Search Results
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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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25 Sales Experts on the Importance of Coaching Salespeople
- February 25, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Sales managers are still not coaching – at least not consistently or effectively. As a reminder, consistent daily coaching increases revenue by 28% and when it is paired with effective coaching, revenue increases by 43%. It’s simply incomprehensible that sales managers aren’t picking up the clue phone.
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How to Identify Candidates Who Will Succeed in Your Sales Roles
- February 9, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Suppose you have a project or task that you don’t particularly enjoy doing, but despite your lackluster feeling, must complete it. Do you seek out the most efficient way to complete the project or task, or default to the most inefficient way to complete it?
Let’s take recruiting, selecting and hiring salespeople. For HR, that’s part of their job. Despite how important new salespeople are to the future of a company, Sales Leadership attempts to get recruiting over with as quickly as possible, often prioritizing speed to hire over cost to hire, talent and capabilities. Why? They aren’t using the most efficient process and tools to hire the best salespeople.
I’m hiring a salesperson for a client and using my time-tested process which we also train clients to use (so that WE DON’T have to recruit!). My experience shows that 10% of the candidates will be viable but, of more importance, how do we know which 10% to focus on? The stats for the first week were:
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12 Powerful Sales Lessons from “The Chosen”
- February 6, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’ve written hundreds of articles with analogies to sales using athletes, musicians, actors, CEOs, politicians, inventors, songs, movies, TV Shows and their characters and you didn’t need to be a fan of them to appreciate the sales lessons. While watching this enjoyable TV series, I identified eleven solid analogies to sales and selling so we’ll get right to them because I’m sure you aren’t reading my sales articles for my opinions on faith or religion!
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Movie Contrasts the Best and Worst Salespeople
- November 14, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We watched GameStop: Rise of the Players and despite it being a documentary, found it to be quite entertaining. It was David versus Goliath. It was Amateur versus Professional. It was about an improbable outcome accomplished by people who were unlikely to succeed and even more unlikely to win the big payoff.
While I thought it had a lot in common with selling, the twelve central figures:
Were not professional investors although they did invest in GameStop.
Were not skilled traders although they did conduct some research.
Did not trade as a full-time job or hobby.
Were making decisions based on hunches, not history or science.
Found in each other kindred souls with a shared passion for GameStop.The five statements above suggest that skills, attributes, competencies and capabilities were NOT part of their success so what could this possibly have in common with selling?
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What Companies Don’t Know About Sales
- November 10, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We heard that the “Sound of Freedom” was a good movie but waited until we could stream it at home. We loved the movie, but we were moved even more by the closing messages displayed on the screen. The statistics are astounding, where as a result of human trafficking, mostly at the southern border, more children are enslaved today than when slavery was legal! We didn’t know what we didn’t know.
“Companies don’t know what they don’t know about sales” is true in most companies and sales organizations.
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Top 15 Categories of Reading to Improve Sales Team Effectiveness
- August 21, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Bookmark this article so that over time, if you want to improve your sales effectiveness, you can read articles from the topics listed below
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Grow Revenue During a Recession by Being Counter-Intuitive
- May 10, 2023
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We know what doesn’t work in a recession.
The economic crisis of 2008-9, and the Covid lockdowns of 2020-2021 showed us that when companies focus on cost-cutting instead of growing revenue, revenue declines – sharply. Who would have guessed that smart people wouldn’t see that coming?
You know what to do when dry weather conditions aren’t favorable for growing trees, flowers, and shrubs. You don’t pull the plants out of the ground or let them succumb to the dry conditions. You add water. It’s a very simple concept.
Can companies add water to grow revenue when the economic conditions are evaporating? Yes, but it’s counter-intuitive.
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The Challenger Style and its Impact on Sales Selection
- March 1, 2023
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Categories:
This White Paper responds to this article, which appeared on the Harvard Business Review Blog. The HBR article introduced a new selling style called the Challenger.
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Home
- January 18, 2023
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Categories: