sales process
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Could it Really be The Death of SPIN Selling?
- April 10, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
The author wrote that since most prospects today know what they want, they won’t rehash all of the needs and decisions that got them to this point, and as a result, a salesperson won’t be able to back them up to an earlier stage of the sales process to implement SPIN or any other questioning strategy.
Well, maybe.
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Sales 2.0 Conference; The Huge Sales Blitz and Sales Processes
- March 11, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In my experience, there have always been two kinds of taxi drivers. The first asks how long I’m planning to stay and when they learn I’m flying back out the same day, they offer to pick me up for the return trip to the airport. This is the taxi-driver version of an account manager.
The second type ignores me, talks on his phone, gets me where I’m going and looks for his next fare. A hunter. Purely transactional. Just like a salesperson who knocks on doors.
But yesterday, I met a third type. He was a type 2, but with time management skills.
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Top 4 Questions, 2 Words of Advice about Sales CRM
- February 17, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
A company’s executive team can have a positive or negative influence on the performance of the sales team. Each member of your executive team can impact sales in some small, or not so small way. Today, I want to talk about Chief Technology Officers, VP’s and Directors of IT. At first glance, you might not think that IT has much of an impact on sales and you would be correct. However, they do have a significant role.
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What is the Best Sales Model for Your Sales Force?
- January 28, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
On its own, the concept of a sales model can be confusing, especially when you mention it in the same breath as sales process and sales methodology. However, when the word “successful” precedes sales model, it lends more clarity to its purpose.
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Why Doesn’t Sales Methodology Get More Attention?
- January 14, 2014
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This brings me to my original question, “Why doesn’t sales methodology get more attention from authors, writers and bloggers, and why does sales process get most of the coverage?”
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Is the Concept of Sales Process Really Antiquated?
- December 16, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
It’s really not sales process itself that is antiquated; it’s most people’s perception of sales process that is antiquated.
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What is the Most Difficult Part of the Sales Process?
- December 6, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
We discussed the various challenges associated with all three milestones and when all was said and done, everyone agreed that the midpoint, that crucial point in time where compelling reasons to buy must be identified, is the most difficult for salespeople.
Why? Well a quick look at the following list of mini-milestones, that must be accomplished in order to get to the point where compelling reasons will be shared, tells the whole story. How many of your salespeople can do all of this in their first meeting?
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Experiment – Which Sales Approach is Really More Effective?
- October 28, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
During the past 90 days, I have been secretly selling multiple ways. On one third of our opportunities, I have been selling the way we teach – using a formal, structured sales process with a consultative approach. On another third of our opportunities (inbound leads), I have experimented with a more transactional approach, although even that has a consultative element because I can’t help but ask some good questions. It simply means that I show and tell much earlier than normal. With the remaining third of our leads, I have experimented with allowing the buyer to dictate the process. My buyer-dictated approach included a little push-back because I can’t allow a potential client to take the wrong approach to a solution.
Want to know what happened? Look at the table below:
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Can You Improve a Kick-Ass Sales Force?
- September 11, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If you are reading this, and your company matches up with any one of my criteria for underdogs, then you couldn’t possibly get away with what Hubspot can get away with. You must have strong hunters who are adept at overcoming resistance, can differentiate by selling consultatively, and ask the kinds of questions that develop respect, allowing prospects to open their mind to the possibility that you can help.
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Are Sales and Sales Management Candidates Getting Worse?
- September 10, 2013
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There are more sales experts, self-professed and otherwise, than ever before. There is more free content on sales and selling than anyone could have imagined. There are probably twice as many books on the subject than just 10 years ago. There are categories of sales tools and CRM applications where none existed a few years ago. Companies are spending more money on sales force evaluations, sales training, consulting, sales leadership development, sales process, infrastructure and sales recruiting services than 5 years ago. And selling has changed more in the past 5 years than ever before.
With all that, shouldn’t the quality of sales, sales management and sales leadership candidates be on the rise? Yes, it should.
But there’s a problem. The quality has not risen. It seems to have worsened!