Sales Coaching
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The Secret to Coaching Salespeople and Why It’s So Scary
- September 21, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I learned that the way in which sales leaders react to the exact same material differs exponentially in accordance with the time we have to discuss it.
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The Conversation Sales Leaders Must Have with Salespeople
- July 15, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Mark was right. It turned out that we did not have a deal, as the vice president’s peer in networking was blocking it. We eventually got a meeting with him and won the deal. More important, Mark set the tone: Sloppiness would not be tolerated.
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Connecting the Dots on Sales Management
- May 28, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Do you remember the morning that you couldn’t find your keys, but they were right there on the counter? Or the time that you couldn’t find an article of clothing, but it was hanging right there in your closet the entire time you were looking for it? Or the time you couldn’t find your car in the airport parking garage? And yes, it was right where you parked it. Sometimes, things are right in front of you and you don’t notice them! And that brings us to this sales management topic.
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How Music Can Definitely Help You Sell More
- March 18, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Next week, I have a special treat for my readers. I will post an article that features my least read articles of all time – sounds very exciting, doesn’t it? While I was looking for the least read articles, I consistently came across a whole bunch of my articles that were related to music.
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How Can a Simple Zero Derail a Sale or Deal?
- January 7, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Today, I was coaching a very talented salesperson, one who is even better at getting deals closed. Yesterday, he closed a large deal when late in the day, and completely out of nowhere, he got the dreaded “we changed our mind” email. This is his story.
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Sales Managers are Sometimes Like Cashiers
- October 1, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
At lunchtime one day, my curry-chicken salad tasted so bad that I returned it to the deli next door. The owner asked what was wrong and when I told him, he tasted it, said it was fine, and get this – he returned the uneaten portion of my salad into the bowl in the display case. Yuck! And I never went back. Until yesterday. I was desperate and didn’t have enough time to go anywhere else, but I knew enough to stay away from the specialty salads.
The crowds that used to line up were gone. The staff was about half the size. The menu, and specifically, the browning chicken salads in the display case were still there. The owner was operating the cash register, calling names when their meals were ready, and taking their payments. Instead of working on his business, fixing what was wrong, making much needed changes and urging customers back into his deli, he was handling the money – the one thing that any unskilled worker could do.
He reminded me of so many sales managers I have met during the past 30 years.
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Keys to Improved Sales Performance – Part 4 of 4
- September 5, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you are like most folks, you were away for at least part of the summer, took as many long weekends as you could, and worked fewer hours on the days you actually did work. As part of getting the work done, you deleted as many emails as you could where a reply wasn’t required and visited fewer websites and blogs.
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Top 5 Mistakes Salespeople Make When Under Pressure
- August 11, 2014
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Before I unveil the top 5 mistakes, you might be interested to know that last week, Top Sales World Magazine went from monthly to weekly. I was featured on the cover, but I’m most hopeful that everyone will read Jonathan Farrington’s interview with me. He got me to be very outspoken about what’s taking place right now in our industry and I believe that everyone will benefit from reading it.
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Fine Tune Your Sales Force as You Optimize Your Computer
- June 18, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I deleted about 10,000 sent items from Outlook, repaired the machine’s permissions, restarted the laptop, and it was performing to expectations again. I was excited about what I had accomplished in such a short time!
That process isn’t very different from what executives must do with an underperforming sales force.
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Key to Significantly Improve Sales Training Results
- May 28, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The best players, getting the advanced instruction on the travel teams, improve the most. Those same kids, on their regular season team, learn almost nothing new and aren’t challenged or pushed. Practice, and sometimes even the games, can be so boring for them that they don’t play their very best.
Translation from Baseball to Selling
If we translate all of that baseball to selling, the only two things that change are the activity and the age of the people being coached and trained.