Search Results

  • New Data: Top Salespeople are 7562% Better at Winning RFPs

    • March 13, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    mission critical

    RFPs aren’t going away, and there are two ways that salespeople can approach them, the companies that write them, and the people associated with them:

    Passively – in this capacity, they are nothing more than facilitators, waiting for an RFP to drop in their inbox, so they can get it off to the folks who write the proposals.  When complete, they email the proposal back to procurement and hope to win.
    Proactively – in this capacity, they regularly meet and develop relationships with the appropriate CxO’s and Sr VP’s of manufacturing, engineering, design, IT, IS, Finance, Marketing, HR, R&D, Operations, Facilities, Fulfillment, Distribution, Sales, Learning and Development, Enablement, and any other organizational head they might possibly sell to.  They become a resource, an asset, a partner and not only help to write the specifications of the next RFP, but write the specs in such a way that they are the only company that can win the business.

    It seems obvious, doesn’t it?  Option 1 is stupid and Option 2 is brilliant.  But if option 2 is so brilliant and obvious, then why do so many salespeople become so defensive and dug in to option 1?

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  • Opportunity Blindness – What’s in Your Sales Pipeline?

    • February 28, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    lumps of coal or gold bullions in your pipeline

    Some observations:

    The data represents the forecast and funnel for 7 sales teams.
    The gaps (A & G) are backwards and should say 72% (A) and 41% (G).
    The quarterly forecast (C) is 58% short of the quarterly target (D).
    The current closable opportunities (B) are 77% short of the forecast (C) and 90% short of the quarterly target (D).
    Add columns G and H and together, all of those columns represent pathetic, old news.

    The question that should be asked is, “What can we do about this?”

    We should be able to answer that question by looking at column F but that’s not possible.  Can you see why?

    Outside of telling us that there isn’t enough in the funnel, the data in column F doesn’t answer the question that must always be asked:  Is the pipeline viable?

    We know the assigned value of the pipeline but we don’t know the answers to these additional ten important factors:

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  • 25 Sales Experts on the Importance of Coaching Salespeople

    • February 25, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    coaching salespeople

    Sales managers are still not coaching – at least not consistently or effectively.  As a reminder, consistent daily coaching increases revenue by 28% and when it is paired with effective coaching, revenue increases by 43%.  It’s simply incomprehensible that sales managers aren’t picking up the clue phone. 

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  • Don Kent and My 8 Reasons For Inaccurate Sales Forecasts

    • February 15, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    Don Kent

    1960’s Don Kent is like a 2020’s salesperson. Excited about an opportunity, but wrong. And they don’t have to be wrong, shouldn’t be wrong, and honestly, can’t be wrong. The 2020’s salesperson may not have computer models, but they do have technology and it’s not the technology getting the forecast wrong.  It’s the salesperson.  There are a number of reasons they get so excited and get it so wrong but here are eight good ones:

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  • Whipped Cream! The Easiest Way to Lower Sales Resistance

    • February 13, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    whipped cream

    Most sales training fails to address the single most important condition of a sales cycle – resistance – thereby rendering the sales training semi-useless.  When resistance appears, it does not matter if the sales process, methodology, tactics and strategies are good or even great, unless salespeople are equally great at lowering the resistance. 

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  • How to Identify Candidates Who Will Succeed in Your Sales Roles

    • February 9, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    sales hiring efficiency

    Suppose you have a project or task that you don’t particularly enjoy doing, but despite your lackluster feeling, must complete it. Do you seek out the most efficient way to complete the project or task, or default to the most inefficient way to complete it?

    Let’s take recruiting, selecting and hiring salespeople.  For HR, that’s part of their job.  Despite how important new salespeople are to the future of a company, Sales Leadership attempts to get recruiting over with as quickly as possible, often prioritizing speed to hire over cost to hire, talent and capabilities.  Why?  They aren’t using the most efficient process and tools to hire the best salespeople.

    I’m hiring a salesperson for a client and using my time-tested process which we also train clients to use (so that WE DON’T have to recruit!).  My experience shows that 10% of the candidates will be viable but, of more importance, how do we know which 10% to focus on?  The stats for the first week were:

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  • Wouldn’t Sales Call Play-by-Play Analyses be Fun?

    • January 27, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Most sales managers protect their salespeople instead of pushing them to improve.  Most companies set budgets that formulaically increase year-over-year budgets by just 3.5%.  The sales recruiting process and selection criteria at most companies are horrible. Most sales training is product-focused instead of sales development.  Most salespeople are not consistently or effectively coached. Most senior sales leaders are indifferent about doing anything about those things. 

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  • Trump, The Iowa Caucus, and Sales Improvement

    • January 16, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    election results

    This course is the most fun you could ever have while going through sales training!  But it is so much more than fun and entertainment.  There are powerful selling lessons in each clip, and despite the fun, you will become more effective at all aspects of selling.  It doesn’t matter how long you have been in sales, what you sell, who you sell it to, the length of your sales cycle or the cost of your product or service.  Nor does it matter where your competency gaps are.

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  • Combining Goal Setting with Sales Competencies

    • January 4, 2024
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    Baseline Selling Sales Goals Grid

    Allow me to introduce the first draft of the first innovation of 2024 from Kurlan & Associates:  The Sales Goals Grid, which incorporates most of the 21 Sales Core Competencies. It is a great visual for every salesperson, regardless of what they sell, who they sell for, who they sell to, or the length of their sales cycle.  You can even adapt it to your own needs.

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  • Why Top and Bottom Salespeople Have the Same Scores

    • November 21, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    trimmer adapter

    A question was brought to my attention about Objective Management Group (OMG) assessments.  For context, OMG has assessed more than 2.4 million salespeople, their accuracy is legendary and they’ve earned their stripes for predictive validity as well.  I was shown two sales candidate evaluations that at first glance had important findings that looked the same.  Both individuals lacked Desire for Success in Sales and Commitment to Achieve Sales Success.  The problem is that individual number one is their top salesperson and individual number two is their worst salesperson.  The question I was asked was, “How can that be!”

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