Dave Kurlan
-
The Secret to Account Churn is Not Dedicated Account Managers
- August 3, 2022
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you think about territory sales or sales into a specific vertical, reps should be calling on the same customers and prospects all the time. The key similarity is that both groups of salespeople have a limited number of prospects, as defined by geography or need, and therefore must continue calling on those prospects until they are sold. But then what? If a rep is selling consumables and/or supplies of some kind, they’ll continue calling on those customers who buy. But what if they aren’t selling consumables? What if the purchases are much more infrequent, as in many months or even years apart?
That’s the problem I’m writing about today.
-
Not The Top 20 Attributes of Successful Salespeople
- August 1, 2022
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The article was 100% junk science and to use the word science would be a disservice to the word junk. Below, you’ll find five reasons why this article was so wrong, so bad, so misleading, so pitiful, and just plain stupid:
-
The Many Different Selling Roles and How They Differ – Part 1
- July 27, 2022
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The same kind of thinking is required when thinking about the various roles of salespeople. We can name them: Account Executive, Territory Manager, Business Development Rep, Sales Development Rep, Account Manager, Key Account Manager, National Account Manager, Channel Manager, Application Engineer, Sales Consultant, Inside Sales, Outside Sales, and more.
To further complicate things, in some companies and industries, Sales Managers function as salespeople and Sales VPs function as Sales Managers.
While the above roles have selling as a primary responsibility, there are as many differences to selling roles as there are differences to the class or style of cars. Today, we’ll explore the difference between an Account Executive and a Business Development Rep.
-
Big Company Strategies That SMB Sales Teams Can Emulate
- July 11, 2022
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I know. The previous paragraph was about branding and marketing; not sales. But there is a correlation to my theory that a slick, professionally designed logo, makes you look bigger and more successful. Give me a moment to explain how that applies to sales.
If a professionally designed logo makes you look bigger, more successful, and provides credibility, wouldn’t the same theory apply to a professionally trained sales team?
-
You Can’t Lose Customers or Salespeople – 2 Secrets to Their Retention
- July 6, 2022
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There were lots of articles that had the top 5, 7, 10, 12, and 15 reasons why salespeople leave or quit their jobs. Most of those lists were simply subsets of other lists and the reasons included things like compensation, morale, workload, changing quotas, culture, toxic management, the job was misrepresented, too much pressure and lack of growth opportunity. While there were no surprises to these lists of reasons, I think there is a more pervasive reason that is not represented on the lists created by marketers and recruiters:
Sales Selection.
-
Understanding Competency Based Assessments – What Ditch Diggers and Salespeople Have in Common!
- June 24, 2022
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
As an example, let’s say you were seeking to hire a ditch digger. While you must identify someone who is strong, can use tools and dig holes, the width and depth of the hole, as well as the difficulty of the digging is more important. Will this individual dig in sand, screened loom, compacted soil, clay, gravel, or rock? If an assessment, even one that was specific to ditch-digging, only looked at the tools they had available and their ability to dig in general, it would not necessarily identify someone who could dig monumentally huge holes in soil with large rocks.
It’s the same with a sales assessment.
-
Selling and the Need for Speed
- June 8, 2022
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Salespeople tend to be in a rush to close – before an opportunity is even closable.
Salespeople tend to be in a rush to present – before an opportunity is even qualified. Most salespeople are in such a hurry that they completely skip things like qualifying and discovery. And when salespeople do perform discovery they accept the very first indicator they hear and rush to explain how their product or service addresses that indicator.
-
The Recession is Here – How to Take Advantage and Prepare Your Sales Team
- May 31, 2022
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
So what must you do to prepare your sales team and how can you leverage the effects of a recession?
-
Top 12 Sales Blogs of 2022 That Make You Think and Sell More
- May 20, 2022
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The most common criteria is personal choice as in “These are my favorite Sales Blogs!” And that’s OK as long as readers know they are your favorites and as such, won’t necessarily have the best content.
-
5 Steps to Grow Sales by 33% in 12 Months
- May 11, 2022
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Sales teams go through periods like this too but sales leaders rarely seek out the data that would immediately point to the real problem. They tend to hope things will improve and go from there. However, there are several levels of data to be reviewed so let’s take a look.
As the article title suggests, there are five steps you must take to grow sales by 33% in 12 months. You can’t pick and choose as all five are required.