Search Results

  • How the Rubber Band Sabotages Sales Performance

    • April 1, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I have written many articles about Sales DNA, the combination of strengths that support sales process, sales strategy and sales tactics; or, when it appears as a weakness and sabotages ones ability to execute.

    Unlike strategies and tactics, where you can learn and apply them, improving your Sales DNA requires much more effort and time.  

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  • The Top 8 Requirements for Becoming a Great Salesperson

    • January 14, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Do you remember the moment you became a Salesperson?  Not a presenter, Not an order taker, but a true consultative sales professional?

    Here are some guidelines to identify the moment you turned professional. 

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  • Which 4 Sales Competencies Best Differentiate Top from Bottom Salespeople?

    • October 9, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I reviewed data from nearly 511,000 sales evaluations and assessments from among the that Objective Management Group (OMG) has produced to date.  I compared 21 Sales Core Competencies (you can see much of that data here) of the top 5% (elite) with the bottom 50% of all salespeople.  Then I identified the 4 competencies with the biggest gaps and you can see those in the image below.

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  • Finally!  Science Reveals the Actual Impact of Sales Coaching

    • September 7, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    You must have heard the joke that 73.6% of statistics are made up!

    I have read and even reported that sales leaders who coach their salespeople see a boost in revenue of around 27%.  It sounds like a realistic number but I have not seen any science to back it up.  Until now.  Check this out!

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  • Does Being a Strong Qualifier Correlate to Having a Strong Pipeline?

    • August 7, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    My latest data mining project reveals that the answer to this question is a partial correlation.  

    Check out the two tables below and you’ll see just what I mean.

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  • Eliminate Delayed Closings Once and for All

    • May 14, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A long time ago I realized that in the suburbs outside of Boston, new leaves reach full size each Spring on May 11.  This year, with the cold April we endured, May 11 came and went and the leaves were delayed.

    That said, spring leaves on May 11 are exponentially more predictable than pipeline opportunities.  Why might an opportunity not close when it was forecast to?

    Technically, there are seven possibilities:

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  • Improper Use of BANT Will Cause You to Kill Opportunities

    • April 26, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I received an email asking me to check out an article on the Salesforce.com blog that features an infographic they hoped I would promote.

    The article focuses on the middle of the funnel and the handoff between marketing and sales.  In doing so, they discuss MQL’s (Marketing Qualified Leads) and SQL’s (Sales Qualified Leads).  While I don’t have an issue with the infographic, I have huge issues with the content of the article and if you follow the advice in this article, you’ll have far fewer MQL’s that your salespeople can turn into SQL’s.

    Here’s why.

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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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  • 7 Reasons Why Prospects Go Cold and How to Avoid it

    • January 5, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If you change your perspective about prospects going cold, you might discover that you caused them to go cold, rather than the myriad of other possibilities.  I’ll explain.

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  • How to Write a Sales Email That Works

    • January 3, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I receive so many unsolicited emails each day that it makes my head spin.  Most of them, like the cold calls I get, are simply horrible.  Delete.  Delete.  Delete.  Junk.  Block.  Unsubscribe.

    This week I received the daily double – a cold call with an identical, corresponding email.  The email read like this:

    Hi Dave, 

    I hope this message finds you well.

    We spoke in the past regarding the copier equipment in your office.  At the time you indicated that your existing contract will be ending just over a year from now.  Have you started to look into this yet?  Our company would love a shot to earn your business.

    I’ll go through this line by line and explain what’s horrible, what’s OK and how I would change it.

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