reaching decision makers

  • How to Hire the Right Salespeople Using This Jeep vs. Infiniti Analogy

    • October 7, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Usually, the overall score, relative strength of a candidate’s capabilities, and recommendation are more important than any specific scores.  Usually.  But with the assessment of Mary, it was an entirely different story.  

    Let’s review the scores and findings from Mary’s OMG Sales Candidate Assessment. She had really good scores.  Really good. Her Sales Percentile was 82 so she was stronger than 82% of the salespeople in the world. So was OMG wrong?  Why did the company hire her?  Why did she fail?

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  • 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:

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  • Siri Can’t Help You Close the Deal but Doing These Three Things Can!

    • August 9, 2021
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Sometimes Siri doesn’t actively listen and decides to send you somewhere different from where you asked her to navigate; a different city or town and/or a place that doesn’t sound remotely close to what you asked for. She gets in the way.

    So what do you do when Siri isn’t cooperating?  Do you give up and wing it?  Do you try again?  Do you stop navigating with Siri and switch to Google, Waze or your built-in system?  Do you persist until you get what you need?

    That’s exactly what salespeople are supposed to do.  Get creative, be persistent and find a way to reach the decision maker.  You do it with Siri, so why don’t you do it when someone in the company won’t introduce you to the decision maker, when they won’t give you the decision maker’s name or when they don’t cooperate?  Why do so many salespeople give up and plow forward with the contact they are speaking with right now?

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  • A Key Competency That Differentiates Top Sales Performers From Posers

    • July 21, 2021
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    The bottom 50% of all salespeople are posers too.  In an article last week we discussed how data can help you hire the ideal salespeople.

    In that article I shared a top/bottom analysis where the top performers were 100% more effective reaching decision makers than the bottoms.  Below I’ve shared another top/bottom analysis with different findings. 

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  • 2 Selling Shortcuts That Will Always Work

    • April 22, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Do shortcuts work in sales?

    I can tell you that shortcuts work when you’re driving a car and need either a more direct route to your destination or a route that avoids traffic.  Waze helps a lot with that!

    Shortcuts work in math when you know what the formula is and how to use it.

    But shortcuts in sales?  Not usually.  Watch this 1:30 video on sales shortcuts and then I’ll share two scenarios where shortcuts can actually be used.

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  • One Question Provides Salespeople with Instant Feedback on How Well They Differentiated

    • March 13, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Most salespeople do not know the difference between their prospects’ decision-making process compared with their decision-making criteria.

    What’s worse is that even more salespeople don’t even bother asking about it.  According to data from Objective Management Group (OMG) who has evaluated/assessed 1,843,105 salespeople, only 27% of all salespeople are strong qualifiers so it’s likely that the majority are not asking.

    If you do ask a prospect about their decision-making process, you might hear about the steps they will take. If you ask about criteria, you might hear about the topics they’ll consider when they make their decision.

    I’ll take you through an example. 

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  • Elite Salespeople are 200% Better in These 3 Sales Competencies

    • July 23, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Professional athletes have one trait in common – they are all very athletic and their skills are among the top several hundred in the world in their particular sport. For example, in Major League Baseball, there are 30 teams with 25 players each, making those ball players the top 750 in the world. Dig a little deeper and in each sport there is an even smaller subset of players who are all-stars

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  • Latest Data – Strong Salespeople Score 375% Better Than Weak Salespeople

    • July 18, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Some of you might have seen Bryce Harper’s incredible last-minute barrage of home runs in the 2018 All-Star game. It’s one of the highlights of summer!  Today I give you a barrage of my own with three killer videos and a powerful data-packed article.  

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  • Discovered – Data Reveals the Biggest Obstacle to Closing More Sales

    • April 30, 2018
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Humans have been waiting for thousands of years to discover the secrets of life.  Why are we here?  Why do bad things happen?  What happens after we die?  Is Heaven real?  What is God’s plan for us?

    While many experts have attempted to answer all of these questions, most of us lack proof. There’s no data.  If we wake up tomorrow morning and suddenly there are not only answers to these questions, but science-based proof, that would be a game-changer for us.

    Likewise, every day most companies try to determine why their salespeople don’t close more business, why so many opportunities die on the vine, and what they need to do differently to change their results.  They try everything!  Most leaders think it’s an issue of closing skills.  It’s not.  Others think it’s about prospecting.  While that has an impact on the size and quality of the pipeline, it has little to do with results.  But I have discovered the cause, will show you the data, and discuss how to fix it.

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  • What Percentage of New Salespeople Reach Decision Makers?

    • June 20, 2016
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I reviewed a new set of around 8,500 rows of data today.  I wanted to know what percentage of salespeople were able to get past gatekeepers, including voice mail systems, and reach decision makers. This was very interesting!

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