Search Results
-
The 21 New Sales Core Competencies for Modern Selling
- July 10, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Can you name 10 Core Competencies of a great salesperson? Let’s see, there’s prospecting, qualifying and closing, and then there’s….wow, this is difficult!
-
Fine Tune Your Sales Force as You Optimize Your Computer
- June 18, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I deleted about 10,000 sent items from Outlook, repaired the machine’s permissions, restarted the laptop, and it was performing to expectations again. I was excited about what I had accomplished in such a short time!
That process isn’t very different from what executives must do with an underperforming sales force.
-
The Sales Epidemic That is Neutralizing Salespeople Everywhere
- June 4, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The Selling Power Blog published a new article of mine, The Top 10 Steps Salespeople Can Take to Improve. The article includes a really terrific video on the importance of tonality. I thought it would be helpful to expand on item #5, Persistence, because selling requires more persistence than ever before.
-
Double Article Friday and the Death of All Selling Forever
- April 25, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There is no doubt that selling has changed – a lot – but the marketers who most benefit from telling you that it has changed to the point where you should not sell anymore are simply trying to get you to buy their stuff!
-
Why Doesn’t Sales Methodology Get More Attention?
- January 14, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This brings me to my original question, “Why doesn’t sales methodology get more attention from authors, writers and bloggers, and why does sales process get most of the coverage?”
-
Is the Concept of Sales Process Really Antiquated?
- December 16, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It’s really not sales process itself that is antiquated; it’s most people’s perception of sales process that is antiquated.
-
Opinion: Why Sales Win Rates Have Reached an All-Time Low
- November 27, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
One of the findings in the most recent Sales Performance Optimization Study, from CSO Insights, revealed that the win rate for deals has reached an all-time low.
-
How Frequently Does Fear Play a Part in Sales?
- November 6, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Fear of failing doesn’t affect everyone that sells. The elite 6% are certainly immune to it, and most of the next 20% aren’t affected too much by it either. But the remaining 74% – the group that basically sucks – battles the fear of failing on a daily basis.
That fear – and most salespeople aren’t even consciously aware of it – prevents them from
-
The Connection Between Gas Prices and Sales Lead Follow Up
- September 26, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Why do salespeople still do the things they used to do, even though those things don’t work anymore. For example, why do salespeople still sell transactionally when presenting/demoing, quoting/proposing and closing yields a 10-20% conversion ratio? Even if they were in hiding, everyone must have heard by now that a typical B2B sale requires a customer-centric consultative approach.
-
Why Do Salespeople Forget What They Learn?
- August 21, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Some salespeople are fortunate enough to get trained and/or coached. Maybe it’s an all-day seminar, not really training as much as exposure to some different thinking or approach. We don’t expect anything to change from a single day, so why should you? I went to a short game golf school for a day. It was awesome while I was there, but 4 years later, I can’t do any of the things I learned there. Comprehensive sales training (8-16 months) leads us to expect dramatic change and a significant increase in sales.