Baseline Selling
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Could it Really be The Death of SPIN Selling?
- April 10, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The author wrote that since most prospects today know what they want, they won’t rehash all of the needs and decisions that got them to this point, and as a result, a salesperson won’t be able to back them up to an earlier stage of the sales process to implement SPIN or any other questioning strategy.
Well, maybe.
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Sales Lessons from Baseball’s 2013 World Series
- October 29, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Instead of bad or wrong calls and decisions, I believe that it’s critical to frame decisions that don’t go our way as tough decisions rather than bad or wrong decisions. “Bad” is a judgment and leads to debate, while “tough” forces us to move on to lessons learned and action steps. It is far more productive.
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The Challenge of the Challenger Sales Model – The Facts
- October 21, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If we are discussing a transactional sale, then he is completely correct. Let the customer just buy what they want to buy and don’t complicate it. But most of us in the sales consulting space don’t consult to companies with a transactional sale – that’s marketing’s job to get more people to buy!
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Now That You Have a Sales Process, Never Mind
- October 16, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Here’s the premise: Companies that have been rigorously enforcing sales process should stop doing so because it is resulting in longer sales cycles, decreased conversion rates, unreliable forecasts and depressed margins. So they say. Here are some of the many problems with their premise:
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Inc Magazine Gets it Wrong on Sales Prospecting
- May 31, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In his article, he shares a systematic approach for prospecting “loosely based upon a conversation with Thomas Ray Crowel.” My interpretation of his use of the word “loosely” is that he contributed his own opinions to this systematic approach. That makes the article all the more disappointing.
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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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My Top 14 Articles on More Effective Sales Cold Calling
- November 13, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’ve written a lot of articles about cold calling more effectively, so I have linked to fourteen of those articles below.
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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!
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The Lion King – Watching a Movie Again Improves Sales Effectiveness
- November 2, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You can watch a movie you haven’t seen for a while and appreciate the things you missed before. Your sales force will experience the exact same benefits from rereading the book, having refresher training, and focusing on the areas they didn’t apply and execute the first time around.
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Sales Process is to Religion as Sales Methodology is to Prayer
- October 24, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Whether you have or are a salesperson yourself, if you don’t have BOTH an effective sales process that you follow – religiously – and a sales methodology that you practice – faithfully – you must – convert!