sales management
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Best Sales Strategy For Your Company
- May 18, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
What would you do if one of your sales reps called at 5 PM on a Friday, the last day of the month, on the final day of a bad quarter and said, “Good News – I closed ___________!”(insert any huge company here)
You’d get excited, your heart would beat a little faster, you’d feel relieved because things seem to be turning around, and you’re thinking, “This is good, damn it.”
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Derek Jeter Shows Salespeople How to Convert Leads to Opportunities
- May 13, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Derek Jeter, the leader and all-star shortstop for the New York Yankees, goes all out running hard to first base on every ball he puts into play. As a result, it’s easy for management to expect the same kind of hustle and effort from everyone on the team. After all, if the star does it, then everyone should do it. Other teams? Not so much. David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox never runs hard on a ground ball so what does management say to a younger player who also fails to run hard?
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Sales 2.0 – The Answer to our Prayers or a Costly Distraction?
- May 5, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Let’s take a look at this phenomenon from another perspective. Sales 2.0 is simply a high-tech, 21st Century version of the low-tech, 20th Century method for approaching, engaging and getting in front of prospects. You know what I’m referring to:
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How Do Companies Retain Their Underperforming Salespeople?
- April 30, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I explain the difference between lousy salespeople and good salespeople in terms of line items and investments in this article.
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When the Sales Goals Change but the Behavior and Results Don’t
- April 19, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Suppose that you need your salespeople to find significantly more new business. Perhaps you’ve wanted this for a while but it’s only recently that you communicated this to your salespeople. You’ve changed the goal but after a month your salespeople’s behavior and results haven’t changed at all.
Let’s compare this to weight loss.
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Customer Service Neutralizes Efforts of Your Sales Force
- April 14, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I am more convinced every day that the most overlooked and under-rated sales function in most companies is their customer service department.
This extends beyond toll-free phone numbers and includes the people you meet when you walk into a company’s retail locations too.
When was the last time you ended a conversation with customer service feeling thrilled that you were a customer of companies like Dell, Verizon, USAirways, Charter or Microsoft? Would that change if I typed Apple instead of Dell?
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Effect of Optimism and Commitment on the Sales Force
- March 31, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’m reading Sarah Miller Caldicott‘s book, Innovate Like Edison.
There are some noteworthy quotes which, although written in the context of innovation, apply equally, if not even more to selling and sales management.
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Baseball’s General Managers versus Business’ Sales Managers
- March 30, 2010
- Posted by: Kurlan & Associates, Inc.
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The 2010 Major League Baseball season officially gets underway this Sunday evening with its greatest rivalry, the Boston Red Sox versus the New York Yankees, at Fenway Park. It gives me a great excuse to write a baseball themed article. But hey, what else would you expect from the author of Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball?
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My Salespeople Won’t Use CRM
- March 17, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Yesterday, we discussed whether you can really get salespeople to change. I mentioned that the key rule was #9, Consequences, and that I would discuss consequences today.
There are three primary ingredients to having Consequences.
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Can We Really Get Salespeople to Change?
- March 16, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
People change when they are ready to change.
For example, I needed to lose weight and become healthier for several years. I had been reading the literature on healthy eating for months. I knew that this was important but until the day came when I was ready to commit to being healthy and eating healthy, nothing would change.
By default, salespeople are the same way.