Search Results
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Would Henry Ford be Able to Sell Cars Today?
- November 29, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
What would Henry Ford think if he were alive today? I’m thinking that he would ask, “What the hell happened to my motor car and what are all these SUV’s, crossovers, smart cars, hybrids and electric cars? And what are all these pictures, icons, buttons, knobs and dials for?” I think he would also say, “So let me get this straight. You need to pay for a government issued license and pass an exam to operate it? You need to register the motor car with the government and pay for that too? You need to buy insurance before you can use it? You have to pay an excise tax to your city or town to maintain ownership? And they sell for how much? Holy shit! What did they do to my Model T? I innovated a car, not a home on wheels!”
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Data Shows That Only 14% are Qualified for the Easiest Selling Roles
- November 15, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Lays Potato Chips. Movie Theater Popcorn. Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. BBQ Ribs. Fudge Brownies. Rolos (a personal favorite from years ago). All junk food which, after having the first one, you just can’t stop there. You must have more. Lays even had that as a slogan back in the late 60’s – “Bet you can’t eat just one.” Back then I couldn’t stop at one.
Last week I wrote an article that said companies are hiring the wrong salespeople 77% of the time. It was very popular and there was a great discussion on LinkedIn but similar to the junk food, you couldn’t read that one article and move to another subject. You need to have some more.
That article was filled with data to illustrate the differences between good salespeople versus those who actually get hired most of the time. It was ugly and there were questions about the 77% like, “Where does that come from?”
Some of the supporting data came from the CSO Insights 2018 Sales Talent Study. Some of it came from Objective Management Group’s evaluations and assessments of 1.8 million salespeople. And I’m going to show you some data that most people never get to see. Take a look at these wild numbers!
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The Wrong Salespeople are Hired 77% of the Time
- November 13, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
94% of sales managers are optimistic about their salespeople. That’s a very surprising statistic for a couple of reasons:
50% or more of their salespeople won’t hit their quotas this year and haven’t since at least 2008.
Objective Management Group’s (OMG’s) findings from the evaluations and assessments of salespeople show that 50% of all salespeople are weak.Sales managers believe that 50% of their salespeople are good and 44% of their salespeople have potential. Of course, they are using subjective, rather than objective approaches to measuring what “good” is.
How do you measure good?
Salespeople consistently meet or exceed quota or expectations
You like your salespeople, they work hard, don’t give you any trouble, are positive, don’t miss quota by too much, sometimes bring in good customers, are advocates of the company and brand, and are good influences, etc.Unfortunately, a lot of sales managers choose the second option.
Why? Many sales managers aren’t very good at what they do! Only 10% of all sales managers are effective at both coaching and coaching consistently and when it comes to holding salespeople accountable, they aren’t much better. Review the table below:
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Golden Nuggets from the CSO Insights 2018 Sales Talent Study
- October 25, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I had a chance to review the CSO Insights 2018 Sales Talent Study and extracted some fascinating data. I thought it might be interesting to take their data, overlay some of Objective Management Group’s (OMG) data, and see what we can take away from that.
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Data Shows 1st Year Sales Improvement of 51% in this Competency
- September 18, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I looked at the before and after scores for eight of the 21 Sales Core Competencies as well as the Reaches Decision Makers, Account Manager and Farmer competencies for a total of 11. See the table below:
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New Data Reveals Why Veteran Salespeople Are Not Better Than New Salespeople
- April 17, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I mined Objective Management Group (OMG) data and compared salespeople who have been with their company for 10 years or more, with salespeople who have been with their company for five years or less. Theoretically, the veteran salespeople should be better and stronger in every way. But are they? Let’s take a look and then let’s discuss exactly what we are seeing and why.
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What Happens When You Force a Square Sales Peg into a Round Sales Hole?
- March 2, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Can you imagine attaching a snow plow to a Lamborghini and hiring yourself out to clear parking lots? Back in April I wrote about our new puppy. Now he’s 1-year old and has grown to 60 pounds, but could you imagine putting a saddle on him and selling rides on the beach? Could you imagine if the US arsenal of nuclear weapons consisted of putting 1,000’s of firecrackers into a plastic cylinder and then saying to North Korea, “try us!”
These are all examples of trying to put a square peg into a round hole – things you just don’t do. And that’s how I felt when I received an email asking how to deal with the following sales challenge.
The reader asked me to write an article explaining how to improve the sales effectiveness of their mostly altruistically motivated salespeople.
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Can Sales Statistics be Bad and Good at the Same Time?
- February 21, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I received two pieces of bad news relative to statistics.
The first is about my award-winning Blog. It seems that readers stay with an article for an average of only one-minute or so. That means that most readers don’t finish the article, fail to get to my summary, and often don’t read long enough to get my point. Basically, everything that comes after the fourth paragraph is not being read. This could also be good news. It could mean that I can actually write shorter articles and that would be great for me!
The other piece of bad news relates to my award-winning sales training company, Kurlan & Associates. I reviewed 5 years worth of statistics on opportunities that weren’t closed and it seems that prospects were 6 times more likely to do nothing than to do business with a competitor. We don’t lose very often and I can count on two hands the number of opportunities I have personally lost in the past 5 years. But it’s one thing to rarely lose, and another to learn that 6 times more often than not, a company failed to act. But these statistics are very misleading. Let me explain why.
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4 Reasons Why Salespeople Suck at Consultative Selling.
- September 26, 2017
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Yesterday, a sales manager I was coaching asked me to explain the difference between a great question and a tough question. I gave him the one-minute version but this article has the expanded version of that answer.
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9 Reasons Why Salespeople Lack the Urgency Necessary to Succeed
- September 25, 2017
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I coach a lot of sales leaders and their most common frustration is that they can’t understand why their salespeople don’t seem to have the same urgency as they did when they were selling.