sales culture
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Homicide Detective Makes Best Case for Sales Process
- March 21, 2024
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The author admits that until he conducted his “cold-case investigation” of the New Testament, he was an atheist who always followed the evidence to find the truth. Similarly, a lot of prospects are also non-believers – not necessarily in Jesus – in your product or service. As I read and learned about the author’s methods for uncovering truth, or proof, I felt that salespeople could learn a lot about proof of concept, presenting facts, backing up claims, return on investment, and offering credible testimonials. That’s not nearly the analogy I’m going to make.
Wallace shared a story in the Forward about the time he was shot by a criminal who was on parole, and was not allowed to have a firearm. Up until the moment of the shooting, Wallace believed that a bullet-proof vest would stop a bullet. In the moment of the shooting, he believed in the bullet proof vest. At that moment his belief changed from “belief that” to “belief in.” That was the analogy he wished to apply to the gospels. He wondered if he could find the evidence to replace faith (belief that the miracles occurred) with proof (belief in both Jesus and the miracles).
That also happens to be my analogy from the book. Most salespeople believe that a sales process can help them succeed while the very best salespeople believe in their sales process.
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Why Sales Transformation Achieves Better Results Than Sales Training Alone
- January 22, 2021
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You brought in sales training but it didn’t achieve the expected change because the training didn’t address the bigger problems that went beyond selling skills. You may not have realized that companies really need sales transformation and while sales training can be part of that transformation, on its own, it usually underperforms.
Why?
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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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6 Keys to Make All Sales Calls Easy Sales Calls
- August 28, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Your salespeople can have more easy calls, but you’ll have to change up a few things.
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10 Sales Competencies of Steve Jobs
- August 21, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Despite his miserable people skills, he was on a mission to design products which would change the world. But, Steve Jobs was a great salesperson and this article discusses ten things about Jobs, the salesperson, which you might want your salespeople to emulate.
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Is Technology Ruining or Driving Your Sales Efforts?
- August 20, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There are many applications which can help us find opportunities, connect with people, manage the sales process and pipeline, manage relationships, share information, and keep us organized.
In addition to the applications, technology also comes in the form of smartphones, tablets, laptops, netbooks and desktop computers.
There are plenty of good choices, both with the devices and the applications, so how do you choose?
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Is SELLING an Afterthought in Today’s Sales Model?
- August 16, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I believe that the blog at Harvard Business Review believes that it is. Once again, HBR was nice enough to run another article for me to dig into.
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Is Showmanship a Lost Art in Selling?
- August 15, 2012
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Showmanship is missing from most modern sales presentations. Demos tend to be about products, technologies, capabilities and the company story. Sales calls are about listening, asking questions and qualifying. But what ever happened to showmanship?
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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?