. Read Post »

The Generational Buying Committee

By Sue Barrett / 26/06/2026 / AI & Data, Business Development, Buying, Key Account Management, Sales Relationships, Value Proposition & Value Add

In 30 seconds

The Problem: The B2B buying decision is no longer one person’s to make. The average committee now runs to 13 or more stakeholders, each researching independently, and around 71% of them are Millennials or Gen Z. Most sales processes were built for a smaller, older, more uniform room that no longer exists.

The Shift: From selling to a single decision-maker to orchestrating a generationally mixed committee. Younger members research independently, filter out generic content, and give their loyalty to experience, not institutions. Older members still value the relationship. You must serve both at once.

The Solution: Run one commercial system for the whole room. Be visible and useful where buyers research, translate value into outcomes and evidence, name what clients feel, and hold the relationship discipline experienced buyers expect.

The Generational Buying Committee Read Post »

Your Buyers Are Researching You Right Now. What Do They Find?

By Sue Barrett / 17/06/2026 / AI & Data, Business Development, Buying, Digital Social Selling, Sales Training

In 30 seconds

The Problem: Three in four ANZ B2B organisations are failing the shortlist test. Not because their product is inferior – because their digital footprint is noise, not signal. Buyers are forming views and eliminating vendors before a single conversation takes place.

The Shift: Gartner, Forrester and 6sense confirm that 80% of the B2B buying journey is now self-directed. Barrett’s 2026 GYSAT research found this is acutely true across ANZ – the shortlist forms digitally, silently, and without your knowledge.

The Solution: Audit what buyers find when they research you. Your website, your case studies, your people’s LinkedIn presence – these are your first salespeople. Make them count.

Your Buyers Are Researching You Right Now. What Do They Find? Read Post »

separate-the-disciplines-resource-each-one-appropriately

The Three Disciplines You Are Running as One (And Why That Breaks Down)

By Sue Barrett / 12/06/2026 / Digital Social Selling, Prospecting

In 30 seconds

The Problem Most organisations treat Business Development, Prospecting and Digital Social Selling as the same job, run by the same people, measured the same way. They are not the same. Collapsing three distinct disciplines into one creates a commercial engine that is permanently misfiring.

The Shift BD creates territory. Prospecting earns conversations. Digital Social Selling makes both work by building buyer familiarity before any human contact occurs. Each has a different cadence, a different measure, and a different purpose.

The Solution Separate the disciplines. Resource each one appropriately. Measure each one differently. Then your commercial engine starts working the way it was designed to.

The Three Disciplines You Are Running as One (And Why That Breaks Down) Read Post »

Why the Sequence Matters: Engage. Communicate. Then Earn the Right to Sell.

By Sue Barrett / 05/06/2026 / Communication, Digital Social Selling, Everybody Lives By Selling Something, Value Proposition & Value Add

In 30 seconds

The Problem Most organisations try to sell before they have earned the right to. They skip straight to outreach, proposals, and pitches – and wonder why buyers are not listening. It is not a quality problem. It is a sequence problem.

The Shift Engage first. Be visible and useful where buyers research before any conversation begins. Then communicate value – not information, but translation. Convert your capability into the buyer’s specific outcome, language, and risk.

The Solution When you engage and communicate well, selling becomes the natural next step – not a hard ask. Fix the order. Change everything.

Why the Sequence Matters: Engage. Communicate. Then Earn the Right to Sell. Read Post »

Are You Signal or Noise? The 5 Questions That Determine Who Wins in B2B

By Sue Barrett / 29/05/2026 / Digital Social Selling, Marketing, Prospecting

In 30 seconds

The Problem: More than 60% of B2B buying decisions are shaped before a buyer ever calls you. We assessed 229 organisations. Three in four presented as noise. Their communication stated capability, not value. The shortlist closed without them.

The Shift: Marketing as brand stewardship is dead. Cold calling as the sole prospecting method is dead – younger buyers are not answering their phones. The old “us vs them” between marketing and sales creates a seam where trust should form.

The Solution: Engage, communicate and sell better. It is a sequence, not a slogan. The C-suite sets the commercial language. Marketing deploys it. Sales embodies it. Same language. No handoff. Just integration.

Are You Signal or Noise? The 5 Questions That Determine Who Wins in B2B Read Post »

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LinkedIn Promises Visibility. So Why Does Its Ad Model Make SMEs Invisible?

By Sue Barrett / 22/05/2026 / Business Growth, Digital Social Selling, Marketing, Sales Relationships

In 30 seconds

The Problem SMEs are paying tech giants for visibility and getting ghost leads in return. LinkedIn’s algorithm rewards large budgets and starves small ones – producing leads that look acceptable but never convert. The same structural penalty runs across Facebook and Instagram.

The Shift Stop broadcasting. Start occupying. Strategic commenting, genuine DMs, and direct conversation build more real visibility than paid campaigns ever will.

The Solution Move people to owned media – email, Substack, podcast. Use LinkedIn to bring people in, then give them somewhere the algorithm cannot touch.

LinkedIn Promises Visibility. So Why Does Its Ad Model Make SMEs Invisible? Read Post »

holding-your-seat-requires-the-same-commercial-courage-that-won-it

The Incumbent’s Curse: You Earned Your Seat. Here Is How You Keep It.

By Sue Barrett / 15/05/2026 / Key Account Management, Sales Planning, Sales Relationships, Selling Better

In 30 seconds

The Problem. Winning a B2B account triggers a dangerous psychological shift. Salespeople who operated with sharp curiosity during the sale get comfortable once signed. They stop diagnosing and start order-taking – reverting to passive QBRs, single-thread relationships, and a fear of friction. Your established clients are already someone else’s top prospects.

The Shift. Treat every account review like a discovery meeting. Map relationships continuously across the organisation. Keep telling hard truths, even when you have revenue to protect.

The Solution. Holding your seat requires the same commercial courage that won it. Strategic curiosity does not retire when the contract is signed.

The Incumbent’s Curse: You Earned Your Seat. Here Is How You Keep It. Read Post »

Stop “Just Checking In”: How to Follow Up Like a Trusted Advisor

By Sue Barrett / 08/05/2026 / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Communication, Sales Psychology, Sales Relationships, Sales Skills

In 30 seconds

The Problem: A deal stalls, anxiety creeps in, and the salesperson sends the most destructive email in modern B2B: “Just checking in.” In one line, months of trusted advisor positioning collapses into the language of a needy vendor.

The Shift: Order-takers check in. Trusted advisors add value with every interaction. A follow-up is not a chore for the client to manage. It is another opportunity to reinforce your commercial relevance.

The Solution: Follow up with a Give to Get insight, anchor to the cost of inaction against their own timeline or grant permission to close. Stop checking in. Start showing up.

Stop “Just Checking In”: How to Follow Up Like a Trusted Advisor Read Post »

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The Generational Buying Committee

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