Last week at Sales Syndicate we were fortunate to have Michael Henderson share insights into the world of BANI. If you have not heard of BANI it stands for Brittle, Anxious, Non-Linear and Incomprehensible. It is fair to say that BANI describes the last few years and particularly the last 12 months well. It highlights that all business models can easily be disrupted, that people are unsure and anxious, and that the world is changing quickly. BANI also describes that nothing is moving in a straight line and incomprehensible events are happening around the world.
Does BANI explain your year? 2023 for me felt that it never really got going. A terrible summer to start, followed by massive flooding in Auckland and then Cyclone Gabrielle which annihilated the East Coast of the North Island. April came along and seemed to be about as productive as January with Easter, Anzac Day and School holidays all wrapped up in the one month. Winter brought the usual lack of sunshine and excessive rain for the north bringing with it grumpy people, and then the country began worrying about the general election. We are still wondering what form this government will take.
For me, 2023 was about an 8-month economy!
On the sales front we saw many industries struggling particularly in the second half of the year. Overall, we saw a pause in business for many in August, September and October and that pause is continuing. Salespeople have struggled to adapt from an environment of order-taking to having to shift from reactive to positive. Sales Leaders struggled with their messages and the difficulty of motivating salespeople who were unable to achieve their targets and for some, incentives.
Two very interesting shifts occurred with salespeople in 2023. The first one is the older salesperson became very popular, their experience and level-headedness in 2023 was deemed vital. Smart money went towards the salesperson who could give them advice and help them make the right decision. The second is many companies can point to the rule of 80/20, where 20% of your best salespeople delivered 80% of the revenue. In a slower market in 2023, it moved to 90/10 meaning that 90% of the revenue was delivered by only 10%. These 10% were the very best and in 2023 the very best had a field day, the trailing 90% did not. Cream is now rising to the top a lot faster than in more buoyant times.
The other significant change in 2023 is that sales leaders finally started taking technology seriously and we believe companies are investing more than ever. We are excited to see the results of the 2024 Mood of the Sales Leader Survey to confirm that indeed this is the case. We believe the publicity around the launch of ChatGPT has helped promote the need to be technology savvy. There is no doubt that AI will change the game and at Indicator, we are uncovering some incredible uses for AI in sales which we will be sharing more of over the next few months.
As for BANI, according to Michael Henderson, Northern Hemisphere companies are focusing hard on this concept whilst Southern Hemisphere companies have been slow to catch on. It appears to be a reality that we are going to continue to be in a rapid pace of change for the foreseeable future. For some, this is daunting, for others exciting. I see it as mainly exciting but also, I have a tinge of sadness that we can never relax again. Continuous learning has never become so important.
What are we expecting in 2024? We see more of a disrupted first half of the year. We see that the best salespeople will be adapting and adding to their already solid knowledge. We see the value of constantly keeping up with business development without forgetting about your best clients and that performance management is critical. We also see technology as providing a competitive advantage alongside a sales culture and a team that is not willing to relax and is ready to take on what the year will throw at us. We also note that those companies who are willing to put in the effort are likely to succeed. One last piece of advice for both Sales Leaders and Salespeople that for you to be successful in 2024 you need to remember this one phrase, “It is not about you”. I will leave you to work that out yourself.
For those who are excited to see how 2024 will roll out, make sure you take the Mood of the Sales Leader survey and then come and join us either online (NZ or Aussie) or in person in Auckland on January 31. Link here
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