The 12 sales trends that will drive business in 2016

Sue Barrett
Sunday, 10 January
SmartCompany
What happens when we have so much information that it is impossible to even decide what to read? We constantly check our phones, computers or tablets. We are online and connected 24/7. We have an overload of information, stuff, processes and stress…
There’s a reason why ‘de‑cluttering’ businesses are growing in number around the world. People are seeking help to go back to basics, to a clearer and simpler life, with less stuff.
Our businesses have become overloaded and cluttered as well. When a company grows, the levels of management multiply and more co-ordination is needed; that in itself increases complexity, but it also increases clutter. Sales operations are complex systems, but like with whole businesses, people can add unnecessary complexity. There’s a need to go back to the essentials and for that we need clarity.
Sales operations loaded with dated processes, hard-to-work systems and countless priorities cannot function efficiently. We need to de-clutter. We can’t oversimplify what is a complex system; we can’t transform every process into a linear one. But we can remove what is just making noise, occupying space in our minds only causing stress and clouding our vision.
Less is more.
The 12 Barrett Sales Trends for 2016 all share this thread about bringing things back to basics, bringing clarity and transparency to businesses and sales.
Here is a summary of the trends, or you can download a copy of the full report here.
If you would like a full copy of this report please download your complimentary copy of 2016 Sales Trends Report here.
Sales Trend 1 – Beyond profit erosion
Over the last few years, a vast majority of companies derived their profits mainly through cost-cutting but this is not possible any more. Costs have bottomed out. Companies will have to change how they sell to find profit and growth through selling value.
Sales Trend 2 – Beware competitor zero
There is a new competitor in our midst: indecision.
This sales trend looks at how and why the decision-making process has changed in organisations and what we can do about it.
Sales Trend 3 – Selling is everybody’s business
This trend is about how smart companies recognise the importance of selling across the value chain and making sales and customer satisfaction a whole business activity with purpose.
Sales Trend 4 – Sales and marketing unite
With shrinking markets, micro segments, more informed buyers and the digital revolution to name a few key influences, smart companies know that if they are to steal the march on their competitors, win market share and engage the right kind of buyers, the sibling rivalry between sales and marketing must end.
Sales Trend 5 – How we sell around here
Smart companies are adopting best practices as a minimum standard of sales excellence to embed ‘How We Sell Around Here’. They are reaping the rewards of their continuous learning programmes and sound sales strategies. This trend highlights how these companies are doing it.
Sales Trend 6 – The sales curator
No longer are salespeople seen as the purveyors of information that they once were in the 20th century, 21st century salespeople now need to be experts at sifting and sorting information for their clients and prospects. A new sales capability is required in this information overloaded world. This sales trend sees 21st century salespeople needing to develop their skills as curators.
Sales Trend 7 – Buyers in transition
This sales trend highlights that more mature procurement professionals, who have been through the sourcing cycle several times, are now starting to seek new ways in which they can be relevant and valuable to their organisations. They are seeking innovation, ideas, and collaborations because they have seen that taking prices lower would be detrimental to their business. It’s early days but things are starting to shift, albeit slowly.
Sales Trend 8 – Streamlining CRM
Smart companies are adapting and embracing the new ways of doing things to make it easier and more efficient for their sales teams to sell better i.e. from utilising the comprehensive analytics available from the web and social media to the ability to customise a Customer Relationship Management system and deploy applications on various devices. Streamlining CRM capabilities is key to getting sales teams to use them most effectively.
Sales Trend 9 – Marketing technology for better sales results
Less is more when it comes to technology, with the lesson being that what big business does is usually not what SMEs should be doing and vice versa.
This sales trend focuses specifically on the impact technology is having on businesses large and small for good and bad and what technologies we should be paying attention to and what we should be ignoring.
Sales Trend 10 – The evolution of sales incentive plans
Sales incentive programs (SIPs) constitute a major cost in many companies but the research indicates that a well-designed SIP can be a worthwhile investment. Certainly, SIPs are becoming the norm in many sales settings. This sales trend tells of the shift towards more customised variable SIPs taking into account team selling, complex solutions, longer sales cycles, and so on.
Sales Trend 11 – The renaissance sales manager
More and more sales leaders and their respective sales managers are realising that too much data across too many spectrums is counterproductive to effective sales leadership, sales performance and building sustainable sales results. They know that you can’t lead a sales team from behind a desk in front of a screen crunching numbers. This trend sees smart companies employing and/or developing the Renaissance Sales Manager to be the standard of ‘how we lead sales teams around here’.
Sales Trend 12 – The rise of “seniorpreneurs”
Senior entrepreneurs are Australia’s fastest-growing segment of entrepreneurs. Seniorpreneurship is a global trend with the over 55s showing a strong representation in the USA and UK. They are a force to consider in the business landscape with much to offer to the economies.
If you would like a full copy of this report please download your complimentary copy of 2016 Sales Trends Report here.