sales pipeline
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15 Things Salespeople Must Do to Make up for a Lackluster 2nd Quarter
- August 12, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Last week we moved our son into his dorm to begin his freshman year of college. The college President’s opening remarks were virtual, so we joined the Zoom stream from our hotel room and listened in. He had some really useful things to share with the new freshmen and while his thoughts were targeted to the students, they apply quite equally to salespeople.
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The Real Reason Why So Many Salespeople are So Bad at Selling
- June 8, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In today’s article, I will explain why this problem exists and how it relates to a bigger problem in sales.
The people who don’t return calls are usually technical in nature. The garage door openers, gate electronics, and glass people are all entrepreneurs running small businesses and their expertise is not sales or customer service, it’s their technical subject matter expertise.
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10 Critical Best Practices for Your Sales Force in This Crisis
- April 27, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
But if the past 6 weeks have taught us anything, it’s that with the right tools, strategies, mindset and tactics, we can adapt and even thrive. For those who may read this after May 1, 2020, the following best practices are based on where we are as I write this on April 27, 2020.
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The Top 15 Sales and Sales Leadership Articles of 2019
- December 4, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
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Squirrels Explain the Differences Between Top and Bottom Salespeople
- October 28, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This morning I was watching 3 squirrels each doing their thing.
Squirrel #1, who I named Ernest, was finding lots of nuts and burying them. His nest was full and he will reap the benefits of his hard work over the winter.
Squirrels #2 and #3, who I named MT and LayZ, were playing. They were running up and down tree trunks, jumping from limb to limb, running in circles and generally chasing their tails. They don’t yet have nests and unless they make a commitment, become disciplined, and get to work, they will starve to death this winter.
Ernest, MT and LayZ are no different than their human counterparts who find themselves in sales roles. The top salespeople are like Ernest and the bottom salespeople are like MT and LayZ. For evidence of that claim, take a look at the table below with a sprinkling of data from Objective Management Group (OMG) which has evaluated 1,910,915 salespeople from companies.
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What is the Sales Stack and Do You Need it?
- October 2, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You bought a really nice, new, laptop computer and you thought to yourself, “Now I’m all set!” But are you? You needed a case to carry it around, a thumb drive for quickly moving files from your laptop to another, and a printer and if you have a Mac notebook, a port that will serve as adapters to your various cables. These are your accessories.
You’ll also need cloud storage, a broadband connection, email, a browser and 20 or so software applications so your computer can help you do the things you purchased it to do. This is your technology stack.
But now there is a sales stack too. What is the sales stack, and should you have one for your salespeople?
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The Bearded Lady, My Shaving Pattern and Your Sales Pipeline
- August 8, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I can grow a pretty decent five o’clock shadow – above my upper lip and only after about a week. Unlike the bearded lady at the circus, when it comes to facial hair, there’s really not much there!
Can you think of something else which, at first glance, appears to be OK but upon closer inspection, there’s really not much there?
Did you guess sales pipelines?
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How to Transform Your Sales Pipeline Today
- July 8, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Flower gardens can be large, colorful, impressive and calming to look at. Unfortunately, most sales pipelines are full of weeds, not large enough, and certainly not impressive. From its evaluations and assessments of 1,875,978 salespeople, Objective Management Group (OMG) has found that only 46% of all salespeople maintain a full pipeline. It breaks down as follows:
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Speed Limits, the Flow of Traffic, and Sales Pipelines
- November 19, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I don’t get stressed anymore when I’m driving. All it took was for me to not exceed the speed limit. I’m not sure whether it was my navigation system repeatedly telling me to “obey all traffic laws” each time I started the car, or my wife reminding me that I needed to be a good role model for our soon-to-be driving 16 year-old son. I admit that this was much easier for me to do after I gave up my Jaguar for a Lincoln Navigator. It holds much more baseball equipment!
There is an exception to not exceeding the speed limit. When the flow of traffic in all lanes is moving exponentially faster than you are, you must increase your speed to match the flow of traffic or risk getting run over!
That brings me to pipeline flow.
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Golden Nuggets from the CSO Insights 2018 Sales Talent Study
- October 25, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I had a chance to review the CSO Insights 2018 Sales Talent Study and extracted some fascinating data. I thought it might be interesting to take their data, overlay some of Objective Management Group’s (OMG) data, and see what we can take away from that.