Will selling remotely become the norm post COVID -19 for B2B and Complex B2C field sales teams? The early signs say ‘yes’, but let’s take a closer look at what’s happening. Many things have been tossed up in the air with the advent of the COVID-19 crisis. Take, for instance, the boom in Zoom meetings on every level – keeping people in touch with each other across the street, suburb, […]
Is Selling Remotely the future of sales? Read More »
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
12 Sales Trends for 2020 – The Time is Now Read More »
Guest author: Helen Robinett In Sales Trend 11 from the Barrett 12 Sales Trends Report for 2019, guest author Leadership Stylist Helen Robinett discusses how our personal image can help build trust. Trust in business has never been more crucial than what it is right now. People do business with people they like and trust. Full stop. No-one does business with an ‘organisation’. Human beings are highly visual and it
Building trust through personal image Read More »
The future of the individual ‘solo’ salesperson is coming to an end for most businesses. What is taking their place is an integrated team of people working on sales together. Sales leaders do not need teams of individual B2B salespeople, they need people with a diverse range of skills working as integrated teams across a range of sales disciplines and capabilities. Teams who can cover areas such as sales and
Sales – the new team sport Read More »
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
Trust me, I’m a salesperson Read More »
Building trust is key to sustainable long term sales relationships. This is surprisingly true even for very large B2B sales, despite the availability of hard facts on the buying company’s reliability, cash flow, payment morale, etc. Trust is still key to long term relationships that don’t require controlling and compliance functions all the time. Creating and earning trust is, therefore, a skill salespeople have to master, and indeed, a lot
Trust improves the Learning and Development culture Read More »
While there has never been a better time to be alive with access to wonderful resources and opportunities, amazing innovations, advances in technology and better healthcare, that can encourage the potential for our evolution and mutual prosperity, there is a shadow of mistrust that is following us everywhere. Despite all the positives, there are a number of factors, fads and ideologies that have been playing out in business and governments
Selling in times of social mistrust Read More »
In a B2B environment, the sales cycle is usually defined as the days/ weeks/ months that pass from the first time a salesperson makes contact with a lead to the moment the client signs the contract. However, most definitions of ‘sales cycle’ have flaws because it’s nearly impossible to have one definition applicable to every business. Sales cycles vary enormously from industry to industry and organisation to organisation. Regardless of
Sales cycle taking longer (much longer) Read More »
According to Gartner Research, by 2020 85% of interactions between businesses will be executed without human interaction. [i] Automation has already diminished the number of people required for blue collar manufacturing roles; however, with the advent of AI (artificial intelligence), big data and algorithms, we are beginning to see sweeping changes happening across the once untouchable white collar sector, including the very people-oriented roles of sales, as many buyers shift
Buyer Behaviours, AI & the Future of Sales Roles Read More »
The proliferation of internet-based sales channels, that offer everything from simple items such as a toothbrush to some fairly complicated services including insurance, banking and even major items in the B2B sector means that the traditional role of product focused salespeople has changed. Sadly, some companies and quite a few salespeople continue to ignore the encroaching tsunami. So just what has changed? The long-time staple of selling (i.e. features and
Salespeople at Risk of Becoming Obsolete Read More »