sales competencies
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Improve Sales Performance with More Effective Pipeline Management
- November 10, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Related to pipeline, I hate inappropriate blog commenting. That’s when people seek out a blog only to use it as an excuse to write about what they’re promoting on their site. It’s the other form of SPAM. The way it manifests itself on this blog is when someone targets one of my posts on closing or pipeline management and then adds their comment about how you can solve this problem by using lead analytics software or search engine optimization. I’m all for tools of this type and I love Hubspot’s lead analytics and SEO but let’s be real. SEO and on line analytics help to generate leads; they have as much to do with closing effectiveness as Michael Jordan has credentials for baseball’s Hall of Fame! Over achievers, using their sales competencies, create improved sales performance.
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Sales Competencies and Your Competition
- November 6, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Companies don’t invest enough time and energy being strategic and tactical about competition. The approach shouldn’t be economic as much as it should be tactical. Your approach should revolve around neutralizing your competition as opposed to being competitive with your competition.
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Sales Process – What Have You Gotten Away From?
- November 5, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There are about 45 executives in the room, many of them clients of Kurlan Associates. At two of the tables are clients that have been with the firm for so long, twenty years or so, that they have become great friends and two of them have become business partners at Objective Management Group.
One of the first exercises that the group participated in was Cash Optimization Strategies, and the first part of that exercise was Ways to Improve Your Sales Cycle.
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Misleading Statistics and Hiring the Wrong Sales Candidates
- November 3, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The November issue of Fortune Small Business has an article called Entrepreneurial Myth Busters. FSB has Ken Blanchard (consultant )and Scott Shane (academic) go head to head answering questions about small businesses and entrepreneurship. While Blanchard provides insightful answers based on his years of experience working in, consulting to and writing about business, Shane provides surprising answers based on data. I’m sure that if you read the article you’ll agree that Shane’s data lead to some very misleading conclusions. Academics who haven’t been “out there” can fall in love with their data!
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What Have Your Salespeople Been Listening To?
- October 28, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In my position as a sales development thought leader and expert I get to hear what many salespeople in many industries are encountering for resistance. In the last few weeks I’ve heard way too much about deals getting suspended due to spending freezes. Have your salespeople been hearing this?
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Who Are Better Salespeople – Men or Women?
- October 23, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Tom Peters said women are better salespeople than men.
I wrote that Objective Management Group’s data proves that a greater percentage of women are stronger than men.
Here is how that data breaks down:
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Tom Peters – Sales Excellence
- October 22, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I see this all the time. Presidents lamenting over their sales force when, so often, the Presidents are the problem!
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10 Types of Sales Advisers and How to Choose the One That’s Best For You
- October 9, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’ll bet you know plenty about agreements, contracts, and legal compliance in your industry. You probably know enough about accounting, taxes and audits to get by too. And I bet you know your way around insurance, investments and real estate.
Despite all of that knowledge, I’m certain you have a great corporate attorney, corporate accountant, insurance advisers for commercial, benefits and personal lines, and a Realtor. Some of these people may even sit on your board.
Do you have a sales expert on your board? On retainer? Working with your sales team? Your sales management team? On your sales infrastructure? On compensation and incentives?
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Will Your Salespeople Change Behaviors to Improve Their Effectiveness?
- October 9, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Can your salespeople change? Will your salespeople change? Do you have to change in order for any of this change to take place?
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Sales Statistics That Reveal Sales Effectiveness
- September 26, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Jeff Angus, author of the Management by Baseball Blog, wrote this lengthy article in response to my Pitch Count post from last week. While Part I of his manifesto explores pitch count as it relates to injury and effectiveness, he brings up another important point. He talks about the best pitchers not learning how to win by not being expected or conditioned to finish the games they start.