sales competencies
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What to Do with the Salespeople Who Become Your Biggest Problem
- May 3, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I coach a lot of sales managers and sales leaders and when I ask them what they want help with today, it’s rarely a big opportunity, it’s seldom coaching best practices, it’s hardly ever targeted metrics for their team, and it’s almost unheard of for them to request that I help them improve as sales managers, Oh no. They almost always want help with their biggest problem child.
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Salespeople Make This Mistake – The Dumb Question I Was Asked in a Hotel Restaurant
- February 15, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I pulled up to the entrance of the Doubletree Hotel, greeted Chris, and we walked into the hotel restaurant. As we approached the table, a well-meaning server asked, are you an Honors member? I said, “yes.”
A moment later she returned and said she couldn’t find me in the system. She asked me to spell my name, went back to her computer, and returned again, saying, “I can’t find your reservation in the system.”
I explained that I wasn’t a hotel guest and we were here for breakfast. “Oh, then you’ll have to pay for your breakfast!”
“OK,” I said. After all, I was expecting to pay for breakfast!
Can you imagine how much simpler it would have been if her first question was, “Are you staying with us?”
Salespeople make the exact same mistake. How do I know? I can prove this with several examples.
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Sales Coaching and the Challenges of Different Types of Salespeople
- February 8, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Recently a reader directed me to a video on the Harvard Business Review site. They rarely have accurate, relevant sales-specific information there, so I clicked over with great anticipation.
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Surprising Social Selling Secret Drives Sales Revenue
- November 5, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you’ve been reading my Blog, then you are probably aware of OMG’s big Sales Force Effectiveness Study that we’ve been working on for the past three months. One of the things we studied is the impact of Social Selling. At face value, one might come to the exact same conclusion as we did in 2013, that it’s having limited impact on sales. However, this time we looked wider and deeper and beyond the obvious and we were extremely surprised by what we found. We discovered that
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Why Assessments Will Never Work for Some Companies
- December 11, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Assessments are awesome, especially when you choose the right ones, for the right purpose, at the right time. Despite the availability of some terrific assessments, they won’t work for every company.
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#1 Sales Presentation Tip from October 16 US Presidential Debate
- October 17, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When your salespeople are invited back to be one of several to present capabilities, value propositions and solutions, the exact same scenario as described above is sure to be played out. If the prospect liked you going in, they’ll look for opportunities to support your presentation. If the prospect liked your competitor going in, they’ll look for opportunities to discredit you in any way they can.
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Targeting Sales Opportunities – The Hidden Truth
- September 10, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We frequently discuss reasons why salespeople fail, the differences between successful and unsuccessful salespeople, and scenarios where salespeople make good versus bad choices. Those aren’t the only topics which separate good selling from bad. Salespeople make other decisions which impact the likelihood for success and today’s article takes a look at one of those.
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Make Your Salespeople Focus on This to Grow the Business
- September 5, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Let’s focus on the only tool more important than the calendar and task list – your pipeline management tool. Most salespeople, despite dozens of CRM applications from which to choose, still don’t fully comprehend pipeline management. And if they don’t get it, they probably aren’t managing it!
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2 Keys to Selling Success from Ann Romney and Chris Christie
- August 29, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I have been delivering that message for more than 20 years, not to citizens who must vote for a candidate, but to sales leadership, sales management and salespeople who let their need for approval – their need to be liked – interfere with every facet of what they do.
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Selling Styles – How Many Styles Should Your Salespeople Have?
- August 14, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Terrific salespeople make that transition too. They morph from laid-back but confident, to powerful, animated and charismatic when it’s time to present. Most salespeople however, don’t make that transition because it doesn’t feel authentic to them or they fear that they might look and sound like salespeople. Isn’t that sad?