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12 Sales Trends for 2020 – The Time is Now

2020 marks 25 years in business for Barrett, our parent company, and over this period of time we have seen many things – good, bad and indifferent – when it comes to managing businesses and sales teams, successfully or otherwise. Fads, trends, myths, hype, well-worn facts, new innovations and home-truths have all been a part of this 25 year journey. We’ve talked with over 10,000 business leaders from the C-suite […]

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Gratitude and Materialism

Practising gratitude has made me focus on other matters and much less on material things. I have found that I am far less worried about ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ or experiencing FOMO (fear of missing out). I think less about things and more about people. There is a place for materialism in our world. I appreciate nice things. I am not an ascetic who disavows material goods or worldly

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The Holy Trinity of Selling

This post has been inspired by Ben Shute, who wrote about the Holy Trinity of Procurement Skills. The profession of selling requires a whole range of capabilities. It’s hard to know where to begin to define the 3 core elements for sales – the Holy Trinity of Selling.   Let’s start with the master categories of Knowledge, Skills and Mindset from Barrett’s Sales Competency Dictionary. Knowledge What do a salesperson

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Why Progress, NOT Perfection, helps us find Common Ground for the Common Good

‘Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.’ Voltaire ‘The world is becoming very black and white with people striving for perfection where only the best is acceptable. If we continue down this road, then we will lose everything that is human.’ Madeline Stuart* ‘Perfection is the enemy of progress.’ Winston Churchill Our relationship with perfection and progress can be rather fraught. In the human world that often

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Want a viable future? Opportunities abound in the Common Good

What type of board member, CEO or sales leader are you? Are you stuck in the day-to-day looking to meet your monthly and quarterly targets, looking to maximise profit, shareholder return and your bonuses? OR Are you looking into the future to see what lies ahead ensuring there is a viable sustainable path for all to follow and participate in? In today’s world everything is up for grabs. Old institutions

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How should I assess a sales recruit?

There are a myriad of ways you can assess someone – some are legitimate and purpose built for sales recruitment while other methods wouldn’t stand up in a court of law even if they work for you.  The starting point should be to know what qualities and capabilities you are recruiting for as per our previous article: ‘What should we be looking for in a good sales recruit?’ This will

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What should I be looking for in a good sales recruit?

What should I be looking for in a good sales recruit? This is a vexing question for many sales and business leaders. And some of the answers we still hear aren’t very helpful either.       ‘They must be hunters.’       ‘They need to be hungry.’       ‘They’ve got to be able to close deals.’       ‘They must have a mortgage and family so they are ‘motivated’ to sell more.’      

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Debunking myths for the Common Good

If you had to put a percentage weighting on the following questions what would your answers look like? How much of your individual success so far is solely down to your own efforts? How much of your individual success so far is as a result of the success of your community – where you were born, what family you were raised in, what school you went to, networks, friends, government

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Everybody lives by selling something

This statement was coined back in the late 1800s by Robert Louis Stevenson. It shows how everyone needs to consider selling as part of their professional life. It doesn’t matter what your work is, hairdresser, accountant, lawyers, engineers, trade, everyone. We all live by selling something. In our lives, we are all exchanging things of value.  Whether what we exchange is of value to others should be determined through effective

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Trust me, I’m a salesperson

When trust in business, and organisations in general, is low, no one is more affected by it than salespeople. Salespeople are at the frontline of the business. They are the visible face. So when things go pear-shaped, the ones who lose credibility and trust are salespeople themselves. The famous Edelman report and a study conducted by Roy Morgan reveal that trust in businesses is at the lowest it has been

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