It is not enough to adapt to change, we need to keep ahead of the curve and continue to transform ourselves before the change arrives – being pragmatic and conservative will be a riskier strategy than taking risks to transform.
But the risks don’t need to come from the unknown. The key to this transformation is right before our eyes – it’s in our organisation’s own value chain. Smart companies are connecting the dots – the people dots. This sales trend is all about alignment and engaging all the people in your business with your purpose, your story, the business of your business, the way forward.
What you say you want, what you really want and what you reward, all have to be in alignment. If people are ignorant of what you stand for then it is time to break that chain of ignorance. And then everybody will understand that selling is everybody’s business.
With the shift away from product as central to the complex sale and business and markets becoming more intertwined, people are now featuring more at the heart of viable business relationships.
The challenge will be to reconcile the prevailing norms of the cool-headedness of the analytical thinking brain and the risk-taking brain of the ‘cowboy’ entrepreneur with the empathetic moral compass brain as we navigate and manage the impact of our decisions on individuals, customers, suppliers and communities.
This sales trend will lead to smart businesses making it a priority to redress the balance and develop our brains interpersonal sensitivities: our empathetic side to take into account the needs of others as well as our own needs, working more in collaboration for the mutual benefit of each other while maintaining the best of analytical thinking and risk-taking.
Now is the time to reconcile and place equal importance on developing the empathetic parts of our brain as part of our new sales and business edge.
An effective sales function is at the core of a company’s ability to generate the revenue needed to sustain the business and grow. However, selling as a career is disrespected by management and academics. No one chooses selling as a career.
There are many reasons for this, but four stand out:
The good news is that now with the partnership between Barrett and Swinburne University of Technology, the Barrett Sales Essential Transformation Program is Australia’s first university endorsed, VET accredited sales program that offers both a Diploma in Business and a Certificate IV in Business Sales.
In 2013 the web will make salespeople more, not less, important. Too often headlines report that buyers are turning to the internet to do their shopping, leaving salespeople and companies out of the loop.
Instead, what the web has done is created a new set of expectations amongst customers. Today customers expect much more from salespeople. They expect salespeople to have an expert’s view of their business, act as a manager of some crucial part of their process and be effective at protecting the customer’s interests within the sales organisation.
Those salespeople and companies that are not easily accessible, that take too long to respond or to deliver are going to find themselves at the back of the line, with the more agile, responsive and nimble-footed salespeople and sales organisations taking the lion’s share of the business.
Extreme uncertainty is the new norm. Living in a constant state of fear and anxiety only leads to more fear and anxiety. Research shows that highly distracted or stressed people don’t and can’t innovate and change, and without purposeful leadership and reason to change people will stand still and be left behind, trampled in the rush to the future.
This sales trend predicts managers of all persuasions, especially sales managers, will have to take on leadership roles and reduce their dependence on ‘processes only management’ and technical gadgets to ‘fix’ sales and business productivity issues.
Smart companies realise that great leaders are great enablers. Taking risks to design and develop sales teams of the future will be the hallmark of these new sales leaders along with building and earning trust and respect for all the right reasons. Smart companies are realising they need their sales mangers to shift from being ‘super salesmen’ (as many are still today) to being effective sales leaders.
In the 21st century, the intangible is more valuable than the tangible. Products, services and technology can all be replicated by a competitor but people, ideas and relationships cannot.
In other words, the organisation must be viewed as the source of these intangible qualities rather than the product.
This sales trend highlights the real value of our offerings lies in intellectual property: the know-how and wisdom of our people and how they interact with our businesses and our markets. The bottom line is that if you don’t value intellectual property then you don’t value relationships, you don’t value ideas and you don’t value thinking. You are on the path to obsolescence.
In this sales trend we will see that in the 21st century we need to harness the power of our thinking, our people and our stories to add value beyond our traditional products and services.
You can purchase and download the full detailed 49 page report of the 12 Sales Trends for 2013 now to see which trends will have the greatest impact on your sales efforts in 2013.
You can also get free downloads of the detailed Sales Trends Reports for 2012, 2011 and 2010 here.
Remember, everybody lives by selling something.
Sue Barrett is a sales expert, business speaker, adviser, sales facilitator and entrepreneur and founded Barrett Consulting to provide expert sales consulting, sales training, sales coaching and assessments. Her business Barrett P/L partners with its clients to improve their sales operations. Visit www.barrett.com.au
Sue is a selling better strategist and advisor, sales philosopher and speaker, sales trainer and coach, writer and activist. Sue is chief executive of forward thinking sales advisory Barrett and online sales education and resource platform www.salesessentials.com. Barrett develops sales strategies, standards and education that help people and businesses sell better.
