sales consulting
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Do You Know if Your Sales Organization is Digital or Analog?
- August 4, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
During our very first conversation with a CEO, the talking path is determined by whether their company is analog or digital.
Digital companies are typically on the cutting edge in their thinking and actions, their CEO’s read content like this, are active on LinkedIn and Twitter, they are aware that selling has changed dramatically, they already have inside sales teams, playbooks, demo decks, sales enablement, online tools beyond CRM and in true digital fashion, they live by their KPI’s which count the elements of their work flow.
Analog companies are old school. Analog salespeople still pound the phones to find opportunities, and visit their prospects to close sales. Their CEO’s may have a LinkedIn account, but it probably isn’t used much, they don’t tweet, read online content like this, and most importantly, have little clue about how dramatically selling has changed in the past 5 years. They may not be aware of the migration to inside sales, typically make little use of selling tools, don’t know what a sales playbook is, and in true analog fashion, measure work product, not flow.
The difference between work flow in a digital company versus work product in the analog company is dramatic too.
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Top 5 Conditions For B2B Prospects to Buy Your Services
- March 15, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
So first a little baseball and then the sales analogy. A fastball hit me square in the knee today.
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Top 10 Kurlan Sales Articles of 2013
- December 19, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
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Insider Opinion – Why Sales Experts Can’t Agree on Anything
- November 11, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Good things are happening in the world of sales and some of those things are coming your way. Just keep both eyes open, your nose to the ground and your antenna up. You’ll intuitively know whether or not what you are reading is a bunch of bunk or the real deal.
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Specific Words are So Crucial to a Sales Conversation
- August 27, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I just returned from a speaking engagement in Athens and had to stop at passport control several times during this trip. They always ask, “What kind of business?” and over the years I’ve used them all: consulting, speaking, training, business adviser, author, coaching, etc. I’ve learned that if I want to be interrogated, “speaker” would be the answer of choice. If I simply want to answer a few questions, “consultant” will do the trick. But to elicit the desired yawn from the officers, I only need to say “attend a conference.” Words make a huge difference and if you like scripts, you’ll be disappointed. But a well-chosen word or phrase at just the right time can be the difference between a resistant prospect and an intrigued one. Do you pay enough attention to the things you do and say as well as how you say them just before a prospect becomes resistant or more engaged? Well, you should!
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Top 10 Problems with Veteran Salespeople
- January 28, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
For companies who want to grow revenue, veteran salespeople cause more problems than any other factor. After all, if you have a young, energetic group, there’s nowhere to go but up and everyone knows that they need to improve. On the other hand, veteran salespeople believe that they know everything and everyone and probably could lead the sales training class.
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Best Way to Sell and/or Manage a Sales Force?
- January 10, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The biggest issue affecting salespeople, sales managers, sales leaders and even Presidents and CEO’s is this: For most of them, the way they know, the way they do it today, the way they have always done it, is the “best way”. They simply don’t know what they don’t know. Of course, some are worse than that. They know that they know it all.
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Is $100,000 a Lot of Money? What Would Your Salespeople Say?
- September 13, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Your salespeople must be able to understand the value proposition of their offering from every possible angle in order to make it fit their prospects’ and customers’ different worlds. Do they?