sales process

  • The Defining Moments in your Sales Cycle

    • January 13, 2010
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    What are some of the more subtle, but important, key moments in your sales process that affect every sales outcome?

    If I were to review some recent conversations with clients and their salespeople, crucial accomplishments included:

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  • Are Sales Cycles Really Getting Shorter?

    • December 11, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    I read an article that claimed that winning sales cycles are getting shorter. 

    While I agree with everything else in the article, I questioned the 23% shorter because our substantial data does not support this claim.  So where could the discrepancy be?

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  • Sales Systems and Processes – 8th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions

    • December 1, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    the 8th in my series of the Top 10 Sales Management Functions but it is #10 on my list.  Why am I going out of order? 

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  • Sales Velocity – 6th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Competencies That are Key to Building a Sales Culture

    • October 20, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This is the 6th is my series of articles on the 10 Kurlan Sales Competencies That Are Key to Building a Sales Culture.

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  • Sales Process – 5th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Competencies for Buildling a Sales Culture

    • October 18, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This is the 5th in my series of The 10 Kurlan Sales Competencies That are Key to Building a Sales Culture.

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  • Putting for Eagle – Going for the Unlikely Close

    • September 29, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Last year around this time, I wrote this article about how easy it is to get away from the sales process and other things you must do to achieve consistent results.  In these difficult times, the one thing you can’t do is attempt to do it without systems and processes because they are about the only things you can rely on.

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  • Top 6 Reasons Why Most Sales Training Doesn’t Work

    • June 25, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    If you invest in sales training, especially now, you also need it to work now, not in 12 months.  Why does it take so long for most sales training to make a difference and why does most sales training fail to make the difference you expect? There are a lot of possible reasons and I’ll attempt to explain them here.

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  • Top 14 Requirements to Perform a Sales Force Makeover

    • April 16, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    For kicks, let’s take a look at this week’s Baseline Selling mail bag.

    One reader emailed that he just inherited a radio station in Honduras, has never sold before, and he and his salespeople aren’t able to book appointments.

    Another reader is the Sales Director for several well-known magazines and said that her top producing team is down 50% from last year.

    Yet another reader wrote and wanted to know how to chop her 2-3 year sales cycle down to 2-3 months.

    And one President fired all of his salespeople, is back on the road selling and wonders what he can do to thrive.

    What do all four of these scenarios have in common?

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  • What Happens When You Develop Sales Competencies?

    • April 10, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Earlier this week I wrote an article for my Baseline Selling Tips Newsletter. It was about What Sleep Apnea and Sales Improvement Have in Common. If you don’t get my Newsletter, you’ll need to read that article in order for the rest of this post to make sense.

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  • Good News Not a Substitute for Sales Force Competencies

    • April 8, 2009
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Do you want to hear something crazy?

    I’m a very prolific writer – not to say I’m a good writer, just that I post a lot. And of the dozens and dozens of posts from the last three months, would you like to guess what the LEAST read post was?

    It was the one where I wrote about signs that the economy was improving! And one of the MOST read posts was the one where I wrote about the media making the economy worse.

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