Search Results
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Qualifying for Money
- January 20, 2015
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Categories: Monthly Tips, Tactics - Getting to 3rd Base (Qualified)
Have you been taught to ask a prospect, “…and what’s your budget?” or “Do you have a budget for this?” Perhaps you’re one of the brave salespeople who prefers not to ask, instead hoping that when it’s time to buy, the money will be there. In today’s Baseline Selling Tip, I will address the importance of financial qualification and demonstrate the most effective way to do it.
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Could Lost Deals Correlate with Sales Success?
- September 20, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I love looking for correlations and causation and we use causation to build predictive sales scorecards. Nobody closes 100% of their closable opportunities but with a properly constructed scorecard, you’ll know the opportunities on which to devote your resources, and which opportunities would be best to lose as fast as you can.
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Stop the Dysfunction in the Sales Function
- June 17, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
For some reason, a plurality of executives think way too highly of their company’s sales capabilities and believe they will figure it out themselves. Egos and hurt feelings take priority over best practices, right people in the right seats, sales competencies and sales processes.
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10 Reasons Why You Can’t Outsell an Incumbent
- June 7, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When the strategy is correct, the messaging can be perfected.
When the strategy and messaging are correct, the sales process can be optimized.
When the sales process is optimized, the sales tactics will work.
Stop winging it. Stop struggling. Stop losing.
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Ominous Signs for Sales Teams and Baseball Can Help
- April 15, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It seems like a recession is on our doorstep. Most salespeople haven’t experienced selling in a recession since 2009, fifteen years ago. That means there are few experienced recession-proof salespeople, plus those who didn’t figure out how to succeed at recessionary selling back then as well.
What are the twelve biggest challenges?
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250 Best Articles on Sales and Sales Leadership by Category
- April 4, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
These are the top 10 articles in 25 categories on sales, sales leadership, sales assessments, sales performance, sales excellence, sales process and more.
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10 Unfavorable Selling Conditions That Prevent Sales Success
- March 25, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When you encounter unfavorable selling conditions, refuse to accept them. This isn’t about moving forward with a couple of favorable conditions, it’s about NOT moving forward unless the conditions become more favorable. Whether or not you wish to admit it, the truth is that when the conditions don’t favor you, the business isn’t coming to you.
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Homicide Detective Makes Best Case for Sales Process
- March 21, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The author admits that until he conducted his “cold-case investigation” of the New Testament, he was an atheist who always followed the evidence to find the truth. Similarly, a lot of prospects are also non-believers – not necessarily in Jesus – in your product or service. As I read and learned about the author’s methods for uncovering truth, or proof, I felt that salespeople could learn a lot about proof of concept, presenting facts, backing up claims, return on investment, and offering credible testimonials. That’s not nearly the analogy I’m going to make.
Wallace shared a story in the Forward about the time he was shot by a criminal who was on parole, and was not allowed to have a firearm. Up until the moment of the shooting, Wallace believed that a bullet-proof vest would stop a bullet. In the moment of the shooting, he believed in the bullet proof vest. At that moment his belief changed from “belief that” to “belief in.” That was the analogy he wished to apply to the gospels. He wondered if he could find the evidence to replace faith (belief that the miracles occurred) with proof (belief in both Jesus and the miracles).
That also happens to be my analogy from the book. Most salespeople believe that a sales process can help them succeed while the very best salespeople believe in their sales process.
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Opportunity Blindness – What’s in Your Sales Pipeline?
- February 28, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Some observations:
The data represents the forecast and funnel for 7 sales teams.
The gaps (A & G) are backwards and should say 72% (A) and 41% (G).
The quarterly forecast (C) is 58% short of the quarterly target (D).
The current closable opportunities (B) are 77% short of the forecast (C) and 90% short of the quarterly target (D).
Add columns G and H and together, all of those columns represent pathetic, old news.The question that should be asked is, “What can we do about this?”
We should be able to answer that question by looking at column F but that’s not possible. Can you see why?
Outside of telling us that there isn’t enough in the funnel, the data in column F doesn’t answer the question that must always be asked: Is the pipeline viable?
We know the assigned value of the pipeline but we don’t know the answers to these additional ten important factors:
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Trump, The Iowa Caucus, and Sales Improvement
- January 16, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This course is the most fun you could ever have while going through sales training! But it is so much more than fun and entertainment. There are powerful selling lessons in each clip, and despite the fun, you will become more effective at all aspects of selling. It doesn’t matter how long you have been in sales, what you sell, who you sell it to, the length of your sales cycle or the cost of your product or service. Nor does it matter where your competency gaps are.