sales process
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3 Steps You Must Take Today to Save Your Company From This Economic Downturn
- March 12, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You know the stories of the Three Stooges, The Three Little Pigs, The Three Bears, and baseball fans have just heard about The Three Batter Minimum (how stupid!). We’re not going to discuss any of those threes today but we will talk about the three things companies must do, right now, in this quickly disintegrating economy, to drive revenue.
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How Companies Choose Sales Training Companies is Backwards
- February 11, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Do you partake of dessert prior to eating your appetizer? Do you eat your dinner in the morning and have breakfast at night? Would you prefer to have the builder complete the finish work on your new house prior to framing it and installing the roof? Would you back your car out of the garage before opening the garage door? (I’ve actually done that by accident – twice!)
It’s all quite silly. You wouldn’t think of doing those things in that order but that’s how most companies choose sales training companies. After 35 years in the sales training industry, I’m qualified to comment on this silly behavior, and explain why companies have it all backwards.
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Is Your Sales Force More Like a Dunkin’, Starbucks or Panera Drive Thru?
- January 21, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This all begs the question, is the sales force at your company more like the Dunkin’, Starbucks, or Panera drive-thru? Today’s article will explain how to answer that question.
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Salespeople in Small Companies are 43% Better at This and Other Salesenomics Insights
- January 7, 2020
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
You seek out the best products, best stores, best websites and best experiences. Doesn’t it make sense to wonder about where you can find the best salespeople?
I asked Objective Management Group’s (OMG) COO, John Pattison, to dig into some of our data from the evaluations of 1,932,059 salespeople from companies and provide me with some scores.
I reviewed the data and have a number of very interesting and surprising Salesenomics conclusions to share.
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Dave Kurlan’s Predictions for Sales Organization in 2020
- December 16, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Before I can make any predictions for 2020, let’s start with these ten simple truths about selling for proper context.
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The Most Successful Negotiation is The Negotiation That Isn’t Needed
- December 9, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
This week, one company said that their terms are Net 75. I said, “I’m sorry, but we can’t solve your problem and be your bank. Our terms are due on receipt of invoice and it’s non-negotiable.”
They said, “Oh, OK.”
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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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Sales Process and Why So Many Salespeople Lose Their Way
- October 17, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Last night I was on Interstate 90, the MassPike, driving home from the airport in a wind-driven rainstorm. It was so bad I couldn’t see the white lines that divide the three lanes nor could I see the Jersey barriers dividing the eastbound from the westbound traffic. It was almost as scary as the plane’s rocky decent from 30,000 feet in gale-force winds last night or driving in a blizzard!
The inability to see where I was and where I was going is what most salespeople experience when they sell. Most salespeople don’t have a formal, structured, milestone-centric sales process to follow so they can’t possibly know where they are, and where they need to go.
Consider the following alarming statistics from Objective Management Group’s evaluations and assessments of 1,908,143 salespeople with regard to sales process:
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How to Know if You Are You Really Selling Consultatively
- June 4, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Most of the CEOs and sales leaders I speak with agree that their sales organizations need to be more effective at taking a consultative approach to selling. At the same time, they insist that they talk about it often and that their salespeople are doing OK with a consultative approach. OMG’s Sales Force Evaluation usually reveals that they aren’t doing much more than talking about it, as their scores for the Consultative Seller competency are quite low.
How can you determine if you or your team are being effective at using a consultative approach? I created this list of outcomes that would be true if your consultative approach was working effectively. You and/or your salespeople are :
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Salespeople Make This Mistake – The Dumb Question I Was Asked in a Hotel Restaurant
- February 15, 2019
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I pulled up to the entrance of the Doubletree Hotel, greeted Chris, and we walked into the hotel restaurant. As we approached the table, a well-meaning server asked, are you an Honors member? I said, “yes.”
A moment later she returned and said she couldn’t find me in the system. She asked me to spell my name, went back to her computer, and returned again, saying, “I can’t find your reservation in the system.”
I explained that I wasn’t a hotel guest and we were here for breakfast. “Oh, then you’ll have to pay for your breakfast!”
“OK,” I said. After all, I was expecting to pay for breakfast!
Can you imagine how much simpler it would have been if her first question was, “Are you staying with us?”
Salespeople make the exact same mistake. How do I know? I can prove this with several examples.