sales tips
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Sales Confidence – How to Ask Any Tough Question Anytime
- July 13, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I’ll share one of my secrets for asking any tough question, push back with confidence any time, challenge the CEO of any company, or even ask why your prospect wouldn’t just make the easy decision and go with either the market leading competitor or incumbent. Ready? Simply keep your pipeline stuffed – busting at the seams – no place to put the next opportunity. When you have enough opportunities in the pipeline you can say, ask or do anything – no worries. And that’s what it takes to differentiate yourself from everyone else. But when today’s opportunity is THE opportunity you’ll be afraid to say “boo” without worrying that you’ll mess up and lose the opportunity.
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Top 8 Reasons Your Biggest Sale May Not be Your Best Sale
- July 12, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Sometimes your biggest sale isn’t your best sale. When biggest isn’t best, sometimes it is because:
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Top 6 Factors for Killing a Sales Opportunity or Prospect
- March 30, 2011
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
I hear this question a lot…”When should I move on?”
You have left 6 messages and haven’t received a return call.
You have a prospect and things were moving along pretty well and now you can’t get them back on the phone.
Should you move on?
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Effective or Easiest – Which Path Will Your Salespeople Choose?
- November 8, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
There are always one or two crucial turning points in every sales cycle where your salespeople must choose between asking the tough question that are called for, or saying what’s comfortable for them.
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Top 10 Reasons Consultative Sellers Outsell Everyone Else
- October 1, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Have you ever worked with salespeople that were so bad you thought, “She couldn’t close a door!”? And have you ever worked with salespeople that were so good that you thought, “She could sell white to rice!”?
There’s a good chance that the difference has less to do with their closing skills and much more to do with their ability to build a late stage relationship in the earliest stage of the sales process – the first meeting.
So what do they do? Here are the top ten things they do:
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Great Sales Opportunities That Don’t Close
- March 2, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
If getting opportunities into the pipeline is the most universal sales challenge, then getting opportunities closed comes in a close second. I’m talking about prospects who aren’t ready to say, “yes” but are still “very interested”. These calls pose problems for salespeople for several reasons:
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Can the Beatles Help You Close Big Deals?
- January 8, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Some people didn’t care for any of the three and bought from alternative sources. Some preferred just one or the other. And some bought from all three. They were the big winners of their day. Who were they? Try The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones. Check out the following table which, if they were traditional sellers, could have been used to tout their features and benefits.
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When, How and Why Salespeople Discount Products and Services
- January 6, 2010
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
When I pick up the dogs, Heather gives me the bill. When it’s $140, I pay, she gets the dogs for me, and we leave. However, when the bill is $800, Heather gets really uncomfortable, and begins editing the invoice and always seems to get it under $650. Nice, right? Only if you’re a customer. If you’re Bob, the owner, who has no clue she is doing this, what must it be like for him?
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Your Sales and Sales Management Questions Answered Part I
- December 15, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
In an article last week, I provided the post to a sales competency contest. The final question in that survey asked the participants for any sales issues they needed help with. Today I’ll answer the first four of those questions below:
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5 Steps to Coaching Your Salespeople Beyond Happy Ears
- September 29, 2009
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Today I posted this article about Diagnosing and Overcoming Happy Ears on the Baseline Selling web site. And last week I wrote this article about Happy Ears and an empty pipeline.