Baseball
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What Sales Managers Do That Make Them So Ineffective
- July 26, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Earlier this week I wrote an article on why so many sales managers are so bad. In today’s article, I’ll share what makes them so ineffective. The easiest way to explain this is to start with a baseball analogy.
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Top 5 Conditions For B2B Prospects to Buy Your Services
- March 15, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
So first a little baseball and then the sales analogy. A fastball hit me square in the knee today.
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Can Salespeople Really Double Their Revenue by Solving This One Challenge?
- October 28, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
While there are several sales analogies I could point to for this turn of events, there is one in particular that is crucial if your company sells more than one product or service.
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How the Right Questions Can Make up for Lack of Sales Experience
- August 11, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Magic, racing and expectations are major factors in sales. We will discuss the role of each and how salespeople can be more consistent when they better understand those 3 factors and learn to manage them.
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How to Finally Get Sales Selection Right
- June 16, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Before I share some crucial sales selection tips, I need to begin with some baseball. My apologies to all of my cricket and soccer obsessed readers.
My team, the Boston Red Sox, just lost their seventh consecutive game. They are in last place and heading for their third last place finish in the past four years. The outlier year was 2013, when they won the World Series. I think there was far less talent on that championship team than on this year’s edition, but the 2013 team had a rallying cry (Boston Strong) and everyone overachieved. You can’t count on everyone overachieving each year, so in lieu of that, as Jim Collins would say, you must have the right people in the right seats.
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Should a Salesperson be Punished after a Huge Sale?
- May 4, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
My wife and I watched with a combination of fascination, sadness and shock as the coach of our son’s 12 and under AAU baseball team made them run suicides after the double header they won on Saturday, and again after the double header they won on Sunday. Why would he punish them after winning four games this weekend? And how does this apply to sales? You’ll be amazed by what you read.
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What Committed Salespeople Do Differently
- April 24, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Commitment. We have discussed commitment a LOT in this Blog recently because many people misunderstand the role it plays in successful selling.
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Leading a Sales Force is Even More Like Baseball
- November 6, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’ve written plenty about the similarity betwen baseball and selling, but today I’m writing about the similarity between baseball and sales leadership. If you’re not a baseball person, you might not see the same things that I see, most of which can be applied to leading a sales force. For example,
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Baseball’s Huge Impact on Sales Performance
- January 22, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Let’s use Algebra to get a better handle on sales methodology and where it fits in the grand scheme of things. Consider the following formula:
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Contractual Obligation is a Missing Link of Sales Success
- May 31, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
However, there is one area of sports for which there is no sales analogy. Say it isn’t so!