Search Results
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New Analysis Shows the 5 Biggest Gaps Between Top and Bottom Sales Performers
- May 1, 2017
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It didn’t take very long for this to happen. When Objective Management Group (OMG) announced that it was making its findings data available to the public, we knew that it wouldn’t take long for someone with a flair for analytics to dig in and come up with something cool. Last week, John Cousineau, creator of Amacus, got me on a video conference and shared what he came up with. Hint: Another way to differentiate top performers.
He
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Sales Excellence: How to Close Anything and Everything in Any Vertical
- January 30, 2017
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I am going to share the real truth about closing and it’s quite different from what you’ve read, what you’ve listened to, what you’ve watched, and probably from what you’ve practiced. Countless books, tapes, videos and podcasts have been devoted to closing techniques. Thousands of companies deliver seminars and training programs to help salespeople develop their closing skills. They’re all wrong and they have all wasted your time.
I have written 1,600 articles and not once have I shared the closing secret that I am about to share in this article.
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Most Salespeople Are Wrong about the Concept of Being Willing to Walk
- October 31, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
At some point in most training programs we talk about being willing to walk away. In addition to being part of a Kurlan led sales training program, the willingness to walk away is a major focus of any training program on negotiation as well. But most people in sales don’t really understand the concept of being willing to walk, how it plays out, and what to do when you get there. I would love to share my thoughts on this below.
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I Admit it – Why Words in Selling Really Are Important
- October 5, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When it comes to words, there was probably nobody more clever than the comedic genius George Carlin. The video below is the funniest and best example of his use of words. Watch that and then we’ll talk about how the same premise applies to sales.
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HBR or OMG – Whose Criteria Really Differentiate the Top and Bottom 10% of Salespeople?
- August 22, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In their June 20, 2016 article, A Portrait of the Overperforming Salesperson, HBR identified several traits, attitudes and actions that they claim differentiate the top from bottom performers. I’ll summarize it for you below and then explain why I believe it is junk. The findings include:
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4 Great Sales Lessons from a Notre Dame Commencement Ceremony
- May 17, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We were fortunate to be in the audience for the 2016 Notre Dame Commencement where Vice President Joe Biden, former Speaker of the House, John Boehner, and former Joint Chiefs of Staff and retired 4-Star General, Martin Dempsey were among the speakers. While all were good, Biden had one great takeaway, and the General shared 3 tips and an action step. I believe that these are all share-worthy and apply to sales and sales leadership as well, and perhaps even better than they apply to those graduating from universities.
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The 5 Questions That Get Prospects to Buy so You Don’t Have to Sell
- March 30, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It’s a catch-22 that I find myself in all of the time. In this business, I can’t ever be better at training, coaching, evaluating, consulting, and general sales expertise than I am when actually selling. If I am less expert at selling, I will lack credibility. I become one of those people who, if they can’t do it, they teach it. On the other hand, I can’t be better at selling than at providing expertise because it is often very threatening to potential clients. They fear being sold something – especially consulting services – from someone who could possibly fail to meet expectations, and my business would fail if I caused that to happen. So what is a sales expert to do? Let’s answer that question, discuss how it applies to you, and share some questions that will help you sell more of what you have!
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Choose Which of These Two Assessments are More Predictive of Sales Success
- February 10, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This week, a candidate for a sales position sent along his Predictive Index (PI) assessment so that we could compare it to his sales assessment from Objective Management Group (OMG). Most people have little sense as to how assessments compare to each other – and even more have experience only with personality and behavioral styles assessments. I was able to extract the dashboard from OMG’s 21 page sales-specific assessment, and the graphics and selling summary from the 3-page Predictive Index behavioral styles assessment. You might find the comparison interesting!
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Learn How We Discovered They Had the Wrong Salespeople
- February 1, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Would you believe me if I told you that in a recent sales force evaluation, nearly 50% of the 300 inside salespeople were not in the right role? Recently, we evaluated a large inside sales force and I thought it might be interesting to share some of the more unusual findings that were responsible for this sales team’s inability to achieve the revenue goals that the company expected from them.
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Book Dave
- November 23, 2015
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Categories: