Search Results

  • More Fake News in Sales Organizations Than on TV Networks!

    • December 13, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Most of your salespeople are just like fake news and I will prove it.  I’m not talking about the elite top 5% or the next group of 15% who are very strong.  I am referring to the bottom 46% of the sales population who, if I am to be completely honest, totally suck. If yours is like most companies, then half of its salespeople fit this description.

    I’m going to show you exactly how your salespeople report fake news but first, we need to break down how fake news happens so that I can demonstrate how your weak salespeople do the exact same thing, every chance they can get.

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  • 7 Powerful Exercises to Up Your Sales to the Next Level

    • May 8, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Today, I received yet another request asking if I would recommend how to use the exercises in the Baseline Field Guide with the book, Baseline Selling.  In an effort to help everyone, and not just those who choose to write me, my recommendations on some powerful ways to correlate the two appear below.

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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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  • Veteran’s Great Quote Makes News and Has Terrific Lessons for the Sales Profession

    • February 21, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I might not have nailed his quote word for word, but I’m sure I captured the gist of it. Just think of the sales lessons that can be taken from this!  The short video below is from the interview and below that I will share some lessons for the sales profession.

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  • 10 Selling Scenarios When You Must Slow Down

    • February 7, 2017
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Rick Porcello’s thoughts about the importance of slowing down in certain situations and focusing on the present apply to the following 10 sales and sales leadership scenarios.  Slow down:

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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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  • The #1 Key to Making Sales Forecasts Accurate Again

    • October 24, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    What is they key to accurate sales forecasts?  Sure, it’s all of the things I’ve written about before, like sales process, uncovering compelling reasons to buy, selling value, thoroughly qualifying, etc.  But haven’t you witnessed more than enough opportunities where all of that was completed at an acceptable level and the business still failed to close?  Don’t too many of those well qualified opportunities become delayed closes or losses?  So what is it?  What is the one thing that will accurately predict whether or not an opportunity is strong enough to pursue with everything you’ve got?

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  • A Salesperson’s Terrible Reaction to Good Sales Training

    • September 30, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    You won’t have to read much in today’s post because I included most of it in a short video.  This is a story about a salesperson who reacted extremely badly to some great training tips and disrupted the training.  His thinking is so representative of salespeople that struggle, and is the kind of thinking which, if shared with others, could derail an entire sales force!  

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  • Remembering The Most Powerful Sales Lesson of My Life

    • September 6, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Which one thing helps almost every salesperson succeed, even when they have other challenges?

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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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