sales data

  • The Impact of Relationship Building Challenges in Sales

    • August 28, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force
    parenthood

    My wife and I recently finished streaming Parenthood, whose theme song was Forever Young, by Bob Dylan.  Despite my enjoyment of the series, the theme song hit me like nails on a chalkboard.  I cringed every time I heard it.

    It explains a lot about intangibles in selling.

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  • Snowstorm & Weather Apps Explain Why 75% of Sales Forecasts are Wrong

    • March 16, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    As a Nor’Easter barreled across Central Massachusetts today, a few interesting storm-related happenings were analogous to some sales-related occurrences. This article will explore two weather-related analogies:

    It’s in 3D – Dinger the Dog and his choice of Doors
    The Magic of Weather Apps

    I’ve written about Dinger, our six-year-old Golden Doodle, several times.  The most popular article was when I claimed and proved that Dinger’s listening skills were better than those of salespeople. 

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  • These 6 Keys and New Data Help Your Sales Team Outperform The Rest

    • February 16, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    They found that top performers make 54% more switches – the back and forth in conversations – than everyone else and 78% more in their presentations.  The presentations made by top sales performers are not monologues!

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  • Made Up Sales Statistics and Their Contrast to Real Data

    • February 2, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    A sales consultant who knows that I geek out on sales data read that 84% of salespeople suck because they don’t enjoy what they do.  A huge percentage of salespeople do actually suck but the actual number is closer to 75%.  Is it really because they don’t enjoy selling?

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  • This Company’s Best Salesperson was 2500% Stronger Than Their Worst

    • February 1, 2023
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    It’s been four months since the baseball season ended but college baseball begins in less than 4 weeks and it will be fun to watch our son play for his college team (while freezing our asses off!).  It’s also been a while since the last time I shared a top/bottom analysis but I completed one this week that I had to share.

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  • The Connection Between Road Signs, Sales Data, Consultative Selling and Sales Recruiting

    • December 6, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Salespeople who are learning to take a consultative approach to selling hear a stated issue – the consultative selling version of a road sign – but think they have arrived at their destination – the compelling reason to buy.

    This is supported by the data.  Objective Management Group (OMG) has data on 2,280,260 salespeople that have been assessed from more than 30,000 companies.  The findings are horrific:

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  • The Top 10% of All Salespeople are 4,000% Better at this than the Bottom 10%

    • March 3, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I found Dinger with his nose glued to my front bumper where some of the deer’s hair was still attached to my car.  Dinger, who loves to bark at deer from the safety of our home, seemed to be saying, “Ohhhh, so THIS is what a deer smells like!”

    The exact same thing happened to a salesperson I was training.  It wasn’t a deer or a dog, it was about Jim’s sales aha moment.

    His team was asked to send me an email with their five biggest lessons from their first six months of training.  Among Jim’s top five was this one:

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  • When Salespeople Can’t Close Closable Business – The Bob Chronicles Part 7

    • February 14, 2022
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    So what did Bob get himself into this time?

    It’s a huge opportunity that Bob has been nurturing for years and several months ago his prospect, a top executive that has the influence and authority to make a decision, confided that he would like to find a way to do business and not only that, have this be part of his legacy. 

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  • Salespeople in Small Companies are 43% Better at This and Other Salesenomics Insights

    • January 7, 2020
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    You seek out the best products, best stores, best websites and best experiences.  Doesn’t it make sense to wonder about where you can find the best salespeople?

    I asked Objective Management Group’s (OMG) COO, John Pattison, to dig into some of our data from the evaluations of 1,932,059 salespeople from  companies and provide me with some scores.

    I reviewed the data and have a number of very interesting and surprising Salesenomics conclusions to share.

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  • How Top Salespeople Anticipate and Manage Resistance

    • May 29, 2019
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Last week Tom Hopkins shared a post on LinkedIn that resembled what I have said so many times.  He said, “The art of selling involves two jobs: Job One is to reduce sales resistance and the other is to increase sales acceptance.”

    Many readers left comments about the importance of relationships as a means to preventing resistance from going up.

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