sales process
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Would You Like to be Selling Guns Right Now?
- February 27, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
What if you sell for a company whose products are not reliable, lack the latest and greatest features, aren’t a good fit, or don’t have competitive pricing? That would suck, wouldn’t it? What if you sell for one of America’s 20 Most Hated Companies? That would suck too. But those sales organizations are not disintegrating, their salespeople are not heading for the doors and their revenues are not in a nosedive. Most of the outrage, hate, and reputation-killing is taking place in the media, not with their customers.
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Can Sales Statistics be Bad and Good at the Same Time?
- February 21, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I received two pieces of bad news relative to statistics.
The first is about my award-winning Blog. It seems that readers stay with an article for an average of only one-minute or so. That means that most readers don’t finish the article, fail to get to my summary, and often don’t read long enough to get my point. Basically, everything that comes after the fourth paragraph is not being read. This could also be good news. It could mean that I can actually write shorter articles and that would be great for me!
The other piece of bad news relates to my award-winning sales training company, Kurlan & Associates. I reviewed 5 years worth of statistics on opportunities that weren’t closed and it seems that prospects were 6 times more likely to do nothing than to do business with a competitor. We don’t lose very often and I can count on two hands the number of opportunities I have personally lost in the past 5 years. But it’s one thing to rarely lose, and another to learn that 6 times more often than not, a company failed to act. But these statistics are very misleading. Let me explain why.
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Is the Sales Force Getting Dressed Up or are Real Changes Taking Place?
- February 7, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Yesterday I received an email from Richardson Training, letting me know that they have completed their 2018 Selling Challenges Study. The data in the report, which you can download here, hasn’t changed a great deal since 2017, but the report’s new look is awesome. I reported on last year’s report in detail here, but my conclusion for 2018 is the exact same conclusion I came to in 2017.
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Predictions for 2018 – The Sales Triad Will Provide Record Sales Growth
- January 29, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
With and additional competition, I can tell you this. If you aren’t the low price leader, the best-known company, or the safest decision that a buyer can make, you will have to do some real SELLING to get that business. And not just selling, but thoughtfully, effectively, efficiently, and articulately selling value. What? You already sell value? Really? I’ll bet you don’t.
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7 Reasons Why Prospects Go Cold and How to Avoid it
- January 5, 2018
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you change your perspective about prospects going cold, you might discover that you caused them to go cold, rather than the myriad of other possibilities. I’ll explain.
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More Fake News in Sales Organizations Than on TV Networks!
- December 13, 2017
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Most of your salespeople are just like fake news and I will prove it. I’m not talking about the elite top 5% or the next group of 15% who are very strong. I am referring to the bottom 46% of the sales population who, if I am to be completely honest, totally suck. If yours is like most companies, then half of its salespeople fit this description.
I’m going to show you exactly how your salespeople report fake news but first, we need to break down how fake news happens so that I can demonstrate how your weak salespeople do the exact same thing, every chance they can get.
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The Perfect Day for a Salesperson – 10 Ways to be More Efficient and Effective in 2018
- December 8, 2017
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You can be more effective and more efficient selling in 2018, do every single thing I wrote about in this article, exactly as I wrote it, and without any difficulty, by making a conscious decision to follow this blueprint. It’s not hard. It’s not scary. It’s not unusual. It’s not even thought-provoking. It’s simply a list of best practices that great salespeople (top 5%) do and that crappy (46%) salespeople either don’t do consistently or don’t do it at all.
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Which is Worse – Crappy Salespeople or Crappy Sales Managers?
- December 6, 2017
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In his book, The Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki said, “Don’t Worry, Be Crappy.”
That advice suggested that companies just get their early versions of software and tech products out there and they could make them better later.
How are early versions of technology different from crappy salespeople and crappy sales managers? For one thing, salespeople and sales managers tend to stay crappy unless professional training, coaching and interventions occur. And unlike products, user feedback tends to be sketchy when it comes to salespeople because they refrain from giving it. But what would happen if they did?
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Customers Love to Buy – Why Do Salespeople Struggle?
- October 2, 2017
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
So if we all love buying stuff, why do salespeople struggle so much when they try to sell stuff? Why isn’t it as friction-free as an abundance of happy buyers would suggest it should be?
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Grammar – Why Commas Provide Sales Success Where Periods Fail
- July 19, 2017
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The problem is one of grammar. All of the articles you read, videos you watch and audios you listen to suggest that there is a key to sales success. Period. But if you change the period to a comma, you’ll quickly see that all of these things are crucial to success in sales.