Consultative Selling

  • Snowstorm & Weather Apps Explain Why 75% of Sales Forecasts are Wrong

    • March 16, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    As a Nor’Easter barreled across Central Massachusetts today, a few interesting storm-related happenings were analogous to some sales-related occurrences. This article will explore two weather-related analogies:

    It’s in 3D – Dinger the Dog and his choice of Doors
    The Magic of Weather Apps

    I’ve written about Dinger, our six-year-old Golden Doodle, several times.  The most popular article was when I claimed and proved that Dinger’s listening skills were better than those of salespeople. 

    read more

  • Top 10 Keys to Determining and Improving Your Ideal Win Rate

    • March 7, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    What kind of car should you drive?

    Answering that question with anything other than, “It depends,” is irresponsible because there are so many variables.  Choosing a car depends on budget, family size, how much stuff you load into your car, the length of your drives, the logo/ego influence, fit and function, ergonomics, appearance, perceived value, reliability, cost to drive it (gas/electric/mileage), and so much more.

    If that makes senses, why do companies struggle when I am unable to instantly tell them what their win-rate or closing percentage should be?

    There are so many the variables that can influence your sales win-rate and here are my top ten keys to win rates:

    read more

  • 4 Types of Sales Positions That Can Never Be Replaced by AI

    • February 22, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    We’re seeing ChatGPT’s ability to create human-like articles, essays, poems, notes and messages.

    I just asked ChatGPT to write a short poem on the death of selling.  Here’s what it generated.

    read more

  • These 6 Keys and New Data Help Your Sales Team Outperform The Rest

    • February 16, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    They found that top performers make 54% more switches – the back and forth in conversations – than everyone else and 78% more in their presentations.  The presentations made by top sales performers are not monologues!

    read more

  • The Latest Perspective on My Most Popular Article on Selling

    • December 20, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    During a first sales call, suppose your salespeople hear one prospect say, “This has been a very interesting and productive conversation and we might have some interest in this.”  And imagine another prospect at the same meeting says, “We’ll get back to you next month and let you know what kind of progress we’ve made.”  And still a third might say, “In the meantime, please send us a proposal with references and timeline.”

    read more

  • The Top 10 Sales and Sales Leadership Articles of 2022

    • December 12, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Criteria: Popularity (views) is nice but quality of content is nicer.  Likes are cool but engagement is cooler. Entertainment value counts and my opinion matters because I’m judging the articles.  In the end, I’m applying popularity, quality of the content, likes, entertainment, comments, engagement and my opinion to create this list of the top 10 articles.

    Enjoy!

    read more

  • The Connection Between Road Signs, Sales Data, Consultative Selling and Sales Recruiting

    • December 6, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Salespeople who are learning to take a consultative approach to selling hear a stated issue – the consultative selling version of a road sign – but think they have arrived at their destination – the compelling reason to buy.

    This is supported by the data.  Objective Management Group (OMG) has data on 2,280,260 salespeople that have been assessed from more than 30,000 companies.  The findings are horrific:

    read more

  • “Spirited” Has So Much in Common with Most Salespeople

    • November 29, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Only 13% of all salespeople take a consultative approach to selling and almost none of them can be found in the bottom 50% – the group that fails to meet quota each year.  A coincidence? On the other end of the spectrum, the top 10% of all salespeople are 4300% more likely to have the Consultative Seller competency as a strength!

    read more

  • How Many Authors Does it Take to Screw in a LightBulb Highlighting Selling Skills?

    • September 22, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Dan Caramanico alerted me to this dubious September 19, hbr.com article that explains their 5 Skills Every Salesperson Needs to Succeed.  It took three consultants to screw in the lightbulb that illuminates their five stupid-as-shit skills so let’s take a look:

    read more

  • Which is Worse – The Boston Red Sox or Your Sales Team?

    • August 23, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The construction of the Red Sox roster is simply a Stupid as Shit Strategy or SaSS. Use of the word strategy means that it’s intentional and is a disservice to the word stupid!

    Sales team construction usually lacks formal strategy and that suggests something accidental is at play. We tend to see the “we already had these salespeople” and then “these are the new salespeople who were willing to work for us.” New is a relative term as the newest 30% of the team continues to churn when and if they find candidates.

    read more