Search Results
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Put Offs that Sound OK
- May 13, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Your salespeople come back with good news and tell you that they spoke with the decision maker of the big opportunity they’ve been working on. They report that the decision maker told them they’re very interested in moving forward but want to wait until the close of their fiscal year (90 days away) or want to first complete a project they’re currently working on (60 days) before discussing further. Your salespeople are psyched. They try to get you psyched. You get psyched.
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Closing – Overcoming Objections
- May 12, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Yesterday, 50 salespeople gave me their biggest closing obstacles – about 25 – when we combined them all. I showed them the four bases in Baseline Selling and defined what must happen for the salesperson to reach each base. Then I asked them to identify the specific base paths where the closing obstacles should have been dealt with. Closing takes place at home plate and sure enough, all 25 of those closing obstacles actually should have been dealt with either between 1st and 2nd base or between 2nd and 3rd base. The moral of the story is your salespeople haven’t even earned the right to close until there are not issues that would prevent them from getting the business.
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SPIN Selling and Miller Heiman Compared to Baseline Selling
- April 28, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A reader asked me about my book, Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball, and how it compares with SPIN Selling and Miller Heiman’s Strategic Selling. Both books – SPIN Selling AND Strategic Selling are good; but neither of them are selling systems or processes.
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More Baseline Selling
- April 6, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’m watching the third baseball game of the young season. My team, the Red Sox, is trailing in the seventh inning. As Red Sox games go, this is boring, if not depressing. The most prolific offense of the last three years, the Sox hadn’t scored a single run. Similar to some sales calls, it began badly.
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5 Sales Management Best Practices
- April 5, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I found the article to be akin to naming passing, receiving, blocking, tackling and kicking as the five baseball best practices.
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Great New Book on Selling – The Inside Story
- March 15, 2006
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
My research and statistics from evaluating 250,000 salespeople revealed that 74% of all salespeople are ineffective.
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More on the Pipeline
- September 4, 2005
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I recently wrote about the importance of a balanced pipeline but, in that article, didn’t comment on the required size of the pipeline. Size will vary by company, industry, average order, and salesperson but I’ll attempt to provide a common formula that should work for everyone.
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Pay Attention to the Pipeline
- August 30, 2005
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’ll bet you don’t know whether each of your salespeople have enough opportunities in the pipeline. Oh, you do know that one? Sorry. That’s right. None of them have enough opportunities in the pipeline. And lastly, I’m sure you don’t know whether each salesperson’s pipeline is balanced. What is a balanced pipeline?
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Slump Busters
- June 7, 2005
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Lack of consistency causes salespeople to slump and consistency prevents slumps. It’s that simple. But what is the true nature of a slump?