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Would YOU listen to YOU?

By / / Blog, Sales Prospecting, Sales tips / 4 minutes of reading

Creating an effective prospecting programme Many sales people, especially those new to sales, often take it personally when a prospect says ‘NO’ and fail to persist with their prospecting efforts while others turn prospecting into stalking not knowing how to engage a prospect effectively. Either way these people are failing to favourably and persistently position themselves with prospects thus limiting their sales opportunities further. In sales there is a fine […]

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Are you really listening or just waiting to speak?

By / / Blog, Sales tips, Sales Training, Selling Skills / 3 minutes of reading

Listen or thy tongue will keep thee deaf… – Native American Proverb How long do we actually listen to another person before we start interrupting? How quickly do our own thoughts take over and we start thinking about what question to ask or what we need to say in reply even before they’ve finished speaking? Do we find ourselves interrupting the person to give our own opinion or finish their

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Stop Throwing Sales People and Sales Managers into the Deep End

By / / Blog, Sales leadership, Sales tips, Sales Training / 4 minutes of reading

Isn’t it about time we stop throwing our sales people and sales managers in the deep end and expecting them to swim – or sell and lead with no support or training in this case? Isn’t it about time that we had frank conversations with our potential recruits about what sales and sales manager roles really entail and make sure our recruits really do have the skills, mindset and knowledge

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The real secret to sales success

By / / Blog, Sales Planning, Sales Prospecting, Sales tips, Sales Training / 3 minutes of reading

How many times have we all been tempted to click on a link that offers us ‘the secret of sales success’ only to find a website or article that is promising a silver bullet ‘if only you do this one thing’ which doesn’t help us at all? The business of sales excellence is like the diet industry, full of tempting offerings that lead us nowhere fast. It is only natural

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The Power of Optimism and Opportunity for Sales & Business

By / / Blog, Ethics and Values, Sales tips / 5 minutes of reading

Bob Safian, Editor in Chief of Fast Company, said: “…Uncertainty reigns as rapid change disrupts expectations and social norms. Global leadership is fractured and economic conditions fluctuate widely. Specters loom, from climate change to cyberterrorism. The relentless pace can make you want to curl up in a corner, wary of what might come next. Or you can stare unblinkingly at this time of chaos and dig into the difficult work

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Sales Trend 3: Human Centred Selling – designing Empathetic Customer Centric Cultures

By / / Blog, Ethics and Values, Sales leadership, Sales Trends / 6 minutes of reading

Sales Trend 3 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2018 is about Human Centred Selling. Bestselling author and business icon Stephen Covey once said: “When you show deep empathy toward others … That’s when you can get more creative in solving problems”. In this hyper connected world it’s easy to gain access to information and make simple online purchases that are transactional in nature; items that we know

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Are your sales conferences pumping or slumping?

By / / Blog, Sales Planning, Sales Strategy, Sales tips, Sales Training, Uncategorized / 7 minutes of reading

*** Trigger Warning: May contain traces of sarcasm *** We’ve all been there: a sea of people, pulled together from across the country or region, locked in a windowless room with artificial light, seated at round tables with mints and water, patiently waiting for the parade of presenters to finish their ‘Death by PowerPoint’ presentations so we can get to the coffee station during the day and then the bar

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Salespeople beware tire kickers, IP thieves & time wasters

By / / Blog, Ethics and Values, Sales Strategy, Sales tips / 5 minutes of reading

Selling is a very time consuming set of activities at the best of times. Now with so much choice and complexity, sales cycles are taking even longer –like 20% longer– especially with multiple stakeholders in larger businesses. So it only makes sense that we want to be sure as salespeople that a real deal is in the offering, that it is properly budgeted for, and we are in good position

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Cringeworthy: how arrogance and ‘seniority’ destroy sales

By / / Blog, Sales leadership, Sales Prospecting, Sales tips / 4 minutes of reading

Here is a senior manager’s account of a real life, cringeworthy example of when a so called ‘experienced’ senior consultant completely stuffs up a prospective client meeting despite the young graduate, a millennial from the vendor’s company, sitting in the meeting with them instinctively knowing better and trying to do the right thing by the client and the company: “One of the graduates from our team went out with a

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Sales Trend 2 – The case for long-term focus

By / / Blog, Sales leadership, Sales Planning, Sales Strategy, Sales Trends / 5 minutes of reading

Sales Trend 2 of the Barrett 12 Sales Trends for 2018 Report is the case for long-term focus and strategy. It’s no news that most businesses are focused on the short-term, living from quarter to quarter, and that although there’s ongoing argument about whether there’s enough evidence or not to say that long-term businesses perform better, most of the arguments against it (pro short-term) focus only on profits. However, this

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