sales process

  • Crappy Salespeople and Lack of Urgency Alignment  – The Bob Chronicles Part 4

    • April 27, 2021
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    This is the fourth installment in the Bob Chronicles.  Bob is the weak salesperson who represents the bottom 50% of all salespeople. You can read previous installments about Bob below:

    The $225,000 Mistake That Most Salespeople Make

    Data – The Top Salespeople are 631% More Effective at This Than Weak Salespeople 

    Good Bob, Bad Bob, The Stockdale Paradox and Sales Success

    You’re probably wondering, what did Bob screw up this time?  He screwed up urgency.  You might be asking how a salesperson could possibly screw up urgency but Bob and the rest of the weak salespeople screw up just about everything else so why not urgency too?

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  • Why Sales Transformation Achieves Better Results Than Sales Training Alone

    • January 22, 2021
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    You brought in sales training but it didn’t achieve the expected change because the training didn’t address the bigger problems that went beyond selling skills.  You may not have realized that companies really need sales transformation and while sales training can be part of that transformation, on its own, it usually underperforms.

    Why?

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  • My Prediction – What’s in Store for Sales Teams in 2021?

    • January 8, 2021
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    When I made my predictions for 2020 I’m pretty sure I didn’t predict a pandemic.  Making predictions isn’t easy. 

    In the US, sales teams are coming off three robust years of sales growth and while revenue was up during that time, the percentage of salespeople hitting quotas was not.  That means the top 20% were not only carrying the load, they carried more of the load.

    That dynamic growth hit an iron barrier last spring when COVID became the unexpected economic disrupter, but the second half comeback was quite impressive.  What does 2021 have in store for those of us in the sales world?  In the US, how will Democrat control of all three branches of government affect sales and selling?  And how long before that kicks in?

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  • The $225,000 Selling Mistake Most Salespeople Make

    • December 7, 2020
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    While colleagues and supervisors shared their enthusiasm for this exciting moment, my first reaction was, “And why do you think this is good news?” 

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  • Data Shows That Your Sales Team is No Different Than Your Lawn

    • November 20, 2020
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    But why do sales teams continue to fail, year after year, regardless of industry, and in every economy?  Why don’t the numbers improve?  Why don’t more salespeople jump from C’s to B’s?  From B’s to A’s?  From D’s to C’s?  The answers – and there are plenty – are evasive.  But let’s try!

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  • The Correlation Between Milestones, Sales Process and Sales Success

    • October 26, 2020
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Back in the early 90’s, in the very early days of OMG, only 9% of all salespeople had and/or followed a sales process.  While that has improved dramatically in the last 30 years, to 45%, it is still way too low.  Check out these findings.

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  • New: The 21 Sales Core Competencies for 2020 And Beyond

    • September 27, 2020
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Like Apple, OMG updates its assessments on a non-stop basis but rolls out significant updates a couple of times per year.  Last week OMG introduced the latest revision to the 21 Sales Core Competencies.

    There are thirty competencies in all, each with between six and twelve attributes but some are more important than others and OMG measures twenty-one of them in the following three categories:

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  • Most Companies Can Boost Sales From 30-100% in Just One to Two Years

    • September 10, 2020
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Many companies already experienced at least 3 to 6 months of uncertainty and they can not withstand even 2 more months of that.   As a result, companies are investing, streamlining, expanding, hiring and going all in to save their 2020s, and position their companies for historical growth in 2021.

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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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  • Sales is Like Baseball and Baseball Can Save Capitalism and Liberty

    • July 18, 2020
    • Posted by: Dave Kurlan
    • Category: Understanding the Sales Force

    Before you think that this applies only to youth baseball teams, I want to be clear.  Sales teams are like this too.  In the past 35 years I have personally trained hundreds of sales teams and tens of thousands of salespeople and sales teams always have the same 8 salespeople:

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