Consultative Selling

  • Everyone Can Sell. Not Really. Top 10 Reasons Why Not

    • May 22, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Dan Pink, Author of To Sell is Human, has been getting a lot of well-deserved exposure.  He wrote a terrific book and most who have read it, really like it.  I don’t have a problem with his book because read in its entirety, it makes sense.  I do have an issue with the people who write about his book and take the concept, that everyone can sell, out of context.  The context is that everyone can sell their ideas.  Agreed.  But out of context, it is suggested that everyone can be a salesperson.  I strongly disagree.

    Forget for a moment all of the data from Objective Management Group showing that 74% of all professional salespeople suck.  When we take the concept from selling an idea (at home, at church, in the neighborhood or internally to coworkers) to professional selling, 10 things change:

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  • Salespeople Must Stop Snorkeling and Start Scuba Diving

    • May 15, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    We talk a lot about the importance of using a consultative approach instead of a transactional approach to better differentiate and sell value instead of price.  When we explain consultative selling, we usually emphasize the importance of listening and questioning.  When we further explain effective listening and questioning, it becomes much more difficult to describe in a paragraph or in the absence of a demonstration or role-play.

    Until today.

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  • Top 10 Reasons Why Salespeople Let Price Drive the Sale

    • May 10, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Selling value.

    What comes so easily to the top 6% and some of the top 26% is so very difficult for others.

    Most salespeople have little capability to effectively build value. Talking about what your company does better or differently or telling a prospect what your value proposition is does not build value. Instead, value comes from 3 things:

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  • Sales Management Best Practices – Are Top Salespeople Challengers?

    • April 29, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I don’t promote an approach based on either Relationships or Solution Selling, but both must be incorporated into an appropriate sales approach.  Also worth noting, the approach or methodology is only one part of selling.  Without a sales process and a sales model, no methodology will work very well on its own.

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  • Inc Magazine Gets it Wrong on Consultative Selling

    • April 8, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Inc. Magazine ran an article on its website that I just can’t ignore.  It’s making my blood boil.

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  • Best Example of Value-Added vs. Commodity Selling

    • March 7, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    Best Example of Value-Added vs. Commodity Selling

    I wrote an article for the March 2013 issue of Top Sales World Magazine that debriefs an actual sales call.  I’ve written more than 1,000 articles and I believe this one is the best yet!  The article effectively details an actual value-added consultative sales call which, because of a single incorrect question, quickly became a transactional, commodity-based, price-driven call.  The example is really striking because it so clearly shows that you can do everything correctly but asking even one question the wrong way can cause a salesperson to lose the opportunity to be a trusted advisor, and fall into the abyss of commodity sellers.

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  • Great Salespeople Can See the Pixels – The Rest Watch the Movie

    • March 6, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    We have been describing the Consultative Sales approach.  How do your salespeople fare in their ability to sell consultatively and, more importantly, which of them can be trained and coached to effectively execute this with consistency and results?

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  • Why Salespeople Won’t Abandon the Early Demo and Presentation

    • March 4, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If you want your sales force to strive for sales excellence, the bottom line is that your salespeople won’t drive this transition and neither will a sales manager.  You have to drive it.  You must commit to it and it must be a sustained commitment.  It’s not a do-it-yourself project, so you must also be prepared to do it correctly, get help from a results-oriented firm, and lead by example.

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  • To Salespeople, Demos and Presentations are Like Snack Food

    • February 11, 2013
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Prior to learning about healthy eating, I believed a bagel was a healthy alternative to a donut. After I was shown that a carbohydrate converts to sugar in the blood and there wasn’t much difference between bread, bagels or rolls; and donuts, cake or pie, I changed the way that I ate.

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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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