Search Results
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Do Your Salespeople Have to Give Up Control to Their Prospects?
- September 17, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I disagree with his article when he implies that we should be resigned to the fact that there isn’t much to be done except building trust until the prospect is ready to engage.
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Which Salespeople Use Bad Judgment and Burn Bridges?
- June 30, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You want your salespeople to get decisions instead of taking stalls, put-offs and objections. Some of your salespeople are better at this than others. I’ve written extensively about the difference between the required skills versus the strengths that support closing, as well as recognizing and dealing with put-offs. Today, I will discuss the difference between not getting the desired reaction or behavior, not getting a decision and burning a bridge.
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Game Seven – There is No Tomorrow with This Sales Opportunity
- June 18, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Don’t turn opportunities where there IS a tomorrow into a desperate, “How much of a price concession do we have to make?”, last ditch effort to close it today scenario, but do turn a customer/prospect-initiated deadline into a Game 7 scenario where you do whatever it takes to earn that business!
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Customer Service Neutralizes Efforts of Your Sales Force
- April 14, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I am more convinced every day that the most overlooked and under-rated sales function in most companies is their customer service department.
This extends beyond toll-free phone numbers and includes the people you meet when you walk into a company’s retail locations too.
When was the last time you ended a conversation with customer service feeling thrilled that you were a customer of companies like Dell, Verizon, USAirways, Charter or Microsoft? Would that change if I typed Apple instead of Dell?
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Case History – How Not to Hire Salespeople
- April 2, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A company wants to hire 5000 salespeople – but why?
2000 drop out before completing training, and another 2000 drop out during the first 90 days in the field. Another 500 drop out during the first 6 months, and at the end of the year they only have 500 of the original 5000 standing. What would it be worth to them from a cost, time, resources and practicality standpoint for us to simply identify, in advance, the final 500, before anyone is hired?
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Great Sales Opportunities That Don’t Close
- March 2, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If getting opportunities into the pipeline is the most universal sales challenge, then getting opportunities closed comes in a close second. I’m talking about prospects who aren’t ready to say, “yes” but are still “very interested”. These calls pose problems for salespeople for several reasons:
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Mastering Sales and Sales Management
- February 16, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We’re talking about Mastery of things you have a passion for.
Do you and your salespeople have a passion for sales? What is the thing you do that is equal to repeated listening, watching or practicing? What do you do to know your material cold? Do you attend training as often as you attend concerts, theater or movies? Do you listen to sales training as often as you listen to music? You should be getting exposed to the artist (sales expert) at least twice monthly and listening to their recordings (archives or supplemental material) even more often. In addition, you should be practicing (role playing like our son does) at least 30 minutes per day!
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Why Was the Sales Forecast So Unreliable?
- February 11, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The snow storm never happened. We got an inch – over a 12 hour period – and the state shut down for nothing. And it’s not like we can’t handle a snow storm here in New England. We can handle anything! They just blew it. How was this forecast similar to the sales forecast?
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How to Get Business to Fall From the Sky
- January 20, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It’s predictable, phenomenal, and fulfilling. I’m talking about the magic that occurs when you and your salespeople leave their comfort zone and work hard to perform the very activity, behavior and actions which, when left to your own devices, you would choose not to do. Whether it’s a salesperson who finally:
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Ultimate Comparison of Top Salespeople versus Salespeople That Fail
- December 8, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you’ve been following this Blog you know I sometimes refer to the elite 5% of salespeople, the next 20% and the bottom 74%. After reading Super Freakonomics I was moved to take a new look at our data on the more than 400,000 salespeople we have assessed. Behavioral scientists would look at our data on the top 5% and report on some common findings. It might look like this: