Search Results
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When Your Sales Opportunity Stalls, Do You Call Roadside Assistance?
- October 18, 2021
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When salespeople get into trouble and an opportunity stalls out or goes off the rails, their sales managers are the sales version of roadside assistance. In the context of a sales opportunity, there are typically three possibilities:
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How to Become More Successful One Day at a Time
- April 13, 2021
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You can find inspiration anywhere. Even in a book called, A Year of Playing Catch. Tom Schaff was nice enough to send me a copy of this book and there was the inspiration, right there on page 128. Why would someone from the world of sales care about a page out of a baseball book? I’ll give you fourteen really good reasons. You see, the book is much less about baseball and much more about the following fourteen integral competencies of sales success:
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The $225,000 Selling Mistake Most Salespeople Make
- December 7, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
While colleagues and supervisors shared their enthusiasm for this exciting moment, my first reaction was, “And why do you think this is good news?”
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2020’s Ten Must Read Sales and Sales Leadership Articles
- November 30, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
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The Problem With Having Crappy Sales Managers
- November 11, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Sales Managers underperform at a mind boggling level. Let me show you the degree to which most sales managers are unqualified.
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Companies Surprised by Unexpected Remote Selling Challenges
- April 9, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Forget Consultative Selling, Value Selling and Sales Process – the things I talk about most often. The inability to sell that way is nothing – and I mean nothing compared with what I’m going to explain today!
For most salespeople and companies, the last three weeks has been an absolute roller coaster. Most companies expect their sales teams to be not only active, but proactive; to replace face-to-face meetings with virtual meetings; and to continue pipeline building so that there is business to close when we return to work. But is that what’s happening? In today’s article, I’ll blend my usual mix of statistics with some personal observation from the clients I have been helping for the past three weeks. I also included three videos that I extracted from a sales training session earlier this week. You’ll be surprised!
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Squirrels Explain the Differences Between Top and Bottom Salespeople
- October 28, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This morning I was watching 3 squirrels each doing their thing.
Squirrel #1, who I named Ernest, was finding lots of nuts and burying them. His nest was full and he will reap the benefits of his hard work over the winter.
Squirrels #2 and #3, who I named MT and LayZ, were playing. They were running up and down tree trunks, jumping from limb to limb, running in circles and generally chasing their tails. They don’t yet have nests and unless they make a commitment, become disciplined, and get to work, they will starve to death this winter.
Ernest, MT and LayZ are no different than their human counterparts who find themselves in sales roles. The top salespeople are like Ernest and the bottom salespeople are like MT and LayZ. For evidence of that claim, take a look at the table below with a sprinkling of data from Objective Management Group (OMG) which has evaluated 1,910,915 salespeople from companies.
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How to Raise the Incomes of Minimum Wage Workers Without Wealth Distribution or Socialism
- June 5, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Minimum wage employees are forced into those low paying jobs and the wealthiest Americans are to blame. Why can’t low hourly wage workers seek and earn better paying jobs? Is it lack of skills? Lack of motivation? Lack of commitment? Lack of education? Lack of opportunity? Lack of training?
Why not sales? Selling is a profession that employs 16 million in the US alone and for most sales jobs, especially with today’s lack of candidates, there is a laundry list of qualifications that are NOT required:
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Why Coaching Causes Some Sales Managers to Hold On for Dear Life
- March 4, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Over the past few months I’ve been coaching 30 sales leaders from 3 companies and while most are trying their hardest to do everything I recommend, apply everything they learn, and coach as instructed, there are several that don’t follow through and fail to move the needle for their teams. A few don’t want to be coached. A few don’t think they need to be coached. A few are too proud to be coached. A couple are too mentally challenged to be coached.
Avoidance aside, there are six scientifically proven reasons for their struggles and I’ll share them with you here.
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Why are Half of All Sales Reps Still Missing Quota in a Booming US Economy?
- December 10, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Between 2010 and 2016, and soaring revenue during 2017-2018, the percentage of reps making quota has not only remained flat, but the percentage hasn’t even returned to pre 2008 rates. This article attempts to explain why.